Josie and the Pussycats (TV series) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Josie and the Pussycats
Title card
Created by	Dan DeCarlo Richard Goldwater
Developed by	Joe Ruby Ken Spears
Directed by	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Voices of	Janet Waldo Sherry Alberoni Casey Kasem Jackie Joseph Jerry Dexter Barbara Pariot Don Messick Cathy Dougher Cherie Moor Patrice Holloway
Theme music composer	Hoyt Curtin William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Composer(s)	Ted Nichols
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of episodes	16
Production
Producer(s)	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Taft Broadcasting
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 12, 1970 (1970-09-12) – January 2, 1971 (1971-01-02)

Josie and the Pussycats (formatted as Josie and the Pussy Cats in the opening titles) is an American animated television series based upon the Archie Comics comic book series of the same name created by Dan DeCarlo. Produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats aired on CBS during the 1970–71 television season and were rerun during the 1971–72 season.

In 1972, the show was re-conceptualized as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, 16 episodes of which aired on CBS during the 1972–73 season and were rerun the following season until January 1974. Reruns of the original series alternated between CBS, ABC, and NBC from 1974 through 1976. This brought its national Saturday morning TV run on three networks to six years.

Josie and the Pussycats featured a teenage all-girl pop music band that toured the world with their entourage, getting mixed up in strange adventures, spy capers, and mysteries. The group consisted of level-headed lead singer, songwriter and guitarist Josie, intelligent bassist Valerie, and air-headed blonde drummer Melody. Other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan.

The show, more similar to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! than the original Josie comic book, is remembered for its music, the girls' leopard print leotards (replete with "long tails and ears for hats," as the theme song states), and for featuring Valerie as the first regularly appearing female black character in a Saturday morning cartoon show. Each episode featured a Josie and the Pussycats song played over a chase scene, which, similarly to The Monkees, featured the group running after and away from a selection of haplessly villainous characters.

Series overview

Josie and the Pussycats debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup on September 12, 1970, with the episode "The Nemo's a No-No Affair". The animated version of Josie was an amalgam of plot devices, villain types, settings, moods, and tones from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and Shazzan.

Like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Josie and the Pussycats was originally broadcast with a laugh track. Later home video and DVD releases omit the laugh track. Cartoon Network and Boomerang, however, have aired the show in its original broadcast format with the laugh track intact.

Plot

Each episode found the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location where, somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they became mixed up in an adventure. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some high-tech device. The Pussycats usually found themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains chased them to retrieve it. Eventually, the Pussycats would ruin the villain's plans, resulting in a final chase sequence set to a Pussycats song. With the villain captured, the Pussycats would return to their gig or recording session, and the final gag was always one of Alexandra's failed attempts to interfere with the Pussycats' performance or steal Alan away from Josie.

