SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH (1970)

 

SABRINA, THE TEENAGE WITCH (1970) / SABRINA AND THE GROOVIE GOOLIES / THE SABRINA COMEDY HOUR
(CBS, September 12- December 26, 1970)
 
Filmation Associates

 

 

MAIN CAST:

Jane Webb – Sabrina Spellman, Aunt Hilda, Aunt Zelda, Della the Head Witch, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Miss Grundy, Big Ethel, various

Dallas McKennon – Salem, Archie Andrews, Hot Dog, Mr. Weatherbee, Pop Tate, Mr. Lodge, Coach Kleats, various

Howard Morris – Ambrose, Jughead Jones, Moose Mason, Dilton Doiley, Hot Dog Jr., various

Don Messick – Harvey Kinkle, Spencer, Chili Dog, various

John Erwin – Reggie Mantle, Hexter, various

Treva Frazee – Ophelia
Larry Mann – Boneapart, various
Larry Storch – Drac, Hagatha, Ghoulihand, Batso, Ratso, Icky, various

 

 For the history of Sabrina, check out the post here.

 

When Filmation acquired the rights to adapt Archie Comics’ Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, she was still a fairly new and minor character; only appearing sporadically in the pages of the anthology Archie’s Mad House. To test her out with audiences, it was decided to include her as part of the expanded The Archie Show, The Archie Comedy Hour. The Sabrina segments proved a hit with audiences, and for her second season on the air she was split off into her own series. Sort of.

Sabrina with her cousins Wolfie, Drac and Frankie.

In similar fashion, Filmation had another untested property they wanted to do. Called The Groovie Goolies, it was their comedic take on the Universal Monsters combined with a healthy dose of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. Since both featured witches, they paired them up with Sabrina to form Sabrina and The Groovie Goolies (alternatively known as The Sabrina Comedy Hour). Both shows were developed by Jack Mendelsohn, with Jim Mulligan also working on Goolies.

Sabrina with Salem.

 The first half hour focused on the adventures of Sabrina Spellman (Jane Webb), your ordinary teenage girl attending ordinary Riverdale High. Well, ordinary except for the fact that she was a witch accidentally created by her aunts, Hilda and Zelda (both also Webb). They sought to create another wicked witch like themselves and instead mixed in the ingredients for a typical teenaged girl. Residing with them was their magical cat, Salem (Dallas McKennon), and occasionally popping in to cause trouble was warlock cousin Ambrose (Howard Morris, replacing John Erwin from the previous season). Sabrina’s human friends consisted of her bumbling boyfriend Harvey Kinkle (Don Messick), best friend Ophelia (Treva Frazee), girl-crazy Archie Andrews (McKennon), mischievous Reggie Mantle (Erwin), girl-next-door Betty Cooper, spoiled rich girl Veronica Lodge (both Webb), eternally-hungry Jughead Jones, big lummox Moose Mason, and genius Dilton Doiley (all Morris). Head witch Della (Webb) frequently popped in to give Sabrina a headache; especially when tasking her with watching her naughty nephew, Hexter (Erwin).

Rocking out with the Goolies.

The second half hour focused on the Goolies, who were members of a band based out of a creepy castle called Horrible Hall. The primary group was comprised of Drac (Larry Storch), a pastiche of Dracula, the short-tempered leader who played the pipe organ; Frankie (Howard Morris, doing a loose impersonation of Boris Karloff), based on Frankenstein’s monster, who was the easygoing head of the Muscleleum Gymnasium and played either bone xylophones or drums (later misinformation would call Frankie the son of Drac and Hagatha); and Wolfie (also Morris), based on the wolfman, who spoke in a mix of beatnik, surfer and hippie slang and played a lyre-like instrument. Despite the separation of the two shows, the characters often crossed over. The Goolies were said to be Sabrina’s cousins, and typically she had to try and keep their true natures a secret from her mortal friends lest her own witchcraft be exposed. 

Sabrina spending time with Aunts Hilda and Zelda.

 Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies debuted on CBS on September 12, 1970. The series was written by Mendelsohn and Mulligan with Bob Ogle, Chuck Menville, Len Janson, Jim Ryan and Bill Danch. The series’ music was provided by Horta-Mahana Corp. and Jan Moore, with the background score done by Ray Ellis and David Jeffrey. The series was a hit, becoming the highest-rated children’s program of 1970. Despite that, however, this would be the last time new episodes of Sabrina would be produced until 1977 in The New Archie and Sabrina Hour.

Worlds collide.

