This Filmation series from 1970, produced for CBS, featured Sabrina, the platinum blond teenage witch from The Archie Comedy Hour,note as well as her cat, Salem; her boyfriend, Harvey, and her two aunts, Hilda and Zelda. Yes, the same characters from Sabrina the Teenage Witch, but 20 years earlier.
Sabrina often visited Horrible Hall, which was home to her cousins, the Groovie Goolies: comic versions of classic monster types (vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster, mummies, etc.) who told jokes and played songs. It bore a hit single in 1970, "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)" by Daddy Dewdrop, the pseudonym of Dick Monda who composed the songs for the show. The single itself was slightly racy; the version on the cartoon was much more sanitized.
About a year later, the show would be split into its constituent halves and shown separately. In 1972, as an ABC Saturday Superstar Movie, the Groovie Goolies would appear in a bizarre Crossover with the Looney Tunes characters, entitled Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies.
This series provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Parodied in the song "Save Your Good Lovin' for Me" in that the girl chasing Hauntleroy in hopes of kissing him is an RC robot controlled by Batso and Ratso.
- The Lovesick Loveseat is this to Drac.
- Adaptational Nationality: Sabrina, Hilda and Zelda, who are American in most versions, seem to have become British based on their accents.
- Agony of the Feet: After being told to drop his toolbox anyplace, Ghoulihand accidentally drops it on Wolfie's foot.
- Wolfie accidentally drops one end of a barbell on Frankie's foot at the Muscle-leum.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Frankie has a pet dinosaur that acts like a dog, and is fittingly named "Rover".
- All Just a Dream: The events of "Witches' Golf Open" turn out to be a nightmare Sabrina was having, as the actual Witches' and Teachers' golf opens hadn't happened yet.
- Alternative Foreign Theme Song: The Japanese dub has this
as its theme song. - Animate Inanimate Object: Plenty of these dance in the song segments. Plus, the Goolies sometimes interact with objects such as the Lovesick Loveseat, the Kookie Mailbox and Ask-It Casket.
- Babysitting Episode: Sabrina looks after Hauntleroy, Batso and Ratso in "Child Care" and "Smog".
- Bad "Bad Acting": Frankie's performance as the elf in the "Shoemaker and the Elf" play starts like this.
- Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad: The witches have this viewpoint. Except for Sabrina and Zelda, who are often punished for being too nice.
- Balloon Belly: In the "Hansel and Gretel" story, the title characters (played by Wolfie and Frankie) get these after eating the witch's gingerbread house.
- Bandage Mummy:
- Ratso and Batso make Frankie this on a camping trip.
- In "Living Dolls", a shrunken Mummy makes Reggie this with bandages from the former's first aid kit.
- Mummy also does this to Drac to cover up the tear in his pants in one episode.
- The Lovesick Loveseat wraps Drac in bandages in another episode.
Mummy: I always knew Drac would make someone a nice mummy. - Baseball Episode: The Goolies play baseball in one sketch.
- Beach Episode: "Beached", from which the page image comes.
- Big, Thin, Short Trio: The Bare Bones Band and the Rolling Headstones consist of these.
- Bratty Half Pints: Batso and Ratso
- The same can also be said for Hauntleroy, such as when he sets up Batso and Ratso to get them in trouble.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Super Ghoul has, as his song says, a yellow "SG" on his chest.
- Butt-Monkey: Hauntleroy's often a foil for Ratso and Batso’s mean tricks.
- Canon Foreigner: The Groovie Goolies are spinoffs from Sabrina, but from her animated show, not her comic book series. The characters were owned by Filmation, and never appeared in Archie Comics.
- Catchphrase:
- Drac: "This place is driving me batty!"
- Frankie (after being struck by lightning): "I needed that!"
- Hagatha: Well, I'll be witched!
- Cheer Up Episode: One of the sketches in the twelfth episode of Groovie Goolies is about Ghoulihand trying to build replicas of the Sphinx and a pyramid to cheer up a homesick Mummy.
