Josie and the Pussycats: On Every Network At the Same Time

October 27, 2025October 26, 2025 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

We are winding up our blog theme for October, “Get Animated.” I think II saved the best for last. When I remember watching cartoons as a kid, I was fairly neutral on most of them. I liked Tom and Jerry and The Jetsons. I did not like the Dudley Do-Right/Penelope Pitstop group of characters. I was indifferent to most cartoons until I was ten and a new one debuted. I loved Josie and the Pussycats. I couldn’t really relate to Foghorn Leghorn, but I got Josie.

Dan DeCarlo created “The Archies,” and in 1970 he came up with “Josie and the Pussy Cats.” He later found out that in addition to the comic books, a cartoon was being given to Hanna-Barbera and he was not getting any of the profits from the sale.

Carlo discussed how he came up for the idea: “I went to United Feature with . . . Josie. . . They asked for more . . . [it was too much] . . . I shoved Josie, and concentrated on Willie Lumpkin . . . When the strip ended, I quickly submitted the Josie strip back to Publishers and Harold Anderson, and he sent it back to me . . . I took it to Archie to see if they could do it as a comic book. I showed it to Richard Goldwater, and he showed it to his father, and a day or two later I got the OK to do it as a comic book.”

Sixteen episodes ran the first season, and they were repeated the next year. Season three moved to outer space and that didn’t do much for me. This group was rerun again in season four. The final two years, 1974-76, just continued to show these same 32 episodes. Oddly during these final two years, you could catch the cartoon on ABC, CBS, and NBC.

The reason I loved this show is because it was all about girl power. Josie and the Pussycats was a teen pop band who toured the world. Somehow, they managed to get into the same types of mysteries the Scooby Doo gang did; they even had their own van. Josie was the lead singer, songwriter and guitarist for the band. Her co-band members were Valerie who played the tambourine and drummer Melody. Valerie was the first Black character to be a regular member of a Saturday morning cartoon.

Rounding out the cast were roadie Alan and twins Alexandra and Alexander. Alexander was their manager, but he was not the brave boy leading the women; he was more cowardly and afraid of his sister who caused a lot of trouble for the band. Alexandra also had a cat Sebastian.

Like The Partridge Family or The Monkees, a song was featured each episode usually during a chase scene. And like The Partridge Family, they wore special costumes, usually leopard print ones. Don’s wife shared a story about the inspiration behind the costumes. In 2002, she told Blake Bell that “we were going on a cruise. I had a friend . . . she made me a costume and that was the pussycat costume. . . I brought the costume . . . Dan . . . decided it should be made a little bit sexier. I had a hat with a point on the forehead, cut around the eyes . . . he thought we would just use the ears. When we had the whole costume together that’s when Josie was created actually [based] with the style of this costume.”

Each episode had a formula with the band on their way to their next performance when they get mixed up in an adventure, often caused by Alexandra. They might meet a mad scientist or villains like The Wild Wild West featured where they wanted to take over the world or use some terrible invention to harm a lot of people. Alexandra also wanted to steal Alan away from Josie, so that was often behind her mischievous plots.

Josie was voiced by Janet Waldo, but her singing was done by Kathleen Dougherty. She was the redhead of the group. Valerie’s words were voiced over by Barbara Pariot and her singing by Patrice Holloway. She was a brunette. Melody, the blonde, was voiced by Jackie Joseph and her singing was done by Cheryl Ladd. It was Ladd’s first television project. Alan was played by Jerry Dexter. Alexander had the distinct voice of Casey Kasem and his sister was Sherry Alberoni. We also heard Don Messick as Sebastian during the episodes.

The only thing I didn’t love about the show is that Melody was portrayed as the stereotypical dumb blonde. She was naïve and easy to confuse. Her ears wiggled when danger was near.

Hanna-Barbera put together a real-life girl group to not only provide the singing voices but to record an album. There was a talent search to find singers who looked like the cartoon characters.

The theme song was titled, what else, “Josie and the Pussycats.” It was written by Hoyt Curtin, Hanna, and Barbera. It was based on a tune that had been used briefly on The Jetsons. Capitol/EMI Records released an album and two 45-RPMs in 1970. The two songs that were most popular were “Every Beat of My Heart” and “Stop, Look, and Listen.” Kellogs, the sponsor of the show, also offered four 45s, if consumers sent a form in from the back of a cereal box.

The outer space episodes from season 3 were based on the band taking a promotional photo in front of a new spaceship. Alexandra pushes the group aside, accidentally triggering the launch sequence which sends them all into outer space. For some reason, Valerie knew how to fly the spacecraft. In this version, which is similar to the original 16, the wacky people they encounter are from other planets rather than cities on Earth.

