JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS
(CBS, September 2, 1970-January 2, 1971)
Hanna-Barbera Productions
MAIN CAST:
Janet Waldo & Cathy Dougher (singing) – Josie
Barbara Pariot & Patrice Holloway (singing) – Valerie
Jackie Joseph & Cheryl Ladd (as Cherie Moor, singing) – Melody
Jerry Dexter – Alan M. Mayberry
Casey Kasem – Alexander Cabot III
Sherry Alberoni – Alexandra Cabot
Don Messick – Sebastian
After World
War II, cartoonist Dan DeCarlo was soon hired by Timely Comics (the precursor
to Marvel Comics) editor Stan Lee on their teen title, Jeanie. With his quality work and speed, DeCarlo was soon working
on Timely’s other teen titles, as well as taking on additional freelancing
work. Some of that work came from Archie Comics,
but because of their low page rate DeCarlo didn’t do much for them.
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Willie Lumpkin by Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo. |
While working on the comic
strips Willie
Lumpkin and Life With Lizzie with Lee, DeCarlo
became inspired by a caricature he drew of his wife Josie with her new bouffant
hairdo. DeCarlo developed a teenage comic strip called Josie and
created some samples to shop around. United Features was interested in the strip, but wanted more samples
before they would commit. Realizing he couldn’t handle the additional workload,
he shelved the strip and focused on his current projects.
![]() |
A preliminary Josie strip. |
When Lumpkin ended, DeCarlo tried to
sell Josie again but was rejected. He decided to try it out as
a full comic book and presented the concept to Richard Goldwater, co-publisher of Archie Comics. DeCarlo had begun
gradually doing more work for the company and his style was adopted as Archie’s
house style (meaning all of their teen-centric books emulated how he drew the
characters, regardless of the actual artist assigned). Goldwater showed it to
his father, Archie founder and co-publisher John Goldwater, and the concept was approved.
![]() |
Pepper, Josie and Melody on the cover to She's Josie #1. |
Josie debuted in Archie’s
Pals ‘n’ Gals #22, 1962, followed by her
own ongoing series, She’s Josie, in 1963; later
renamed just Josie with #17. The series focused on
sweet-natured redhead Josie McCoy (or Jones or James, depending on the story)
and her friends: the ditzy blonde bombshell Melody Valentine and the brainy,
rebellious, bespectacled Pepper. Supporting characters included Josie’s boyfriend
Albert and Pepper’s strong and dim-witted boyfriend Socrates (or Sock).
Rounding out the cast were the wealthy and obnoxious Cabot twins, Alexander III
and Alexandra. Alexander was always competing with Albert for Josie’s
affections, while Alexandra would always try to trip up Josie to get Albert all
to herself. Alexandra also had a black and white cat named Sebastian, who would
later match Alexandra’s hair when it went from pure brown to having a white
streak.
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Size comparison production sketches for Josie, Melody, Valerie, Alexandra and Sebastian. |
When Filmation’s The
Archie Show proved a success on both television and the radio, Fred Silverman was looking for a repeat performance for CBS’ morning line-up.
His original attempt wound up ditching the music angle altogether and evolving
into the powerhouse Scooby-Doo franchise from Hanna-Barbera. With Filmation bogged down with work, Silverman again turned
to Hanna-Barbera to see what they could do. Hanna-Barbera in turn went to
Archie to see what other properties they could offer for development and Josie was
selected.
![]() |
The introduction of the Pussycats' costumes. |
In order to meet the
qualities Silverman was looking for, the comic went under heavy redevelopment
to make it a book about a teenaged girl band that Hanna-Barbera could adapt
into a show. Gradually, the characters of Albert, Sock and Pepper were phased
out. In #42, a muscular folk singer named Alan M. debuted and became
Josie’s semi-regular boyfriend and the band’s roadie. The rivalry between Josie
and Alexandra continued over him. In #45, the series was renamed Josie and the
Pussycats when the girls decided to form their own band. Alexandra was
to be their bassist, but only if she could rename the group “Alexandra’s Cool
Time Cats.” However, Alexander appointed himself the band’s manager and supplied
them with a new bassist: Valerie Smith, Archie’s first African-American main
character. The girls also created their leopard print cat costumes in that
issue (which Josie DeCarlo cited as being inspired by a cat costume she wore on
a cruise) and the Pussycats were born. But, Hanna-Barbera didn’t do a perfect
page-to-screen adaptation.