- Chummy Mummy: Mummy, obviously.
- Classical Music Is Boring: In the home movie of the Torture Chamber Music Society's concert, Dr. Jekyll and Hyde have fallen asleep listening to the music.
- Comedic Spanking: Batso and Ratso usually got this as punishment for their misbehavior, though it's happened to Hauntleroy a few times as well.
- In the home movie of Frankie's birthday party from his childhood, Ghoulihand spanks him as punishment for the damage his Super-Breath caused from blowing out the candles on his cake.
- Comedic Underwear Exposure: Drac and Frankie have each had the seats of their pants torn off on separate occasions.
- Cool Broom: Sabrina's ride had a big cushioned eggshell-like seat with a flower on top. (Aunt Zelda flew a vacuum cleaner.)
- Cross-Cast Role: In-Universe examples: A few FracturedFairyTales have Frankie in a drag role, such as Gretel, or the little girl who antagonizes Little Red Riding Wolf and his grandfather. The Goldilocks story has two examples in Goldilocks herself (Frankie again) and Mummy Bear (no points for guessing who).
- Crossover: In the aptly named Daffy Duck and Porky Pig Meet the Groovie Goolies.
- Cub Cues Protective Parent: While Frankie and Mummy are on a Beaster egg hunt, Frankie finds a green egg with pink spots, and they soon run afoul of a female dragon, named Smoky, whose child is in the egg.
- While Frankie goes birdwatching, he finds a nest with and egg inside and decides to sit on it to keep it warm. A mother pterodactyl soon shows up and gets angry at Frankie.
- Defanged Horrors: The Goolies are harmless monsters.
- Dem Bones: Boneapart and the Bare Bones Band.
- Desperate Plea for Home: Hauntleroy has one after he and Hagatha get shrunk inside the cookie jar in one sketch.
- Disguised in Drag: Sabrina casts a spell on Frankie disguising him as a woman to help him blend in at Riverdale High in "Rose-Colored Glasses".
- Drives Like Crazy: Wolfie in his Wolf Wagon. A home movie reveals that he's even been that way as a baby.
- Eat the Camera: Done at least once or twice with a red furry bat.
- "Everybody Laughs" Ending: "Rose-Colored Glasses" ends with Sabrina, Wolfie and Mummy laughing when Frankie, dressed as a woman, tells them that Mr. Weatherbee (who saw him as a beautiful woman through the eponymous glasses) asked him to the prom.
- Evil Redhead: Della. Her hair was brown in the comics.
- Evil Twin: Sabrina's cousin Damina, though she had black hair and a different voice.
- Extreme Omnivore: Orville the plant will eat just about anything. One episode has Wolfie and Frankie take him to the castle's gymnasium, only for Orville to devour all of the exercise equipment, then go skating for its life from the angry duo.
- Fan of the Underdog: Apparently Frankie is a huge fan of Looney Tunes No-Respect Guy Daffy Duck.
- Finishing Each Other's Sentences: Dr. Jekyll and Hyde have done this a few times.
- Flying Broomstick: Broomhilda, Hagatha's broom.
- Four-Fingered Hands: Averted with most characters, but played straight with Mummy, Tiny Tomb and Mama Casket.
- Fractured Fairy Tale: Hagatha's Bedtime Stories and Wolfie's Theater serve this purpose.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Drac and Bella
- Friendly Skeleton: Boneapart
- Glamour Failure: Witches cannot be photographed or filmed. One episode mentions that witches can drink a potion that allows them to be filmed but it is very risky to use.
- Here We Go Again!:
- After Frankie hounds Hagatha for tarantula turnovers while they're still cooking, and he accidentally ruins her cobweb casserole with a Pepper Sneeze, she decides to defrost some frozen fossils, which gets Wolfie's attention and he starts asking her whem the fossils will be ready, to her chagrin.
