Much Ado About Scooby Doo

**Anthonynotes** · 02-27-2002, 12:27 AM

Seeing as Scooby has apparently become the Next Big Hyped-Up Thing for KWB/Cartoon Network, thought I'd post my two cents about various Scooby-aspects (to give us something to discuss besides "how much I hate KWB/AOL-TW/P*k*mon/etc. etc."):

While watching the Scooby Doo reruns on KWB, was wondering what was with the "Pop-Up Video" tibits they keep dropping?!

Also noted they're only rerunning the original Scooby series episodes...which doesn't seem to be enough episodes IMO to avoid seeing the same ones a zillion times. When I was a kid, the syndicated "Scooby" package consisted of the original series, the "Scooby Doo Movies" (each hour-long ep split into two-part episodes), and "The Scooby Doo Show"...which gave more than enough eps for syndication (without seeing the same ones again too soon...and Scrappy-free, I suppose :-) Wonder why they don't throw in episodes of "The Scooby Doo Show" into the mix to boost the # of eps (probably not the "Movies", given the datedness of some of the celebs appearing ["Mama" Cass Elliott? Sonny and Cher? Even though I watched the Cass Elliot one as a kid, and liked it, even if I didn't know who she was....])?

Also note that the "Pop-Up Video" tidbits that they seem to be throwing in information about the characters from "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" (they mentioned Daphne's address in today's rerun as being in "Coolsville", the town they lived in in the "Pup" series)...which I guess brings up what is/isn't considered "canonical" Scooby (I know, "it's a cartoon", so sue me...). From the tone of the direct-to-video movies/etc., I suppose the current Scooby writers are mainly ignoring the 80's episodes that had just Shaggy, Scrappy and Scooby dealing with goofy monsters ("The Ghoul School"/"Boo Brothers"/etc.) and those where they were just running from real monsters/aliens/etc. for 10 minutes (like the early 80's ones, or even "The 13 Ghosts" I suppose, given their reactions to seeing actual real monsters in "Zombie Island"). Which I suppose I can't blame them :-) That, and I guess "Coolsville" isn't necessarily any stupider than "Smallville" for a town name...

Finally, my two cents on the various Scooby spinoffs (from what I can recall):
"Scooby Doo, Where Are You?": The original series, and one of the best. Favorite foes here as a kid: the Creeper, some werewolf guy, some wax monster guy. Cons: Thought that "Charlie the Robot" episode was pretty lame as a kid, but that's about it :-)

"The Scooby Doo Movies": A favorite as a kid...remember disliking having to wait until the next day to see the second half of the episode as a kid (a la the 60's "Batman" show). A favorite ep as a kid was one with "Mama" Cass Elliot (of the sixties-era singing group the Mamas and the Papas, singers of such ditties as "California Dreaming" and "Monday Monday"). Though in retrospect, wonder what guys who should've been long-dead like Laurel and Hardy were doing meeting the Scooby gang...

"The Scooby Doo Show": Episodes in the original show's format (solving mysteries), only with slightly improved (for Hanna Barbera anyway) animation. Also cues the beginnings of seeing Scooby's extended (on a 60's Superman comics-level, almost :-) family, with occasional cameos of Scooby Dum (Scooby's dimwitted hick country cousin), who had his moments. Favorites villains on this series as a kid: some guy who came from 50,000 AD (?), and some electrical monster-guy.

"Scooby and Scrappy Doo": Thought Scrappy was (sort of) OK as a kid, but in retrospect/watching it now, wonder what they were thinking throwing him in (besides the need to keep the show going after 10 years on the air at that point). Guess I can see why various Scooby fans rip into Scrappy-among other reasons, he seems way too anthropomorized compared to his dog-talk-uncle, Scooby. Plus, seems a bit small for what I figured a Great Dane pup should be, I guess, unless he's the runt of the litter. AFter a season, they dropped Fred, Daphne, and Velma, and just had Shag, Scrappy, and Scoob running from (real!) aliens/monsters/etc. for no particular reason for 10 minute cartoons at a time, or other bizarre (even for Scooby-Doo standards) stuff happen.

