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Archie's Weird Mysteries
French	Archie, mystères et compagnie
Genre	Mystery Horror Science fiction Comedy
Based on	Archie Andrews by John L. Goldwater, Bob Montana, Vic Bloom, & Archie Comics
Developed by	Jymn Magon, Brian Swenlin, & Michael Patrick Dobkins
Voices of	Andy Rannells America Young Camille Schmidt Chris Lundquist Paul Sosso Tony Wike Ben Beck Ryle Smith Jerry Longe John Michael Lee
Country of origin	France United States
Original languages	English French
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	40
Production
Executive producers	Andy Heyward Robby London Michael Maliani Richard Goldwater Charles W. Grimes Tony DeRosa-Grund Michael Silberkleit
Running time	22–24 minutes
Production companies	Riverdale Productions Kent/QMA Les Studios Tex DIC Productions, L.P. Arles Animation Les Studio de Saint Ouen
Original release
Network	PAX (United States) M6 (France)
Release	2 October 1999 (1999-10-02) – 22 February 2000 (2000-02-22)

Archie's Weird Mysteries (French: Archie, mystères et compagnie) is an animated television series based on the characters by Archie Comics. The series premise revolves around a Riverdale High physics lab gone awry, making the town of Riverdale a "magnet" for B movie-style monsters. All the main characters solve strange mysteries in a format similar to both Scooby-Doo and The X-Files.

Produced by Les Studios Tex and DIC Productions, L.P., the series was initially shown mornings on the PAX network premiering on 2 October 1999, often with infomercials bookending the program. The series eventually premiered in France on M6 on 19 January 2000.

Voice cast and characters

Main

• Andrew Rannells as Archie Andrews – a redheaded, freckled student at Riverdale High, and a reporter for the school newspaper. All of his news stories are centered around the surreal occurrences that take place within each episode and always end with "...in a little town called Riverdale." Despite his clumsiness and rash decision-making, he is overall kind-hearted and brave, and frequently attracts girls, human or otherwise.
• America Young as Betty Cooper – a literal girl-next-door who is intelligent, comely, cute, level-headed, caring, and the head of the cheerleading squad. She is best friends with Veronica, despite them both competing for Archie's affection. She has bright blonde hair that's always worn in a ponytail.
• Camille Schmidt as Veronica Lodge – a beautiful, rich, popular, and somewhat self-centered girl. She is best friends with Betty, with whom she also shares a rivalry for Archie's affection. Although both of them are frequently the target of Reggie's advances, Veronica is targeted somewhat more often. Her hair is black, long and wavy, just like in the comics.
• Chris Lundquist as Jughead Jones – Archie's eccentric yet insightful best friend who almost always has food on his mind, especially hamburgers. He generally does not like girls, although he is close friends with Betty, and he often butts heads with Veronica and Reggie. This version owns a litany of pets throughout the series, most notably Hot Dog, who is just as lazy as he is. Jughead usually wears a gray whoopee cap on his head, covering his choppy black hair.
• Paul Sosso as Reggie Mantle – an egotistical, aloof, prank-prone jock who has a one-sided crush on Veronica and is frenemies with Archie. He is generally the most disliked member of the group. In this particular incarnation, he has a niece named Amy.
• Ben Beck as Dilton Doiley – a bespectacled, nerdy genius who is friends with Archie and the others. His inventions usually help save the day, although they are sometimes the cause of the titular weird mysteries. In this incarnation, he does most of his work in the school lab ("Invisible Archie" reveals that this is a reward for his exceptional grades), where he is often isolated from his peers and all but lacks a social life. His catchphrase is, "I'll be super amalgamated!"

