Scooby-Doo

   

"Scooby-doo" is also British naval divers' slang for "civilian sport scuba diver".

Scooby-Doo is an important character in animation up to this day
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Scooby-Doo is an important character in animation up to this day

Scooby-Doo is a long-running animated series produced for television by Hanna-Barbera Productions from 1969 to 1986, 1988 to 1991, and from 2002 to the present day. Originally broadcast on CBS (1969-1976), and then on ABC (1976-1986, 1988-1991), it is currently broadcast on the WB Network during the Kids WB programming block. Repeats of the older seasons are broadcast frequently on Cartoon Network in the USA and other countries.

Though the format the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, basic setup of the show features a Great Dane named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers (from whom the contemporary reggae artist Shaggy took his name), who all drive around in a van called the "Mystery Machine" and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation (usually a criminal of some sort attempting to scare people away so that he/she could commit crimes).


Creation and development

Starting in 1968, a number of parental watchdog groups began vocally protesting what they perceived as an excessive amount of gratuitous violence in Saturday morning cartoons during the mid-to-late 1960s. Most of these shows were action cartoons such as Space Ghost and The Herculoids, and virtually all of them were cancelled by 1969 because of pressure from the watchgroups. Members of these watchgroups had begun to serve advisors to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that their new programs would be safe for children. In 1968, then-CBS executive in charge of children's programming Fred Silverman was looking for a show that would revitalize his Saturday morning lineup and please the watchdog groups at the same time. The result was The Archie Show, based upon Bob Montana's teenage humor comic book Archie. Also successful were the musical numbers The Archies performed during each program (on of which, Sugar Sugar, hit #1 on the Billboard pop chart in September 1969). Silverman was eager to expand upon this success, and contacted producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera about possibly creating another show based around a teenage rock-group, but with an extra element: the kids would solve mysteries in-between their gigs. Silverman envisioned the show as a sort of cross between the popular I Love a Mystery radio serials of the 1940s and the popular early 1960s TV show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Hanna and Barbera passed this task along to two of their head storymen, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Their original concept of the show bore the title Mysteries Five, and featured five teens (Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, and Linda's brother "W.W.") and their dog, Too Much, who were all in a band called "The Mysteries Five" (even the dog; he played bongos). When "The Mysteries Five" weren't performing at gigs, they were out solving spooky mysteries involving ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. Ruby and Spears couldn't decide whether to make their dog a large goofy Great Dane or a big shaggy sheepdog. After consulting with Barbera on the issue, Too Much was finally set as a Great Dane, primarily to avoid a direct correlation to The Archies (who had a big shaggy sheepdog, Hot Dog, in their band).

By the time the show was ready for presentation by Silverman, a few more things had changed: Geoff and Mike were merged into one character called Ronnie (later re-named Fred), Kelly was renamed to Daphne, Linda was now called Velma, and Shaggy (formerly W.W.) was no longer her brother. Also, Silverman, not being very fond of the name Mysteries Five, had rechristened the show Who's S-S-Scared? Using storyboards, presentation boards, and a short completed animation sequence, Silverman presented Who's S-S-Scared? to the CBS executives as the centerpiece for the upcoming 1969-1970 season's Saturday morning cartoon block. The executives felt that the presentation artwork was far too frightening for young viewers, and, thinking the show would be the same, decided to pass on it.

Now without a centerpiece for the upcoming season's programming, Silverman turned to Ruby and Spears, who reworked the show to make it more comedic and less frightening. They dropped the rock band element, and began to focus more attention on Shaggy and Too Much. According to Ruby and Spears[1] (http://www.rubyspears.com/scooby.html), Silverman was inspired by an ad-lib he heard in Frank Sinatra's song "Strangers in the Night" on the way out to one of their meetings, and decided to rename the dog "Scooby-Doo" and re-rechristened the show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The new and improved show was re-presented to CBS executives, who greenlit it for production.

The CBS years

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered on 13 September 1969 at 10:30 AM EST and ran for two seasons on CBS as a half-hour long show. It was a huge ratings success, and 25 episodes were ultimately produced (17 in 1969- 1970 and 8 more in 1970- 1971). The show's famous theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raliegh and performed by Mook (studio musical supervisor Hoyt Curtin had written a theme for Who's S-S-Scared? that was used over the episode title cards, and in the opening and closing credits for a few of the first season episodes). The second season featured "chase scene" songs produced by La La Productions (which had originally been contracted to create the music for Josie and the Pussycats, the first of many shows made from the same mold as Scooby). These songs were written by Danny Janssen and Austin Roberts, and were performed by Roberts (who also sings the theme song for the second season episodes).