- At the end of "Big Deal", after all the trouble that ensued when Batso and Ratso dogsat Hot Dog, they offer to look after Mr. Weatherbee's parakeet while he goes on vacation. Sabrina even says the trope's name in response.
- Herr Doktor: Dr. Jekyll and Hyde talk with a German accent.
- Hiccup Hijinks: One episode had Sabrina get hiccups while she was at school, causing things to get crazy. She's eventually cured at home only for Aunt Zelda to get hiccups.
- Human Knot: The monster football game "wound up in a tie". And since the show ran on Hurricane of Puns, of course cue this trope.
- Hurricane of Puns: Puns run rampant throughout the show.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Sabrina. In her defense, witches are evil in this universe. One episode had her wish granted, but she relented when she had to contend with the local Alpha Bitch, who turned out to be Aunt Hilda in disguise.
- I Want My Mommy!: Hauntleroy reacts this way a few times after something awful happens to him. In one of those instances, he says it verbatim when Wolfie spanks him with a surfboard, after Hauntleroy is mistaken for having stolen it.
- Impact Silhouette: Frankie leaves one in a wall in Dr. Jekyll and Hyde's office after a spring launches him from the chair he sat on.
- Ink-Suit Actor: It's often said that Drac is at least partly based off his voice actor Larry Storch.
- Ironic Echo: After Batso and Ratso make Frankie a Bandage Mummy while camping, and then start eating some Sudden-Fright chicken from the picnic casket, Frankie asks if he gets any, and they tell him that patients aren't allowed to eat and he might get grease spots on the bandages. Later, after Mummy's unraveling the bandages from Frankie leads to the boys getting tied to a tree, Frankie and Mummy are eating and, when asked to share the food, throw the twins' words back at them.
- Jekyll & Hyde: A variant on this trope is Dr. Jekyll and Hyde, a physician with two heads.
- Karloff Kopy: Howard Morris patterned Frankie's voice after Boris Karloff.
- Kneel, Push, Trip: Batso and Ratso do this to Super Ghoul twice in the song "Super Ghoul".
- Laser-Guided Karma:
- After Ratso and Batso increase the speed on the exercise bike at the Muscle-leum, giving Hauntleroy a wild ride, the bike chases the duo into a corner and spanks them with its pedals.
Frankie: Just as I said: a little paddling is good for you.- After Hauntleroy tricks Batso and Ratso into getting in Hagatha's cookie jar and shrinking, he takes the jar to a cupboard, only to slip off the stool and drop the jar, causing the duo to fly out and the jar to fly onto Hauntleroy and shrink him.
- Laugh Track: True in the Sabrina portion: An unusual example of a Magical Girl show having this feature (it never occurs in magical girl anime). Like many other 1970s American Saturday-morning cartoons, the series included a laugh track.
- Magic Mirror: Hagatha consults one in a few gags.
- Drac also asks one who the scariest monster is, only to get frightened by its ugly face.
- Magical Girl: The Sabrina portion of this Saturday-morning cartoon was the first American-made magical girl animated show, the first magical girl that is not a Pink Heroine, and the first magical girl show to air in the United States. When she was seen by the Japanese audiences, she was viewed as being the American counterpart of Sally.
- Mailman vs. Dog: Played with in one "Tell It to Bella" segment: Boneapart consults Bella on how to ward off dogs, and she gives him a suit to disguise himself, but unfortunately it's a mailman's uniform.
- Malaproper: "Rose-Colored Glasses" features two malapropisms in a row after Hilda asks the Goolies what she'll do with her bent glasses.Frankie: I know. You can get them fixed at an elpossumtrist.Mummy: Uh, he means "optommytrist".
- Meaningful Name:
- Boneapart frequently falls apart in accidents.
Boneapart: (after falling apart offscreen in one episode) That's me all over.- Batso and Ratso have ears and teeth like bats and rats, respectively.
