Jughead Jones (more formally Forsyth Pendleton Jones III) is one of a close group of five teenagers who go to high school in mythical Riverdale, USA: Archie Andrews, Jughead, Betty Cooper, Veronia Lodge and Reggie Mantle. Archie Andrews became a favorite of comic books during World War II and by the early Fifties, he and his gang had their own comic books and digest-sized comic releases, as well as a popular comic strip in daily newspapers.Video fans will probably best know Jughead and the others for their animated TV show, The Archie Show (1968), which ran Saturday mornings on CBS-TV. In essence CBS had captured an even younger demographic than The Monkees had for NBC the year before, with the same idea of actors playing musicians in their own pop band, and singing their own songs in the band in the form of prerecorded video clips not unlike today's music videos. This in turn increased teen demand for The Archies' records. Only the critics seemed to mind that the singers were based on cartoon characters, not real people acting. On or off the bandstand, Archie, Jughead and pals were drawn (literally) from Bob Fontana's comic-book style of the Forties and early Fifties. This classic look with its googly eyes, heavy eyebrows, Archie's beat-up Model T jalopy, and even Jughead's enduring crown beanie were instantly recognizable, even to adults who hadn't picked up a comic in years.The show was very successful. The following year (1969) it expanded into the Archie Comedy Hour and along the way, one of The Archies' songs ( Sugar, Sugar ) actually made it to Number One on the charts! Other hits included Truck Driver, Jingle Jangle and Bang Shang A-Lang : the essence of bubblegum, in other words. Jughead played drums for The Archies. He was voiced in the series by Howard Morris but it is more likely his singing was supplied by a young Andy Kim. Buttressed by created-for-TV characters like Sabrina, The Teenaged Witch, Jug and pals interact humorously with their friends, high-school faculty and other Riverdale citizens. New directions arose from new themes ( Archie's Weird Mysteries ). What with Sabrina, the all-female band Josie and the Pussycats and new plot angles, Archie, Jughead and the others stayed on CBS through most of the Seventies.Jughead's character on DVD from the Archie TV shows is consistent with the comic persona his creators had been working out for the prior 25 years in comic strips and comic books: He is a lanky seventeen-year-old with terrible high-school grades, totally unattracted to women, yet he is friends on a platonic level with Betty Cooper. Archie Andrews is his best friend, and, relying on his cool approach and his smarts, Jughead has a knack for getting Archie out of trouble. In fact, Jughead Jones has one of the highest IQs at Riverdale High. All is not cerebral, though: in the Archie TV cartoons, as well as the Archie comics, plenty of comic mayhem and slapstick take place, and Jug gets in on the action along with everyone else.Jughead's major passion in life seems to be food, with a special place in his heart for hamburgers. He is sometimes embarrassed when it seems his family has less money than the other kids' families, but his credit is good with Archie and at Pop's Choklit Shoppe. Jughead owns a dog, a white English sheepdog named Hot Dog.In 1990 prime-time TV was ready for a non-animated show with thirtyish characters playing Archie and the gang; it was cleverly done (the plot revolved about the characters' all facing Riverdale High's fifteenth-year reunion), but it did not catch on. There is no shortage of Jughead on tape or DVD, though, and fans willing to explore his development in the print media of comic strips and (color) comic books will find an ocean of material starting back during World War II. In the meantime, TV-to-hardcopy cross-pollination has occurred: the comics and graphic novels have folded in many of the originally made-for-TV characters like Sabrina and Josie. The comics, both monthly and in collectible digests, are still going strong today (2009). - A.Smalling. Show less «