Scooby-Doo
2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Cartoons; Television
| Scooby-Doo | |
|---|---|
 A scene from "What a Night for a Knight", the first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You! Clockwise from top: Shaggy, Fred, Scooby-Doo, Velma, and Daphne. |
|
| Genre | Animation/ Mystery |
| Running time | |
| Creator(s) | Joe Ruby and Ken Spears (uncredited; official credit is given to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera) |
| Starring | |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original channel | CBS ( 1969– 1976) ABC ( 1976– 1986, 1988– 1991) The WB ( 2002– 2005) CW ( 2006–) |
| Original run | September 13, 1969– |
| No. of episodes | 374 (as of October 18, 2006) |
| Official website | |
Scooby-Doo is the longest-running American animated television series produced for Saturday morning television in several different versions from 1969 to the present. The series was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera Productions, who produced numerous spin-offs and related works until being absorbed in 1997 into Warner Bros, which has handled production since then. Though the format of the show and the cast (and ages) of characters have varied significantly over the years, the most familiar versions of the show feature a talking Great Dane named Scooby-Doo and four teenagers: Fred "Freddie" Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.
These five characters (officially referred to collectively as "Mystery, Inc.", but never referred to as such in the original series) drive around the world 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 trying to scare people away so that they can commit crimes). Later versions of the show featured different variations on the supernatural theme of the show, and include additional characters, such as Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum and nephew Scrappy-Doo, in addition to or instead of some of the original characters.
Scooby-Doo was originally broadcast on CBS from 1969 to 1976, when it moved to ABC. ABC cancelled the show in 1986, but presented a spin-off, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, from 1988 until 1991. A new Scooby-Doo series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, aired on the WB Network during the Kids' WB! programming block from 2002 until 2005. The current Scooby-Doo series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, airs Saturday mornings on The CW network. Repeats of the original series, as well as second-run episodes of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, are broadcast frequently on the Cartoon Network and Boomerang in the United States and other countries.
Production history
Creation and development
In 1968, Fred Silverman, executive in charge of children's programming for the CBS network, was looking for a show that would revitalize his Saturday morning line-up 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 (one of which, " Sugar, Sugar", was the most successful Billboard number-one hit of 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 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, and artist/character designer Iwao Takamoto. 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 the 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 then had to decide what to make their dog. At first, they chose between a large cowardly dog, and a small fiesty dog. When the former was chosen, then the options became 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 sheepdog, Hot Dog, in their band). Ruby and Spears had feared the Great Dane would be too similar to the comic strip character Marmaduke, but Barbera assured them it would not be a problem.
Takamoto consulted a studio colleague who happened to be a breeder of Great Danes. After learning the characteristics of a prize-winning Great Dane from her, Takamoto proceeded to break most of the rules and designed Too Much with overly bowed legs, a double-chin, and a sloped back, among other abnormalities.
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 renamed " Fred", at Silverman's behest), 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, Silverman was inspired by an ad-lib he heard in Frank Sinatra's interpretation of Bert Kaempfert'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 revised show was re-presented to CBS executives, who approved it for production.
Scooby-Doo television series
The CBS years
Scooby-Doo, Where are You! made its CBS network debut on Saturday, September 13, 1969 with its first episode, "What a Night for a Knight". The original voice cast featured Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, Casey Kasem as Shaggy, Frank Welker as Fred, Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Seventeen episodes of Scooby-Doo were produced in 1969.
The influences of I Love a Mystery and Dobie Gillis were especially apparent in these early episodes; Mark Evanier, who would write Scooby-Doo teleplays and comic book scripts in the 1970s and 1980s, identified each of the four teenagers with their corresponding Dobie Gillis character: "Fred was based on Dobie, Velma on Zelda, Daphne on Thalia and Shaggy on Maynard." The similarities between Shaggy and Maynard are the most noticeable; both characters share the same beatnik-style goatee, similar hairstyles, and demeanours. The roles of each character are strongly defined in the series: Fred is the leader and the determined detective, Velma is the intelligent analyst, Daphne is danger-prone and vain, and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are cowardly types more motivated by hunger than any desire to solve mysteries. Later versions of the show would make slight changes to the characters' established roles, most notably in the character of Daphne, shown in 1990s and 2000s Scooby-Doo productions as knowing many forms of karate and being able to defend herself.
