With their long tails and ears for hats, the animated trio Josie the Pussycats represented the cartoon universe's most daring plunge into the realm of rock & roll. An adaptation of the Archie Comics-related title Josie, Josie the Pussycats broke new ground in the early '70s as an all-female, multi-cultural unit -- a vanguard advancement not only within the realm of animation but also in the real world, where pop music remained a largely male and largely white phenomenon. In fact, with their twee popcraft, sassy attitude, and cute-as-a-button image, it could be argued that they were the original cuddle-core band.

Josie the Pussycats were created by Archies Comics artist Dan DeCarlo, who first introduced the character of Josie in December 1962, later adding her band the Pussycats in December 1969. The subsequent animated cartoon version of Josie the Pussycats was developed by producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera as a competitor to Filmation Studios' popular television-to-music success story, The Archies. An animated series based on long-running comic book about teenager Archie Andrews and the rock band he formed with his friends Betty, Veronica, Reggie, and Jughead, the Archies were also marketed as a "real" band. The group, whose music was actually performed by anonymous New York session players, scored one of 1969's biggest hits with the smash single "Sugar Sugar."

Clearly, the market for other prefabricated cartoon bands existed. However, the series also followed the lead of another Hanna-Barbera hit, The Adventures of Scooby-Doo, a program concerning the exploits of a group of teens and their pet dog as they traveled the country solving mysteries. For Josie the Pussycats, Hanna-Barbera tweaked the formula; not only did singer/guitarist Josie McCoy and her gang -- drummer Melody Valentine and bassist Valerie Brown (a Black character who shattered barriers as one of Saturday morning's first minority heroines), roadie Alan M. Mayberry, twins Alexander and Alexandra Cabot, and cat Sebastian -- journey across the globe (and even into outer space) in search of action à la Scooby-Doo, they also toured steadily as a successful rock band, in the mold of the Archies. (Not coincidentally, Alan was a virtual dead ringer for Scooby-Doo's Freddy, while Alexander's voice was supplied by famed radio DJ Casey Kasem, who also handled vocal duties for Scooby's pal Shaggy.)

Premiering in the fall of 1970, Josie & the Pussycats was an immediate hit; while, unlike the Archies, the group never launched a major record, their success did lead to the release of a 1970 LP on Capitol, with backing vocals provided by a then-unknown Cheryl Ladd (who several years later shot to fame as Farrah Fawcett's replacement on Charlie's Angels). Additionally, their popularity resulted in a series of virtually identical Hanna-Barbera productions, including The Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan, Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kids, and Jabberjaw; when a revamped Josie & the Pussycats in Outer Space premiered in 1972, an animated Partridge Family was even rocketed into orbit as well. The series went off the air in 1973 but remained a cult favorite as well as a major pop influence, particularly on the so-called "cuddle-core" movement of the early '90s. One of the most successful of these new groups, Cub, even went so far as to recruit Archie comics artist DeCarlo to create album artwork clearly modeled on the Pussycats' image. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi