Groovie Goolies
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Groovie Goolies, created in 1970, was a take off of Filmation's wildly popular The Archie Show with a monster bend. Combined with another show featuring a character directly spun off of The Archie Show, Sabrina The Teenage Witch, the Goolies were a group of hip monsters, many of whom were, in look and sound, pop-culture echoes of the classic horror-film monsters created in the 1930s and 1940s, mostly by Universal Pictures including Frankie (Frankenstein's Monster), Wolfie (The Wolfman), Mummy, Drac (Dracula), Batzo and Ratzo (two mean green-skinned kids), Bonapart (an animated skeleton that might have been Napoleon Bonaparte), Dr. Jekyll-Hyde (bicephalous, a reference to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Hagatha (a witch), Bella La Ghostly (who looks very much like Drac and like Lily Munster), Broomhilda, Hauntleroy, and Orville ( a takeon the man-eating plant from Little Shop of Horrors)
The show originally aired as Sabrina and the Groovy Goolies, and also featured Archie Comics character Sabrina the Teenage Witch with her aunts Hilda and Zelda. Sabrina had had previous appearances as a supporting character on The Archie Comedy Hour the previous year. In 1971, Sabrina was spun off into her own show.
Adding music to the series, Filmation hoped that lightning would strike twice: the previous success of The Archie Show produced several musical hits. Like most animated comedies at the time, Groovie Goolies contained a laugh track. Never a critical success, the Goolies had legs, reappearing in 1972 as The Groovie Goolies on their own solo show, and again in 1978 as The Groovie Goolies and Friends. The song Chic-a-Boom was first featured on the show, and became a hit two years later for Daddy Dewdrop (actually one of the show's producers.)
The syndicated version became an anthology series, entitled The Groovie Goolies and Friends, with the Goolies introducing rotating episodes of many other Filmation series, including The Adventures of Waldo Kitty, Lassie's Rescue Rangers, The New Adventures of Gilligan, My Favorite Martian, M.U.S.H., Fraidy Cat, and Wacky and Packy. M.U.S.H. was a particularly strange show, featuring a parody of the very adult Korean War dramedy M.A.S.H., but starring dogs working in an arctic military fort. (M.U.S.H. stood for "Mangy Unwanted Shaggy heroes.") The My Favorite Martian remake featured Lost in Space star Jonathan Harris in the role made famous in the original series by Ray Walston.
The cartoon aired with of the UK version of Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits in the early 1980s.
The Groovie Ghoulies band takes their name from this show.
[edit] DVD Information
All 16 episodes were released on DVD on October 24 2006 and titled the "Saturday Mourning Collection ".
Special features include:
- "Goolians"—brand new, 45 minute "docu-comedy" created by producer and voice over artist Wally Wingert (Family Guy, Invader Zim) and Daniel Roebuck (Lost, The Fugitive), featuring interviews with Alice Cooper, Forrest J. Ackerman, Ron Chaney, Lou Scheimer, Oscar winning make-up artist Bill Corso, "Goolie" head writer Jack Mendelsohn, and more. Includes new original rock song "True Blue Goolian," and a music video with the Sacramento punk band "The Groovie Ghoulies."
- Audio commentary tracks for two episodes, featuring producer Lou Scheimer, "Goolie" head writer Jack Mendelsohn, Filmation historian Darrell McNeil, and Hollywood monster expert Bob Burns. Hosted by Wally Wingert
- Image gallery featuring original model sheets, animation cels, storyboards, backgrounds and PSAs
- "Goolie-Get-Together Sing-a-Long"
- Candid story from producer Lou Scheimer about "The Creation of Filmation"
- Trivia and episode guide
- DVD-ROM extras, including scripts and the original Series Bible for "The Kookie Spookies"
[edit] Credits
- Produced by: Lou Scheimer, Norm Prescott
- Directed by: Hal Sutherland
- Animation Directors: Rudy Larriva, Don Towsley, Anatole Kirsanoff
- Written by: Jack Mendelsohn, Jim Mulligan, Bob Ogle, Chuck Menville, Len Jansen, Jim Ryan, Bill Danch
- Production Manager: Rock Benedict
- Art Director: Don Christensen
- Key Assistants: Mike Hazy, George Carey, John Tucker
- Layout: Kay Wright, Alberto De Mello, Don Bluth, Herb Hazelton, Ray Jacobs, Carol Marshall, Mel Keefer, Enrique Arnau
- Storyboard: Sherman Labby, Mike O'Connor, Dale Hale, Jack Miller, Paul Fennell
- Background Director: Erv Kaplan
- Background Artists: Paul Xander, Maurice Harvey, Bill Loudenslager, Patricia Frye, Phil Lewis, Doug Stevenson
- Animators: Amby Paliwoda, Kaem Wong, Ben Shenkman, George Waiss, Louise Sandoval, Russ Von Neida, Virgil Ross, Ralph Somerville, Len Rogers, Ed Solomon, Ed Rehberg, Hank Smith, Lenn Redman, Larry Silverman, Virgil Raddatz, Bill Pratt, Norm McCabe, Barney Posner, Marsh Lamore, Rod Parkes, Paul Krukowski, Jack Ozark, George Kreisl, Casey Onaitis, Les Kaluza, Bill Nunes, Lou Kachivas, Larry Miller, Marie Jursic, Bob Matz, Karen Haus, Laverne Harding, Butch Davis, Lee Halpern, Emil Carle, Dick Hall, Herman Cohen, Z. Gasparovic, Bob Bransford, Frank Gonzales, Jim Brummett, Fred Grable, Ted Bonnicksen, Otto Feuer, Bill Ackerman, Ed Friedman
- Checking Supervision: Marion Turk, Jane Philippi
- Ink and Paint Supervision: Martha Buckley, Betty Brooks
- Xerography: John Remmel
- Prints by: Technicolor
- Camera Supervision: Sergio Antonio Alcazar, R.W. Pope, Frank A. Parrish, John D. Aardal, Ted C. Bemiller, Mike Kinney, Luis Melendez Jr., Tony Rivetti, Dennis M. Lady
- Editorial: Joseph Simon, Jim Blodgett
- Film Coordinator: June Gilham
- Music and Sound Effects by: Horta-Mahana Corporation, Jan Moore
- Groovie Goolies Songs Produced by: Richard Delvy, Ed Fournier, Dick Monda
- Background Music: Jeff Michael, Yvette Blais
- Publisher: Shermley Music Corporation A.S.C.A.P.
[edit] External links
- Groovy Goolies tribute site
- Entertainment Rights - cartoon owners