Characters

• Josephine "Josie" McCoy (voiced by Janet Waldo/sung by Kathleen Dougherty) - The red-headed lead singer, songwriter, guitarist and leader of the band. Josie shares an attraction with Alan, the road manager. During the 1970s, the character was known as Josie James. A different actress, Judy Waithe, was originally cast as the voice of Josie. Waithe was dismissed and replaced by Waldo before the show debuted, as her readings of the Josie and the Pussycats-hosted In the Know interstitials were not to CBS' liking. Though corrected closing titles were later done, some remastered prints of the series use credit Waithe instead of Waldo among the voice cast.
• Valerie Brown (voiced by Barbara Pariot/sung by Patrice Holloway) - The band's black bassist and backup singer; most often shown playing tambourines. The voice of reason in the group, Valerie is highly intelligent and a mechanical wizard. During the 1970s, the character was known as Valerie Smith.
• Melody Valentine (voiced by Jackie Joseph/sung by Cherie Moor) - The band's drummer and backup singer and a stereotypical dumb blonde. What Melody lacks in intellect she makes up for in heart; to wit, her perpetual sweetness and optimism. Her ears wiggle whenever there is danger. During the 1970s, the character was known as Melody Jones.
• Alan M. Mayberry (voiced by Jerry Dexter) - The group's tall, blond and muscular roadie and Josie's love interest.
• Alexander Cabot III (voiced by Casey Kasem) - the group's manager, highly identifiable by his brightly-colored mod wardrobe, sunglasses, and silly promotion schemes; he is the twin brother of Alexandra. Alexander is an admitted coward but, in sharp contrast to his sister Alexandra, is good-hearted. Alexander and Valerie have a slight attraction to one another at times. He also seems to be attracted to Melody. Alexander physically resembles Shaggy Rogers in Scooby-Doo. In The New Scooby-Doo Movies crossover episode "The Haunted Showboat"; Casey Kasem voices both Alexander Cabot III and Shaggy Rogers.
• Alexandra Cabot (voiced by Sherry Alberoni) - The only girl who is not a Pussycat band member of the Josie's trio but still a member of the group, identified by her long black pony-tailed hair with a white streak through the center of it, similar to a skunk or a polecat. Intelligent but also selfish, generally mean-tempered, grouchy and bullying, Alexandra is Alexander's twin sister. She appears to have no identifiable role with the band nor any reason for associating with it, other than the fact that she is Alexander's sister and ally who tries to be the leader. She is constantly bitter and jealous of the band's success without her, believing that she should be "the real star of the band" and that the band's name should be "Alexandra's Cool-Time Cats", and she constantly plots to steal the spotlight (and Alan's affections) from Josie only to have every scheme fail in humiliating fashion, though she can be a good dancer. Despite her jealousy, she remains very loyal and does care of the group, and will usually fight with them against villains, using her brash personality to intimidate the opposition.
• Sebastian (voiced by Don Messick) - Alexandra's snickering cat, whose black and white fur resembles Alexandra's hair and whose utterances sound the same as another Messick-voiced character, Muttley, but he also serves as the loyal pet sidekick of the group (in one episode he uses his sense of smell to track the rest of the group like a dog). He enjoys being mean and sometimes appears to go to the enemy's side, but usually only to trick the villain so he can have a chance to help the group escape. He sometimes uses his claws to pick locks. Alexandra sometimes recruits Sebastian to pull dirty tricks on Josie, but even these tricks usually backfire. In The New Scooby-Doo Movies crossover episode "The Haunted Showboat", Messick voiced both Sebastian and Scooby-Doo at the same time.
• Bleep - (also voiced by Don Messick and appears only in Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space) Melody's blue fluffy pet alien with pink extremities. He makes a "bleep" sound (thus his name) which only Melody can understand. Bleep can also generate invisible sound waves from his mouth and eyes.

Voices

Speaking voices

• Janet Waldo - Josie
• Barbara Pariot - Valerie
• Jackie Joseph - Melody
• Jerry Dexter - Alan
• Casey Kasem - Alexander Cabot III, Delivery Man, Laser's henchman. Aquar's henchman.
• Sherry Alberoni - Alexandra Cabot
• Don Messick - Sebastian the cat, Gas Station Attendant/Scorpion's Henchman, Bleep, Aquar.

Singing voices

Band members only

• Cathy Dougher - Josie
• Patrice Holloway - Valerie
• Cherie Moor - Melody

Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space

Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space
Title card
Developed by	Bill Lutz Art Davis Brad Case
Starring	Janet Waldo Sherry Alberoni Casey Kasem Jackie Joseph Jerry Dexter Barbara Pariot Don Messick
Country of origin	U.S.
No. of episodes	16
Production
Running time	21 minutes
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Taft, H-B Program Sales Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current)
Release
Original network	CBS
Original release	September 9 (1972-09-09) – December 23, 1972 (1972-12-23)

In September 1972, a sequel spin-off series titled Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space debuted on CBS. This version of the series launched the characters into outer space; the opening credits sequence shows the group taking a promotional photo at the launch site of a new spaceship and a jealous Alexandra elbowing the cast aside in order to steal the spotlight from Josie yet again. However, Alexandra is jerked inside along with the rest of them and accidentally triggers the launch sequence, sending them and the ship into deep space. Despite never having been in the spaceship before, Val seems to know how to pilot it. Every episode centered on the Pussycats encountering a strange new world, where they would encounter and often be captured by various alien races before escaping and attempting to return to Earth.