Supporting

• Jerry Longe as Moose Mason – a slow-witted but sensitive jock who is a friend of the gang. He is the boyfriend of Midge Klump despite their intellectual differences and is very protective of her, particularly from Reggie's advances.
• Michele Phillips as Ethel Muggs – a nerdy girl who has an open crush on Jughead. She is usually ignored by most of her peers despite her big heart. She is into magic and is also a beekeeper.
• Jill Anderson as Midge Klump – Moose's girlfriend, in spite of their differences in intelligence. She is Reggie's love interest, although she does not like him very much. She is into athletics and wants to become a stuntwoman.
• Chuck Clayton – a boy who is friends with Archie and the gang, seldom seen without Nancy at his side. He only speaks in "Driven to Distraction," but is reduced to silent cameos elsewhere.
• Nancy Woods – a girl who is friends with Archie and the gang, seldom seen without Chuck at her side. She only speaks in "Driven to Distraction," but is reduced to silent cameos elsewhere.
• Tony Wike as Mr. Waldo Weatherbee – the bald, short-tempered Principal of Riverdale High who has it in for Archie the most, blaming him for most of the weird events happening at school.
• Miss Grundy – the homeroom teacher of Archie and the gang, who has feelings for Mr. Weatherbee. Her first name was Geraldine in the original comics, but was changed Doris in the show.
• Matt Bross as Coach Kleats – the athletic coach at Riverdale High, who considers Moose his favorite student.
• John Michael Lee as Mr. Flutesnoot – Riverdale High's stoic science teacher, whose favorite student is Dilton.
• Ryle Smith as Pop Tate – the owner and operator of the "Pop Tate Chock'lit Shoppe" shop where Archie and his friends hang out. He calls Jughead his best customer due to his large appetite.
• Jerry Longe as Smithers – Veronica's cynical butler. He is aware of the supernatural, but is only interested in serving Veronica.
• John Michael Lee as Mr. Hiram Lodge – Veronica's father who is disapproving of Archie.
• Fred Andrews – Archie's father, who is of Scottish descent and cares deeply about his generations-old traditions.
• Pam Carter as Mary Andrews – Archie's doting mother. "Alternate Riverdales" reveals that she met her husband at the local movie theater.

Show-exclusive characters

• Jerry Longe as Dr. Beaumont – the mysterious caretaker and owner of a curiosity shop, filled with magical artifacts that sometimes cause the episodes' conflicts. He provides advice to Archie and his friends as they solve mysteries.
• Lucinda – a Southern woman who lives in the woods outside of town. Considered to be a charmer, she practices voodoo magic, provides advice regarding the supernatural, and creates potions for individuals in love.
• Mr. Fisk – the CEO of ZoomCo who, after discovering that his Zoom energy drink contains a mutant formula that causes some people to mutate into monsters, tries to bribe and stop Archie from telling the world on national TV. He convinces Archie not to tell the news, as doing so would destroy his company and many people's jobs.
• Olga Karpuchi – the shy but intelligent civilian identity of a superheroine, named Supreme Girl. Her enemy is the villainous Dr. Arachnid, and they both hail from the Twelfth Dimension. During her stay at Riverdale High, she works with Archie on the school newspaper and has a crush on him. She only physically appears in "Supreme Girl vs. Dr. Arachnid," but is first mentioned in "The Jughead Incident."
• Robbie Dopkins – a friendly boy on Riverdale High's athletic team, who debuts in "Invisible Archie," where he enamors both Betty and Veronica due to his muscles. He is said to be the reason that Reggie was kicked from the track-and-field team. Following this appearance, he is reduced to silent cameos in other episodes.
• Jill Anderson as Cynthia Kim – the editor-in-chief for the Riverdale High paper who cares mostly about its viewership. Like most people, she can sometimes be skeptical of Archie's stories.
• Vinny Wells (or Vinnie Wells) – a teenage delinquent who only appeared in the three episodes "Archie's Date with Fate", "Alternate Riverdales" and "Teen Out of Time", where he and his future self were the main antagonists. He first appeared in "Archie's Date with Fate", when he was said to be breaking into the other students' lockers for money to buy nachos.
• John Michael Lee as Count Medlock – the leader of a vampire cult, who is the antagonist of "I Was a Teenage Vampire" and "Halloween of Horror." He plots to bring about an eternal night, allowing vampires to roam about Riverdale freely with no fear of the sun.
• Michelle Phillips as Scarlet Helsing – a vampire girl who has a crush on Medlock and works to help bring his plans to fruition, butting heads with Archie and the gang in the process. At the end of the three-parter, she turns out to be the key to defeating her boss and helps the teens thwart him after he backstabs her.

Episodes

Broadcast

United States

The series first ran in the United States on PAX, and was the first newly produced animated feature to first air on the network. It was planned to air alongside fellow DIC program Sherlock Holmes in the 22nd Century as part of an hour-long block, but the latter show instead aired on Fox Kids, leaving Archie to air alongside Where on Earth Is Carmen Sandiego? on the channel's PAX Kids strand. It later moved to a daily slot on the network and remained on PAX until late 2000.

In 2001, the show began to air on syndicated television stations throughout the United States, as a way to comply with their mandatory E/I regulations. The series would later be part of the syndicated DIC Kids Network block beginning in 2003, also to comply with E/I regulations.

From 2012 to 2018, the show reran on Qubo.

The full series has recently become available on Paramount+, Amazon Prime Video, and Tubi.

France

Archie, Mystère Et Compagnie first ran on M6 on 19 January 2000 as part of the channel's M6 Kid strand, and later reran on Disney Channel and Toon Disney in the country.

