Richie Rich (1980 TV series)

Richie Rich is a Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and was 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. 13 half-hours were produced, split into segments of 12, 7 and 4 minutes.

Many of the titles of segments were never revealed on air, but the titles were used in comic book issues then recently published at the time of production.

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

The series was also the voice acting debut for Nancy Cartwright who has since become better known as the voice of Bart Simpson.

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. While Dr. Blemish appeared in one episode, some episodes have an exclusive villain called the Collector as a recurring enemy.

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 14, 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 blue short pants.
 * Gloria is shown as the same age as Richie and wears a white long-sleeved a blouse, pantyhose, 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. Dollar is similar to Scooby-Doo.
 * 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 the same year.

Season 4 – The Monchhichis/Little Rascals/Richie Rich Show

 * Only Zillion-Dollar Adventures were produced for this season.

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

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