"The Archie Show" was the highest-rated Saturday morning cartoon show in TV history. As I recall, it had a 75 share which will never again be repeated what with today's quality (or lack thereof) and all sorts of other entertainment sources that weren't even imagined in 1968.
I read Archie magazines a lot back then so it was a real rush to see that they were finally getting their own TV show. I also thought that the rock group The Archies were just going to be a group with the cartoon characters singing goofy little songs....
The show featured two full-length stories which were well-written, funny and tasteful. In between cartoons, there would be some one-liners, then a dance segment followed by a song by The Archies, which turned out to be a real rock group fronted by Ron Dante who to this day remains a force in the music business as a producer, songwriter and is still recording and going on oldies tours.
Jeff Barry wrote and produced a huge percentage of The Archies songs, including the mega-hit "Sugar Sugar" (co-written with Andy Kim) which not only knocked-off "Honky-Tonk Women" by the Rolling Stones, but stayed on top of the Billboard chart for another month afterward. Jeff Barry is currently in the Songwriters Hall of Fame. For anyone to hear The Archies today would think it's good 60's-70's rock.
One drawback is that I think the animation could have been done a little better. They also could have changed the characters so that they didn't make the exact same motions all the time (Betty must be dizzy banging that tambourine around)....
Also, they should never have changed the format of the show. The way this season was set-up, it was perfect. I'm sure it would have lasted a lot longer. Just look at Skooby Doo. They never messed with the format and it was on for years.
Look for DVD's of various forms of Archie and his friends at Archie Comics' site and at other online locations.