The plot of each Scooby-Doo episode followed a formula that would serve as a template for many of the later incarnations of the series. At the beginning of the episode, the Mystery, Inc. gang bump into some type of evil ghost or a monster, which they learn has been terrorizing the local populace. The teens offer to help solve the mystery behind the creature, but while looking for clues and suspects, the gang (and in particular Shaggy and Scooby) run into the monster, who always gives chase. However, after analyzing the clues they have found, the gang determines that this monster is simply a mere mortal in disguise. They capture the monster and have the criminal behind the mask or costume arrested.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was a major ratings success for CBS, and they renewed it for a second season in 1970. The eight 1970 episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! differed slightly from the first-season episodes in their uses of more slapstick humor, Archie Show-like "chase songs" during climactic sequences, Heather North performing the voice of Daphne in place of Christopherson, and a re-recorded theme song. Both seasons contained a laugh track, which was the standard practice for U.S. cartoon series during the 1960s and 1970s.
In 1972, after 25 half-hour episodes, the program was doubled to a full hour and called The New Scooby-Doo Movies; each episode of which featured a different guest star helping the gang solve mysteries. Among the most notable of these guest stars were The Harlem Globetrotters, The Three Stooges, Don Knotts, and Batman & Robin, who all appeared at least twice on the show. After two seasons and 24 episodes of the New Movies format from 1972 to 1974, the show went to reruns of the original series until Scooby moved to ABC in 1976.
The Scooby clones
Having established a successful formula, Hanna-Barbera then proceeded to repeat it many times over. By the time Scooby-Doo had its first format change in 1972, 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.
Later cartoons such as The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan (1972); Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Speed Buggy, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids, and Inch High, Private Eye (all 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) would 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. For example, Speed Buggy featured three teens and a talking dune buggy in the role of "Scooby", while Jabberjaw used four teens and a talking shark in a futuristic underwater environment. 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 H-B in 1977 and started Ruby-Spears Productions, their first cartoon was Fangface, yet another mystery-solving Scooby clone.
During the 1970s, the imitating programs 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 shows, including Scooby-Doo, followed him.
The ABC years
On ABC, the show went through almost yearly format changes. For their 1976 - 1977 season, new episodes of Scooby-Doo were joined with a new H-B show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, to create The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour (It became The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Show when a bonus Scooby-Doo, Where are You! rerun was added to it in November 1976). This hour-long package show later evolved into the longer programming blocks Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics (1977 - 1978) and Scooby's All-Stars (1978 - 1979).
New Scooby episodes, in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! format, were produced for each of these three seasons. Four of these episodes featured Scooby's dim-witted country cousin Scooby-Dum as a semi-regular character. The Scooby-Doo episodes produced during these three seasons were later packaged together for syndication as The Scooby-Doo Show, under which title they continue to air.
In 1979, Scooby's tiny nephew Scrappy-Doo was added to both the series and the billing, in an attempt to boost Scooby-Doo's slipping ratings. The 1979–1980 episodes, aired under the title Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, succeeded in regenerating interest in the show, and as a result, the entire show was overhauled in 1980 to focus on Scrappy-Doo. Fred, Daphne, and Velma were dropped from the series, and the new Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo format was now comprised of three seven-minute comedic adventures starring Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy instead of one half-hour mystery. This version of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo aired as part of The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show from 1980 to 1982, and as part of The Scooby-Doo/Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour from 1982 to 1983. Most of the supernatural villains in the seven-minute Scooby and Scrappy cartoons, who in previous Scooby series had been revealed to be human criminals in costume, were now "real" within the context of the series.