The plot varied little from episode to episode, running as follows:

  • Our heroes turn up in the Mystery Machine, for some harmless reason
  • Their destination is suffering from a "ghost" or "monster" problem... which turns out to be a cover for criminal activity
  • The person in the ghost or monster suit turns out to be an apparently blameless authority figure who is unmasked by the Scooby Gang

Scooby and Shaggy in particular love to eat. They eat many various foods, including "Scooby Snacks".

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was a breakaway hit for Hanna-Barbera and CBS, and by the time they produced the second series based upon the character, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Hanna-Barbera had produced three other teenager-based shows that were very similar to Scooby in concept and execution: Josie and the Pussycats (1970) (which resurrected the idea of the rock band to the teenage-crime-fighter formula), The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971) (which re-imagined the toddlers from The Flintstones as high-school students), and (the most blatant Scooby clone), The Funky Phantom (also 1971), which featured three teens, a real ghost and his ghostly cat solving spooky mysteries).

The New Scooby-Doo Movies

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (sometimes called The New Scooby-Doo Comedy Movies) premiered on CBS Saturday mornings in the fall of 1972. Now running for a full hour, each of the 24 episodes of this series (16 in 1972- 1973 and 8 more in 1973- 1974) featured a special guest star, who would help the gang solve the mystery of the week. Some of these guest stars were living celebrities who provided their own voices (Don Knotts, Jonathan Winters, Sandy Duncan, Tim Conway, and Sonny and Cher, among others); some were dead celebrities whose voicing was done by imitators (The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy), and the rest were fictional present or future Hanna-Barbera characters (the characters from The Harlem Globetrotters (1970), Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie (1973), and Speed Buggy (also 1973) all appeared on the show after or during their own shows' original runs; The Addams Family and Batman and Robin both appeared on the show a year before they were incorporated into Hanna-Barbera shows of their own -- The Addams Family and SuperFriends, both 1973).

The Scooby clones and the move to ABC

Having established a successful formula, Hanna-Barbera then proceeded to repeat it ad infinitum. Besides the aforementioned Josie, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, Funky Phantom, Jeannie, and Speed Buggy; The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972), Goober and the Ghost Chasers and Inch High, Private Eye (both 1973)), Clue Club and Jabberjaw (both 1976), Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (1977), Buford and the Galloping Ghost (1978), and the Pebbles, Dino, and Bamm-Bamm segments of The Flintstone Funnies (1980) all involve groups of teenagers solving mysteries or fighting crime in the same vein as Scooby-Doo, usually with the help of a wacky animal, ghost, etc. Some of these shows even used the same voice actors and score cues. Even outside studios got in on the act: when Joe Ruby and Ken Spears left Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1977 and started Ruby-Spears Productions, their first cartoon was Fangface, yet another mystery-solving Scooby clone. Some fans lament these spinoffs and feel they detract from the original appeal of the show.


The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Hour

During the 1970s, however, kids apparently couldn't get enough of mystery-solving teenagers, and the imitators successfully coexisted alongside Scooby on Saturday mornings. Most of the mystery-solving Hanna-Barbera shows made before 1975 were featured on CBS, and when Fred Silverman moved from CBS to ABC in 1975, the mystery-solving teenagers followed him, with the Scooby-Doo gang making their ABC debut in 1976 as part of The Scooby-Doo / Dynomutt Hour. This hour-long package show featured 16 new half-hour adventures in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! format, with Scooby's country cousin, the Mortimer Snerd- inspired Scooby-Dum joining the gang as a semi-regular character. The other half of the hour was filled by Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, a new Hanna-Barbera cartoon about a superhero named Blue Falcon and his goofy mechanical canine sidekick, Dynomutt. The Scooby-Doo gang made guest appearances in three of the Dynomutt, Dog Wonder segments.


Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics / Scooby's All-Stars

In 1977, ABC offered a programming block called Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, The Scooby-Doo segment of this two-hour block included 8 new episodes of Scooby-Doo (two of which guest starred Scooby's female cousin, Scooby-Dee, and many of the others featuring Scooby-Dum), plus reruns from the 1976 - 1977 season.

The name of the block was changed to Scooby's All-Stars for the 1978 - 1979 season, when the program was shortened to an hour and a half. 16 more half-hours of Scooby-Doo (featuring just the original five characters) where produced for this season.


Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood

1979 saw the debut of Scooby's first television special, Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood, which premiered on ABC in prime time on 13 December of that year. A musical-based parody of both the by-then infamous Scooby-Doo formula and of Hollywood in general, the storyline centered on Shaggy convincing Scooby that the both of them deserve better than being stars in what he considers a low-class Saturday morning show, and attempts to pitch a number of potential prime-time shows to network executive "C.J." (voiced by Rip Torn), all of which are parodies of then-popular TV shows and movies such as Superman, Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, and Charlie's Angels. Caught in the middle of this entire ordeal are Fred, Daphne, Velma, and also Scooby's loyal Saturday morning fan base; all of whom convince Scooby to come back to his Saturday morning TV show.


Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo

By 1979, the staff at Hanna-Barbera realized that the Scooby-Doo formula was getting worn out (which gave them reason to parody it in Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood). Therefore, for its 1979 - 1980 season, Scooby-Doo was given a major overhaul, adding the character of Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo and changing the name of the show to Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Unlike his large, clumsy, mush-mouthed, and cowardly uncle, Scrappy was small, sure-footed, articulate, and fearless; he would often attempt to take the task of capturing the ghost of the week into his own hands, forcing Shaggy and Scooby to try their best to save Scrappy from hurting himself. Although still present in these episodes, the characters of Fred, Daphne, and Velma became less and less essential to the plot of each episode.


The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show

Although Scrappy-Doo's character is today scorned by most Scooby fans, his addition to the show gave the it the ratings boost it needed, and for the 1980-1981 season, the show was completely overhauled into more of a purely comedy-based show. In three 7-minute segments, Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy went on humorous adventures that pitted them against "real" supernatural forces. Fred, Daphne, and Velma were nowhere to be found, and neither was the mystery aspect of the show. These new short Scooby episodes were presented as one-half of the package program The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show, and reruns of the 1979 - 1980 episodes were alternated with the newer episodes.


Because of a massive animators strike, no new Scooby-Doo episodes were produced for the 1981-1982 season. Instead, Hanna-Barbera repackaged reruns from previous seasons under the title Scooby-Doo Classics. From this point until the demise of the series, there was always a package of Scooby reruns on ABC's Saturday morning lineup.


The Scooby-Doo/Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour

The 1982-1983 season brought a Hanna-Barbera/Ruby-Spears co-production, The Scooby-Doo/Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. Hanna-Barbera produced new 7-minute episodes of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, which featured Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy traveling across the country as the "Fearless Detective Agency," attempting to solve mysteries (most of which were more typical spy or criminal cases, instead of the original ghosts-and-monsters setup), and Ruby-Spears produced episodes of The Puppy's New Adventures, featuring their character of Petey the Puppy. In addition, Hanna-Barbera contributed a back-up segment called Scrappy and Yabba-Doo', which featured Scrappy-Doo having Western-based adventures with his uncle Yabba-Doo , and Yabba's master, Deputy Dusty.


The final years

The All-New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show

For the 1983-1984 season, broadcast under the title The All-New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show, the show was re-overhauled, in an attempt to combine the most successful elements of both formats of the show. Daphne was added back to the cast, and she, Shaggy, and the dogs solved supernatural mysteries under the cover of being reporters for a teen magazine. Each half-hour program was made up of two 11-minute episodes, which would upon occasion be two parts of one half-hour long episode. The second season of this format, broadcast as The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (1984-1985), continued the same format, and, as an added bonus, included episodes featuring Fred and Velma, both absent from the series for five years.


The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo

The final season (1985-1986) of the original Scooby-Doo show was presented under the title The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, wich attempted to give the show a darker, more contemporary feel. Daphne and Shaggy were given redesigns to fit them into the mid-1980s style, and they were joined by Scooby, Scrappy, a young Chinese con-artist called Flim-Flam, and a warlock mentor, Vincent Van Ghoul, voiced by and based upon Vincent Price.

The plot of this series was an ongoing one, which chronicled the gang's attempts to recapture the thirteen most terrifying ghosts and monsters on the face of the earth. The show featured a lot of self-parody, pop culture references, and fourth-wall-breaking gags, typical of Looney Tunes shorts; this was the influence of associate producer Tom Ruegger, who would later go on to produce A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs.

13 episodes of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo were produced. The show was cancelled by ABC in March 1986 and replaced with re-runs of Laff-a-Lympics. No new Scooby series was there to take its place that September, but Hanna-Barbera produced three feature-length TV-movies in the late-1980s featuring Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy (see listing below).


