Richie Rich (1980 TV series)

Richie Rich
Richie Rich and Gloria, in a scene from Hanna-Barbera's Richie Rich series
Genre	Animation
Based on	Richie Rich by Alfred Harvey Warren Kremer
Directed by	Ray Patterson George Gordon Rudy Zamora Bob Hathcock (1982–84) Carl Urbano (1982–84)
Voices of	Dick Beals William Callaway Nancy Cartwright Al Fann Joan Gerber Christian Hoff Stanley Jones Sparky Marcus Frank Welker
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	41 (103 segments)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Producer(s)	Don Jurwich (1980–81) Oscar Dufau (1982–84)
Production company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions
Distributor	Taft Broadcasting (original) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current)
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	November 8, 1980 – September 1, 1984

Richie Rich is a Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast on ABC from November 8, 1980 to September 1, 1984, based upon the Harvey Comics character of the same name. The series shared time slots with Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, The Little Rascals, Pac-Man and Monchhichis over its original four-year broadcast run. Many of the titles of segments were never revealed on air, but such titles were used in comic book issues then recently published at the time of production, but with a completely different storyline for the animated series.

In 1988, the series was re-broadcast as part of the weekend/weekday programming block The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.

Plot

This show details the various adventures of Richie Rich, his family, and his friends.

Segments

Richie Rich's adventures are sorted into different segments:

• Richie Rich Riches – This segment deals with threats to the Rich family or more specifically Richie.
• Richie Rich Treasure Chest – Segments that revolve around Dollar and/or Cadbury.
• Richie Rich Gems – Short segments for humor like the Wing Dings of Dastardly and Muttley in their Flying Machines. These segments were based on one-page comic book stories.
• Richie Rich Zillion-Dollar Adventures – This segment deals with Richie Rich and his friends fighting master criminals, aliens, and other threats to the world.

Adaptation changes

The animated series took a number of liberties from the original comics:

• Richie is depicted as slightly older, inconsistently voiced as a child between 10 and 13, and wears a red sweater with a large "R" on the front as well as long trousers. In the comics, he wears a black suit with a red bow tie and short pants.
• Gloria is shown as the same age as Richie and wears a white long-sleeved blouse, purple sweater or sweater vest and purple mini skirt. In the comics, she wore a bow in her hair and wore a white blouse with a short skirt supposedly made of tartan.
• Dollar is more anthropomorphized with Walter Mitty-like fantasies.
• Irona the Robot Maid is given a greater presence in the series with additional duties as Richie's personal bodyguard as seen in the "Zillion Dollar Adventures" segments. To fulfill that role, Irona can convert her body into various alternative modes as necessary. For instance, the moment she receives a summons from Richie, she would change her body into a jet plane mode and immediately fly to the boy.

Broadcast history

Richie Rich was originally broadcast in these following formats on ABC:

• The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show (November 8, 1980 – September 18, 1982)
• The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show (September 25, 1982 – September 3, 1983)
• The Monchhichis/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show (September 10, 1983 – September 1, 1984)

It later aired on CBS as reruns from January 11 to August 30, 1986, and then again from November 15 to December 27, 1986. The show was aired a lot in India, on Cartoon Network (India) and also on Pogo (TV channel) and the show was very popular in India.

Episodes

Cast

• Dick Beals – Reggie Van Dough
• Bill Callaway – Professor Keanbean
• Nancy Cartwright – Gloria Glad
• Joan Gerber – Irona the Robot Maid, Mrs. Rich
• Christian Hoff – Pee Wee, Freckles
• Stanley Jones – Mr. Rich, Cadbury the Butler
• Sparky Marcus – Richie Rich
• Robert Ridgely - Collector
• Frank Welker – Dollar the Dog, Dr. Blemish, Suavo

See also

• The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show
• The Pac-Man/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show
• The Monchhichis/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show

DVD release

On May 20, 2008, Warner Home Video released The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show: Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1.

External links

• Richie Rich on IMDb