Daphne returned to the cast for The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, which comprised two 11-minute episodes in a format reminiscent of the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! mysteries. This version of the show lasted for two seasons, with the second season airing under the title The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and featuring semi-regular appearances from Fred and Velma.
1985 saw the debut of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, which featured Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and new characters Flim-Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul (based upon and voiced by Vincent Price) traveling the globe to capture "thirteen of the most terrifying ghosts and ghouls on the face of the earth." The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was cancelled in March 1986, and no new Scooby series aired on the network for the next two years.
Hanna-Barbera reincarnated the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! cast as junior high school students for A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which debuted on ABC in 1988. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was an irreverent, zany re-imagining of the series, heavily inspired by the classic cartoons of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, and eschewed the quasi-reality of the original Scooby series for a more Looney Tunes-like style. The retooled show was a success, and lasted until 1991.
Reruns and revivals
Reruns of the show have been in syndication since the mid-1980s, and have also been shown on cable television networks such as TBS Superstation (until 1989), and USA Network (as part of the USA Cartoon Express from 1990 to 1994). In 1993, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, having just recently ended its network run on ABC, began reruns on the Cartoon Network; the other versions of Scooby-Doo joined it the following year and became exclusive to Turner networks such as the Cartoon Network, TBS Superstation, and TNT. Canadian network Teletoon began airing Scooby-Doo, Where are You! in 1997, with the other Scooby series soon following. When TBS and TNT ended their broadcasts of H-B cartoons in 1998, Scooby-Doo became the exclusive property of both Cartoon Network and sister station Boomerang.
In 2002, following the successes of the Cartoon Network reruns and four late-1990s direct-to-video Scooby-Doo releases, the original version of the gang was updated for the 21st century for What's New, Scooby-Doo?, which aired on Kids WB from 2002 until 2005, with second-run episodes also appearing on Cartoon Network. Unlike previous Scooby series, the show was produced at Warner Bros. Television Animation, which had absorbed Hanna-Barbera in 2001. The show returned to the familiar format of the original series for the first time since 1978, with modern-day technology and culture added to the mix to give the series a more contemporary feel, along with new, digitally-recorded sound effects and music. With Don Messick having died in 1997, Frank Welker took over as Scooby's voice actor, while continuing to provide the voice of Fred as well, and Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy. Grey DeLisle now provides the voice of Daphne (she first took the role on Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, replacing Mary Kay Bergman, who committed suicide shortly before the release of Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders) and former Facts of Life star Mindy Cohn voices Velma. However, Scooby-Doo himself was very rarely focused on in most of the show's episodes.
After three seasons, What's New, Scooby-Doo was replaced in September 2006 with Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!, a major revamping of the series which debuted on The CW (a merger of The WB with the UPN Network). The premise centers around Shaggy inheriting money and a mansion from an uncle, an inventor who has gone into hiding from villains trying to steal his secret invention. The villains, led by "Dr. Phibes" (based primarily upon Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers series), then use different schemes to try to get the invention from Shaggy and Scooby, who handle the plots alone. Fred, Daphne, and Velma are normally absent, but do make appearances at times to help. The characters were redesigned and the art style revised for the new series.
Televisions specials, telefilms, and direct-to-video features
The Scooby-Doo characters first appeared outside of their regular Saturday morning format in Scooby Goes Hollywood, an hour-long ABC television special aired in prime-time on December 13, 1979. The special revolved around Shaggy and Scooby's attempts to have the network move Scooby out of Saturday morning and into a prime-time series, and featured spoofs of then-current TV shows and films such as Happy Days, Superman: The Movie, Laverne & Shirley, and Charlie's Angels.
From 1986 to 1988, Hanna-Barbera Productions produced Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10, a series of syndicated telefilms 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). In addition, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy appeared as the narrators of the made-for-TV movie Arabian Nights, originally broadcast by TBS in 1994 and later released on video as Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights.
