Children Applaud 'Generation O!'

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Roll over, Josie, and tell the Pussycats the news. <br><br>It's time for Molly O!, the spiritual successor to the cartoon rockers of the distant past â€” but, like, totally younger

Thursday, December 28th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) â€” Roll over, Josie, and tell the Pussycats the news.

It's time for Molly O!, the spiritual successor to the cartoon rockers of the distant past â€” but, like, totally younger and totally hipper than The Archies and their animated ilk.

Eight-year-old Molly's got a manager named the Colonel (Bobb, not Parker), a guitarist known as Eddie (actually Edwina, but she's got an Eddie Van Halen fixation), and a kangaroo drummer dubbed Yo-Yo (for reasons unclear).

Once a week on the Kids' WB â€” generally Friday afternoons â€” Molly and her friends come out to play.

LOUDLY.

The show, simply titled ``Generation O!'', debuted this fall to critical and kiddie applause.

Why? A more innovative approach to making the music more important than it once was. Each episode features an original song, complete with animated video, mingled in with the story line.

``With Josie & the Pussycats or The Archies, the music was completely an add-on,'' explained executive producer Ken Olshansky. ``There was a generic story, then a song added in, then a generic story.''

Not so on ``Generation O!''

``We try to make the songs part of the story,'' Olshansky continued. ``We want to add another dimension, to integrate the songs into the story we were telling.''

Those stories, mostly targeted for grammar-school-aged girls, touch on everything from bed-wetting to overbearing siblings (an older brother, natch). An education adviser offered tips to the writers.

In ``Pierced Ear,'' Molly must deal with being the only rock star in all creation without a single piercing (her mom says no pierced ears until age 15!).

In ``You Copied,'' Molly is unfairly accused of plagiarizing another band's song. ``Bedtime Blues'' tells the tale of Molly's invitation to appear on ``Saturday Night Live.''

Yes, as the last story shows, Molly rocks. Or at least the real band behind Molly does; rather than a Partridge Family arrangement, with session musicians and phony backup vocals, an actual band â€” the Boston-based Letters to Cleo â€” provides Molly's tunes.

Letters to Cleo lead singer Kay Hanley does the singing voice for Molly on songs such as her sonic assault on big brother Buzz, ``Girls Rule,'' or the my-lobes-are-so-lonely lament of ``Pierced Ears.''

``Girls Rule'' has even scored some play on college radio stations with its snappy lyric: ``Girls are just plain better!''

While that's nothing new for Hanley, whose music has appeared in films and on television, it's quite a breakthrough for a fictional kid singer with a taste for chocolate chip cookies, pink limousines and her own Web site.

Molly's three creators were actually men: Jim Proimos, Tim Newman, and David Hale.

``All three guys shared certain interests â€” including the fact they have daughters with big personalities,'' Olshansky said. Hale credited his daughter, 8-year-old Isabel, as the inspiration for Molly.

And Proimos credited his 13-year-old daughter, Annie, for bringing Letters to Cleo aboard. Annie, a huge fan of the band, launched an e-mail writing campaign to the show's staff urging the band's hiring.

The band was chosen out of two dozen under consideration. Hanley had just delivered a baby and was looking forward to some time off the road when the offer was made, but she jumped at it.

``Annie won,'' Olshansky said with a laugh.

Olshansky said the show is definitely a tip of the hat to the original animated rockers of the '60s and '70s, from the Jackson 5 and the Beatles cartoons to the made-for-TV Josie and the Pussycats and the Archies.

``We've taken the best of all of them, with a little of the Monkees thrown in,'' Olshansky explained. ``It's interesting to see a bunch of grown-ups in impassioned arguments about the Monkees:

''`I don't want the same approach as the Monkees.'

''`But a lot of people LIKE the Monkees.'''

The show has one other strange little twist. After finishing her duties for season one of ``Generation O!'', Hanley recorded five songs for use in an upcoming movie.

The film? A live-action version of ``Josie and the Pussycats.''

â€”â€”â€”

Elsewhere in television ...

SHAPE UP: There is a certain irony, of course, to a television network celebrating physical fitness with an activity designed to get you to lie on the couch with a remote control. But that's what A&E Network is doing next week with its ``Biography'' series. It's presenting a special ``Shape Up Week'' with profiles of fitness and weight-loss gurus. The series starts at 8 p.m. ET on New Year's Day with Richard Simmons. For the rest of the week, other subjects are Marilu Henner, Raquel Welch, Weight Watchers and Angela Lansbury. Don't just sit there! Watch TV!