Groovie Goolies

Groovie Goolies
Genre Comedy horror
Musical comedy
Directed by Hal Sutherland
Voices of John Erwin
Dallas McKennon
Larry D. Mann
Howard Morris
Larry Storch
Jane Webb
Theme music composer Richard Delvy
Ed Fournier
Dick Monda
Country of origin USA
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 1
No. of episodes 16
Production
Producer(s) Norm Prescott
Lou Scheimer
Running time 30 minutes
Production company(s) Filmation
The Sabrina Company
Release
Original network CBS
Original release September 12, 1970 – September 4, 1971

Groovie Goolies is an American animated television show that had its original run on network television between 1970 and 1971. Produced by Filmation, Groovie Goolies was a spinoff of The Sabrina the Teenage Witch Show (itself a spinoff of The Archie Show). Like most Saturday morning cartoons of the era, Groovie Goolies utilized an adult laugh track.

Premise

The Goolies were a group of hip monsters residing at Horrible Hall (a haunted boarding house for monsters) on Horrible Drive. Many of the Goolies were (in look and sound) pop-culture echoes of the classic horror-film monsters created in the 1930s and 1940s, mostly by Universal Pictures. The group sang a pop song each episode.

Characters

Musical groups

Every episode featured at least two musical segments. The first one is by the Groovie Goolies with Drac on the organ piano, Wolfie playing a lyre-like stringed instrument, and Frankie on a drumset with a xylophone made of bones. The second musical segment is by one of the other resident bands including:

Show structure

The show was structured very much like the then-popular show Laugh-In, with several short segments of one-liner jokes and riddles. This was most shown by the "Weird Windows Time", a take off on Laugh-In's famous Joke Wall. Every so often one of the Goolies had a special segment in which they instructed the audience in the finer points of one thing or another, such as:

Series overview

Season Episodes Originally aired
Season premiere Season finale
1 16 September 12, 1970 September 4, 1971

Episodes

Title Original air date
1"1-2-3"September 12, 1970 (1970-09-12)
TBA
2"Cling Clang"September 19, 1970 (1970-09-19)
TBA
3"What’s in the Bag"September 26, 1970 (1970-09-26)
TBA
4"Goolie Picnic"October 3, 1970 (1970-10-03)
TBA
5"Goolie Garden"October 10, 1970 (1970-10-10)
TBA
6"Feed the Ghost Some Garlic"October 17, 1970 (1970-10-17)
TBA
7"Frankie"October 24, 1970 (1970-10-24)
TBA
8"Noises"October 31, 1970 (1970-10-31)
TBA
9"Monster Trio"November 7, 1970 (1970-11-07)
TBA
10"Goolie Swing"November 14, 1970 (1970-11-14)
TBA
11"Witches Brew"November 21, 1970 (1970-11-21)
TBA
12"Gool School"November 28, 1970 (1970-11-28)
TBA
13"Shadows"December 5, 1970 (1970-12-05)
TBA
14"Save Your Good Lovin’ for Me"December 12, 1970 (1970-12-12)
TBA
15"Darlin’ Darlin’"December 19, 1970 (1970-12-19)
TBA
16"At the First Annual Semi Formal Combination Meet the Monster Population Party"September 4, 1970 (1970-09-04)
TBA

Cast

  1. "Monster Cookbook" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  2. "When I Grow Up" - Performed by The Mummies and the Puppies.
  3. "1, 2, 3, Ghosts" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  4. "Population Party" - Performed by The Bare Bone Band.
  5. "Cling Clang" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  6. "Goolie Garden" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  7. "Monsters On Parade" - Performed by The Spirits of '76.
  8. "Monster Trio" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  9. "Super Ghoul" - Performed by The Bare Bone Band.
  10. "Feed the Ghost Some Garlic" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  11. "Midnight" - Performed by the Rolling Headstones.
  12. "Save Your Good Lovin' for Me" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  13. "Lights Out" - Performed by The Rolling Headstones.
  14. "Chick-A-Boom" - Performed by The Rolling Headstones.
  15. "Bumble Goolie" - Performed by The Bare Boned Band.
  16. "Gool School" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  17. "Where Are You Going, Little Ghoul?" - Performed by The Mummies and the Puppies.
  18. "Noises" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  19. "Be Kind to Monsters Week" - Performed by The Spirits of '76.
  20. "Frankie" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  21. "When the Moon is Full" - Performed by The Mummies and the Puppies.
  22. "What's In The Bag" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  23. "Goolie Picnic" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  24. "Little Texas Goolie" - Performed by The Spirits of '76.
  25. "Listen for the Bells"/"Goolies Get Together" - Performed by The Spirits of '76.
  26. "Goolie Swing" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  27. "Darlin' Darlin'" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  28. "Kings and Queens" - Performed by The Bare Bone Band.
  29. "Shadows" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  30. "It's a Lovely Night for Scaring" - Performed by The Mummies and the Puppies.
  31. "Witch's Brew" - Performed by the Groovie Goolies.
  32. "Creeper Crawler"[1] - Performed by The Rolling Headstones.

The songs were written by Richard Delvy, Ed Fournier, and Dick Monda, who made a separate hit single recording of "Chick-a-Boom" as Daddy Dewdrop in 1971. The show’s theme song, "Goolies Get-Together", was written by Linda Martin and Janis Gwin.

Production

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.

Never a critical success, the Goolies had appeal, reappearing in 1971 as The Groovie Goolies on their own solo show. After one season with Sabrina, executives decided that the Goolies were strong enough to make it on their own, and thus Sabrina and the Goolies both received their own separate shows. The following year they had a feature entitled Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies (which was part of The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie), teaming them with the Looney Tunes stars. Interestingly, this movie featured a brief, live-action sequence featuring some of the Goolies, including Drac, Wolfie, and Hauntleroy. ABC 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, featuring over 104 half-hour episodes. The Groovie Goolies were packaged with several other Filmation series in shared rotation. The syndication format featured new opening credits and "bumpers", with the original end credits for each series retained. The series included The New Adventures of Waldo Kitty (minus the live-action sequences) (13 Shows), Lassie's Rescue Rangers (17 Shows), The New Adventures of Gilligan (24 Shows), My Favorite Martians (16 Shows), and former Uncle Croc's Block segments M.U.S.H. ("Mangy Unwanted Shabby Heroes"), Fraidy Cat, and Wacky and Packy (Combined into 18 Shows).

The cartoon aired with the UK version of Hanna-Barbera's Banana Splits in the early 1980s, and as of May 2009, the show can be streamed in the US in Minisode form on Crackle.

Home release

The complete series was released on DVD on October 24, 2006 as the Saturday Mourning Collection. The original laugh track was removed from the soundtrack for this release.

Special features include:

References

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