Comic book series of HB's Josie and the Pussycats?

[zoombie]

Back in the early 70's, with the popular Josie and the Pussycats cartoon on the air, did Hanna Barbara ever approach Archie Comics about doing a comic book series based on the saturday morning cartoon?

Had they asked, would Archie Comics been open to the idea? Would have been too confusing for the comic book readers of telling the real comic book series and a comic adapation of the saturday morning cartoon?

I based this thought on that DC comics did Teen Titans Go series, which an adaption based on the animated series. One big difference, the Titans from the animated series look much different from the regular comic book series, the comic book Josie and the Pussycats and the cartoon Josie and the Pussycats, the characters look almost exactly the same. It could be confusing.

I don't know if this topic belong on the comic book thread, maybe it could be duplicated to that thread, but this is also about the old cartoon show?

[Shawn Hopkins]

Originally Posted by zoombie

Back in the early 70's, with the popular Josie and the Pussycats cartoon on the air, did Hanna Barbara ever approach Archie Comics about doing a comic book series based on the saturday morning cartoon?

Had they asked, would Archie Comics been open to the idea? Would have been too confusing for the comic book readers of telling the real comic book series and a comic adapation of the saturday morning cartoon?

I based this thought on that DC comics did Teen Titans Go series, which an adaption based on the animated series. One big difference, the Titans from the animated series look much different from the regular comic book series, the comic book Josie and the Pussycats and the cartoon Josie and the Pussycats, the characters look almost exactly the same. It could be confusing.

I don't know if this topic belong on the comic book thread, maybe it could be duplicated to that thread, but this is also about the old cartoon show?

I don't get what you're getting at, here. They really didn't need to because the comic was already so similar to the show, even had the same name. Archie changed it from a much different teen girl comic just to fall in line with what HB wanted from the show, namely a musical act like The Archies.

To be clear, Josie became Josie and The Pussycats to match up with the show, so it was already sort of a synergistic tie-in. There were some slight differences like Alexandra having magic powers in the comics and the cartoons playing out more like Scooby Doo episodes, but not enough that there needed to be a whole new cartoon continuity comic.

[zoombie]

Originally Posted by Shawn Hopkins

I don't get what you're getting at, here. They really didn't need to because the comic was already so similar to the show, even had the same name. Archie changed it from a much different teen girl comic just to fall in line with what HB wanted from the show, namely a musical act like The Archies.

To be clear, Josie became Josie and The Pussycats to match up with the show, so it was already sort of a synergistic tie-in. There were some slight differences like Alexandra having magic powers in the comics and the cartoons playing out more like Scooby Doo episodes, but not enough that there needed to be a whole new cartoon continuity comic.

Well HB had comic book series of other shows like Johnny Quest and the Flintstones.

Just thought maybe they could have done a comic book when they battle villains and Alexander is more like Shaggy.

[hobbyfan]

Originally Posted by zoombie

Back in the early 70's, with the popular Josie and the Pussycats cartoon on the air, did Hanna Barbara ever approach Archie Comics about doing a comic book series based on the saturday morning cartoon?

Had they asked, would Archie Comics been open to the idea? Would have been too confusing for the comic book readers of telling the real comic book series and a comic adapation of the saturday morning cartoon?

I based this thought on that DC comics did Teen Titans Go series, which an adaption based on the animated series. One big difference, the Titans from the animated series look much different from the regular comic book series, the comic book Josie and the Pussycats and the cartoon Josie and the Pussycats, the characters look almost exactly the same. It could be confusing.

I don't know if this topic belong on the comic book thread, maybe it could be duplicated to that thread, but this is also about the old cartoon show?

I'd say the mods could "mirror" this onto Comic Book Culture, but to answer your question, Zoombie, it's no. Josie debuted on CBS in 1970, 2 years after Archie debuted on the same network. Josie wasn't being published as often (quarterly at one point, IIRC), and even with the TV exposure (1970-74), wasn't quite as popular as Archie.

[ap75021]

I'm confused here. A comic book based on the TV series? I think you have it backwards...the comic book was around for a few years before the show, and I believe the whole Pussycats thing inspired the show. Before Valerie there was Pepper and a couple of other characters that disappeared when the Pussycats concept gained popularity...scondary recurring characters similar to a few from the "Archies: crowd that you just didn't see as often (Midge, Big Moose's girlfriend, among others, comes to mind).

