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backpages index
April 2003
Tooned in, Turned On
The Alvin Show (1961-65)- When songwriter Ross Bagdasarian's songs "Witch Doctor" and "The
Chipmunk Song" became novelty hits, a television program about the rodent trio was commissioned and
"The Alvin Show" was born. Alvin, Simon, and Theodore lived with human David Seville (Bagdasarian's
performing name) and drove him crazy with their music skits and nutty antics. The show reemerged in the
80's as "Alvin and the Chipmunks" but this time, the boys were a real rock group, with David as their
manager.
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The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972-74)- This animated version of Charlie Chan solved crimes
with the help of his "Clan", Charlie's ten kids and their dog Chu Chu. It just so happened that, in their
off hours, the Chan Clan made music together in a band. But not Charlie, though. Maybe he was too old to
rock out.
The Archie Show (1968-69)- Based on the popular comic book series, Archie Andrews and his pals were
just a gang of regular teenagers who liked to hang out and have fun, which included being in a band
together, aptly called The Archies. They scored a #1 hit with "Sugar Sugar" in ‘69, with Ron Dante
providing the lead vocals for the song.
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The Beagles (1966-67)- Not a Beatles parody but musicians just the same, Tubby and Stringer were a
couple of pooches who performed as a rock duo when they weren't getting into trouble.
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The Beatles (1965-68)- The first living people to be recreated onto TV celluloid, Paul, John,
George, and Ringo didn't provide the speaking voices for their cartoon alter-egos, but each episode did
contain real Beatle songs (it is worth noting that King Features, who produced the series, was also hired
on to do the full-length psychedelic feature Yellow Submarine in ‘68). As with everything they did,
even having their own cartoon series started a trend; other shows to follow in the Beatles' animated
footsteps include "The Jackson 5ive" (1971), "The Osmonds" (1972), "New Kids on the Block" (1990) and MC
Hammer's "Hammerman" (1991).
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The Brady Kids (1972-74) Cindy, Marcia, Jan, Bobby, Greg, and Peter were voiced by their real-
life counterparts in this spin-off of "The Brady Bunch". The kids hung out in a tree house, happily
solved life's little problems, and sang together as a pop group which, come to think of it, is not all
that much different from the live-action version.
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids (1973-74)- No, these weren't a group of badass gun-toting
gangsters. They were a co-ed, mini-skirted, bell-bottom-wearing bonafide rock band! No wait, that was
just a cover for their real jobs, which were undercover crime fighting agents. |
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The California Raisins Show (1989-90)- As Claymation characters in stop-motion animated TV ads,
initially this trio of soul singing grapes was created in an effort to boost the sale of raisins. But
their surprise popularity boosted them to pop culture phenom status which resulted in licensed products
bearing their likeness as well as this 2-D Saturday morning cartoon series that seemed to last only
moments longer that any of their 30-second commercials. |
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The Cattanooga Cats (1969-71)- Used as a means of introducing the main
segments of the weekly program, this group of rock ‘n' roll kitties included Kitty Jo, Country, Groovey,
and Scoots and had the pop-art look of the period.
Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids (1972-84)- Bill Cosby created and voiced
many of the characters on this popular series about a gang of street kids growing up in urban
Philadelphia (Cosby's hometown). The youngsters learned lessons about life and culture while playing
music together on homemade instruments at the end of each episode. |
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