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From comics to film: Josie, Alexandra, Alan, Alexander, Valerie and Melody. |
While the comic alternated between the Pussycats performing
at gigs and dealing with everyday life, the Hanna-Barbera cartoon chose to
follow their successful Scooby-Doo formula and placed the girls in the middle of mysteries
between gigs; complete with a chase scene used to play an original Pussycat
song. Each episode would end with Alexandra (Sherry Alberoni) attempting to
interfere with the band's performance or steal away Alan (Jerry Dexter), which
would backfire against her. Other changes also included toning down Alexander’s
personality and making him kinder and more of a coward akin to Scooby-Doo’s
Shaggy, who Alexander now resembled and shared a voice actor with in Casey
Kasem. No mention was made of the Cabot fortune, or any appearances by any of
the characters’ families. Bassist Valerie (Barbara Pariot) used various
instruments, frequently the tambourine, while Melody’s sex appeal was never
addressed (and gradually reduced in the comics where it had
originally been part of a running gag that guys would have accidents because
they were too busy staring at her). Melody was also given a new “danger sense”
in the form of her ears wiggling whenever trouble was near.
![]() |
The real Pussycats: Dougher, Moor/Ladd and Holloway. |
Hanna-Barbera worked on
forming a real-life version of the band to provide singing voices to the
characters, record an album for radio play and to be used on the show, and to
appear in live-action segments at the end of the show (an idea which was later
scrapped). The album would be released through Capitol Records through a deal secured with Karl Engemann, then vice president of Capitol, who was the younger
brother of Bobby
Young. Young, along with business partner Danny Janssen of La
La Productions would be in charge of the
music and hold a talent search for girls who could both sing AND resembled the
lead characters. They eventually selected Kathleen Dougherty (renamed Cathy
Dougher by Capitol) as Josie, Cherie Moor (who would come to be known as Cheryl
Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway as Valerie. The songs would be written by
Janssen, Austin Roberts, Sue Steward (aka Sue Sheridan) and Bobby Hart and had a Motown inspiration to
them.
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Character models for the Pussycats. |
After presenting the band
to producers William
Hanna and Joseph Barbera, it was announced that they wanted Holloway recast as they
had decided to make the Pussycats an all-white trio and altered Valerie.
Janssen refused and a threatened to walk off the project, feeling the decision
a bit racist on top of the fact that Holloway's voice was the best for the
soul-inspired bubblegum pop songs he wrote. After a three-week standoff,
Hanna-Barbera reversed their position and Valerie was changed back. This
resulted in Valerie becoming the first African-American female character on a
Saturday morning cartoon series, with Filmation’s The
Hardy Boys’ drummer Pete Jones taking the
title for the male side the year prior. After word of the standoff got out,
notable soul performers around Los Angeles offered their services to La La for
the album at a fraction of their regular fees; including Ronnie Tutt, Jerry
Scheff, Clarence McDonald, Wilton Felder and Mike Stewart. The songs were made at a frantic pace of one a week as a
minimum of one, but usually two, would be used in each episode. Although the
girls only played certain instruments on screen, a full assortment of
instruments were used on the songs; giving them a unique sound that fused
elements of rock, R&B and Latin jazz.
Josie and the Pussycats debuted on CBS on September 12, 1970. The theme song was
written by Hoyt
Curtin, Hanna and Barbera (the latter two under
the respective pseudonyms of Denby Williams and Joseph Roland) with lead vocals
by Holloway. The music was based on an incidental tune played in various
Hanna-Barbera productions. Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais and Bill Lutz handled the scripting duties. To commemorate their new
show, Josie #50 had the Pussycats visiting the Hollywood studios of
Hanna-Barbera for a behind-the-scenes tour of the production of their series
(which they also did for Archie's
own show and Filmation). Along with their own
series, the Pussycats became a feature of the comic Archie's T.V. Laugh Out, which was an anthology of Archie's three TV properties
including Archie and Sabrina,
the Teenage Witch. The show ran for a
single season of sixteen episodes. For the 1972 season, the show was revamped
and turned into Josie
and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
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Ad for the Kellogg's exclusive Josie singles. |
The album, Josie
and the Pussycats: From the Hanna-Barbera TV Show, was released by the
end of 1970 by Capitol Records. Six singles were released, four of them only
available in a Kellogg’s mail-order promotion and not on the album itself.
