Josie and the Pussycats (formatted as Josie and the Pussy Cats in the opening titles) is an American animated television series, based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo. Produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions, sixteen episodes of Josie and the Pussycats aired on CBS during the 1970â€"71 television season and were rerun during the 1971â€"72 season. In 1972, the show was re-conceptualized as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, sixteen episodes of which aired on CBS during the 1972â€"73 season and were rerun the following season. Reruns of the original series alternated between CBS, ABC, and NBC from 1974 through 1976. This brought its national Saturday morning TV run on three networks to six years.
Josie and the Pussycats featured an all-girl pop music band that toured the world with their entourage, getting mixed up in strange adventures, spy capers, and mysteries. On the small-screen, the group consisted of level-headed lead singer and guitarist Josie, intelligent tambourinist Valerie, and air-headed blonde drummer Melody. Other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan.
The show, more similar to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! than the original Josie comic book, is famous for its music, the girls' leopard print leotards (replete with "long tails and ears for hats," as the theme song states), and for featuring Valerie as the first regularly appearing female black character in a Saturday morning cartoon show. Each episode featured a Josie and the Pussycats song played over a chase scene, which, in a similar fashion to The Monkees, featured the group running after and from a selection of haplessly villainous characters.
Creation and development
Origins
During the 1968-69 television season, the first Archie-based Saturday morning cartoon, The Archie Show, was a huge success, not only in the ratings on CBS, but also on the Billboard charts: The Archies' song "Sugar, Sugar" hit the #1 spot on the Billboard charts in September 1969, becoming the number one song of the year. Animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions wanted to duplicate the success their competitors Filmation were having with The Archie Show. After a failed attempt at developing a teenage-music-band show of their own called Mysteries Five (which eventually became Scooby-Doo, Where are You!), they decided to go to the source and contacted Archie Comics about possibly adapting one of their remaining properties into a show similar to The Archie Show. Archie and Hanna-Barbera collaborated to adapt Archie's Josie comic book into a music-based property about a teenage music band, adding new characters (Alan M. and Valerie) while dismissing others.
The music
In preparation for the upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera began working on putting together a real-life Josie and the Pussycats girl group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons and also record an album of songs to be used both as radio singles and in the TV series.
The Josie and the Pussycats recordings were produced by La La Productions, run by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young. They held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability; early plans, which did not come to fruition, called for a live-action Pussycats segment at the end of each episode. After interviewing over 500 finalists, settled upon casting Kathleen Dougherty (Cathy Dougher) as Josie, Cherie Moor (later known as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway as Valerie.
Janssen presented the newly formed band to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to finalize the production deal. Hanna-Barbera wanted Janssen to recast Patrice Holloway, because they had decided to portray "Josie and the Pussycats" as an all-white trio and had altered Valerie, who had been conceived as African-American and was already appearing as such in Arche's revamped Josie and the Pussycats comic book, to make her white. Janssen refused to recast Holloway and threatened to walk away from the project. After a three-week-long stand-off between Janssen and Hanna-Barbera, Hanna-Barbera finally relented and allowed Janssen to keep Holloway, and changed Valerie back to being African-American. The Valerie character was the first African-American female character on a regular Saturday morning cartoon series. The Hardy Boys drummer Pete Jones had been the first African-American male to appear on Saturday mornings a year earlier.
Theme song
The show's theme song, titled "Josie and the Pussycats", was written by Hoyt Curtin, William Hanna (under the pseudonym "Denby Williams"), and Joseph Barbera (under the pseudonym "Joseph Roland"). Patrice Holloway, the singing voice of Valerie, sings the lead vocal on the recording. The theme song was based on melodies from an incidental tune played on various Hanna-Barbera cartoons since The Jetsons.
A cover of "Josie and the Pussycats" performed by Juliana Hatfield and Tanya Donelly is included on the 1995 tribute album Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, produced by Ralph Sall for MCA Records.
Series overview
Josie and the Pussycats debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup on September 12, 1970, with the episode "The Nemo's a No-No Affair." The animated version of Josie was an amalgam of plot devices, villain types, settings, moods, and tones from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and Shazzan.
Like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Josie and the Pussycats was originally broadcast with a laugh track. Later home video and DVD releases omit the laugh track. Cartoon Network and Boomerang, however, have aired the original episodes with the laugh track intact.
Plot
Every episode of the show would find the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location. Somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they would accidentally find themselves mixed up in an adventure/mystery. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some hi-tech device. The Pussycats would usually find themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains would give chase. Eventually, the Pussycats would formulate a plan to destroy the villain's plans and bring them to justice, which result in a final chase sequence set to a Pussycats song.
