The Adventures of Archie Andrews, Volume 1

Adventures of Archie Andrews, Volume 1 - 7 hours [Download] #RA204D

The Adventures of Archie Andrews, Volume 1

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The Adventures of Archie Andrews

Volume 1

"Aw, Reeelax, Archie. Reeelax...."

The cast of "The Adventures of Archie Andrews", circa 1948

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.

Harlan Stone as Jughead, Bob Hastings as Archie, and Gloria Mann as Veronica in "The Adventures of Archie Andrews"

Harlan Stone as Jughead, Bob Hastings as Archie, and Gloria Mann as Veronica in "The Adventures of Archie Andrews"

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

Average Customer Review: Average Customer Review: 5 of 5

5 of 5 Total Reviews: 4 Write a review

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Funny series	December 18, 2023
Reviewer: Stephen K Lau from Atlanta, GA United States

Good quality. Closer to the comics than the WB TV series

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Superb sound!	May 25, 2022
Reviewer: Gerald Brebner from De Pere, WI United States

Definitive collection. I am sure the sound surpasses the original medium - AM radio, that most listeners used to hear the show. My only regret is they are not complete with the commercials intact, but that was at the insistence of Mr. Correll - the donor (his personal copies of the show).

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A first step into pure Fun	March 11, 2018
Reviewer: Raymond Johnson from NEW CONCORD, OH United States

This Old Tme Radio program is a spin off from the Comic Strip by Bob Montana. I think the idea was to gather a teen audience, and is goofy family fun; with Riverdale on the CW, younger viewers might be intersted in listening to this to see where it all began. It is also surprisingly breaks the fourth wall, as Archie accuses Jughead of always cracking wise as if he were on a radio show. I do believe that was well ahead of its time.

As as early sit-com, Archie often gets into and out of outlandish situations such as buying an elephant for five dollars, having his mother think he is mentally troubled due to the "Jive" talk he picks up from Jughead.

The really great thing is is how pure the sound is on the mp3's. I have a big collection of OTR Programs, and as good as they are they are still scratchy and pop. These programs sound like they were produced today. They are really clean, crisp, and pure. There is clearly a lot of work that has gone into restoring them.

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Cornball but fun	June 20, 2013
Reviewer: andy wood from west yorkshire, ENGLAND United Kingdom

It's an adolescent comedy, much the same as The Alridge Family (also available from Radio Archives). Yeah, the humour is pretty cornball and sometimes makes you groan - but it's nonetheless great fun and the sound quality is pretty much perfect!

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