Starting in 1998, Warner Bros. Animation and 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). Also in 2001, the Cartoon Network produced Night of the Living Doo, a half-hour parody of the New Scooby-Doo Movies format featuring "Special guest stars" David Cross, Gary Coleman, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
The success of the direct-to-video movies led to Scooby's return to Saturday morning, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and Hanna-Barbera based later entries in this series of Scooby movies on it rather than the previous editions. The series continued with 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), Aloha, Scooby-Doo! (2005), Scooby Doo in Where's My Mummy? (2005) and Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006).
A number of these Scooby-Doo telefilms and direct-to-video features, as well as many of the early-1980s shows featuring Scrappy-Doo, feature the gang encountering actual supernatural beings. In Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988), Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy sign up as gym teachers for Miss Grimwood's school for girls, only to find it is actually a school for ghouls, where the trio end up teaching the daughters of the Frankenstein Monster, Dracula, The Werewolf, The Mummy, and the stereotypical ghost monster (called the Phantom). Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) featured the original 1969 gang, reunited after years of being apart, battling voodoo-worshiping cat creatures in the Louisiana bayou. The later What's New, Scooby-Doo-based entries in the direct-to-video series returned to the original formula, and are basically extended episodes of the What's New, Scooby-Doo series. Ironically, in the later movies, Scooby-Doo is not featured as much as the older cartoons, as they tend to focus more on Fred, Daphne and Velma.
Live-action Warner Bros. feature films
A feature-length live-action film version of Scooby-Doo was released by Warner Bros. 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 computer-generated special effects. Scooby-Doo was extremely successful, with a domestic box office gross of over $130 million. A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, followed in March 2004, which earned $84 million at the U.S. box office.
Roger Ebert gave Scooby-Doo one star (on a scale of zero to four), saying: "I feel no sympathy with any of the characters, I am unable to generate the slightest interest in the plot, and I laughed not a single time." Ebert admitted in his review, somewhat amazingly, that the movie was his first exposure to the characters.
Both of these films followed the standard Scooby-Doo formula, while at the same time parodying various elements of that formula. While the first film had generally original characters as the villains (except for one villain revealed as a surprise plot twist), the second film featured several of the monsters from the television series, including the Black Knight, the 10,000 Volt Ghost, the Pterodactyl Ghost, and the Miner 49er. One could also see Chickenstein, a villain from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
The Scooby influence
Critical reaction and awards
While a successful series during its three separate tenures on Saturday morning, Scooby-Doo won no awards for artistic merit during its original series runs. The series has received only two Emmy nominations in its four-decade history: a 1989 Daytime Emmy nomination for A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and a 2003 Daytime Emmy nomination for What's New, Scooby-Doo's Mindy Coln in the "Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program" category. Like many Hanna-Barbera shows, Scooby-Doo was criticized for poor production values and formulaic storytelling. In 2002, Jamie Malanowski of the New York Times commented that "[Scooby-Doo's] mysteries are not very mysterious, and the humor is hardly humorous. As for the animation -- well, the drawings on your refrigerator may give it competition." Even proponents of the series often comment negatively about the formula inherent in most Scooby episodes.
Nevertheless, Scooby-Doo has maintained a significant fan base, which has grown steadily since the 1990s due to the show's popularity among both young children and nostalgic adults who grew up with the series. The show's mix of the comedy-adventure and horror genres is often noted as the reason for its widespread success. As Fred Silverman and the Hanna-Barbera staff had planned when they first began producing the series, Scooby-Doo's ghosts, monsters, and spooky locales tend more towards humor than horror, making them easily accessible to younger children. "Overall, [Scooby-Doo is] just not a show that is going to overstimulate kids' emotions and tensions," offered American Centre for Children and Media executive director David Kleeman in a 2002 interview. "It creates just enough fun to make it fun without getting them worried or giving them nightmares." Many teenage and young adult audiences enjoy Scooby-Doo because of presumed subversive themes which involve theories of drug use and sexuality.
