Scooby-Doo, a Timeline of a Legend

He is one of the longest running, successful, and popular cartoon characters of all-time. I have been a fan of this cute and funny-talking great dane detective all my life. From his funny hijinks to his rapport with Shaggy and the rest of the gang, Mystery, Inc.,Scooby-Doo was voted favorite cartoon character by kids on the Cartoon Network, and his show was one of the top-rated on that channel in 2000, viewed more than 23 times per week.

Scooby made his television debut on CBS in 1969, and "his comic book debut in 1970 in Gold Key Comics and was a consistent popular comic book character for almost ten years." (Character Products Inc.) But, getting the show together was a great undertaking in the beginning. Fred Silverman, executive in charge of children's programming for the CBS network, was looking for a show to help boost the lagging ratings of his Saturday Morning cartoon slot. Silverman created the Archie Show, based upon Bob Montana's teenage humor comic book Archie, and the show was a huge success, but he didn't want to stop there. He consulted with producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera and the trio brain stormed ideas until they came up with a show idea about a group of kids in a rock band who solved mysteries when they weren't performing gigs. The premise was a combination of two other successful shows: the popular I Love a Mystery radio serials of the 1940s and the well-received early 1960s TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

After many thoughts came and went, more help recruited by two of Hanna and Babera's head storymen, Joe Ruby, Ken Spears, and artist/character designer Iwao Takamoto; The show's name was decided at last-it would be called Scooby -Doo, Where are you? In the beginning it had been created under a different name, and a totally different concept.

"It was titled 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." (Wikipedia) Hmm, a dog named "too much"?

It was also a while before Ruby and Spears could decide which dog the character of Too Much should be- a large sheep dog, or a great dane? Barbera decided he should be a great dane, mainly because the dog character Hot Dog, in the Archie Show was a sheep dog. So, Takamoto consulted with a top breeder of great danes, and learned the characteristics of the breed. 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, which describes the Scooby we all know and love.

Upon presenting the show to Silverman, several other elements changed. "Geoff" and "Mike" became one character called Ronnie, later changed to "Fred." "Kelly" became "Daphne." "Linda" would become "Velma," and "W.W." would no longer be her brother and called "Shaggy." Silverman also disliked the title Mysteries 5, and promptly changed it to Who's S-S-Scared?
The show was presented this way to CBS executives for a centerpiece in the upcoming 1969-1970 season's Saturday morning cartoon block. The executives turned the show down, because they felt the artwork would frighten the young viewers.

So, Silverman, Ruby and Spears reworked the show to make it more comedic and less scary. The rock band element was dropped completely and more attention would be focused on the characters of 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." (Wikipedia)

September 13, 1969, the first of 17 episodes premiered. Original cast voices were Don Messeck as Scooby, Casey Kasem as Shaggy, Frank Welker as Fred, Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Of course we all quickly became familiar with the plot of each Scooby-Doo episode, a formula which served as a template for many of the later integrations of the series.

You remember, at the beginning there's the gang of Mystery Inc. just hanging out, then suddenly, they cross paths with some sinister ghost or villainous type that has been wreaking havoc on the community. The gang comes together, offering help, seeking clues, embarking on the mystery sleuthing process, and along the way, Shaggy and Scooby usually wind up lost, in trouble, or running right into the ghost or monster they're after, and the chase is on!

Then, the villain is captured, his fake disguise uncovered and he is arrested, usually remarking something like: "I'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!" Showers of accolades and gratitude are then heaped onto Mystery Inc. for all their help. The end. Miraculously, it never gets old to me, although I've seen these episodes more times than I know.

The show was a great success for CBS and was back in 1970, although with some changes. The plots were becoming more slap-stick, and Heather North was now voicing Daphne. In 1972, the show became a full hour program unlike the 25 prior half-hour episodes. Now, each episode featured a guest star to assist in the mystery solving. I remember these as some of my favorites, and they are also some of the most notable, including The Harlem Globe Trotters, the 3 Stooges, Don Knotts, and Batman and Robin, who all appeared at least twice on the show. Two seasons and 24 episodes later, the show went to re-runs of the original series until Scooby moved to ABC in 1976.

Scooby-Doo inspired many other successful animated shows which were all similar in concept such as Josie and the Pussycats, (1970), The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, (1971), and the Funky Phantom, (1971).

Once Scooby moved to ABC, the show underwent almost yearly 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)." (Wikipedia)

New Scooby episodes introduced Scooby's dim-witted cousin from the country, Scooby-Dum as a semi-regular character. In 1979, Scooby's small, but largely annoying nephew Scrappy-Doo was added in an attempt to boost Scooby-Doo's slipping rating, which worked, although I always passionately hated Scrappy-Doo even in childhood.

In any event, this success led to the show being overhauled in 1980, focusing mainly on Scrappy. Fred, Velma, and Daphne were dropped, and The New Scooby-Doo & Scrappy-Doo format became 3 seven-minute adventures with Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy instead of one half-hour mystery. It 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.

From here, we saw the return of Daphne in The All-New Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Show which lasted two seasons. Later semi-regular re-appearances of Fred and Velma came in the 2nd season. By the 2nd season, the show was airing under the title The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries.

1985 brought us the 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, featuring Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and new characters Flim Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul (based upon and voiced by Vincent Price). It was cancelled in 1986, and we would see no new Scooby Series air for the next two years. In 1988, Hanna-Barbera brought back the original cast as junior high school students in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. It lasted until 1991. Re-runs of the original show have been in syndication since the mid-1980s, and have been picked up by many cable networks. Likewise, many of the popular Scooby spin-off shows are being re-ran.

In 2002, an all-new show was introduced, due to the successes of the Cartoon Network re-runs, and it was called What's New, Scooby-Doo? It aired on Kids WB from 2002-2005, as well as the Cartoon Network. This show returned to its roots in the familiar format we all loved. It combined the classic format with new, digitally-recorded sound effects and music, bringing us the nostalgic appeal with a contemporary feel. Again in 2006, another new show emerged called Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue. It features Dr. Phibes, a character based on Dr. Evil from the Austin Powers movies. The characters are re-drawn, and all backgrounds and animations are new.

Talk about reinventing youeself! Scooby has done it more times that Madonna! It is truly amazing how this loveable cartoon character has became an American pop-culture icon, a movie star in live-action films, inspired board games, vitamins, wrist watches, lunch boxes, breakfast cereals, and more. I predict in another 100 years, maybe even longer, he will still be going strong, bringing the world laugh after laugh as he has done for more than 35 years.