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The Adventures of Archie Andrews
"Aw, Reeelax, Archie. Reeelax...."
 When
we look back at American family life in the late 1930s, many of us view
it not through the eyes of reality but, instead, thru the rose colored
glasses of popular culture. If you were young yourself at that time, you
have a more realistic memory of those years - but, if you're a baby
boomer and beyond, you're more likely to imagine a typical American
home, circa 1940, as being in Carvel where a teenager named Andy Hardy
lives: clean, pleasant, prosperous, and where every challenge, crisis,
or misadventure is resolved in time for a happy ending - complete with
the occasional musical number.
 It's not surprising that we have
this rosy vision of the past; after all, every entertainment medium did
its best to create and sustain this image. Hollywood gave us a seemingly
endless series of Andy Hardy movies, the Broadway stage gave us "What a
Life!" which introduced the perpetually teenaged Henry Aldrich, and
radio quickly turned Henry and his friend Homer into comedy characters
that would endure for over a decade. As the 1940s progressed, the trend
continued: perky teenager Corliss Archer came to radio in 1943, as did
"A Date with Judy" - both sit-coms featuring a typical teenage girl
dealing with her boyfriends, her often baffled parents, and the
overwhelming dramas of high school social life. But it wasn't the stage,
screen, or radio that would bring us our most enduring and innocent
image of teenaged life; it was, instead, the comics.
In December
of 1941, just two weeks after Pearl Harbor, Pep Comics introduced a new
character that continues to entertain readers to this very day - and his
name is Archie Andrews. From the beginning, Archie was the epitome of
the American teenager of the 1940s: dressed in a polka dot bow tie and a
letterman's sweater that proclaimed his loyalty to Riverdale High, he
drove a souped-up jalopy, hung out with the perpetually lazy Jughead
Jones, and spent most of his time in a lovesick haze. Aside from
occasional crushes on movie goddesses, Archie divided his affection
between two teenaged beauties: Betty Cooper, a bright and down-to-earth
blonde, and Veronica Lodge, a wealthy brunette who loved to toy with
Archie's affections. Hitting just the right mix of familiarity,
slapstick comedy, and small-town warmth, Archie and his pals were an
instant hit with teen readers - and, in less than a year, the characters
had made their way from comic books to a daily newspaper comic strip
and to radio.
In its first incarnation, "The Adventures of Archie Andrews"
was a daily fifteen-minute radio series, aired over the Blue Network.
Ratings were respectable and, after a brief move to a half-hour weekly
slot, the five-a-week format returned on Mutual in 1944. But the series
really hit its stride in June of 1945, when a largely new cast was
introduced and it premiered over NBC in a Saturday morning slot that it
would happily occupy for eight years. For the majority of the Saturday
morning run, Archie was played by Bob Hastings, a talented young actor
who had already made his reputation playing juveniles on dramatic
programs. Woman-hating food-loving Jughead was played by Harlan Stone,
perky Betty was played by Rosemary Rice, and the honey-voiced Veronica
was played by Gloria Mann. If you were looking for subtlety or teenaged
angst, you were never going to find it on "The Adventures of Archie
Andrews"; in typical sit-com fashion, the plots usually revolved around
some simple misunderstanding that quickly turned into bedlam. Aimed
straight at a pre-teen audience, the programs were designed to be
nothing more than loud, goofy, and fun - and, from the reactions of the
studio audience that attended each live broadcast, the show was clearly
adored by its listeners.
"The Adventures
of Archie Andrews", a seven-hour collection from RadioArchives.com, offers fourteen original NBC broadcasts taken from
the original network master recordings and fully restored for sparkling
audio fidelity. If you've enjoyed our other comedy collections - and especially if Archie and his pals were a big part of your youth - this is a collection you simply won't want to miss. Programs include:
Jive Talk
Saturday, May 18, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Mind Your Own Business
Saturday, June 1, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Romeo of Riverdale
Saturday, June 8, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Masked Marvel
Saturday, July 6, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Uncle Ezekiel's Will
Saturday, July 13, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Buying a Hammock
Saturday, July 20, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
A Present for Veronica
Saturday, July 27, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Getting Some Rest
Saturday, August 3, 1946 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Archie is Missing
Saturday, March 4, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
A Mouse in the House
Saturday, November 11, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
The Charleston Contest
Saturday, November 18, 1950 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Income Tax
Saturday, March 10, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Too Much Noise
Saturday, March 17, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
Archie's Jalopy
Sunday, May 13, 1951 - 30:00 - NBC, sustaining
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