Just thought I'd add an epilogue, with a look at the Archie animated shows, which was the other main source of Archie, throughout my lifetime. Filmation and Archie first teamed up in 1968, with music producer Don Kirshner handling the music of the show, hoping to imitate the Monkees. The result was The Archie Show.
As is typical of Filmation, animation is very limited, with repeated use of stock shots and lots of talking heads (Hanna-Barbera wasn't much better; but, Filmation was a bit cheaper). Archie was voiced by Dallas McKennon, who has been in Mr Smith Goes to Washington (as John Tolliver) and was the voice of Gumby, as well as Titin, in the redubbing of the cartoons from 1959. He continued to voice Archie right up until 2014, with The New Archies.
Jughead was voiced by Howard Morris, who is probably best remembered as Ernest T. Bass, on the Andy griffith Show.
Morris had also voiced Atom Ant, for Hanna-Barbera. Morris had worked on Sid Caesar's show and would also turn up in some of Carl Reiner's endeavors. He also did voicework on the Flintstones and was the Gopher, in Disney's Winnie the Pooh.
Filmation's Mistress of the Microphone, Jane Webb, voice Betty, Veronica and Miss Grundy; and, would go on to handle Sabrina and her aunts Hilda and Zelda. She pretty much did every female voice at Filmation, from 1967, up through Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, in 1976. On Filmation's The New Adv. of Gilligan, she voiced both Ginger (since Tina Louise balked at doing it) and Mary Ann (Dawn Wells was unavailable). Can't find any pictures of Webb, who pretty much did voicework.
John Erwin was Reggie.
Erwin played Teddy, on Rawhide, but was primarily an announcer and voice artist, including the voice of He-Man.
The series featured short cartoons, with an opening cartoon story, a dance and music number and then a second cartoon story at the tail end of the show. The show would go on to spawn the hit pop song, "Sugar, Sugar," with Ron Dante doing the lead vocals. Dante was a session singer and musician and sang on many jingles and would later co-produce some of Barry Manilow's early songs (though we'll forgive him for that).
In 1969, there was an Archie special, Archie and His New Pals, which introduced Sabrina as a new student at Riverdale High (she had already appeared in the comics.
This was followed by The Archie Comedy Hour, in 1969.
This cartoon featured the same voice cast and included new cartoons, with Sabrina cartoons bookending the show, and a central Funhouse segment, where the gang did quick jokes, in the style of the Laugh-In wall. This was followed by Archie's Funhouse, in 1970, with expanded Funhouse segment and the Giant Jukebox, with more musical numbers, as well as a live audience of kids.
In 1971, the series was retooled as Archie's TV Funnies, with the premise that Archie and the gang worked at a local tv station, broadcasting cartoons taken from newspaper strips. The cartoons featured such strips as Dick Tracy, Broom Hilda, Smokey Stover, The Captain and the Kids, Emmy Lou, Nancy & Sluggo, Moon Mullins, and the Dropouts. The Archie gang would appear as reporters, with a continuing story throughout the show, in between the other cartoons. Then the whole gang turned up at the end.
Dick Tracy was my favorite segment, with John Erwin as Dick Tracy, as he battles crime with his fling pods and wrist tv.
In 1973, Archie returned to the old format, with Everything's Archie, featuring repeats of the old cartoon material 1974 featured a new take on Archue, US of Archie, with Archie and the gang at different points in history, dramatizing famous people and events. Thas was a build up to the Bicentennial and was broadcast through 1976.
The show covered such topics as the Underground Railroad, Wright Brother's flight, the suffragette movement, the composing of the Star Spangled banner (the Francis Scott Key poem), the Roughriders, Thomas Edison, and the California Gold Rush. Given the serious nature of the stories, it was a bit on the dull side, though filled with history, which helped the network fulfill the educational content mandate.
The last Archie show from Filmation was the New Archie and Sabrina Hour, with the Bang-Shang Lollapalooza Hour and Super Witch.
Now, after the success of the Archie Show and the Archie Comedy Hour, Sabrina was split off into her own show, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies.
Sabrina was moe of the same; but, the Goolies were something else. The show featured the Universal Monsters is comedic segments and musical numbers, greatly modeled after Laugh-In. Larry Storch, of F-Troop fame, voiced several of the characters.
This show was massively popular and retains a cult following to today. They eventually spun Sabrina and the Goolies off on their own, repeating the cartoons at different points and in syndication.
While this was going on at Filmation, Josie and the Pussycats were rockin' the joint at Hanna-Barbera.
Josie and the band, plus their entourage of roadie Alan, manager Alexander Cabot III, his bichie sister Alexandra, and her cat, Sebastian. The travelled around giving concerts and investigating mysteries, following the formula of Scooby Doo. For their sophomore season, the show was retooled Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
Alex Toth designed many of the aliens the group encountered in their journey through space.
Archie was notorious for introducing the laugh track to Saturday morning cartoons and it stuck for most of the 70s.
Archie would return with Archie's Weird Mysteries and Sabrina got both a live action series (with Melissa Joan Hart) and a new cartoon, based on the tv series.
We never got the Archie superhero personas; but, Hero High grew out of a pitch to use those characters and included a live action segment, with actors as the very Archie-like characters.
You can find a ton of Archie material on Youtube, if you are curious to see what amused us in the late 60s and through the 70s.