The history of Scooby-Doo and Friends

The ABC years of Scooby-Doo

On ABC, the show went through almost yearly format changes. For their 1976–1977 season, new episodes of were joined with a new Hanna-Barbera 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. Nicole Jaffe had retired from acting in 1973, and Pat Stevens took over her role as the voice of Velma. The rest of the voice cast remained the same. Four of these episodes featured Scooby's dim-witted country cousin Scooby-Dum, voiced by Daws Butler, 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. For the Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars programming blocks, Scooby-Doo was packaged alongside Laff-A-Lympics, a new Hanna-Barbera cartoon featuring many of its characters in parodies of Olympic sporting events. Scooby-Doo appeared on the show as the team captain of the "Scooby Doobies" team, with Shaggy and Scooby-Dum among his teammates.

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. Pat Stevens voiced Velma in the first eleven episodes, but Marla Frumkin took over the role for four episodes. Velma didn't speak in the last episode of the 1979 series.

As a result of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo's success, the entire show was overhauled in 1980 to focus more upon Scrappy-Doo. At this time, Scooby-Doo started to walk and run anthropomorphically on two feet more often, rather than on four like a normal dog as he did previously. Fred, Daphne, and Velma were dropped from the series, and the new Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo format was now composed 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 in 1983, 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. Marla Frumkin continued voicing 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 final first-run episode of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo aired in March 1986, and no new Scooby series aired on the network for the next two years. Reruns of previous Scooby episodes, however, continued to air, both as part of the Scooby-Doo Mystery Funhouse package and under the New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show banner.

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, including an episode where Scooby-Doo's parents show up and reveal his real name to be "Scoobert." The retooled show was a success, and lasted until 1991.

[edit] Reruns and revival

Reruns of the show have been in syndication since 1980, 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. With Ted Turner in control of the Hanna-Barbera library by this time, the Scooby-Doo franchise became exclusive to his networks: 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. Animation, which had absorbed Hanna-Barbera after Turner Broadcasting System's merger with TimeWarner. 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 provided 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 voiced Velma.

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's Kids' WB Saturday morning programming block. 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, and named after Vincent Price's character from The Abominable Dr. Phibes), 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. Shaggy and Scooby were slightly developed to make them more charismatic and intelligent due to the adventure-esque pacing.

Warner Bros. Animation's next Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo - Mystery, Inc., is being developed for the Cartoon Network. Set in a haunted town known as Crystal Cove, the series will debut on the Cartoon Network in 2009.[13]

In 2005, Scooby-Doo in Stagefright, a live stage play based upon the series, began touring across the world. A follow-up, Scooby-Doo and the Pirate ghost, followed in 2009.[14]

[edit] Scooby Doo versus real ghosts and monsters

Scooby Doo originally faced fake ghosts and monsters, and revealed them as a person in a mask. However, in the 80's incarnation: The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, Scooby and the gang had to face real ghosts and monsters. In the series before, 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries', Scooby met a real vampire in the episode 'Scooby's Peep-Hole Pandemonium', and went inside Count Dracula's castle in the double-length episode 'A Halloween Hassle in Dracula's Castle'. In the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, Scooby and the gang were working for a real Warlock to catch real Ghosts. This altered the Scooby Doo theme.

In the 1987-88 television movies 'Scooby Doo Meets the Boo Brothers', 'Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School' and 'Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf', Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy were involved with real ghosts again. In scooby Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, they hire a family of friendly ghosts to stop another ghost. In Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy become teachers in a school for young Ghouls. In Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Shaggy and his friends get kidnapped by Count Drakula and Shaggy is forced into becoming a werewolf and racing against other monsters.

When the series 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo' started, the plot went back to the gang (though younger) facing men in masks, except in the episode 'A Ghost of Boobeard the Pirate' in which the gang were hired by a real friendly ghost. After the series, A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Scooby and the gang (now adults) faced real monsters of sorts again in the three direct-to-video movies 'Scooby Doo on Zombie Island', 'Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost' and 'Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders'. In Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Scooby Doo faced Were-Cats (rather like were-wolfs). In Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scooby and the gang faced a real Warlock. In Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders, Scooby meets real aliens. After these three movies, the idea of real ghosts was dropped, and there have been no episodes or films like this since.

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