Musical numbers and chase sequences set to newly recorded songs were featured in this spin-off series as with the original. Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space also added the character of Bleep, a pet-sized fluffy alien adopted by Melody, who was the only one who could understand the creature's language (he only says "Bleep" repeatedly) and numerous other alien animals encountered.

The 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space were re-run for the 1973–1974 season until January 26, 1974, when CBS cancelled it and ordered no more new Josie episodes from Hanna-Barbera. Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space contained a laugh track as well, but utilized an inferior version created by the studio.

Episodes

Josie and the Pussycats (1970–1971)

Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (1972)

After cancellation

Josie and the Pussycats made a final appearance as animated characters in a guest shot on the September 22, 1973, episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Haunted Showboat". Early production art for Hanna-Barbera's 1977 "all-star" Battle of the Network Stars spoof Laff-A-Lympics featured Alexandra, Sebastian, Alexander, and Melody among other Hanna-Barbera characters as members of the "Scooby Doobies" team, but legal problems prevented their inclusion in the final program.

In 1976, Rand McNally published a children's book based on the Josie and the Pussycats TV show, Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats: The Bag Factory Detour.

The original Josie and the Pussycats series was re-run on NBC Saturday morning for the 1975–1976 season and weekdays in syndication from 1977 to 1982. In the mid-1980s, both series, along with a number of other 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, were on board USA Network's Cartoon Express; they would next appear on Cartoon Network in 1992, where all 32 episodes were run in the same time slot. Both programs, as of March 3, 2014, are in the library of Boomerang (Turner Broadcasting's archive cartoon channel).

Spin-offs and spoofs

In 2001, Cartoon Network began airing a Josie and the Pussycats short called "Musical Evolution" that featured the Pussycats performing their theme song through the various eras of popular music, including pop, disco, punk, Kiss-like heavy metal, country, and techno. Different animation styles are used for each era. That same year, the characters were adapted into a live action film. The film starred Rachael Leigh Cook as Josie, Tara Reid as Melody, and Rosario Dawson as Valerie.

The 2004–2007 Comedy Central animated TV series Drawn Together featured a character named Foxxy Love. An African-American mystery-solving musician, she was a direct parody of the Josie and the Pussycats character Valerie Brown.

Several episodes of Speed Buggy, a later Hanna-Barbera show, had similar plots to some Josie and the Pussycats episodes, specifically the two Josie and the Pussycats episodes "A Greenthumb is Not a Goldfinger" ("Island of the Giant Plants" in Speed Buggy) and "X Marks the Spot" ("Out of Sight" in Speed Buggy), and the Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space episode "Warrior Women of Amazonia" ("The Hidden Valley of Amazonia" in Speed Buggy).

The ship from Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, along with other iconic ships, appears as space debris in the Futurama episode "Mobius Dick".

In 2016, Josie and the Pussycats was rebooted as a comic book. This update features a new version of the origin of the band, where struggling musician Josie joins up with her roommate Melody and Valerie, a veterinarian's assistant, to start the Pussycats, despite the jealousy of Josie's former best friend Alexandra.

The 2017 live-action TV series Riverdale featured Josie and the Pussycats as African-American students at Riverdale High School, played by Ashleigh Murray (Josie), Hayley Law (Valerie) and Asha Bromfield (Melody). Murray later co-starred in the Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene starting in 2020 as an adult Josie, with Lucien Laviscount as Alexander and Camille Hyde as Alexandra.

Images for kids

• 

  A scene from episode #14, "Spy School Spoof". From left to right: Melody, Josie, Valerie, Alan, Alexandra and Alexander.

See also

In Spanish: Josie and the Pussycats (serie de televisión) para niños