Well, that’s the tag-line I grew up with.
As a Generation X child, my upbringing included The Six Million Dollar Man, Jaws, Rubik’s cube, the Sony Walkman, CB radios, the phrase ‘right on’ and bubble gum pop – a particular brand of music created for the teenagers (and pre-teens) of my era.
Somewhat before disco and punk, it included the likes of The Monkees, The Partridge Family, Banana Splits, Jackson 5, The Osmonds and The Archies. As a little kid, the latter started my love affair with pop culture – and music.
The Archies not only had catchy songs (you may be familiar with Sugar Sugar), but also a television cartoon show. You see the Archies were not actually real but a fictional garage band inspired by other similar TV ‘acts’ such as The Monkees, who were based on The Beatles – who also had a cartoon series, but that’s another story!
But the Archies actually go back much further than their musical counterparts of the swinging Sixties. In fact it was 1939 when the first comic book hit the newsstands, featuring the goofy red-headed teenager Archie Andrews and the gang from Riverdale High (not to be confused with Rydell High in Grease).
The gang included Archie, his best mate Jughead Jones, ‘bad boy’ Reggie, and pin-up gals Betty and Veronica. The love triangle between Archie and the two girls has been running now for just on 75 years!
In fact, Archie Comics recently got a reboot bringing the teenagers well and truly into the new millennium. Not long back I wrote a feature article introducing the newest character Kevin Keller. Oh, and he happens to be gay.
It is heartening to see the cartoon characters I loved as a child become so contemporary and progressive, and in some ways, follow me through life. Bravo to Archie Andrews, or should I say, to his admirable writers!
For me The Archies were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles of my generation and will always be a part of me. It may be 2016, but everything still is, and always will be Archies!
Cue guitar!
* You can guess what the ‘R’ on my varsity jacket stands for! And a big thank you to Misty’s Diner in Reservoir.
Read my article Archie Loves Kevin in the Feature Articles section..
Watch The Archies cartoon opening here from DreamWorksTV
*Thanks to the recent ‘Archies meets the Ramones’ crossover comic, I managed to hook Kinky Boots star Toby Francis onto the gang from Riverdale High, and likewise, I’m now a Ramones fan! Hey! Ho! Let’s Go!
