About Me
Josie and the Pussycats started out in the '50's as part of the Archie Comics group. It followed the adventured of highschool students through dating adventures and the usual teen foibles in true Archie style. Josie was featured in various Archie comic books, and had her own comic from 1963 until 1978. In the 1970-71 TV season, the 16 episodes of the cartoon were launched. The show follows the group as they tour the world, play gigs, and run into bad guys. Some of the characters were changed to suit the new format - Alexander Cabot is now a chicken more than anything else (filling the apparantly essential "Shaggy" role), where in the comic he was a rich snob who was constantly trying to make time with Josie. Alexandra sees to have taken over that scheeming role for the TV series, constantly going after Alan. And the show has a sixties feel: in clothes, music, and vocabulary, where the comic book seemed to be forever in the fifties. There is an obvious similarity between Josie and Scooby Doo. The were both made by the same studio, and the some of the voice talents and background music are recognizably the same in the two shows.The second cartoon series - Josie and the Pussycats in Outerspace aired a few years later, with another 16 episodes. This time the gang is touring the galaxy, playing gigs, and runing into bad guys. The character Gleep was added - a furry little blob-shaped alien who follows Melody around like an adoring pet.And most recently, after a 25 year dry spell with no new Josie material, Josie and the Pussycats has made it to the big screen. Released in May 2001, the feature film stars Rachel Leigh Cook as Josie, Tara Reid as Melody, and Rosario Dawson as Val. This movie has a 21st century attitude: the cat suits are gone, with bell-bottoms in their place. (Though this is reverting back to the 70's, isn't it?). Unfortunately, consumerism and product placement is rampant.