A complete DVD set was released in 2007. The group has made a few encore performances. In 2001, there was a live action movie which I don’t remember at all. In 2016 a comic book was released, and in 2017, Riverdale, a live-action show, featured the trio as students at Riverdale High.

Josie and the Pussycats was never meant to be the mainstay The Archies was. I did love The Archies as well, with a poster on my wall and comic books on my bookshelf. However, Josie was just what I was looking for as a ten-year-old in 1971. I could easily imagine myself on tour, solving mysteries, and outwitting Alexandra. I thought about revisiting the original sixteen episodes for this blog, but I could not bring myself to do it. The ten-year-old is content remembering how fun these cartoons were, and I didn’t want to disappoint her by revealing how well they do or don’t hold up today. If you decide to take a trek back in time, let me know what you think about the show.

Scooby Doo And the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 / thewritelife61 / 2 Comments

This month our blog series is “Get Animated,” and today we are taking a look at the Scooby Doo gang. Launched in 1969, Scooby Doo was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The show featured five teenagers who work together to solve mysteries. It ran on ABC from 1969-1976 when it moved to ABC until 1985. Since then there have been several reboots, a new show A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and several movies, but today we are focusing on the original series.

Fred Silverman, head of daytime programming at CBS, was looking for a new series that could take on the popularity of The Archies. Silverman had a concept in mind of a group of friends who played rock concerts and solved mysteries. The original concept was called Mysteries Five featuring Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, W.W., and a bongo-playing dog called Too Much.

Designer Iwao Takamoto was brought on board. Takamoto had been incarcerated at Manzanar, a concentration camp in WWII. He began sketching scenes to pass the time. In 1945, Takamoto was hired by Walt Disney Studios with no experience or education apart from the sketching he taught himself during the war. At Disney he worked on Lady and the Tramp. He later worked for Hanna-Barbera and worked on The Flintstones in addition to Scooby Doo. After reading a dog breeder’s description of a pedigree Great Dane, he created Scooby, adding a hump back, bowed legs, and several features that were not highly rated in dog show winners.

The teens were based on the cast of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. That show was on the air from 1959-1963. The Scooby gang became Fred based on Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), Daphne based on Thalia Meninger (Tuesday Weld), Velma based on Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James), and Shaggy based on Maynard Krebbs (Bob Denver). Silverman based the dog’s name, Scooby Doo on Frank Sinatra’s doo-be-doo-be-doo in “Strangers in the Night.” The title became Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

When the show aired the voices were Don Messick (Scooby), Casey Kasem (Shaggy), Frank Welker (Fred), Nicole Jaffe (Velma), and Indira Stefanianna (Daphne). The group of friends traveled in the Mystery Machine, a very-sixties-looking van with psychedelic colors and flowers.

As they travel the country, they run into situations where ghosts and paranormal activity threaten the locals. The plots were pretty basic, like the Hallmark Christmas movie formulas, the kids ran into someone being scared by a ghost, zombie, etc., and the kids would decide to help out their new friend. Eventually after at least one person, often Shaggy, went missing, before the kids unmasked the villain who turned out to be a human they had already dealt with in their investigation.

The ratings were amazing with up to 65% of viewers tuning in on Saturday mornings. It was renewed for a second season in 1970; however, a season of cartoons was only eight episodes.

In later years, the series received two Emmy nominations.

David Mook and Ben Raleigh wrote the theme song which was performed by Larry Marks.

Gold Key Comics published comic books starting in December 1969. It was drawn by Phil DeLara, Jack Manning, and Warren Tufts. The first ones were adaptations of the television shows, but eventually new stories were created. The series has been published off and on the past six decades.

This brand has sold billions of dollars of merchandise since it first began. In fact it sold a billion in 2004 alone. The early items included a board game in 1973, lunch boxes, coloring books, records, and underwear. The years since have featured a ton of items including a kids’ multivitamin, Scooby Snack dog treats, Barbie dolls, and Hot Wheels.

I loved this show growing up. The kids seemed fun and sophisticated and we all wanted to solve mysteries. For years there was a Mystery Machine in the town where we lived when my boys were little, and I felt nostalgic whenever I saw it parked around town.

Soap: A Series That Bubbled Over with Controversy

April 22, 2019 / thewritelife61 / 11 Comments

We are continuing our series of Oddly Wonderful shows. Next week we look at a show that was a parody of life as a soap opera, and today we learn about a show that was a parody of a soap opera as real life, sort of. After making that crystal clear, let’s delve into Soap, a series which aired from 1977-1981 on ABC, originally on Tuesday nights at 9:30 ET. During those four seasons, only 88 episodes were produced, an average of 22 per year.

Soap followed the lives of two families, the Tates and the Campbells. Throw in some melodrama, some ridiculous plots, some wacky characters, and some bizarre story lines and you have a truly unique sitcom. The show was taped before a live studio audience which would have been a fun event to be at.

