Archie (Filmation) questions (1 Viewer)

The Filmation Archie series are kind of a "guilty pleasure" for me. I picked up all the now-out-of-print DVDs that were released here in the States, but they never finished releasing all the series. Prior to the three Genius sets ("The Archie Show," "Archie's Funhouse" and "Sabrina The Teenage Witch") a company called Nostalgia Ventures had released four single DVDs with selected episodes from the various Archie series. Although the DVDs released by both companies had DVNR issues, it seems the Nostalgia Ventures DVDs were not affected by PAL speedup as were the Genius sets. Also, episodes from the first season ("The Archie Show") had a clean intro on the NV DVD, while the audio fades up late on the Genius set. Nostalgia Ventures released four episodes each of "Archie's TV Funnies" and "U.S. Of Archie," and one episode of "The Archie And Sabrina Surprise Package" (half-hour version of the 1977 series "The New Archie And Sabrina Hour") which are otherwise not on DVD in the US. For the longest time I thought the "Surprise Package" episode included as an extra on the "Sabrina" set was a repeat of the one Nostalgia Ventures included on the "Archie's Classic Cartoons" DVD, but I pulled it out recently and discovered it's a different episode. (By the way, I know a lot of the material from "The Archie Comedy Hour" is missing, and I suspect an episode of "Sabrina" may be missing as well -- 31 episodes seems to be a weird number, unless the "Archie And His New Pals" special was supposed to be part of the count.) I understand "Surprise Package" was released in Australia as a series set, but I can't find any such (legal) releases for either "TV Funnies" or "U.S. Of Archie," is that correct? I see that "The Archies" rerun package is airing on a couple of cable channels I don't get (KTV and Retro TV IINM) -- does anyone know if these reruns cover all the various Archie series, or which ones? I know someone who gets KTV and I'm told they have been showing "The Archie Show" and the "Comedy Hour" cut-downs with the "Archie's Funhouse" titles, at least. It would be nice to at least be able to access them from cable showings if they aren't going to be released. By the way, I was looking around on You Tube and I found a few things like one of the missing song segments from "Comedy Hour" -- and it had some TV station's logo in the corner, so that would lead me to believe those were being shown (somewhere) possibly as late as the early 1990s? I also ran across a more complete version of the "Jingle Jangle" song segment than the one released on DVD. And I didn't even know this, but apparently there was an extra episode of the "Groovie Goolies" which was cut down from "Daffy Duck And Porky Pig Meet The Groovie Goolies," and it was syndicated in the late 1970s as part of "The Groovie Goolies And Friends," but apparently didn't make the DVD set. At least that was something, since the original show likely will remain in "rights hell" (where it belongs, some may say) for the foreseeable future. Anyway, I'd sure like to see the rest of this stuff released. I note Dreamworks has a few clips posted on line, maybe that's a good sign.

There has never been a release that I know of for The US of Archie from 1974 which were all new episodes about US history. That's one I would like to have as I remember watching it when it was originally on.

Daffy Duck and Porky Pig meet the Groovie Ghoulies I believe was only syndicated with the original show in the mid-late 80's on cartoon express on USA network which I never watched. I watched the show on local reruns from around 1976-1981 and it was never included in those. I have not seen the episode and never heard of it until the DVDs came out and it was discussed. It would have been nice for it to be included.

Mark Y said:

The Filmation Archie series are kind of a "guilty pleasure" for me. ..... Anyway, I'd sure like to see the rest of this stuff released. I note Dreamworks has a few clips posted on line, maybe that's a good sign.

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It is for me as well. The season/series dvd sets are a mess, chopped up from the way they originally aired,

the material has been separated how it was syndicated. it's never going to see a proper release,

and it seems the rest is completely off the radar. It's too bad, and an abject lesson in the poor state

of television archiving.

Wonder if the coming live action Archie series "Riverdale" would spark new interest in the old animated series??

While not from the original era, there was another series, Archie's Weird Mysteries, that aired on PAX (now Ion) beginning in 1999. I had never seen the series, but found the 4-disc complete series DVD set at my local Ollie's for $5--40 episodes on 4 single discs for $5 was too much of a bargain to ignore. You can find it similarly priced at local places like Dollar General and Big Lots as well, or online at Amazon.

I just recently picked up the Australian DVD set of "The Archie And Sabrina Surprise Package." Aside from a couple episodes, I had not seen this series before. It's a half-hour edited version of the 1977 series "The New Archie/Sabrina Hour" (or whatever it was called). I remember that being on, but somehow I completely missed it in its original run -- it must have been on at the same time as something I regularly watched back in the pre-time shifting era, and it had a short run on Saturday mornings. So they did 13 one-hour shows, all original material, nothing reused from past seasons, but aside from one or two new characters, you'd never even know it. Same animation style, same voice actors, same background music, and the characters are even wearing the same clothes. They are cut into 26 half-hours. The first 13 are show-length storylines (about 20-21 minutes) and the next thirteen have two shorter cartoons each. I have read that they had songs in this series (not performed by the original Archies group, but by the group that was used on "U.S. Of Archie" in 1974) but they are not included in these edited versions and may even be "lost" along with the song segments (and other material) from the 1969-1970 "Archie Comedy Hour" season. Anyway, I'm glad these are available (from somewhere) and I'd like to get my hands on the rest of "TV Funnies" and "U.S. Of Archie."

Mark:


I also own the US Sets from Nostalgia Ventures and Genius Products. You've peaked my interested in "The Archie and Sabrina Surprise Package."

Is that Australian set region free and NTSC?

It is not region-free. I could not play it in my computer without changing the region code. I do have a Phillips DVD player I use for multi-region stuff -- I looked up a code reset on line years ago -- and it played on there. Oddly, Universal released the set in Australia (which is Region 4) but it has Genius's name on the lower back cover. It's odd that they went ahead and released this series in Australia, but not in the United States, and they skipped "TV Funnies" and "U.S. Of Archie." I can see "TV Funnies" maybe having some licensing issues with other characters (although Nostalgia Ventures was able to release four episodes through Archie Comics) but "U.S. Of Archie" shouldn't have any issues, as far as I know. By the way, Amazon's listing says the "Surprise Package" series is from 1969, which is wrong.