The Pussycats would succeed in capturing the villain and get back to their gig/recording session/etc. The final gag always centered around one of Alexandra's attempts to interfere with/put an end to The Pussycats' performance and/or steal Alan away from Josie, which would always backfire on her.
Characters
- Josie (voiced by Janet Waldo/sung by Cathy Dougher) - The red-haired guitarist and leader of the band. Josie shares an attraction with Alan, the road manager.
- Valerie (voiced by Barbara Pariot/sung by Patrice Holloway) - The band's African American tambourine player. The voice of reason in the group, Valerie is highly intelligent and a mechanical wizard.
- Melody (voiced by Jackie Joseph/sung by Cherie Moor) - The band's drummer. Blonde, immature, and dimwitted, what Melody lacks in intellect she makes up for in heart; to wit, her perpetual sweetness and optimism. Her ears twitch when the group is in danger.
- Alan (voiced by Jerry Dexter) - The group's muscular roadie and Josie's love interest.
- Alexander Cabot III (voiced by Casey Kasem) - the group's manager, highly identifiable by his brightly-colored mod wardrobe, sunglasses, and idiotic promotion schemes; he is the twin brother of Alexandra. Alexander is an admitted coward, but in sharp contrast to his sister Alexandra, is good-hearted. Alexander and Valerie have a slight attraction to one another at times. He also seems to be attracted to Melody. Alexander is similar and shares the resemblance of Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo. In The New Scooby-Doo Movies crossover episode "The Haunted Showboat", Casey Kasem voiced both Alexander Cabot III and Shaggy Rogers at the same time.
- Alexandra Cabot (voiced by Sherry Alberoni) - The only girl who is not a Pussycat, identified by her long black pony-tailed hair with a white streak through the center of it, suggesting a pole-cat, or skunk. Selfish, unfriendly, and bullying, Alexandra bills herself as "the real star of the band", although she does little more than stand around scowling with her arms folded, always jealous of the attention everyone else gets, especially Josie. She is Alexander's twin sister and she has no connection to the musical group, but her brash personality serves her as security guard when she comes face to face with villains. Her sole "talent" is her constant plotting to steal the spotlight (and Alan's affections) from Josie, only to have every scheme fail in humiliating fashion.
- Sebastian (voiced by Don Messick) - Alexandra's snickering cat, whose black and white fur resembles Alexandra's hair. He enjoys being mean and sometimes appears to go to the enemy's side, but usually only to trick the villain so he can have a chance to help the group escape. He sometimes uses his claws to pick locks. Alexandra sometimes recruits Sebastian to pull dirty tricks on Josie, but even these tricks usually backfire. In The New Scooby-Doo Movies crossover episode "The Haunted Showboat", Messick voiced both Sebastian and Scooby-Doo at the same time.
- Bleep - (appears only in Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space) Melody's fluffy pet alien with pink extremities. He makes a "bleep" sound (thus his name) which only Melody can understand. Bleep can also generate invisible sound waves from his mouth and eyes.
Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space
In September 1972, a sequel spin-off series titled Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space debuted on CBS. This version of the series launched the characters into outer space; the opening credits sequence shows the group taking a promotional photo at the launch site of a new spaceship and a jealous Alexandra elbowing the cast aside to steal the spotlight from Josie. However, Alexandra is jerked inside as well and triggers the launch sequence, sending them and the ship into deep space. Despite never having been in the spaceship before, Val seems to know how to pilot it. Every episode centered on the Pussycats encountering a strange new world, where they would encounter and often be kidnapped by various alien races before escaping and attempting to return home.
Musical numbers and chase sequences set to newly recorded songs were featured in this spin-off series as with the original. Josie in Outer Space also added the character of Bleep, a pet-sized fluffy alien adopted by Melody, who was the only one who could understand the creature (who only says "Bleep") and numerous other alien animals encountered.
The 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space were re-run for the 1973-1974 season until January 26, 1974, when CBS canceled it and ordered no more new Josie episodes from Hanna-Barbera. Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space contained a laugh track as well but utilized an inferior version created by the studio.
After cancellation
Josie and The Pussycats made a final appearance as animated characters in a guest shot on the September 22, 1973, episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Haunted Showboat". Early production art for Hanna-Barbera's 1977 "all-star" Battle of the Network Stars spoof Laff-A-Lympics featured Alexandra, Sebastian, Alexander, and Melody among other Hanna-Barbera characters as members of the "Scooby Doobies" team, but legal problems prevented their inclusion in the final program.
In 1976, Rand McNally published a children's book based on the Josie TV show, Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats: The Bag Factory Detour.
The original Josie and the Pussycats series was re-run on NBC Saturday morning for the 1975-1976 season. In the mid-1980s, both series, along with a number of other 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, were on board USA Network's Cartoon Express; they would next appear on Cartoon Network in 1992, where all 32 episodes were run in the same timeslot. Both programs, as of 2014, are in the library of Boomerang (Turner Broadcasting's archive cartoon channel).
