Josie and the Pussycats (cartoon)

This article is about the Josie and the Pussycats Saturday morning cartoon. For other versions of the property, see Josie and the Pussycats.

The Show Premieres

Josie and the Pussycats debuted on the CBS Saturday morning lineup on September 12 1970. 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.

Related Topics:
CBS - September 12 - 1970 - Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! - Jonny Quest - Space Ghost - Shazzan

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Plot

Every episode of the show would find the Pussycats en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location. Somehow (more often than not due to something Alexandra did) they would accidentally find themselves mixed up in an adventure/mystery. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some hi-tech device. The Pussycats would usually find themselves in possession of the plans for an invention, an item of interest to the villains, a secret spy message, etc., and the villains would give chase.

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Towards the end of the episode, the villain would succeed in capturing the Pussycats and would begin executing their diabolical plan to take over the world. The gang would break free (usually thanks to Sebastian), and would proceed to "disconboomerate" (their word) the device/lab and capture the bad guys. This would result in a final chase sequence, set to one of the songs recorded for the Capital Records releases.

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The Pussycats would succeed in capturing the villain and would get back to their gig/recording session/etc. The final gag always centered around one of Alexandra's attempts to (a) interfere with/put an end to The Pussycats' performance, (b) steal Alan away from Josie, or (c) achieve both at the same time. More often than not, she would enlist Sebastian to carry out her dirty work, and Sebastian would always bumble the job in someway, which would result in Alexandra getting in trouble and/or being made a fool of.

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Style and similarites

The art styling for the show was a cross between Dan DeCarlo's artwork and Hanna-Barbera's late-1960s adventure shows such as Space Ghost and The Herculoids. Josie and the Pussycats was somewhat less realistic and more cartoony than Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, from which much of its tone, laugh track, pacing, and plot elements were derived; both shows also feature the same Ted Nichols background score cues and Casey Kasem. Many viewers who are unaware of Josie's Archie Comics origins would argue that it is a complete rip-off of Scooby. Also, the animated versions of Alex Cabot III and Alan look remarkably like Shaggy and Fred, respectivly, from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Related Topics:
Space Ghost - The Herculoids - Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! - Ted Nichols - Casey Kasem - Archie Comics

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Josie and the Pusycats was a ratings success for the 1970-1971 TV season, and was rerun for the 1971-1972 season, with the final broadcast being on September 2 1972. There were 16 episodes produced.

Related Topics:
1970 - 1971 - 1972 - September 2

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