This week: Alan M!
Last week I covered The Archies, and this week I'll be covering a related topic, namely Josie and the Pussycats. Interestingly, the story is very similar. Here's the way you'll read it on the internet:
Josie & The Pussycats was created by Hanna-Barbera to follow the success of The Archie Show. Originally they planned a show called Mysteries Five about a band that solves crimes, but the details of that series changed during pre-production, the band angle was dropped, and it became Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? But H-B still wanted a show like The Archie Show, so they went to Archie itself, took Josie, created Josie & The Pussycats, and added characters like Valerie and Alan M.
Again, that's the commonly accepted knowledge. But just like with The Archies, the dates just don't line up. Alan M (aka Alan M. Mayberry) first appeared in Josie #42, cover date August 1969 (actual date June 1969).
But Josie & the Pussycats wouldn't debut until September 1970. So again, just like The Archies, we have Alan M appearing in comics almost a year and a half before appearing on tv.
You might be thinking, "But Chad, maybe cartoons have a lot of lead time!" I considered that too. Thankfully, we have an idea of exactly how much lead time cartoons have. See, Scooby-Doo has been written about much more extensively than Archie or Josie have. So we know that the Mysteries Five concept didn't come about until "Sugar, Sugar" topped the charts. That song was released May 1969, Scooby-Doo premiered September 1969, so even with all the changes they made, it only took them four or five months to turn it around. Even if, for argument's sake, we say they started working on it when The Archie Show debuted, that would only give them a year. Still less than the gap between Alan M's appearances in comics and tv. It just doesn't make any sense.
If anyone has evidence to the contrary, let me know!
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