Search - The Archie Show: The Complete Series on DVD

The Archies Come To DVD

J. Rose | Greenwood, MS USA | 05/25/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Archies make their DVD debut in this 2-DVD set from Genius Products, which brings us all 17 original Archie cartoons from 1968.

Archie has a long history, first coming on the scene in 1941 as a character in PEP COMICS and continuing as one of history's most well-known teenagers (six and a half decades later, Archie is STILL 17 years old). This series, created by Filmation in 1968 as a relief from their superhero franchises (Lou Schemier mentions on an interview in this set that "if it had a cape, we did it"), is almost a straight translation from the source material, literally presenting Archie and crew as an animated comic, with the characters themselves speaking directly to the viewer and introducing their own stories. (This would carry over into both the ARCHIE'S FUNHOUSE and SABRINA THE TEENAGE WITCH series, creating a feeling of involvement in the show for the viewer.)

The series recounts the misadventures of one Archie Andrews (voiced by Dal McKennon), who lives in Riverdale and divides his time between classes at Riverdale High and hanging out with friends at Pop's Chok'lit Shop, the local malt shop and teen diner. His friends include fickle rich-girl Veronica Lodge (Jane Webb), stalwart and level-headed Betty Cooper (Webb again), incorrigible prankster Reggie Mantle (John Erwin) and hamburger fiend Jughead Jones (Howard Morris), plus Jughead's dog Hot Dog (McKennon again), who provides running "thought-commentary" on the various goings-on within the Archies. Most of the stories, which have a definite and possibly deliberate 1940s-50s small-town-life feel, begin innocently enough and escalate into chaos, with a resolution for all parties involved at the end. If you have ever read any Archie comics, you can watch one of these and basically figure out what will happen.

A unique feature (for its time) of this show was its dance-of-the-week and song segments, with various Archies demonstrating and teaching dances to viewers and the group performing songs as a rock band (called The Archies, natch). Most of the song segments predate modern music video by about 13 years, and can be accessed on a "jukebox" feature on the DVDs that allows you to play any song segment at leisure.

The package itself is quite nice, with colorful artwork and an interesting clear-plastic slipcover. The DVDs are designed to look like 45-rpm singles, and the package includes a comic book that reprints an EVERYTHING'S ARCHIE comic from 1969, in which the gang from Riverdale meets the collective brain trust of Filmation Studios (Lou Schemier, Norm Prescott and Hal Sutherland, all excellently caricatured). The video transfers are good for such an elderly series, but the colors are not especially bright.

If you are an ARCHIE fan you will enjoy this set, but the average viewer should be warned: this is very much a time capsule. An excellently presented time capsule, to be sure, but a time capsule nevertheless. Enjoy at your leisure."

Late '60s Saturday Morning Gem!

Mr Doug Gordon | Toronto, ON Canada | 08/11/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was really surprised to see that "The Archie Show" was available, in it's complete season, on DVD. Previous releases on VHS and DVD just seemed to offer a few episodes of this Saturday morning classic from 1968. First off, this DVD offers a crisp and vibrant picture. The prints used have been digitally remastered, and they are in top form. The sound is pretty good too. On previous DVD releases, the voices of the characters were very screechy. On this release, the voice track sounds normal, like how it sounded when first telecast. Genius Entertainment has packaged this 2 disc set nicely too. It comes in a plastic slide case, and inside, offers a fold out cardboard case which contains the discs. There is a reproduction comic book inside that features a comic of the Archies visiting Filmation Studios-the studio where the Archies cartoon was produced. Also contained in this comic book is the episode listings, and the songs appearing in each episode. There is also some info on the voices behind the characters, which gives this DVD a nice added touch. Special features on the 2 discs include a jukebox setting, which lists the songs on the disc, and you can just watch the music performance of the Archies. There is an interview segment, and also an episode where you can watch one of the shows without vocals, just the music and sound effects. I don't really understand why this is offered, because you just see the characters mouths moving, but there is no sound. The Archies paved the way for other Saturday morning fare, in the early '70s, like Josie & The Pussycats, Goober & the Ghost Chasers, Scooby Doo, and Speed Buggy. One thing with "The Archie Show" is that it's very dated. Lots of tongue & cheek humour, like the same style as "Laugh-In", and you hear the word "groovy" at least once an episode. For this reason, I don't know if it would appeal to kids today. It is aimed at the audience that originally experienced this show. As far as the animation goes, it's not bad, but you can tell that the animators used a lot of the same poses, with different background art throughout the show. This was to cut down on production costs. Even though "The Archie Show" is not Walt Disney calibre animation, it still remains a classic in my books!"