- How rich can you get?You'll never gonna know till you've met.This young boy. Richie Rich is his name.He's rich enough in the Rich Hall of Fame.His bank account is as rich as his name.That's rich. Richie Rich.—"The Richie Rich Show" Theme Song
Richie Rich is an animated cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera that first aired on the American Broadcasting Company in 1980, adapted from the Richie Rich comic book series by Harvey Comics. The series originally aired in various omnibus series with Scooby-Doo, The Little Rascals, Pac-Man and Monchhichis.
In the series, Richie Rich (Sparky Marcus), his girlfriend Gloria Glad (Nancy Cartwright), and his dog Dollar go on various adventures to stop criminals from stealing valuables and to foil the pranks of Richie's cousin Reggie Van Dough (Dick Beals).
The series is divided into 4 segments.
- Richie Rich Riches involves Richie and company trying to stop criminals from robbing the Rich family mansion.
- Richie Rich's Treasure Chest usually focuses on the escapades of Dollar or Cadbury.
- Richie Rich Gems are humorous 30-second shorts that tend to have a funny punchline at the end.
- Richie Rich's Zillion Dollar Adventures typically involves Richie and his friends thwarting off evil villains.
This animated series provides examples of:
- Age Lift: Richie, Gloria, and Reggie are presented as a few years older than their normal comic book counterparts.
- Broke Episode: "Wiped Out" involves Richie, Gloria and Reggie over hearing a conversation Richie's Dad was having on the phone where he states that he was "Totally wiped out". Richie felt that meant his Dad lost a huge portion of his fortune. So, Richie and his friends decide to help his Dad regain his fortune. However, Reggie plans to sell all of Richie's belonging to unsuspecting customers. When Dollar accidentally activates the pool's surfing device, he eventually went through a major "wipe out". After seeing the incident, Richie then has a "Eureka!" Moment when he remembered that his Dad was taking Surfing lessons the other day, and realized his Dad was just having trouble with the surfboard. After that, Richie then saw what Reggie was trying to do. Luckily, Richie managed to stop Reggie just in time. At the end of the episode, Richie and the gang were all quite successful in their business ventures, and Richie's Dad is starting to get the hang of his surfing lessons.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Richie wears a red sweater with a yellow "R".
- Cast as a Mask: When Dr. Disguise impersonated Gloria and Richie at different times in the cartoon, their respective voice actors (Nancy Cartwright and Sparky Marcus) voiced him in the relevant disguise.
- Crazy-Prepared: Richie seems to have a gadget or gizmo up his sleeve to deal with any contingency, more prevalent in the cartoon adaptation. (Most of them are invented by Professor Keenbean.) In one episode, when he and Reggie are held hostage by two thugs who searched and disarmed him, Richie improvises and uses Reggie's practical joke equipment to subdue them.
- Distressed Dude: One "Zillion-Dollar Adventures" cartoon had Jackie Jokers kidnapped with other celebrities, and Richie had to save them all.
- Do-Anything Robot: Irona is shown to be able to convert her body into almost anything to help out Richie and the gang. Such as turning into a steamroller, a rocket, and a jet plane
- Door Stop Baby: One episode had Richie and Dollar discovering a baby girl abandoned on his treehouse. It turns out the baby is actually a thief trying to rob the Rich family vault. Luckily, Richie managed to stop her and her henchman.
- Eyelash Fluttering: When Richie and Dollar go to the beach, Dollar meets a cute poodle who gives him a shy glance and bats her eyes—humorously, with a squeaking noise to accompany the gesture.
- Gotta Catch Them All: This was the sole aim of a recurring villain in the series, known as the Collector, when he first appeared.
- Idiosyncratic Wipes: This show uses a spinning dollar sign that zooms in. There are actually two versions. The first version appeared in some of the earlier episodes, and wasn't as detailed as the later, more familiar version.
- Imagine Spot: Dollar tends to have these at various times, which when he tries to act on them imperils his master and his friends.
- Insectoid Aliens: One episode had Richie, Irona and Dollar confronting an evil race of giant alien insects.
- Like a Daughter to Me: Professor Keenbean considers his most prized creation, Irona as this. This was best demonstrated in "The Irona Story", where Professor Keenben was saddened that Irona had to be sent away due her sudden malfunctions earlier in the episode.
- Not Me This Time: One of the episodes had Reggie, The Prankster, accused of a practical joke, and he used this line and that once it really wasn't.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: To deal with the property's deficit in female protagonists, the Hanna-Barbera series played up Irona as not only the Riches' Robot Maid, but also Richie's bodyguard with unlimited functions to use in his protection.
- Pull the Plug on the Title: The opening of The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show begins with the words "Richie Rich" flashing onscreen. Scrappy-Doo looks at the title with contempt, and he throws a switch revealing the rest of the title.
- Removable Animal Markings: A Running Gag is Dollar losing the dollar signs off his fur.
- Second Place Is for Winners: One cartoon episode had Irona compete against a robot butler, but be off by a penny when it came to calculations. When the money piled up is about to fall on Richie, the butler's salesman admits his robot wasn't made for rescue/lifesaving duties (which enables Mr. Rich to void the deal for the robot butler when Irona saves Richie).
- Short-Distance Phone Call: Inverted; while Richie and his dad are showing a guest around the mansion, the guest wants to say hi to Mom, and Richie picks up a phone. Then he asks for the long-distance operator.
- Sick Episode: "The Million Dollar Measles" has Richie getting the titular illness. Most of the episode involves Irona trying to prevent anyone from getting the illness from Richie. By the end of the episode, Richie started to feel better. However, Richie's dad suddenly got the Million Dollar Measles.
- Speech-Impaired Animal: Dollar, in the series.
- Spot the Imposter:
- One episode had Cadbury getting kidnapped and replaced with an impostor. Richie managed to discover the fake Cadbury by having him give Dollar a bath in the laundry room instead of Dollar's own bathroom.
- Another episode has two robbers dognapping Dollar and one of the robbers disguising himself as Dollar. Likewise, Richie was able to spot the imposter by having the fake Dollar eat ordinary dog food. Richie later explained that the Real Dollar would only eat more extravagant dog food.
- Time Travel Episode: Several episodes have Richie go back in time to various time periods. One episode had Richie time travel to Sherwood Forest, where he teams up with Robin Hood.
- Visual Pun: "Irona Versus Demona" begins with Irona washing the family's money in several washing machines; in other words, literal money "laundering".