- Mirror-Cracking Ugly: A mirror cracks after Hagatha asks it who the fairest of all is in one episode.Hagatha: Oh, that really shattered my ego.
- Misplaced Retribution: After Ratso and Batso steal Wolfie's surfboard and Hauntleroy tries to return it, Wolfie sees Hauntleroy and thinks he stole the surfboard, which Wolfie uses to spank him.
- Monster Mash: The Groovie Goolies portion features classic monsters from Dracula and Frankenstein, among others.
- Multiple Head Case: Dr. Jekyll and Hyde
- They make Boneapart and Mummy this when trying to reassemble them in one episode.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Frankie's voice is based off Boris Karloff (obviously), while Mummy has a voice very much like Ed Wynn (don't ya know!).
- No Plot? No Problem!: A typical episode of The Groovie Goolies would comprise random short unrelated sketches and gags involving the Goolies, along with two musical numbers.
- Nurse with Good Intentions: Mummy can come off as this when doing first aid, such as when he puts Boneapart together wrong in one episode.
- Pain-Powered Leap: Happens with Drac after getting stung by a bee.
- Also happens with Wolfie when Drac sticks a pin in a voodoo doll made in the former's likeness.
- Pie in the Face:
- Frankie gets one from the "baked Alaska" Hagatha made for dessert once.
- Wolfie gets one in "Rummage Sale".
- Pull a Rabbit out of My Hat: In a variation on this trope, one "Weird Window Time" segment features a joke where Mummy, doing a magic show, taps a hat with his wand, and a rabbit appears, and it turns him into a giant carrot.
- Quirky Doctor: Dr. Jekyll and Hyde are one.
- Rapid-Fire Comedy: A couple sections of each episode just consist of several jokes in a row: one being at the beginning of the first half, and the other being the "Weird Window Time" segment that opens the second half.
- Really 700 Years Old: The adult Goolies, at least, seem to be centuries or even millenia old, as a home movie of Frankie's 505th birthday party shows them as little tykes. Plus, a comment from Wolfie in another episode indicates that Mummy's at least 3 millennia old, and then there's the fact that Drac gets a check-up every thousand years.
- Red Riding Hood Replica: One of Wolfie's fairytale plays puts a spin on Little Red Riding Hood, with "Red Riding Wolf" contending with a little girl (played by Frankie) who tries to steal the food he brings to his grandpa (played by Drac).
- Ridiculously Alive Undead: Even the undead Goolies can eat and sleep, as well as feel pain or illness. In fact, the home movies showing when they were little imply they were born the kind of monsters they were, though how a skeleton like Boneapart can grow is anyone's guess.
- Rump Roast: In the "Beaster Egg Hunt" sketch, Smoky the dragon does this to Frankie after he takes her egg by mistake. Later, after the egg hatches, the baby dragon does it to Mummy several times while chasing him and Frankie.
- Ratso and Batso have Smoky the Dragon do this to Frankie on a camping trip.
- Running on All Fours: How Wolfie runs, naturally.
- Running Gag: Several:
- Frankie getting struck by lightning.
Frankie: I needed that!- Every episode opens with Drac, as a bat, trying to fly into Horrible Hall, only for the window to move, causing him to crash into the wall, turning back to normal in the process.
- Mummy getting unraveled.
- Boneapart falling apart in an accident.
- Ratso and Batso playing pranks on their fellow Goolies, and subsequently getting punished for it in some way, usually with spankings.
- Dr. Jekyll and Hyde fighting over who's who.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Frankie and Wolfie run from a swarm of bees after the hive falls onto the former's head.
- Secondary Adaptation: This cartoon is a Spinoff of The Archie Show, which was based on a radio show called The Adventures of Archie Andrews, which itself was based on the Archie Comics of The '40s.
- Shout-Out:
- Groovie Goolies in general has a similar format to the sketch comedy series Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, complete with "Weird Window Time" as a parody of the "Joke Wall".
