After going to a hour-long format the previous season (Archie Comedy Hour), Filmation & CBS scaled the franchise back to a half-hour with Archie's Funhouse, which was their answer to NBC's popular evening sketch comedy series, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, which was entering its 4th season. Chock full of quick gags and short sketches, along with new Archies music, the series marked the end of Ron Dante's association with the franchise, as Tom McKenzie (Doodletown Pipers) became the new singing voice for Archie four years later (US of Archie).
In the opener, there are three Archies songs, billed as "Giant Jukebox hits", including "Love Vibrations" and "I'm Just a Puppet on a String", all in the second half of the show.
The music was put aside the next season for Archie's TV Funnies, and then, Filmation took a break from original material, as 1973's Everything's Archie recycled reruns from the original Archie Show under a new title, thinking viewers wouldn't know the difference, a tactic that wouldn't work today.
Rating: B.
6 comments:
Filmation had a habit of recycling these shows a lot during the 70's, whether it was Archie, Sabrina or Groovie Goolies.
It wasn't just the shows, but character designs. The Archies' designs were later used for the Brady Kids, which also borrowed some motion from Fat Albert.
True. (reminded of Hot Dog's design being used for a brown dog for The Brady Kids)
Today, they wouldn't be able to get away with that.
True, at least most studios today aren't as cut-rate as Filmation was.
And never should be.
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