Archie's Weird Mysteries
Encyclopedia
Archie's Weird Mysteries is an American animated children's television program, based on the successful Archie comics
. The series premise revolves around a Riverdale High physics lab gone awry, making the town of Riverdale a "magnet" for B-movie
style monsters.
The show is distributed as meeting the FCC's educational and informational children's programming
("E/I") requirements, and is used by commercial stations in the United States to meet this guideline. Produced by DIC Entertainment
, the show was initially shown mornings on the PAX network, often with infomercial
s bookending the program. The following season, its repeats were syndicated
to television stations throughout the US, as a way to comply with mandatory E/I regulations.
comic book tie-in
also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries was published in 1999, leading to an on-going, regular-sized series (also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries) in February 2000. "Weird" was dropped from the title with issue 25 (signaling the end of the tie-in with the TV show) and the series was canceled with issue 34 after 10 issues of doing straight mystery stories with no supernatural or science-fiction components.
had acquired the rights to release the series (under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment
). They subsequently announced that they will release Archie's Weird Mysteries - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time on February 14, 2012. They will also release a 10 episode best-of collection on the same day.
In Region 2, Anchor Bay Kids Entertainment released 2 volume collections on DVD in the UK in 2004. Each volume contains 4 episodes from the series.These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In 2005, Boulevard released 2 single disc collections containing two episodes each. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In Region 4, MRA Entertainment released 6 volume collections featuring 18 episodes of the series on DVD in Australia in 2005. These releases are now out of print.
. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons
and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment
.
Archie Comics
Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher headquartered in the Village of Mamaroneck, Town of Mamaroneck, New York, known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Jughead Jones. The characters were created by...
. The series premise revolves around a Riverdale High physics lab gone awry, making the town of Riverdale a "magnet" for B-movie
B-movie
A B movie is a low-budget commercial motion picture that is not definitively an arthouse or pornographic film. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified a film intended for distribution as the less-publicized, bottom half of a double feature....
style monsters.
The show is distributed as meeting the FCC's educational and informational children's programming
E/I
E/I, which stands for "educational and informative," refers to a type of children's television programming shown in the United States. The Federal Communications Commission requires that every full-service Terrestrial television station in the U.S. show at least three hours of these television...
("E/I") requirements, and is used by commercial stations in the United States to meet this guideline. Produced by DIC Entertainment
DiC Entertainment
DIC Entertainment was an international film and television production company. In addition to animated television shows such as Ulysses 31 , Inspector Gadget , The Littles , The Real Ghostbusters , Captain Planet and the Planeteers , and the first two seasons of the English adaptation of...
, the show was initially shown mornings on the PAX network, often with infomercial
Infomercial
Infomercials are direct response television commercials which generally include a phone number or website. There are long-form infomercials, which are typically between 15 and 30 minutes in length, and short-form infomercials, which are typically 30 seconds to 120 seconds in length. Infomercials...
s bookending the program. The following season, its repeats were syndicated
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
to television stations throughout the US, as a way to comply with mandatory E/I regulations.
Main
- Archie AndrewsArchie Andrews (comics)Archie Andrews, created in 1941 by Vic Bloom and Bob Montana, is a fictional character in an American comic book series published by Archie Comics, as well as the long-running Archie Andrews radio series, a syndicated comic strip, The Archie Show, and Archie's Weird Mysteries.-Character and...
, a redhead student at Riverdale High, reporter for the school newspaper - Betty CooperBetty CooperBetty Cooper is a fictional character of Archie Comics, the blonde-haired daughter of Hal and Alice Cooper. Betty likes sports, and is also a cheerleader. Betty was created in December 1941. Her older brother Chic Cooper and older sister Polly Cooper have both moved out of Riverdale, their hometown...
, a smart girl-next-door who is sweet, caring and in love with Archie and is best friends with Veronica. - Veronica LodgeVeronica LodgeVeronica Lodge is a fictional character in the Archie Comics books series.-Fictional history and character:She is called both by her name Veronica and her nickname Ronnie...
, a spoiled rich girl who is also in love with Archie and is best friends with Betty. - Jughead JonesJughead JonesJughead Jones is a fictional character in Archie Comics who first appeared in the comic in December 1941. He is the son of Forsythe II; although in one of the early Archie newspaper comic strips, he himself is identified as Forsythe Van Jones II...
, a funny, quirky guy who loves food and is best friends with Archie. - Reggie MantleReggie MantleReggie Mantle is a fictional character in the Archie Comics book. His full name is given as Reginald Mantle, but he is usually called by his nickname Reggie, and sometimes refers to himself as "Mantle, The Magnificent." The character was introduced in 1942...
, a self-confident jock who has a crush on Veronica and is frenemies with Archie. - Dilton DoileyDilton DoileyDilton Doiley is a fictional character in the Archie Comics universe. He is the smartest teenager in Riverdale High School.-History:Characters resembling Dilton appeared quite early in Archie stories—one can be seen, unnamed, in Archie Comics #1...
, a nerdy genius who usually helps Archie and the gang save the day.
Supporting
- Mr. Weatherbee - Principal of Riverdale High
- Lucinda - practices voodoo magic; provides advice to Archie when he needs it regarding the supernatural; creates potions for those individuals in love.
- Pop Tate - Owner and operator of the "Pop Tate" shop.