A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

In 1988, ABC brought Scooby-Doo back in a completely new format. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo followed the trend of the "babyfication" of older cartoon characters, reducing the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You! cast to junior-high age. This new show also used the same basic formula as the original 1969 show: the gang solved supernatural-based mysteries, where the villains were always revealed as bad guys in masks and costumes. The biggest difference was the tone of the show: A Pup Named Scooby-Doo built upon the slightly irreverent humor of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and went on from there. This resulted in a wackier, more extremely comic version of Scooby-Doo: it was not uncommon for the characters to do wild Bob Clampett-esque takes when they ran into ghosts, Fred was constantly blaming a character appropriately called "Red Herring" for each and every crime on the show, and shots of the characters (and even the monsters) dancing were inserted into the obligatory rock-music-scored chase sequences. The monsters themselves were also more comedic, such as a creature made out of molten cheese, and the ghost of a dogcatcher.

The characters themselves were general parodies of their "grown-up" incarnations: Freddy was portrayed as a conspiracy theory and tabloid-loving goof with little leadership skill, Daphne as a spoiled and vain rich girl with a butler at her constant beck and call, and Velma as a generally silent child prodigy who spoke mostly to point out clues and solve the case. Shaggy's and Scooby's characters remained relatively intact.

The show lasted until 1991 on ABC, and was the first Scooby series to be re-run on the Cartoon Network, in 1993. The other Scooby series followed suit in 1994, which caused a resurgence in the popularity of the show and the character, resulting in VHS and DVD releases of the series, brand-new direct-to-video features (see listing below), two live-action feature film adaptations, comic books, and a wealth of other merchandise.


What's New, Scooby-Doo?

In the fall of 2002 a new Scooby-Doo series premiered on the Kids' WB Network. The show, What's New Scooby Doo? was later picked up by Cartoon Network as well. With Don Messick's retirement in 1996 (he died the following year), Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, took over as Scooby's voice as well. The new show follows the same format as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, updated somewhat for the 21st century.


The Scooby influence

The show is responsible for many pop-culture catchphrases, such as "Scooby Snacks" and "if it weren't for you meddling kids I'd have gotten away with it" (alternatively, "I would've got away with it if it wasn't for those pesky kids!"), traditionally said by the culprit when caught. The question of Velma's name (Velma or Thelma) has even been the subject of Internet polls.

Subsequent television shows and films often make reference to Scooby-Doo, for example Wayne's World and the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which Buffy and her monster-slaying friends refer to themselves as the "Scooby Gang" or "Scoobies", a knowing reference to Scooby-Doo. (Coincidentally, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Buffy, later played Daphne in the live-action movie.) Even South Park paid homage to Scooby-Doo in an episode entitled Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery. In 2002, the online comic Sluggy Freelance featured a weeks-long guest strip culminating in the reincarnation of the Scooby Gang from other comic characters.


TV movies, direct-to-video movies, and feature films

From 1986 to 1988, Hanna-Barbera Productions produced Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10, a series of made-for-TV-syndication movies featuring their most popular characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons. Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and Shaggy starred in three of these movies: Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987), Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988), and Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988).


Scooby-Doo and Shaggy appeared as the narrators of the made-for-TV-movie Arabian Nights, originally broadcast by TBS in 1993 and later released on video as Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights.


Starting in 1998, Hanna-Barbera (by then a subsidiary of Warner Bros.), began producing one new Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movie a year. These movies featured a slightly older version of the original five-character cast from the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! days, and disregards the later Scrappy-Doo years as non-canonical. The movies include Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998), Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999), Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000), and Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001). The success of these movies led to Scooby's return to Saturday morning, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and Hanna-Barbera continued the series of Scooby movies with Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003), Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico (2003), and Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (2004).

A live action feature film version of Scooby-Doo was released in 2002. The cast included Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy) and Linda Cardellini (Velma). Scooby-Doo was created on screen by CGI special effects. Scooby-Doo was extremely successful in its revenue of over $130 million and led to a sequel in March 2004 entitled Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, which earned $84 million at the box office.


Scooby-Doo filmography

Original TV series


Spin-off TV series


TV Special


Made-for-TV movies

  • Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
  • Arabian Nights (also known as Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights) (1993, TBS)


Direct-to-Video movies

  • Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico (2003)
  • Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster (2004)


Scooby-Doo live action theatrical releases

  • Scooby-Doo (2002)
  • Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)


See Also


External Links




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