Chapter 20: American Responses to the British Invasion
The popularity of The Monkees in the late 1960s sparked a wave of television shows that featured fictional rock bands, blending pop music with entertainment aimed at young audiences. This trend continued into the 1970s with shows that ranged from live-action sitcoms to cartoons and costumed variety programs. One of the most notable successors was The Partridge Family (1970–1974), which centered on a single mother and her five children who form a touring pop band. The show starred Shirley Jones and her real-life stepson David Cassidy, who quickly became a teen idol. While the actors portrayed a musical family on screen, the show's music was recorded by session musicians known as The Wrecking Crew, with Cassidy providing the lead vocals. Their debut single, “I Think I Love You,” became a massive hit, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1970.
Unlike the Monkees and the Partridge Family, many later made-for-TV bands were animated or performed by actors in full-body costumes—likely because cartoon characters wouldn’t demand royalties or fight for creative control. The Banana Splits Adventure Hour (1968–1970), produced by Hanna-Barbera, featured four costumed animal characters—Fleegle the beagle, Bingo the ape, Drooper the lion, and Snorky the elephant—who formed a psychedelic pop band. The show blended musical segments with live-action skits and animated adventures. Their theme song, “The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana),” even cracked the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969, reflecting how television music could cross over into mainstream pop.
Another major example was The Archie Show (1968–1969), an animated series based on the popular Archie comic books. The show followed the high school escapades of Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and Reggie, who also performed as a band called The Archies. Music producer Don Kirshner—previously involved with the Monkees—created the project to maintain control over the music. Songs were written by hitmakers like Jeff Barry and Andy Kim and recorded by session musicians. The Archies’ bubblegum pop single “Sugar, Sugar” became a surprise hit, reaching No. 1 in 1969 and becoming one of the best-selling songs of the year. Despite being entirely fictional, The Archies proved that a cartoon band could top the charts.
Perhaps the most surreal entry in the genre was Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp (1970–1971), a spy-themed comedy show in which all the characters were played by chimpanzees dressed in costumes and dubbed over by human voice actors. The show featured a band called The Evolution Revolution, an all-chimp musical group that performed original songs within the show’s episodes. Though they didn’t have chart-topping hits, the band contributed to the show’s absurdist, genre-blending appeal.
These television bands reflected a broader cultural moment in which rock and roll it had grown into a cross-media enterprise. Fictional characters could become pop stars, cartoons could generate hit singles, and television became a powerful platform for marketing music to young viewers. This phenomenon marked a new phase in pop culture, where the boundaries between entertainment formats blurred and music became inseparable from its visual packaging.