Episodes
Josie and the Pussycats: 1970-1971
Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space: 1972
Voices
Speaking Voices
- Janet Waldo - Josie
- Barbara Pariot - Valerie
- Jackie Joseph - Melody
- Jerry Dexter - Alan
- Casey Kasem - Alexander Cabot III
- Sherry Alberoni - Alexandra Cabot
- Don Messick - Sebastian the Cat
Singing Voices
Band Members Only
- Cathy Dougher - Josie
- Patrice Holloway - Valerie
- Cheryl Ladd - Melody
Home video releases
A VHS videocassette of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space containing 3 episodes was issued by Worldvision Home Video in 1980. A second video cassette, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, Volume 2, was released in 1985.
Two VHS volumes of Josie and the Pussycats, each containing four episodes of the original 1970 series, minus the laugh tracks, were released by Warner Home Video (Hanna-Barbera had been sold to Turner Broadcasting in 1991, with Turner merging with Time Warner six years later) on April 10, 2001 to coincide with the release of the live-action film. A Josie in Outer Space episode, "Warriors Women of Amazonia", was featured in a clip/episode collection of Hanna-Barbera on VHS, released in the UK.
A Josie and the Pussycats: The Complete Series two-DVD box set was released in Region 1 (the United States, Canada, and Japan) on September 18, 2007. All sixteen episodes, again minus the laugh tracks, were included, as well as a half-hour documentary on the life and career of Dan DeCarlo. The first episode of the 1970 series, "The Nemo's A No No Affair", is featured on the DVD compilation Saturday Morning Cartoons: the 1970s Volume 1 released on May 26, 2009.
On October 19, 2010, Warner Archive released Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 as part of their Hannaâ€"Barbera Classics Collection of Manufacture-on-Demand (MOD) releases. Josie in Outer Space is available exclusively through Warner's online store and Amazon.com.
Reception
Josie and the Pussycats was named the 100th best animated series by entertainment website IGN, which referred to Josie as an amusing show for the way in which it combined elements from The Archie Show and Scooby-Doo.
Spin-offs and spoofs
In 2001, Cartoon Network began airing a Josie and the Pussycats short, called "Musical Evolution", featured the Pussycats performing their theme song through the various eras of popular music, including pop, disco, punk, Kiss-like heavy metal, country, and techno dance. Different animation styles are used for each era. The same year, Josie and the Pussycats was adapted into a live-action motion picture. The film, produced by Universal Pictures, featured a punk rock cover of the theme song during the end credits.
The 2004â€"2007 Comedy Central animated TV series Drawn Together featured a character named Foxxy Love. An African-American mystery-solving musician, she was a direct parody of the Josie and the Pussycats character Valerie Brown.
Several episodes of Speed Buggy, a later Hanna-Barbera show, had similar plots to Josie and the Pussycats episodes, specifically A Greenthumb is Not a Goldfinger (Island of the Giant Plants), X Marks the Spot (Out of Sight), and the Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space episode Warrior Women of Amazonia (called The Hidden Valley of Amazonia in Speed Buggy).
In 2016, Josie and the Pussycats was rebooted as a comic book. This update features the origins of the band. Originally, Josie was a struggling musician who merely played an emptied bar while heckled by her former friend, Alexandra. After talking with her roommate, Melody and bringing a stray cat to the vets, they meet Valerie, a veterinarian. The trio decided to play for the Animal Shelter Fundraiser. Despite Alexandra's attempts, the trio is a success and decided to call themselves Josie and The Pussycats, where they meet the producer Alan M.
Notes
See also
- Josie and the Pussycats (the Archie comic)
- Josie and the Pussycats (the music group put together in conjunction with the show)
- Josie and the Pussycats (the live action movie)
References
- Burke, Timothy and Burke, Kevin (1999). Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up With Cartoon Culture. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-16996-5.
- Charles, Don (March 2003). Long Tails and Ears for Hats: The Story of Josie and The Pussy Cats. Cool & Strange Music #28. Text available at http://lpintop.tripod.com/oldiesconnection/id17.html.
- Josie and the Pussycats: Stop Look and Listen: The Capitol Recordings [CD Set]. Burbank: Rhino Handmade. Text available at http://www.geocities.com/antlion7/josie.htm.
External links
- http://www.dandecarlo.com Creator Dan Decarlos Website
- Josie and the Pussycats on Internet Movie Database
- Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space on Internet Movie Database
- Archie Comics' Josie and the Pussycats homepage
- Josie and the Pussycats at TV.com
- Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space at TV.com
- Josie and the Pussycats at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on October 22, 2016.
- Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats
- Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space