Production notes

The theme song was written and performed by Mike Piccirillo. Musical underscore composers were Mike Piccirillo and Jean-Michel Guirao. The Riverdale vampires story arc episodes were put together and released on VHS as Archie and the Riverdale Vampires. The voice cast was provided by the Omaha Theater Company for Young People of Omaha, Nebraska.

Comics

An ashcan comic book tie-in also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries, written by Paul Castiglia, pencilled by Bill Golliher, inked by Rick Koslowski and colored by Stephanie Coronado (née Vozzo) was published in 1999. This led to a February 2000 launch for an ongoing, regular-sized series with the same name and creative team. The first issue notably serves as an origin story for the canon's premise, showcasing the implied lab incident that turned Riverdale into supernatural central, and the moment when Archie decided to start his Weird Mystery column.

"Weird" was dropped from the title starting with #25, signaling the end of the tie-in with the television series, and the comics were canceled at #34 after ten issues of doing straight mystery stories with no supernatural or science-fiction components.

Films

Archie and the Riverdale Vampires

Archie's Weird Mysteries: Archie and the Riverdale Vampires was released onto VHS by Universal Studios Home Video on August 30, 2000, alongside fellow DIC movie Monster Mash and Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman as part of Universal's "Haunted Fun" lineup. The film consists of shortened and edited versions of the episode "Attack of the Killer Spuds" and the Riverdale Vampires trilogy made to run at feature-length. Although the movie does not consist of any newly produced content, it contains newly-produced narration by Archie who talks about how Riverdale ended up how it was.

The episodes that made up the film were also included within the Monster Bash Fun Pack alongside the rest of the Universal Haunted Fun releases, but the episodes are shown in their TV versions.

The Archies in JugMan

The Archies in JugMan is an animated television film produced by DIC Entertainment as part of the DIC Movie Toons series of made-for-TV movies. The movie functions as a sequel to the series, utalizing the same character designs (although with different outfits and new looks) and much of the same crew and voice cast, and the similar theme of weird events happening in Riverdale.

It originally premiered on television on Nickelodeon on 3 November and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment, followed by international airings on Disney Channel and Toon Disney.

Home media releases

United States

United Kingdom

Australia

All the Australian DVDs were released by MRA Entertainment.

Notes

1. Spelling is unknown, due to his name not being featured in the credits.

References

1. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. pp. 63–64. ISBN 9780472117567.
2. "DIC sells 'Archie', 'Holmes' to Pax". 8 April 1999.
3. "Archie's Weird Mysteries - Nickelodeon - Watch on Paramount Plus". www.paramountplus.com. 2 October 1999.
4. "Archie's Weird Mysteries Season 1". Amazon.com. 2000.
5. https://www.facebook.com/paul.castiglia/posts/10154977813579008?comment_id=10154978034624008&notif_t=mentions_comment&notif_id=1468369412466162
6. Lenburg, Jeff (2009). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons (3rd ed.). New York: Checkmark Books. p. 257. ISBN 978-0-8160-6600-1.
7. After 2010, NCircle failed to renew distribution rights of Archie's Weird Mysteries and Sabrina: The Animated Series due to legal issues with Archie Comics, despite retaining rights to DiC media. NCircle was unable to renew rights to Sonic the Hedgehog as several characters (save for the Sega owned content) were owned by Archie Comics prior to its discontinuation in 2017 until the issues were later resolved in 2023.
8. "Archie's Weird Mysteries DVD news: Announcement for The Complete Series and The Best Of". TVShowsOnDVD.com. 25 May 2007. Archived from the original on 10 March 2012. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
9. 'The Complete Series' Returns to DVD, Haunting Stores this June Archived 2017-04-19 at the Wayback Machine
10. "Archies Weird Mysteries - Volume 1 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Ben Beck, John Michael Lee, Jerry Longe, Chris Lundquist, Andrew Rannells, Camille Schmidt, Ryle Smith, Paul Sosso, Tony Wike, America Young, James W. Bates: Film & TV". Amazon.co.uk. 28 June 2004. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
11. "Archie's Weird Mysteries - Vol. 1 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Archie's Weird Mysteries: Film & TV". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 9 October 2013.
12. "Archie's Weird Mysteries, Vol. 2 [DVD]: Amazon.co.uk: Film & TV". Amazon.co.uk. 5 July 2005. Retrieved 9 October 2013.

External links

• Archie's Weird Mysteries at DHX Media
• Archie's Weird Mysteries at IMDb

• Archie's Weird Mysteries at epguides.com
• Official Archie Comics website

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