- Mr. Fisk - CEO of ZoomCo who, after discovering that his Zoom energy drink contains a mutant formula that causes some people to mutate into monsters, tries to bribe and stop Archie from telling the world on national TV. He convinces Archie not to go to press as doing so would destroy his company and many new jobs for Riverdale.
- Dr. Beaumont - caretaker and owner of an odds/super natural/curiosity store. Provides advice to Archie and friends as he solves Weird Mysteries.
- Ms.Geraldine Grundy-also known as "Ms.Grundy". The adviser of Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, and Reggie Mantle.She is interested or in love with Mr. Waldo Weatherbee or Mr. Weatherbee.
Selected monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural characters
- a swamp monster, who lives in an old Riverdale swimming hole
- werewolf sheriff
- mad scientists
- A 50-foot Veronica
- vampires
- giant ants
- UFOs
- zombies
- "Stanley 9000"
- man-eating worm
- super smart rats
- super smart teen (in Brain Of Terror)
- Giant Cockroaches
- Tapioca Pudding GlobThe BlobThe Blob is an independently made 1958 American horror/science-fiction film that depicts a giant amoeba-like alien that terrorizes the small community of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania...
- Alien potatoes
- Insane artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
in Archie's car alarm - Ancient wish-granting artifacts gone haywire
- Ghost Of Quiet Violet - she used to a very strict librarian when Jughead was young. She scared Jughead so much when he was young that he stopped going to the library. As a ghost, she haunts the library.
- Monster "Archie" – Archie gets turned into a monster when he drinks a new energy drink called "Zoom".
- Monster "Stevenson" – Stevenson, a health and workout advocate, gets turned into a monster when he drinks a new energy drink called "Zoom".
- Genii - escapes from an urn in Dr. Beaumont's store into Archie's laptop. Reggie, in turn, uses the laptop and is granted three wishes; after which, the Genii is set free and begins to wreak havoc on the city.
- Reggie Droid - in order to keep Archie's friends from getting suspicious over Reggie's absence, two aliens make a look-alike droid, whose personality traits are different from Reggie's (Reggie lied about his personality to get Archie and the gang to find him). After the droid blows its cover and leads the gang to the aliens' ship, the aliens activate the droid's bomb which would blow Earth to smithereens, but Archie's clever thinking and Reggie's temporary acts of kindness tricked the aliens into keeping the droid, which blew up their ship (only its head survived).
- Evil Trons Leader and his Trons in Virtually Evil.
- Vampires
- Scarlet (Redeemed)
Production notes
The theme song was written and performed by Mike Piccirillo. Musical underscore composers were Mike Piccirillo and Jean-Michel Guirao. The Riverdale vampires story arc episodes were put together and released on VHS as Archie and the Riverdale Vampires.Comics
An ashcanAshcan copy
An ashcan copy is a term that originated in the Golden Age of Comic Books, meant to describe a publication produced solely for legal purposes , and not normally intended for distribution.-Origins:...
comic book tie-in
Tie-in
A tie-in is an authorized product based on a media property a company is releasing, such as a movie or video/DVD, computer game, video game, television program/television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property...
also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries was published in 1999, leading to an on-going, regular-sized series (also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries) in February 2000. "Weird" was dropped from the title with issue 25 (signaling the end of the tie-in with the TV show) and the series was canceled with issue 34 after 10 issues of doing straight mystery stories with no supernatural or science-fiction components.
DVD releases
On July 22, 2011, it was announced that Mill Creek EntertainmentMill Creek Entertainment
Mill Creek Entertainment is a home entertainment company that manufactures movie and television DVD compilation box sets at "value" prices. Nashville's Amity Entertainment is an affiliate to Mill Creek...
had acquired the rights to release the series (under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment
Cookie Jar Entertainment
The Cookie Jar Group is an American and Canadian producer of children’s entertainment, consumer products and educational materials...
). They subsequently announced that they will release Archie's Weird Mysteries - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time on February 14, 2012. They will also release a 10 episode best-of collection on the same day.
In Region 2, Anchor Bay Kids Entertainment released 2 volume collections on DVD in the UK in 2004. Each volume contains 4 episodes from the series.These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In 2005, Boulevard released 2 single disc collections containing two episodes each. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In Region 4, MRA Entertainment released 6 volume collections featuring 18 episodes of the series on DVD in Australia in 2005. These releases are now out of print.
The Archies in Jugman
In 2002, the movie The Archies in Jugman was released. It features the same character designs, most of the same crew and voice cast, and the similar theme of weird events happening in RiverdaleRiverdale (Archie Comics)
Riverdale is a fictional town somewhere in the United States that is the setting for most of the various characters that appear in Archie Comics...
. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons
Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons
Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons was a series of animated made-for-TV movies, which lasted for just one season on Nickelodeon. Produced by DiC Entertainment, the made-for-TV films are either based on various DiC productions such as Inspector Gadget, Sabrina, the Animated Series, and All-New Dennis...
and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment
MGM Home Entertainment is the home video and DVD arm of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.-History:The home video division of MGM started in 1979 as MGM Home Video, releasing all the movies and TV shows by MGM. In 1980, MGM joined forces with CBS Video Enterprises, the home video division of the CBS television...
.
External links
- Archie's Weird Mysteries at Cookie Jar Entertainment
- Archie's Weird Mysteries at EpguidesEpguidesepguides is a website dedicated to English language radio and television shows. George Fergus, the owner of epguides, began it in 1995 as a personal site at www.xnet.com/~fergus with fan-compiled episode guides and lists for several hundred shows...
- Official Archie Comics website