Director
Hal Sutherland
Cast
Dal McKennon Archie/Mr. Weatherbee/Hot Dog/Pop/Coach Cleats/Mr. Lodge
Howard Morris Jughead/Moose/Dilton
Jane Webb Betty/Veronica/Ms. Grundy/Big Ethel
John Erwin Reggie
DVD Release Date: July 31, 2007
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 374 Minutes on 2 discs
The Show
In a time when cartoons have been taken from being their own entity, The Archie Show may confuse a lot of the younger kids who aren’t used to its strange ways. Cartoons today aren’t very unique and if you come across one that is actually aimed at children, then it was probably a spin-off from a film. The Archie Show took a bunch of small town kids and had them go through some humorously troubling situations and play some good music.
Archie, Jughead, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie are a group of teenagers that live in Riverdale. Together they attend high school and are also members of a band called the Archies. They like to visit Pop’s Chok’lit Shoppe in the afternoons after a grueling day in school dealing with principal Mr. Weatherbee and teachers like Ms. Grundy and Professor Flutesnoot. Some good food would help too considering lunch lady Mrs. Beasley’s unappealing concoctions can turn anyone’s stomach.
Made famous originally by the comic books which are still in production to this day, Archie and his pals are all-American kids that want to do nothing but sing and have fun. There isn’t going to be any guns firing or drug use or any types of horrible incidences that teenagers get into now. The most troublesome thing you may see is a fight over a girl (Moose mostly) or Betty and Veronica arguing over who Archie is going out with on a particular night.
The episodes would probably be considered corny by most standards today, but for the time period in which they aired, they were groovy. Each one comes with some great music and there are even some dance steps to learn at the end of each one. If you’ve never heard of the Archies before, then you’re either very young or live in a pine box. This is the perfect way to get introduced to them because it showcases them as they truly are. Just some fun-loving, wholesome, music-crazy kids that love life.
Episodes
Disc One:
The Added Distraction/The Disappearing Act
A Hard Day’s Night/Beauty Is Only Fur Deep
Anchors Away/Jughead’s Double
The Circus/The Prize Winner
Flying Saucers/Field Trip (AKA “Picnic”)
The Marathon/Way Out Like West
Hot Rod Drag/Snowbusiness
A Chimp Off The Old Block/Who’s Afraid Of Reggie Wolf
Kid’s Day/Jughead Sampson’ Jones
Disc Two:
Rocket Rose/Par One
Groovie Ghosts/P.F.C. Hot Dog
Surf-Bored/The Computer
The Old Sea Dog/Jughead’s Girl
Dilton’s Folly/Lodge’s Dept. Store
Private Eye Jughead/Reggie’s Cousin
Strike Three/The Cat Next Door
The Jones Farm/Veronica’s Veil
The Video
The episodes are shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and for being close to fifty years old, they look really good. The colors are bright and the animation is very sharp without any glitches or problems. It’s the animation itself that shows the age of the cartoons, but not the way it is presented.
The Audio
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital Stereo Sound and come through alright. It’s really a rather weak sound and a little more could have been done to make it sound better, especially considering the amount of musical numbers heard throughout the set.
Special Features
Jukebox – All the songs from the DVD set are put in one place to watch as you wish with the music videos that accompany it. The videos are of course the different scenes from the episodes, but at least this is a chance to hear whatever songs you wish whenever you wish.
Music & Effects Audio Only: Episodes 1 & 14 – These two episodes can be viewed with only the music and sound effects being heard. It really isn’t a bad idea until you get to the parts of each episode where talking is going on. Sometimes then it is quiet or has a little background music, but it’s still odd watching them talk and nothing being said.
“Come On Let’s Go With The Archie Show“ – This is a 25 minute interview with producer Lou Scheimer. He takes you on a tour through the history of Archie and his pals. It goes through the comic books, the show, the music, and anything associated with the redheaded troubled teen. Quite an interesting interview that is very informative and well worth checking out.
Image Gallery – A collection of black and white stencil drawings of the main characters. Nothing much to any of them.
The Inside Pulse
Considering I’ve never seen any of the episodes until now, because I was too young when it originally aired, my gut tells me this would have been something I would have watched regularly. As a fan of the Archies for a long time (comic books, music, etc ), this collection is something that was quite enjoyable. To those that have never heard of or cared about Archie and the gang, you simply aren’t going to get much entertainment out of it at all. The special features aren’t too good except for the Lou Scheimer interview so nothing much to look for there. My suggestion is to try a rental because it just doesn’t seem as if anyone but real Archie fans would want to own this collection.
The Archie Show: The Complete Series |
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