There are a lot of television shows that have had some level of impact on me, either through she enjoyment or developing interests that would lead me down various life paths. The Scooby-Doo series is one that has entertained me and delighted me for many years.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered first aired on September 13th, 1969. Although I didn’t recall the exact date myself, and had to look it up (yes, I sometimes use wikipedia), I do recall watching it with fascination. Back in 1969, when the series first ran, who would have guessed that Scooby-Doo would still be going strong with new stories over 50 years later? Not I! But then I was just a kid back then, and I am glad that Scooby-Doo has been around with such staying power for several generations of kids, including my own daughter, who also loves the adventures of the Scooby gang.
The series had a basic formula where the kids would be going somewhere for some reason in The Mystery machine and something would happen to cause a break in their trip; running out of gas, or getting lost en-route, or the van breaks down, or any number of other reasons to have them stop near a place that just happens to be rumored to be haunted. The kids and Scoob would then investigate, find clues, set a trap using Shaggy and Scooby as bait, and solve the mystery finding that the bad guy (or guys) were just regular old bad guys trying to pull off a crime. The villains regularly complain, “and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!” The formula worked. Kids like me were hooked. And, in some cases, still are hooked and have passed the fun on to our own kids.
Had to include a shot of The Mystery Machine
Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy for most of the franchises’ many incarnations, and Frank Welker voiced Fred throughout the entire everything up until recently, beginning with the release of Scoob! (Hey, what’s up with that, anyway?) In the original run, Don Messick voiced the star, Scooby-Doo in a really big chunk of the franchise, as well as having voiced Dr. Benton Quest in the Johnny Quest series (another favorite of mine); Stefanianna Christopherson (season 1) and Heather North (seasons 2 and 3) voiced Daphne Blake; Nicole Jaffe (seasons 1 and 2) and Pat Stevens (season 3) voiced Velma Dinkley.
After the initial run, the series format went to an hour long show featuring special guest stars in The New Scooby-Doo movies, featuring the talents of numerous performers popular at the time, including Phyllis Diller, Dick van Dyke, Don Knotts, and Laurel and Hardy (couldn’t figure that one out as both Laurel and Hardy had passed away by this time), along with the ever awesome Harlem Globetrotters, who appeared in several episodes (side note – we took our daughter to see the Globetrotters a couple of years back, and she had several of them autograph the box for The Scooby-Doo movies – only one of them realized it was because the Globetrotters were featured in it, but way cool, and The Globetrotters are always great to see on the court). In addition to real life (and in one case, no longer life) celebrities, there was also Batman and Robin with the Scooby Gang helping foil the plots of The Joker and The Penguin.
The New Scooby-Doo Movies with The Harlem Globetrotters
Over the ensuing years, the series (seriesses?) modified their format, sometimes leaving out one or two members for the gang, and adding in other characters (Scrappy-Doo? UGH!), some of which worked and some didn’t.
Scooby-Doo continues to have new adventures on a regular basis, especially in the direct-to-video market, including episodes where, yes, they meet other special guests, including KISS and the wrestlers of the WWE (The Undertaker Rocks! And so does KISS!), a couple Lego films, and a host of others, generally following the same classic format that made the original series a great success.
Scooby-Doo and Haunted Hollywood Lego adventure
Many of the new films feature a lot of great talent in the various rolls, including, Grey Griffin as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Mindy Cohn and later Kate Micucci as Velma; along with the only original cast member remaining active, Frank Welker continuing to voice Fred as well as Scooby-Doo,
I have to admit, since raising my daughter up on Scooby-Doo, we’ve all become a hardcore group of Scooby fans in our household, and proud of it. I hope you enjoyed my little write-up.
Thanks for stopping by.
(Note – all images are from Scooby-Doo shows and related materials)