Josie And The Pussycats
Friday, June 29th, 2007 at 9:45 am
One of the great things about “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” was the chase sequences in the first two seasons. They always had some rockin’ ’60’s-type jam written by Danny Janssen which completely fed my love of bubblegum pop. (I still need to tell you the “Sugar, Sugar” story.) When Hanna-Barbera decided it was time for them to cash in on the sweet, sweet sugar “The Archies” was harvesting, they decided to buy another Archies property called “Josie And The Pussycats”.
Lap up the theme song:
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The first thing H-B decided to do was put together a girl group to be the live-action counterparts of their animated characters. If you didn’t know, the woman behind the singing of the ditsy Melody was none other than Cheryl Ladd. When Danny Janssen presented the singers he had chosen to H-B, they had some bad news. Valerie had been retooled as a white chick. Janssen was livid and refused to recast Patrice Holloway.
Thankfully, H-B backed down and kept the characters as they appear in the comic book. This gave “Josie And The Pussycats” one definite distinction. It became the first Saturday morning cartoon series to have a major black character — by 30 minutes. “The Harlem Globetrotters” debuted right after “Josie”, which was good for me. I’ve never like basketball, but the Globetrotters are freakin’ awesome!
I loved “Josie”, too. It was the music. That toe-tapping bubble-gum pop that was pure earworm syndrome Janssen wrote so well. The plot? Eh, watch an episode of “Scooby” and it’s the same thing except for guys in masks, it was megalomaniacs trying to take over the world only to be thwarted with the power of ROCK. {This is where I’ve fallen to my knees playing air guitar like a rock god.}
This September I finally get to relive being 4-years-old. The first (and only good) season of “Josie” is released on DVD. SQUEAL! Sixteen episodes of stupidity and great music. Can’t wait! I did a little research into the Josie And The Pussycats album Capitol released in 1970 and found that Rhino re-released it in limited edition in 2001. You can get it for only the small pittance of $200. Ugh. Maybe the DVD release will — in turn — get a music collection release. {Crossing fingers while playing air guitar. Oy, the F chord is hard that way.}
As an extra bonus, here is a video that Cartoon Network had made a few years ago when they were doing their Groovies bumpers. I can’t tell you how excellent I think this is. It’s the Josie theme done in six different music styles including disco, punk and trance all crammed in a minute and a half. Righteous!
Listening to: “I Think We’re Alone Now” - Tiffany
June 29th, 2007 at 9:52 am
I vaguely recall this, although I didn’t watch them regularly. They were also on a Laff-O-Lympics team, were they not?
(And admittedly, the live movie a number of years ago was not that horrible — for what it was.)
June 29th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Actually, they weren’t. It was the chicks from Captain Caveman. I still need to see the movie. Simply everyone has told me I’d like it.
June 29th, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I remember Josie and the Pussycats … I loved them too :o) And Captain Caveman but the Harlem Globetrotters did nothing for me.
Thanks for the memories … and I’m tagging you with the 8 random facts meme :oD
Here’s the one I did, it has the rules on it :o)
http://beaut1ful.wordpress.com.....dom-facts/
June 29th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Glad I could help! I can’t wait to get my DVD’s. Just pre-ordered it. Tee-hee.
June 29th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
I liked that ditty - but had noooo idea Cheryl Ladd even had any thing to do with the song or the show or any of that. I now stand edukated. Thank yew berry much and where the heck is my deplomer?
June 29th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Oh, no. You have to present your thesis before your get your animation degree.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
I totally forgot about that Cartoon Network bumper.
I love it.
Also, the movie was actually pretty cute.
I actually put the Josie themesong on my mp3 player.
June 29th, 2007 at 3:34 pm
Yeah, I found a bunch of them on YouTube and will be going through them eventually.
June 30th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
it’s just hard for me to believe you were really listening to mall-queen-wanna-be-diva tiffany ….
June 30th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
When my brother introduced me to this blog, he said, “You have to watch every single video Howard posts.” After watching the last few you’ve posted, I’m starting to understand why he says that.
June 30th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Pretty cool. The metal version sounds like Evanescence.
June 30th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Cameron:
I thought it was funny that song came on when it did.
Jen:
Soooooo… who’s your brother? And doesn’t he read it for my writing, too? :~(
Diesel:
Oh, yeah. I can see that. I thought of more as an amped-up Heart.
June 30th, 2007 at 10:16 pm
My brother is Robin. And he thinks the entire blog is cool, he’s been trying to explain your sense of humor but finally just told me to check out the blog. He just put special emphasis on the videos because you always find the good ones.
June 30th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
Man, I miss those great cartoon!
July 2nd, 2007 at 12:12 am
Jen:
I didn’t know Robin read this. How very cool! Hi, Robin! Thanks for stopping by, too, Jen.
Joshua:
Yeah, they are certainly stuck in with the childhood nostalgia in my mind.