Groovie Goolies

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Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Presented by Filmation
Voices of Jane Webb
Howard Morris
Larry Storch
Theme music composer Richard Delvy, Ed Fournier, Dick Monda
Country of origin Flag of the United States United States
Language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 16
Production
Producer(s) Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time 60 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel CBS
Original run September 12, 1970 – September 4, 1971
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Groovie Goolies, created in 1970, was a take off of Filmation's wildly popular The Archie Show with a monster bent. Combined with another show featuring a character directly spun off 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, who talks like Wolfman Jack), Mummy, Drac (Dracula), Batzo and Ratzo (two mean green-skinned kids), Boneapart (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 (an often whiny, goody-two shoes kid patterned after Little Lord Fauntleroy), and Orville (a take on the man-eating plant from The Little Shop of Horrors).

The show originally aired on CBS 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. The song Chick-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 music of the some of the later Groovie Goolie segments was produced by Jackie Mills, who had also produced Bobby Sherman, the Brady Bunch Kids, and some of the Archie programs. Tom McKenzie, a former member of the Doodletown Pipers, who was also the vocalist for the U.S. of Archie show, sang the vocals for these shows.

Like most animated comedies at the time, Groovie Goolies contained a laugh track. Never a critical success, the Goolies had legs, reappearing in 1971 as The Groovie Goolies on their own solo show. The following year, they had a feature on The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, pairing them with the Looney Tunes stars, on ABC, which later rebroadcast the original series for one season in 1975. They finally entered syndication in 1978.

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, and former Uncle Croc's Block segments M.U.S.H., Fraidy Cat, and Wacky and Packy. M.U.S.H. (standing for "Mangy Unwanted Shaggy heroes"; a parody of the very adult Korean War dramedy M.A.S.H., but starring dogs working in an arctic military fort.)

The cartoon aired with of the UK version of Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits in the early 1980s.

Contents

[edit] Syndication

Alphabetized by city.

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 Paliwod, 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

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