There was one season of "Josie & the Pussycats" (CBS-TV, 1970-71) along with hourly inserts throughout Saturday morning called "In the Know", which were mainly educational in nature and featured the Pussycats cast. The following year, CBS News took over the concept and the segments became known as "In the News", minus the Pussycats, and featuring the voice of the late CBS reporter Christopher Glenn. The only problem with airing these segments was that they ran three minutes long, and to fit them in, that meant a few minutes of the shows they followed had to be edited, cutting their running time (minus the commercials) to about 19 minutes total.

A couple years later there were two Outer Space adaptations of pop music shows: "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space", and "The Partridge Family: 2200 AD", both of which, IMHO were pretty much worthless, and both lasted one season each before disappearing.

[KJ Styles]

I wish they would have had Alexandra have magical powers in the TV series like she did in the comic book. Had they done that, as well as never came up with that awful Outer Space season, the show probably would have stayed on the air much longer than it did.

[Steve Carras]

Originally Posted by hobbyfan

I'd say the mods could "mirror" this onto Comic Book Culture, but to answer your question, Zoombie, it's no. Josie debuted on CBS in 1970, 2 years after Archie debuted on the same network. Josie wasn't being published as often (quarterly at one point, IIRC), and even with the TV exposure (1970-74), wasn't quite as popular as Archie.

And I doubt it was even big before the caroton [which, IIRC, unfortauntely, it the reason folks still referred to it as an HB creation.Plus there is, after the "A HANNA BARBERA PRODUCTION" credit NO "In association with ARCHIE COMICS" or what have you which IMO would have halped correctly id Josie and the Pussycats AS a non-original property.You don't know how often it was mistkaenly thought that this was just another meddlin' kids original show a la Scooby!]

[Jayd]

I always wondered why the Josie series wasn't done by Filmation. I used to read the comic Archie's TV Laugh Out which featured Sabrina as well as Josie stories.

[hobbyfan]

I think Josie's closing in on her 50th anniversary in comics in a few years, so it's time to clarify things.

Archie launched She's Josie sometime in the early-to-mid-60's, not sure exactly when. As I noted previously, after Archie and the Riverdale gang made the jump to television in 1968, CBS apparently wanted to know if there was anything else Archie Comics had to adapt for television. By then, the Mighty Heroes line had been cancelled, and superheroes in general, even the satirical ones like the Super 6 and Terrytoons' Mighty Heroes, had fallen out of vogue on TV. Josie was brought up, and after Hanna-Barbera's last iconic series of the 60's, Scooby-Doo, had given the studio a new formula to work from, H-B was commissioned by CBS to produce Josie & the Pussycats. The band was designed in answer to their stablemates at Archie Comics, but the show was formatted as a copy of Scooby-Doo, the first in a series of "Scooby Formula" clones H-B would produce over the next decade.

As a side note, the Harlem Globetrotters, who bowed on CBS the same year, also licensed to H-B, followed the same format (music, comedy, mystery, with uncredited studio musicians providing the soundtrack for the series).

So around the time that Josie made her TV debut, Archie rechristened the comic as Josie & the Pussycats. As we all know, Alexandra Cabot didn't have her magic powers, contrary to the comic. Unfortunately, the cartoon didn't fare as well, though in some respects it has become something of a cult favorite. And just like Archie, Josie didn't translate well in live-action, either, with the movie flopping several years back.

[KJ Styles]

Originally Posted by hobbyfan

So around the time that Josie made her TV debut, Archie rechristened the comic as Josie & the Pussycats. As we all know, Alexandra Cabot didn't have her magic powers, contrary to the comic. Unfortunately, the cartoon didn't fare as well, though in some respects it has become something of a cult favorite. And just like Archie, Josie didn't translate well in live-action, either, with the movie flopping several years back.

As I said earlier, I believe that the cartoon would have been more successful if it had stayed truer to the comic as well as not had that horrendous "Outer Space" season.

As for live action toons, Other than Popeye in the 80's I can't think of any good live action toon movies.