NOT AN EXAMPLE: The Archies

Not An Example is a new, sporadic feature where I showcase characters and concepts that are commonly thought to be canon immigrants but really aren't.

I originally created this blog to fill a niche. There was no definitive list of canon immigrants on the internet. But to be the definitive list, I wanted my information to be as specific as possible. There was a lot of vague and wrong information out there, so it wasn't enough for me to say "Harley Quinn was created for Batman: The Animated Series and then showed up in comics"; I wanted dates, titles, and pictures of those appearances to show my work and for other people to be able to correct me if my information was wrong.

I've seen people mention canon immigrants that are flat-out wrong, and so far I've simply ignored them. But after so many years, I've decided I can no longer do that. I will never be able to include every example, so not being featured doesn't necessarily mean it's not a canon immigrant, it could just mean I haven't come across it yet. So starting with this entry, I'll also be debunking ones that are cited as canon immigrants but aren't.

I can't think of a better example to start with than The Archies.

The Archies were a band made up of Archie Andrews and his friends, which performed each episode on The Archie Show (1968). The Archies are famous for having a real #1 hit that people still know today: "Sugar, Sugar".

There isn't much information about The Archie Show online, but most of it will tell you that the producers wanted to recreate the success of The Monkees, so Filmation turned the Archie characters into a band.

Here's the thing about that, though: The Archie Show debuted in 1968. Most sites say September, Wikipedia says June. No one ever cites their source. But for sake of argument, let's go with June.

When did The Archies first appear in comics? Life With Archie #60, cover date April 1967. And that's the cover date! So the actual date was really January or February 1967. Which means it was written in 1966.

The Archies debuted a year and a half before The Archie Show first aired on television. We've seen things immigrate to comics before their actual first appearance, but usually the window is a few months. Renee Montoya and White Tiger were six months. Aqualad and Nova were five. Others were shorter and maybe others still were a little longer (although I can't think of any). But a year and a half? That's just not believable to me. Even taking into account production lead time - writing, casting, animation, etc - this would mean The Archie Show was in pre-production for two years before it aired. There are blockbuster movies that aren't in pre-production for that long.

Here's another thing that's important to note: as I mentioned earlier, conventional wisdom states that they wanted a band on The Archie Show to replicate the success of The Monkees. They even hired the person behind The Monkees, Don Kirshner, to find the talent. But The Monkees didn't premiere until September 1966. Their first single, "Last Train to Clarksville", didn't hit the airwaves until October 1966. It debuted at #18 and hit #1 almost exactly a month later. Their next single, "I'm a Believer", was released a week after that but didn't hit the Billboard charts until December, and didn't reach #1 until the last week of 1966. I can't find Nielsen ratings for The Monkees, but since they would mostly go by November Sweeps, I would say December 1966 is the earliest they could've realized they had a bona fide cross-media hit on their hands. And again, the first appearance of The Archies was only a month or two after that.

In short, the time frame just doesn't make sense and The Archies are original to the comics.

If anyone has evidence to the contrary, let me know!