5/5 Sugar, Sugar: Where Are The Kids?
  by Mark Talmadge (Flint Michigan)
One of the best animated children's shows to ever come out of the 60's. This series, which featured a lot of chase songs, which also showed up in the Scooby-Doo TV series, are what made the series a lot more fun and enjoyable and very comical to watch. The following episodes consist of the first show:

1 The Added Distraction
2 Who Is Afraid of Reggie Wolf?
3 Beauty is Only Fur Deep
4 The Disappearing Act
5 Hot Rod Drag
6 Jughead's Double
7 Anchor's Away
8 Snow Business
9 Jughead Simpson Jones
10 The Computer
11 Groovy Ghosts
12 PFC Hot Dog
13 Dilton's Folly
14 Jughead's Girl
15 Hard Day's Knight
16 Cat Next Door
17 Chimp off the Old Block
18 Reggie's Cousin
19 The Circus
20 The Prize Winner
21 Field Trip
22 The Great Marathon
23 Flying Saucers
24 Way Out Like West
25 Kid's Day
26 Par One
27 Rocket Rock
28 The Old Sea Dog
29 Private Eye Jughead
30 Strike Three
31 The Jones' Farm
32 Veronica's Veil

The series, as reported by TV Shows on DVD, goes on sale in July, before the SanDiego Comic Convention begins and if you're a parent who is careful what your children watch, this is wholesome cartoony entertainment that even parents can get into. The series is set to be released on July 31st and if there's only one DVD boxed set on your list for this year and you are looking for something great to give your family, please make this DVD set one of your favourites ... it certainly is one of mine and it also features great songs recorded by the fictional rock group "The Archies" who actually recorded several albums during the course of the animated series (eight different Archies animated series which ran from 1968-1977).

5/5 Everything's Archie
  by Gord Wilson (Bellingham, WA USA)
Into the SatAm world of caped crusaders in 1968 came the carrot- topped teen from Riverdale, star of radio and comics, the inimitable Archie. The first SatAm cartoon with a laugh track, from the start Filmation's show was all about music. The Archie Show opened with The Archies in a band. Each episode consisted of two ten minute cartoons, a dance and a song by the Archies. One of the songs, "Sugar Sugar", from a later incarnation of the show (there were eight), hit no. 1 on the Billboard chart in 1969.

Anyone who understands how limited were the budgets for kids' TV cartoons, as compared to the lavish resources for theatrical animation, will enjoy watching shows from this era to study what might be called the art of limited animation. As with Hanna- Barbera, it means characters running by the same shops and barber poles repeatedly to minimize backgrounds. It also meant finding clever ways to reuse footage. Here, one way was to use the dance visuals for the song segment. The musical production was supplied by Don Kirshner, fresh from TV's live action teen hit, The Monkees. Archie comics from this era were published by Archie Music Corporation, so the musical angle is not an accident. Another clever Filmation touch is to sometimes use no backgrounds at all, strobing the background color in time to the music. This burgeoning sense of psychedelia in SatAm cartoons would reach its height in Hanna- Barbera's 1969 Cattanooga Cats.

This set is excellently presented, with two single sided discs that look like 45 RPM records. The Archie Show ran 17 episodes, unusual since a season generally has 13. Bonuses on the discs include character sheets and a Jukebox to play the song segments as videos. But what's worth the price of the set is the interview with Filmation producer Lou Scheimer. This hopefully signals a trend for Filmation DVD releases, as interviews were also a high point bonus on their live-action Ghost Busters set.

The packaging is an engaging mix of art from various styles in Archie comics and the animated Filmation characters, which were simplified for the show. They still retain the sense of the comic book however, and the writing also echoes the comic. Jughead's dog, Hotdog "voices" his thoughts to the viewers, and Archie and pals talk to viewers between segments. You even get a miniature reprint of a story from the first "Everything's Archie" comic from 1969 in which the gang meet Norm Prescott, Lou Scheimer and Hal Sutherland of Filmation. The back pages cleverly include the DVD menu and a subscription blank to subscribe to Archie comics in what can only be called a total packaging deal of "Everything Archie". One episode of the show also has the gang meeting Mayor Prescott, a caricature of Norm Prescott. All in all, this ground breaking series made with way more heart than money gives yet more evidence why since 1941, readers, listeners, and viewers can't get enough of Riverdale's most famous teen.

4/5 The Archies Come To DVD
  by J. Rose (Greenwood, MS USA)
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.

2/5 The audio track is sped up... THUMBS DOWN!
  by John J. Juliano (Erie, Pennsylvania United States)
I am VERY disappointed. I've been looking forward to owning this series on DVD for a long time. This would have been a very impressive set, except for one thing... the audio has been sped up. The sound is too fast and the voices and music are pitched too high. Somebody goofed over at Entertainment Rights. So only two stars from me. Better luck next time? (shrug)

5/5 Late '60s Saturday Morning Gem!
  by Mr Doug Gordon (Toronto, ON Canada)
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!