- Boneapart's name and hat are an obvious nod to Napoleon Bonaparte.
- Hauntleroy's name and attire are a reference to Little Lord Fauntleroy.
- The Rolling Headstones is a pun on The Rolling Stones, while the Mummies and the Puppies are a nod to The Mamas & the Papas, complete with a mummy named Mama Casket. Likewise, Tiny Tomb, frontman of the latter band, is a play on Tiny Tim, not just in his name, but in his long hair and high-pitched voice as well.
- In addition, Tiny Tomb's song "Slip Slop Through the Swamp Weeds" parodies "Tiptoe Thru the Tulips", which was famously covered by Tiny Tim.
- Rolling Headstones members Hudson Rock, Captain Marble and Ulysses S. Granite are nods to Rock Hudson, Captain Marvel and Ulysses S. Grant.
- No points for guessing who Dr. Jekyll and Hyde are based on.
- Super Ghoul is an obvious take on Superman.
- The Headless Horseman comes to Bella for help in one episode.
- Bella La Ghostly's name is a pun on Bela Lugosi.
- Several puns are these, such as a TV show called "Bride and Gloom", and an actress named "Sofa Loren".
- Simpleton Voice: Big Ethel sounds like a female Bullwinkle.
- Sleepwalking: Wolfie does this when he's under the "Transylvanian Trance" in one episode.
- Sneaking Snacks: One of Ratso and Batso's favorite tricks.
- Stock Footage: Common, as in all Filmation series. Footage of vampires Drac and Bella would show up decades later on Filmation's Ghostbusters.
- Super-Breath: Frankie has this.
- Tempting Cookie Jar:
- One sketch has Hagatha enchant a cookie jar with a spell that will make Batso and Ratso shrink inside the jar when they try to steal the cookies.
- Hilda catches Drac, Wolfie, Mummy and Frankie stealing cookies from a jar in "Living Dolls".
- Tempting Fate: After Wolfie builds a garage for his Wolf Wagon, he says the garage will withstand anything, only for it to fall apart when a robin perches on it. Later, after Ghoulihand fixes the garage, he also says it will withstand anything, only for a butterfly to perch on the garage, causing it to break down again.
- Totally Radical: Wolfie often uses slang associated with beatniks and hippies.
- Totem Pole Trench: Hauntleroy, Batso and Ratso dress like a scientist this way in the "When I Grow Up" music video.
- Treasure Hunt Episode: One sketch involves Wolfie and Boneapart diving under the moat to search for treasure.
- True Blue Femininity: Sweet, demure Sabrina wears a simple blue dress.
- Unraveled Entanglement: Sometimes when Mummy gets unraveled, one of the other Goolies gets tangled up with him.
- Verbal Tic: Mummy's got one, y'know.
- Wolfie's speech is often punctuated with howls.
- Vocal Dissonance: Ratso has an unusually deep, gravelly voice for a child.
- Watch Out for That Tree!: Frankie warns Wolfie about this before the latter crashes his Wolf Wagon into a tree in one sketch.
- Weird World, Weird Food: A musical segment from the first Groovie Goolies episode sings about the Monster Cookbook with all kinds of bizarre recipes like chocolate meatballs, marshmallow tacos, peanut butter steak and more.
- Hagatha often cooks strange dishes, such as tarantula turnovers or cobweb chip cookies.
- Wicked Witch:
- Hilda and Zelda both had the traditional appearance, though it was belied by a kindly nature in Zelda's case.
- There's also Hagatha, one of the Groovie Goolies. She's not really evil...as far as the viewer knows, anyway...note
- Wonderful Werewolf: Wolfie
- Written Sound Effect: In one joke, the word "SHRIEK" comes screaming out of a box Hagatha opens.
- X-Ray Sparks: This happens to Frankie everytime he gets struck by lightning, although instead of bones, we see mechanical insides instead.