For the 1971 season, CBS split up the two shows into their own half-hours. Reruns of both seasons’ worth of episodes continued on Saturday morning under the newly-titled Sabrina, the Teenage Witch. The Groovie Goolies became its own entity, completely omitting Sabrina from their intro, and was moved to Sunday morning to air alongside Tom and Jerry; however, they remained in the Sabrina episodes in which they appeared. Sabrina remained on the network until 1973 and would be sold into syndication with Archie and Goolies in 1976.

Sabrina and The Archie gang.

With Sabrina’s new media attention, Archie finally gave her a series of her own with the first volume of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in 1971. Before that, Sabrina began appearing as a regular feature in the anthology series Archie’s TV Laugh-Out (a play on the Laugh-In title), which starred all of Archie’s televised characters and introduced Harvey and Ambrose alongside Comedy Hour. Episodes of the series were released as part of the Archie & Friends compilations Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Archie’s Classic Cartoons by Nostalgia Ventures in 2004. A complete series DVD set was released by Classic Media in 2012, followed by a 10 episode collection from 20^th Century Fox. The series set was reissued by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment in 2019.

 

 

EPISODE GUIDE (see The Archie Comedy Hour for the previous season):
“Short Changed / Rose-Colored Glasses” (9/12/70) – Reggie comes over for lunch and ends up doused with a shrinking potion by Hilda. / Hilda’s rose-colored glasses give Mr. Weatherbee a skewed view of the world.
 
“Mis-Guided Tour / Living Dolls” (9/19/70) – Sabrina’s bringing Hexter on a class trip has Miss Grundy doubting her sanity. / Hida shrinks the Goolies and they’re discovered by The Archies.
 
“That Old Track Magic / Cake Bake” (9/26/70) – A concussion causes Ambrose to help Riverdale high’s oppoents in the track meet. / Hagatha and Hilda fight dirty to beat each other in a cake-baking contest.
 
“Moose’s Alter-Falter / Hot Rod Derby” (10/3/70) – Sabrina must get Moose’s good and bad sides back under control. / Sabrina gets roped into helping Wolfie with the local car race.
 
“Mortal Terror / The Bear Facts” (10/10/70) – Della grants Sabrina’s wish to be mortal, which ends up spoiling her bowling date with Reggie. / Riverdale High’s photography class decides to set up in the same area the Goolies have decided to inhabit.
 
“Weather or Not / Child Care” (10/17/70) – Sabrina’s magic-altering illness ends up getting Jughead expelled from school. / Sabrina conjures a dragon to entertain her Goolie cousins, but it ends up going out of control in town.
 
“Flying Sorcery / Witches Golf Open” (10/24/70) – Reggie catches Sabrina emerging from a flying saucer. / The Archies play caddy for Hilda and the Goolies during a nighttime golf game.
 
“Too Many Cooks / Rummage Sale” (10/31/70) – Archie and Reggie make a bet to stay in an empty mansion the same night as an annual witches gathering there. / The Goolies’ contributions to the school’s rummage sale ends up leading to problems for Sabrina.
 
“Ambrose’s Amulet / High School Drop-Ins” (11/7/70) – Ambrose loans Big Ethel his amulet, forgetting it changes people into animals. / The Goolies decide to get a high school education.
 
“Auto-Biography / Big Deal” (11/14/70) – Hilda accidentally turns herself into Archie’s car. / Ratso and Batso dog-sit Hot Dog, whom Hauntleroy causes to grow as large as a house.
 
“Tragic Magic / Frankie” (11/21/70) – Jughead enlists Sabrina’s help to be a better magician for the charity magic show. / Frankie just wants to help out his friends, but all his efforts always end in disaster.
 
“A Nose for News / Beached” (11/28/70) – When Reggie is made editor of the school paper he starts blackmailing his fellow students with their embarrassing secrets. / Sabrina’s beach day is spent keeping the Goolies hidden and protecting her friends from bullies.
 
“Ouch” (12/5/70) – Sabrina must keep Hilda’s loud music from disturbing the neighbors.
 
“Smog” (12/12/70) – Sabrina must intervene when smoke from Horrible Hall gets Archie’s Pollution Committee to investigate.
 
“Dirty Pool” (12/19/70) – Sabrina and the Goolies ask The Archies to help stop the pollution of Horrible Hall’s moat by the Crosstown Gang’s car-wash.
 
“The Grayed Outdoors” (12/26/70) – Sabrina and the Goolies must protect the environment from the Crosstown Gang’s construction of a bike track.