Archie's Weird Mysteries

Archie's Weird Mysteries is an American animated children's television program, based on the 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. The show is distributed as meeting the FCC's educational and informational children's programming ("E/I") requirements, and is used by commercial stations in the United States to meet this guideline. Produced by DIC Entertainment, the show was initially shown mornings on the PAX network, often with infomercials bookending the program. The following season, its repeats were syndicated to television stations throughout the US, as a way to comply with mandatory E/I regulations.

Main

 * Archie Andrews, a redhead student at Riverdale High, reporter for the school newspaper
 * Betty Cooper, a smart girl-next-door who is sweet, caring and in love with Archie and is best friends and rivals with Veronica.
 * Veronica Lodge, a spoiled rich girl who is also in love with Archie and is best friends and rivals with Betty.
 * Jughead Jones, a funny, quirky guy who loves food and is best friends with Archie. He does not like girls except for Betty. He sees Betty as a friend. He and Veronica are usually at each other's throats.
 * Reggie Mantle, a self-confident jock who has a crush on Veronica and is frenemies with Archie.
 * Dilton Doiley, a nerdy genius who usually helps Archie and the gang save the day.

Supporting

 * Mr. Waldo Weatherbee - Principal of Riverdale High
 * Lucinda - Practices voodoo magic; provides advice to Archie when he needs it regarding the supernatural; creates potions for those individuals in love.
 * Pop Tate - Owner and operator of the "Pop Tate" shop.
 * Mr. Fisk - 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 go to press as doing so would destroy his company and many new jobs for Riverdale.
 * Dr. Beaumont - Caretaker and owner of an odds/super natural/curiosity store. Provides advice to Archie and friends as he solves Weird Mysteries.
 * Ms. Geraldine Grundy - Also known as "Ms. Grundy". The teacher of Archie Andrews, Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, Jughead Jones, and Reggie Mantle. She is interested or in love with Mr. Waldo Weatherbee or Mr. Weatherbee.

Selected monsters, ghosts, and other supernatural characters

 * a sea monster, who lives in an old Riverdale swimming hole
 * a mummy in a museum exhibit
 * werewolf sheriff
 * mad scientists
 * A 50-foot Veronica
 * vampires
 * giant beetle
 * UFOs
 * zombies
 * "Stanley 9000" (a processor)
 * mutant crocodile
 * man-eating worm
 * super smart rats
 * super smart teen (in Brain Of Terror)
 * giant cockroaches
 * Tapioca Pudding Glob
 * alien potatoes
 * Insane artificial intelligence in Archie's car alarm
 * Ancient wish-granting artifacts gone haywire
 * Ghost Of Quiet Violet - she used to a very strict librarian when Jughead was young. She scared Jughead so much when he was young that he stopped going to the library. As a ghost, she haunts the library.
 * Monster "Archie" – Archie gets turned into a monster when he drinks a new energy drink called "Zoom".
 * Monster "Stevenson" – Stevenson, a health and workout advocate, gets turned into a monster when he drinks a new energy drink called "Zoom".
 * Genie - escapes from an urn in Dr. Beaumont's store into Archie's laptop. Reggie, in turn, uses the laptop and is granted three wishes; after which, the Genii is set free and begins to wreak havoc on the city.
 * Reggie Droid
 * Evil Trog's Leader and his Trogs in Virtually Evil.
 * Mega-Mall of Horrors
 * Maria Nacht- she haunted Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Jughead in their dreams
 * Arnie- haunted Big Ethel in her dreams

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.

Comics
An ashcan comic book tie-in also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries, written by Paul Castiglia, pencilled by Bill Golliher, and inked by Rick Koslowski was published in 1999. This lead into a February 2000 launch for an ongoing, regular-sized series (also titled Archie's Weird Mysteries) with the same creative team. "Weird" was dropped from the title with issue 25 (signaling the end of the tie-in with the TV show) and the series was canceled with issue 34 after 10 issues of doing straight mystery stories with no supernatural or science-fiction components.

DVD releases
On July 22, 2011, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment had acquired the rights to release the series (under license from Cookie Jar Entertainment). They subsequently released Archie's Weird Mysteries - The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time on February 21, 2012. They also released a 10 episode best-of collection on the same day.

In Region 2, Anchor Bay Kids Entertainment released 2 volume collections on DVD in the UK in 2004. Each volume contains 4 episodes from the series. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In 2005, Boulevard released 2 single disc collections containing two episodes each. These releases have been discontinued and are now out of print. In Region 4, MRA Entertainment released 6 volume collections featuring 18 episodes of the series on DVD in Australia in 2005. These releases are now out of print.

The Archies in Jugman
In 2002, the movie The Archies in Jugman was released. It features the same character designs in different clothes, most of the same crew and voice cast, and the similar theme of weird events happening in Riverdale. It premiered on television on Nickelodeon Sunday Movie Toons and was released on DVD and VHS shortly afterward by MGM Home Entertainment. In 2008, Gaiam Entertainment re-released the movie and all of the other DIC Sunday Movie Toons films on DVD.