In recent years, Scooby-Doo has received recognition for its popularity by placing in a number of "top cartoon" or "top cartoon character" polls. The August 3, 2002 issue of TV Guide featured its list of the "50 Greatest Cartoon Characters of All Time", in which Scooby-Doo placed twenty-second Scooby also ranked thirteenth in Animal Planet's list of the "50 Greatest TV Animals". Scooby-Doo, Where are You! ranked forty-ninth in the UK network Channel 4's 2005 list of the "100 Greatest Cartoons of All Time". For one year from 2004 to 2005, Scooby-Doo held the Guinness World Record for having the most episodes of any animated television series ever produced, a record previously held by and later returned to The Simpsons. Scooby-Doo was published as holding this record in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of Records.
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 movies.) Even South Park paid homage to Scooby-Doo in an episode entitled " KoЯn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". The Kevin Smith film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back included a scene where Jay and Silent Bob are picked up in the Mystery Machine while hitchhiking and both they and Mystery, Inc. get "high" off of "dooby snacks". A plethora of other media properies have referenced or parodied Scooby-Doo, among them the TV Funhouse segment of NBC's Saturday Night Live , the online comic Sluggy Freelance, the FOX animated series Family Guy and The Simpsons, and the Cartoon Network programs Johnny Bravo, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and The Venture Bros..
Assumed "adult themes"
As with many Saturday morning cartoons, Scooby-Doo is often proposed by sectors of the public to have hidden subtexts, in this case involving sex and drug use. Such assumptions often find their way into Scooby-Doo parodies done by comedians, musicians, and film/television producers.
Drug use is the most prominent of these charges, in particular because of Shaggy's beatnik origins. He and Scooby-Doo are shown to have voracious appetites, which has been interpreted as being evidence of a case of "the munchies" resulting from marijuana use. Some parodies go on to propose that the "Scooby Snacks" present in many episodes contain drugs instead of typical dog treat ingredients. The most direct references to the Scooby-Doo drug use theory were produced by Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network themselves. The first Scooby-Doo film makes several joking references to Shaggy and Scooby's proposed drug use and even has Shaggy fall in love with a girl named "Mary Jane" (a common slang word for marijuana), while an episode of an Adult Swim Cartoon, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, finds Shaggy and Scooby-Doo arrested for "possession." These "drug use" themes seem to be misplaced due to an episode of A Pup Named Scooby Doo showing Scooby and his friends finding drugs. When Velma finds the drugs, Scooby says "Drugs?! Yuck!"
Also discussed and parodied are the presumed sexual activities going on among the Scooby-Doo characters. While working on the original series, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears often wrote their " straight men", Fred and Daphne, out of the episode so that they could focus on their "comedians": Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma. As a result, Fred and Daphne are missing from a significant amount of the action in most episodes, leading to assumptions that the two are off having sexual intercourse instead of finding clues. Like the drug use, this assumed theme has also been self parodied, with the "Bravo Dooby Doo" episode of Johnny Bravo, and both live-action and direct-to-video Scooby-Doo features making light of Fred and Daphne's presumed sexual relationship.
Another debated topic of the series centers around whether or not the tomboyish Velma is a lesbian. The character has a considerable fan base among real-life lesbians, who see her as one of their own. The idea of Velma as a lesbian is parodied in the 2001 motion picture Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the " ¡Viva los Muertos!" episode of " The Venture Bros.", as well as in both Scooby-Doo live action films. Many, but not all, of the lesbian-themed gags from the first Scooby-Doo film, which centre around a hinted crush Velma has on Daphne in the film, were excised from the final release print to secure a "PG" rating.
Merchandising
The first Scooby-Doo-related merchandise came in the form of Scooby-Doo, Where are You! comic books by Gold Key Comics, which initially contained adaptations of episodes of the cartoon show when publication began in December 1969. The book soon moved to all-original stories, with many of the stories published up to December, 1974. Charlton published Scooby comics, many drawn by Bill Williams, from February 1975 to October 1975. Since then, Scooby-Doo comics have been published by Marvel Comics (written by Mark Evanier and drawn by Dan Spiegle) , Archie Comics (reprints of the Charlton stories), and by DC Comics, who continue to publish a monthly Scooby-Doo series.
