JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS IN OUTER SPACE
(CBS, September 9-December 23, 1972)
Hanna-Barbera Productions
MAIN CAST:
Josie and the Pussycats became an event, with musicians of
various levels of notoriety coming on to play for the series’ soundtrack after
producer Danny Janssen defended
keeping the character of Valerie (Barbara Pariot & Patrice Holloway) black
when the studio wanted to change her to white. The follow-up season to the
show, unfortunately, wasn’t as remarkable.
For the 1972-73
season, Hanna-Barbera
decided to revamp the show. As depicted in the second opening sequence used,
the band was taking promotional photographs in front of a new spaceship when
Jealous Alexandra (Sherry Alberoni) knocked them all into the capsule and
caused it to accidentally take off, leading to Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.
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| Bleep, Alan M. and Josie character models. |
Structurally, each
episode was the same as the previous series: the Pussycats would end up in a
new location (in this case, a planet) where they would stumble upon malevolent
forces (in this case, aliens) and have to escape capture during a music-laden
chase scene. However, the music was not as much of a focus this time around
after the failure of the previous series to generate The
Archies-level interest in the fictional band. Aside from the new character
designs featuring the band in matching space suits, the only new addition to
the program was the character of Bleep (Don Messick): a fuzzy alien who spoke
only in “bleeps” that Melody (Jackie Joseph & Cheryl Ladd) could
understand. An element of Lost in Space was thrown in by the characters constantly trying to find their
way home from uncharted space.
 |
| Their rocket ship model sheet. |
Josie and the
Pussycats in Outer Space debuted on CBS on
September 9, 1972. It was written by Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais, Phil Davis, Fred Freiberger, Joel Kane, Heywood Kling, Draper Lewis, Dennis Marks and Paul West with the music
supplied by Hoyt Curtin. Many
of the designs came from artist Alex Toth
with Jerry Eisenberg handling
others. The show only ran for a single season of 16 episodes. CBS kept it on
its schedule until 1974, but ultimately did not order any further installments.
 |
| One of the band's intergalactic foes. |
Hanna-Barbera, however, wasn’t quite done with the Archie Comics characters. The Pussycats
appeared in a 1973 episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies teaming-up with Scooby (also Messick)
and the gang. They were also intended to reunite with Scooby on his team for
the Battle of the Network Stars
spoof series Laff-A-Lympics, but the rights had
expired by then. The Hanna-Barbera series Speed Buggy was notable for recycling several plots from the Josie series.
 |
| DVD cover. |
In 1976, Rand
McNally published a book based on the original series called The Bag Factory Detour. Worldvision Home
Video released a VHS
collection of 3 episodes in 1980, with a second volume in 1985. The episode
“Warrior Women of Amazonia” were featured in a clip episode collection of
Hanna-Barbera in the United Kingdom. In 2010, Warner
Archive released the
complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera
Classics Collection.
 |
| Josie and friends in manga style. |
Although another attempt to bring Josie to TV has yet to materialize, the Josie comic ran until
1982, ending after 106 issues. The Pussycats continued appearing in various
Archie publications, notably as an alternating feature in Archie Giant Series and
Archie & Friends. In
the early 2000s, Archie experimented with giving the band a manga
makeover and a new origin by Tania del
Rio. In 2016 the series was given another makeover as part of Archie’s
line-wide reboot of its comics.
In 2001, Universal
Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced
a live-action Josie movie. Directed
by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film
featured Rachel Leigh Cook as
Josie McCoy, Tara Reid as
Melody Valentine and Rosario
Dawson as Valerie Brown as they become embroiled in a government plot to
extort teenagers for their hard-earned babysitting money by producing their
music laden with subliminal messages. The film was a box office bomb, only
earning around $15 million against its $39 million budget. The Pussycats
returned to live-action in 2017 as members of the dark TV series Riverdale. The entire band was reimagined as
African Americans with Ashleigh
Murray as Josie, Asha Bromfield
as Melody and Hayley Law as
Valerie.
Also in 2001, Cartoon
Network created and aired a short called “Musical Evolution” which featured
the Pussycats singing the original theme song in different musical styles with
accompanying artwork and outfits. The Comedy
Central series Drawn Together, which was a “reality show” featuring various cartoon characters
living together in the same house, included a direct parody of Valerie in the
character of Foxxy Love (Cree
Summer).
EPISODE GUIDE:
“Where’s Josie?” (9/9/72) – The band befriends Bleep while Josie is
kidnapped by Karnak, who is intent on reconquering the planet Zelc.
“Make Way For the Multi-Men” (9/16/72) – The band must save the queen
of a planet of cat people.
“The Sleeping Planet” (9/23/72) – The band helps expose a corrupt
Prime Minister in the theft of a device important to planet Arcobia.
“Alien Alan” (9/30/72) – Alan is brainwashed to serve the ruler of a
magnet planet.
“The Water Planet” (10/7/72) – The band’s ship is stolen by aliens
intent on conquering Earth.
“The Sun Haters” (10/14/72) – The band must stop a race of giants from
extinguishing the sun.
“The Mini-Man Menace” (10/21/72) – Robots kidnap the band and take
them to the villainous Mitchko.
“The Space Pirates” (10/28/72) – Captain Braggo’s robotic space
pirates capture the band’s ship to use to loot and plunder other ships.
“Anything You Can Zoo” (11/4/72) – The band ends up in a zoo on planet
Kaltex while the ruler plots to attack Earth.
“Now You See Them, Now You Don’t” (11/11/72) – Aliens that can turn
invisible seem unstoppable until Melody develops the same power after chewing
gum.
“The Four-Eyed Dragon of Cygnon” (11/18/72) – Two aliens attempt to
convince the band to help them against a dragon.
“The Forward Backward People of Xarock” (11/25/72) – Tyran has a
weapon that zaps everything into going backwards.
“The Hollow Planet” (12/2/72) – Aliens in a planet-like ship plan to
enslave others by using a ray to turn them into children.
“All Hail Goddess Melody” (12/9/72) – The natives of planet Gezzner worship
Melody as their goddess due to her resemblance.
“Outer Space Ark” (12/16/72) – The mad scientist Arkapus uses a sonic
transmitter to train the local animals into a conquering army.
“Warrior Women of Amazonia” (12/30/72) – A planet ruled by women captures
the band and uses mind control to have the girls join their ranks, leaving Alan
and Alexander to save them all.
Originally posted in 2015. Updated in 2020.
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