The Archie Show

Archie and his friends made their comic book debut in 1941. In 1968, Filmation Associates brought the characters to television with The Archie Show.

Good friends Archie, Veronica, Betty, Reggie and Jughead attended Riverdale High School. Spending much of their free time paling around, their hangout of choice was Pop’s Chok’lit Shoppe. Blond haired Betty and superficial, brunette beauty Veronica vied for the affections of all-American boy Archie, who formed the nucleus of the group. Troublemaker Reggie, whose self-absorbed shenanigans were at the heart of many of the gang’s comic misadventures, did his best to steal the attention of Veronica. Unfortunately for Reggie, he got the worst of every situation when his schemes inevitably backfired. Jughead, of huge appetite but small intellect, formed the last of the friends, along with his white sheepdog Hot Dog, who often accompanied the gang.

A number of secondary characters made regular spot appearances on the show. Associated with Riverdale High were teachers Miss Grundy and Coach Kleats, Principal Mr. Weatherbee, jock Big Moose and the school’s self-described genius Dilton Doily. The kids’ parents were also seen on occasion, along with Pops, the owner of Pop’s Chok’lit Shoppe.

Each episode consisted of two, 8-minute stories separated by three short segments. The first short segment was called the “dance of the week,” where one or more of the kids taught the audience a new dance step. Following this was a song performed by the entire gang. Although the series is in large part remembered for its music — performed by a real live band called The Archies — Archie and his friends didn’t actually perform in a band during the regular part of the show; they were only shown performing during the musical segment at the mid-point in the show. The third segment consisted of a very short skit in which some type of joke was told or played out.

After the show’s initial season, new episodes continued to be produced under a variety of titles and formats (that changed almost yearly) until 1978. New versions of the show included The Archie Comedy Hour (1969), Archie’s Fun House (1970), Archie’s TV Funnies (1971), Everything’s Archie (1973), The U.S. of Archie (1974), The New Archie/Sabrina Hour (1977) and Archie’s Bang-Shang Lalapalooza Show (1977). The New Archies (1987) appeared after a ten year hiatus, followed twelve years later by Archie’s Weird Mysteries (1999).