Unfortunately, the singles failed to chart and the album was poorly promoted,
resulting in very low sales and the cancellation of the planned national tour
for the live band. In 2001, the album, singles, alternate takes and songs
exclusive to the show were collected on a limited edition remastered set
called Josie
and the Pussycats: Stop Look and Listen: the Capitol Recordings released
by Rhino Handmade. Only 5000 copies of the remastered collection were produced.
To coincide with the
release of the live-action movie in 2001 (more on that in the Outer
Space entry), Warner
Home Video released two
VHS collections of four episodes each,
omitting the typical Hanna-Barbera laugh track. In 2007, the complete
series was released to DVD and featured a
documentary on the life and career of Dan DeCarlo. It was re-released
in 2017 as part of the Hanna-Barbera
Diamond Collection. “The Nemo’s A No No Affair” was featured on the
compilation DVD Saturday
Morning Cartoons: the 1970s volume 1 in
2009, which was also featured in 2018’s Saturday
Morning Cartoons: 1960s-1980s Collection.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Nemo’s a No-No Affair” (9/12/70) – The band encounters a sinister
modern day Captain Nemo on the way to a gig.
“A Greenthumb is Not a Goldfinger” (9/19/70) – Alexander misleads the
band into thinking they’re going to Nashville, and instead they end up in an
Amazon jungle with Dr. Greenthumb.
“The Secret Six Secret” (9/26/70) – The band mistakenly enters the
lair of a sinister organization called the Secret Six, which plans to take over
the Indian government.
“Swap Plot Flop” (10/3/70) – Valerie is a dead-ringer for an abducted
Arabian princess and is used in a plan to rescue her from the hypnotist Evil
Eye.
“Midas Mix-Up” (10/10/70) – Dr. Midas captures the band during his
plans to destroy the world’s gold unless he is given half.
“X Marks the Spot” (10/17/70) – The band helps Professor Isaac Belfour
as he develops an antidote to the invisibility formula he developed with the
evil Mr. X.
“Chili Today and Hot Tamale” (10/24/70) – The band seeks to rescue
Melody’s drum from the Scorpion, not knowing nuclear capsules were hidden
inside.
“Never Mind a Master Mind” (10/31/70) – Melody buys shoes in Holland
which contain a message for a spy sent to stop Mastermind, master of disguise.
“Plateau of the Apes Plot” (11/7/70) – An emergency landing puts the
band in the middle of a Caribbean jungle inhabited by dinosaurs and apes
controlled by Dr. Madro.
“Strangemoon Over Miami” (11/14/70) – The band’s hot air balloon is
set loose and lands them on Dr. Strangemoon’s island as he’s set to launch
missiles to devastate Earth’s atmosphere.
“All Wong in Hong Kong” (11/21/70) – Melody gets a strange ancient
coin that puts her in the sights of The Serpent, who needs the coin for his
plans of Asian conquest.
“Melody Memory Mix-Up” (11/28/70) – Confidential information is
transferred into Melody’s memory, setting the criminal Hawk after the band.
“The Great Pussycat Chase” (12/5/70) – The band is tasked with keeping
a mysterious black box safe from the clutches of The Shadow.
“Spy School Spoof” (12/12/70) – A mail mix-up puts plans for a device
to deactivate the world’s technology in the Pussycat’s hands.
“The Jumpin’ Jupiter Affair” (12/19/70) – The alien Zor captures the
band and forces them to work with the Peruvian natives in a diamond mine.
“Don’t Count on a Countess” (1/2/71) – The band is invited to play on
a countess’ secluded island in order to be used as subjects for her rapid aging
mist.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
1 comment:
Make the theme song start before the whole episode in every episode of this show but still show the title card after the theme song
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