Archie's Funhouse (1970–1971) User Reviews

A Great DVD Remastering of This Classic '70's Cartoon Series!

[TheFabulousThomasJ · 10/10 · 6 March 2008]

I'm still watching this 3-DVD set of Archie's Funhouse as I type this; released this week (3/4/08) it's an almost perfect remastering of the 1970-71 season of Archie on the CBS television network.

This particular season of The Archies presents Riverdale's finest in "Laugh-In"-style blackouts and sight-gags (though not as risqué as that particular NBC classic) and features the Giant Jukebox, perfect to segue into the musical numbers for the show.

Bonus features on this collection include the music videos for "Sugar, Sugar" and "Jingle Jangle", Jukebox breakdowns of the individual animated songs for this season, plus the half-hour special "Archie and His New Pals" (which was presented in prime-time before the start of the 1969-70 season of Archie, entitled "The Archie Comedy Hour") and seven sequences of "The Archie Comedy Hour" that was re-configured into "Archie's Funhouse". Fans of Sabrina, the Teen-Aged Witch, will be delighted to see how her animated character came to Riverdale in this special, years before Melissa Joan Hart brought her live-action to a new group of children.

And let's not forget the fantastic interview with Ron Dante, the real-life lead singer for The Archies! He gives great insight into the makings of the classic recordings.

Those of us of an age who were children during the CBS run of Archie and the gang will be most delighted to own this fine purchase: kudos to ClassicMedia/Entertainment Rights, Inc., Genius Entertainment and Archie Comics Publications for their painstaking work on this collection.

Overall, the colors and editing are clean and crisp with only the slightest film smudge apparent (hey, these animated episodes are near 40 years old!) and the sound quality is superb! My only two quibbles about this release (thus far): the "Jingle Jangle" music video is far inferior to the presentation of the other musical numbers in this set (it looks as if they filmed it directly from an old color television) and Ron Dante looks rushed to "hurry up!" in places in his interview (I fault the director for this.) For some of you, this may not be your cup of tea for children's entertainment, and that's quite all right: the popularity of "High School Musical" escapes even me.

Save this, if you're of that age of an innocence, you will very well understand.

So, Everything's Archie, once again!

Neil Brian Goldberg wrote the 32 famous Giant Jukebox songs

[hbtgreat · 2 August 2007]

I notice the raves about the great songs and messages in the 32 Giant Jukebox songs from Archies Funhouse, but nowhere is the unsung creator of these songs mentioned, so here it is: Mr Factory - We're One Big Family - Love Vibrations - Love Went Round The World - Sweet Saturday Night - Comes The Sun - La La La La Love - The Big Boat - Little By Little, and many others, were all written, arranged, and produced by Neil Brian Goldberg. I knew him. Mr Factory was the first ecology song to make major airwaves, and the other great songs were the first positive messages on kids TV. Thanks for allowing me to let people know the story behind these songs. (Jeff Barry wrote Sugar Sugar, but called in Neil to write and produce all of the Giant Jukebox songs.)

Ahhhhhh, the good ol'days!

[cfc_can · 11 April 2003]

This was one of the first cartoon shows I ever saw and it is one of the few which I can still remember 30 years later. It was quite inventive for it's time. The Archies were already familiar fixtures on the Saturday morning circuit when this began. It basically took the characters and transplanted them into a Laugh-In/Saturday Night Live (well, a G-rated form that is) type of show. There were lots of one-liners, 1-3 minute sketches and recurring characters, like say, several segments in which Big Ethel would demonstrate a foolproof method to snag Jughead as he walked by, but naturally, Ethel would inevitably fall victim to the Wily Coyote syndrome. There were also frequent songs on the show which were presented in a style which may well have inspired the MTV station. These songs (from "The Giant Juke Box")were a bit deeper than the typical Archies bubblegum selections. Some of their songs dealt with racism ("We're One Big Family") and environmental pollution ("Mr.Factory"). All in all, a fun show that was fast paced, creative and sometimes topical, yet inoffensive (as all 70s cartoons were!). Hope it comes on video soon!