Other early Scooby-Doo merchandise included a 1973 Milton Bradley board game, decorated lunch boxes, iron-on transfers, coloring books, story books, records, underwear, and other such goods. When Scrappy-Doo was introduced to the series in 1979, he, Scooby, and Shaggy became the sole foci of much of the merchandising, including a 1983 Milton-Bradley Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo board game. The first Scooby-Doo video game appeared in arcades in 1986, and has been followed by a number of games for both home-consoles and personal computers. Scooby-Doo multivitamins also debuted at this time, and have been manufactured by Bayer since 2001.
Scooby-Doo merchandising tapered off during the late 1980s and early 1990s, but increased after the series' revival on Cartoon Network in 1995. Today, all manner of Scooby-Doo-branded products are available for purchase, including Scooby-Doo breakfast cereal, plush toys, action figures, car decorations, and much more. Real "Scooby Snacks" dog treats are produced by Del Monte Pet Products. Hasbro has created a number of Scooby board games, including a Scooby-themed edition of the popular mystery board game Clue.
From 1990 to 2002, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo appeared as characters in the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera simulator ride at Universal Studios Florida The ride was restructured in the early 2000s as a Jimmy Neutron attraction. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo are costumed characters at Universal Studios Florida, and can be found driving the Mystery Machine around the park.
Scooby-Doo filmography
TV series
| Title | Broadcast run | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scooby-Doo, Where are You! | 1969– 1972, CBS | |||||
| The New Scooby-Doo Movies | 1972– 1974, CBS | |||||
| The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour 1, 2 | 1976– 1977, ABC | |||||
| Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics 1, 3 | 1977– 1979, ABC | |||||
| Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo | 1979– 1980, ABC | |||||
| The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show 4 | 1980– 1981, ABC | |||||
| The Scooby-Doo/Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour 4 | 1982– 1983, ABC | |||||
| The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show 5 | 1983– 1985, ABC | |||||
| The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo | 1985, ABC | |||||
| A Pup Named Scooby-Doo | 1988– 1991, ABC | |||||
| What's New, Scooby-Doo? | 2002– 2005, Kids' WB!; 2003 – 2006, Teletoon (Canada) | |||||
| Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! | 2006–(present), Kids WB! on The CW; | |||||
Notes:
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TV specials and telefilms
- Scooby Goes Hollywood ( December 13, 1979, ABC)
- Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)
- Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
- Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1989)
- Arabian Nights (also known as Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights) ( 1994, TBS)
- Night of the Living Doo (2001, Cartoon Network)
Direct-to-video films
- 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)
- Aloha, Scooby-Doo! (2005)
- Scooby Doo in Where's My Mummy? (2005)
- Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006)
Live-action theatrical releases
- Scooby-Doo (2002)
- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
Video games
- Scooby Doo, a 1986 arcade computer game published by Elite Systems (later re-released on Elite's budget label Encore) and developed by Gargoyle Games for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64.
- Scooby Doo Mystery, two separate games of the same title created in 1995; one for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the other for the Sega Genesis.
- Scooby Doo: Mystery of the Fun Park Phantom, a 1999 mystery computer game developed by Engineering Animation, Inc. (EAI) and published by SouthPeak Interactive. The game was released for Microsoft Windows.
- Scooby Doo: Classic Creep Capers, a 2000 console game published by THQ and released for Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Colour.
- Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, a 2002 console game published by THQ.
- Scooby Doo: Mystery Mayhem, a 2004 console game developed by A2M and published by THQ.
- Scooby-Doo! Unmasked, a 2005 console game published by THQ.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Adventures, created in 2000 by the Learning Company is a CD-Rom for Windows. It contained 3 different versions/challenges/CD-Roms (sold separately): Scooby-Doo: Showdown in Ghost Town, Scooby-Doo: Phantom of the Knight, and Scooby-Doo: Jinx at the Sphinx.