The show was created by Susan Harris, who also was a writer/producer of The Golden Girls, Nurses, Benson, Empty Nest, and I’m a Big Girl Now. Soap was the working name of the show, but no one could come up with a better name, so it transitioned into the actual title of the show.

Rod Roddy was the announcer for each episode. Most viewers recognize him as game show guru announcer for The Price is Right and The Love Connection. Casey Kasem, the host of the top 40 shows at the time was the narrator in the pilot. When he found out some of the upcoming themes of the show, he backed out, and they had to re-record the pilot with Roddy.

This was a very funny and controversial show. It took on many issues including racism, homosexuality, murder, religion, and family dynamics. The scripts were extremely witty and while there was some physical humor, most of it was intellectual. The fact that it made fun of soaps with its unbelievable plots and characters only added to the reality of the show in a strange way. Some of the shows included alien abduction, demon possession, kidnapping, murder, and insanity.

The show starred Katherine Helmond as Jessica Tate and Cathryn Damon as her sister, Mary Campbell. Jessica was married to Chester (Robert Mandan) and Katherine was married to Burt (Richard Mulligan). They live in Dunn’s River, Connecticut.

The Tates were very wealthy and upper class. Like most soaps, both Jess and Chester have affairs with other people. They employ a butler/cook named Benson (Robert Guillaume). He was very sarcastic and spoke his mind freely. He can’t stand Chester or their daughter Eunice (Jennifer Salt), but he likes Jessica, their daughter Corinne (Diana Canova) their son, Billy (Jimmy Baio, brother of Scott). Benson was one of the most popular characters and he later got a spinoff, Benson which aired from 1979-1986.

The Campbells are a working-class family. Mary has a son from her first marriage, Danny Dallas (Ted Wass). He is training to be a gangster. The Mob gives him the task of killing his stepfather, telling him Bert killed his birth father. Danny refuses and, he has to go on the run. Later he realizes Bert did kill the man he thought was his father, but it was self-defense. His hiding from the Mob results in him taking on a variety of disguises throughout the shows. Of course, in soap opera fashion, eventually he finds out his mother had an affair with his uncle Chester before he married Jess, and he is his real father. When the Mob boss’s daughter Elaine (Dinah Manoff) falls in love with Danny, he is safe. Mary also has a son with Bert named Jodie (Billy Crystal) who is gay and having an affair with an well-known NFL quarterback.

The first season ends with Jessica convicted of the murder of Peter Campbell (Robert Urich), who is Bert’s son from a first marriage. He was a tennis pro. The announcer ends the season by telling us that Jess is innocent, but one of five characters did commit the murder. We will find out who in season two.

Some of the future subplots included Corinne dating a priest, Chester getting amnesia, Eunice having an affair with a Congressman, and Bert’s abduction by aliens.

Another popular character was Chuck Campbell (Jay Johnson) who was also from Bert’s first marriage. He is a ventriloquist and always has Bob, his dummy, with him. They dress alike, and while Chuck is quiet and introverted, Bob is loud, rude, and extroverted.

Season two and three found the show on Thursday nights. It moved to Wednesdays in season four. The show was riddled with controversy before it aired and that continued to a lesser extent all four seasons. The controversy seemed to increase the popularity of the show. It was supposed to run five seasons and then end. The fourth season, like the prior ones, ended with several cliffhangers but after it aired, ABC cancelled the show. It cited low ratings, but there were always rumors that the sponsors were unhappy with the show, and they put pressure on ABC.

Soap’s reputation has increased since it went off the air. Time magazine panned the show before it debuted, but in 2007, it named the series one of the “Best 100 Shows of All Time.”

Considering the low number of episodes produced each year, it’s impressive to see it garnered seventeen Emmy nominations. It was nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series three years; Richard Mulligan was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy twice, winning in 1980; Cathryn Damon was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series four years; Robert Guillaume was nominated and won for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series in 1979 (he was the first black actor to win the award); Jay Sandrich was nominated for Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series twice; the show won Outstanding Art Direction in a Comedy Series in 1978; and was nominated for Outstanding Achievement in Video Tape Editing in a Comedy Series in 1978.

The DVDs were released between 2003 and 2008.

A recent series, Trial By Error, reminds me of Soap in a more contemporary setting. Both shows relied on bizarre plots and clever dialogue, and they both work, producing very funny shows. They both produced fewer episodes a year than a typical sitcom. Watching an entire year’s worth of this type of comedy might be too much. The outrageous actions of well-developed characters kept the show fun and interesting.

Though it was a different type of comedy, it was not a show that I watched often. Like most of these shows, I’ve called “oddly wonderful,” I’m not sure I would want to watch it in reruns. It was a product of its time and might not hold up as well in 2019, although sadly, most of the issues Soap dealt with are still being dealt with today.