An exmaple: The episode I remember most, "Scooby Doo 2000": The three are clock-cleaners, Scrappy somehow knocks all of them onto the minute hand, and they start spinning around the clock dial, faster and faster until they go into a time warp. Emerging in the future, they go to "Spacey's" department store, and run from a mechanical ape for 10 minutes. They get back to the (then-)present by grabbing onto a tall pole in the dept. store, and slide down it like sliding down a fireman's poll, but twirling around it....which sends them back home. What-*ever*.... :-)

ANyway, this kept up, along with more Scooby relatives showing up (incl. Yabba Doo, Scoob's Western cousin, who talks in a normal (not dog-like) voice...). They then bring Daphne back for a few seasons in "The New Scooby Doo Mysteries", which probably brought things back to earth slightly, as they reverted away from wacky hijinks back to solving mysteries again. Also shown in this series: Mumsy and Dada Doo, Scooby's parents (who dressed up in human clothes, but talked dog-like like their son, anyway....).

"13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo": We get the gang (a la "Ghostbusters")trying to capture 13 ghosts and stick them back in a chest, on the urging of Vincent "Van Ghoul" (Vincent Price, in a late-in-his-life speaking role). Despite this classic horror actor, this show still was pretty lame....and adding (along with Scrappy) the character of "Flim-Flam" doesn't help. Lasts one season (gee, wonder if "*13 ghosts*" and a *13*-episode order has something to do with it ;-)

"A Pup Named Scooby Doo": Finally, a return to solving actual mysteries (after "13 Ghosts") and an amusing parody of the old series to boot (along with the lack of Scrappy, due of course to this being set in the main cast's middle-school years). Favorites: Chickenstein; Velma's Computer ("I MUST DELETE!"; and that "Micro-Monster" chase song number).

The various movies:
"Reluctant Werewolf": Haven't seen it, not sure I want to...
"Boo Brothers": see above
"Ghoul School": Seen it....not much to write home about (same vein as "13 Ghosts", sort of....)
"Scooby Goes to Hollywood": Haven't seen it...
"Zombie Island": Seen it, very entertaining; back-to-basics approach (no wacky monsters/extended Doo-family relations/etc.).
"Scooby Doo and the Aliens": Not as good as "Zombie Island", but still very entertaining, esp. seeing Scooby and Shaggy in love (and Shaggy holding a candle for the "Flower power"-era pop culture).
"Cyber Chase": Not as good as "Zombie", but was OK, esp. the part after they get "digitized"....
"Witch's Ghost": OK, though haven't really watched it all the way through all at once...

ANd that's about it....comments, flames, "this show suks d00d, u should watch 'Techno-samauri-she-warrior-demonspawn-Tokyo-Warrior 5000' man" remarks, etc. accepted (well, maybe not the "techno-samauri-um...whatever" remarks :-)

-B.

**hdofu** · 03-01-2002, 07:38 PM

Ahh... Another Scooby Doo Fan. Seen every episode of every series, seen some of the comics, read the big little golden book, and saw the crossovers to other cartoons. Why this show is stil
Misssing Scooby and the Arabian Knights, (I believe the voice of the Prince was the guy who voices Mandorf, or so it sounded).

Boo Brothers: Shaggy Inherits someplace, Scoob and Scrap accompanny him on a treasure hunt through the house, they call on a couple of Ghost hunters calling themselves "Boo Brothers" who turn out to be the only real ghosts in the movie, very silly.

Reluctant Werewolf: Shaggy gets turned into a werewolf and is forced by Dracula to race in the anual Goul race, for some reason Shaggy is an expert driver in the movie and has a girlfriend.

**Anthonynotes** · 03-01-2002, 08:42 PM

>>>Ahh... Another Scooby Doo Fan. Seen every episode of every series, seen some of the comics, read the big little golden book, and saw the crossovers to other cartoons. Why this show is stil
Misssing Scooby and the Arabian Knights, (I believe the voice of the Prince was the guy who voices Mandorf, or so it sounded).
<<

As a kid, they reran the pre-Scrappy episodes in syndication, so I watched those as a kid. Also saw first-run the 80's-era episodes...

I've read through a few of the comic books; note they're being drawn by longtime comics artist Joe Staton (the same guy who drew one of my all-time favorite comic stories, the "origin of the Justice Society" from "DC Special #29" in 1977)...

Never saw "Arabian Nights" (and heard it mostly just had Scoob and Shag in the introduction and ending only, and centered around other H-B characters instead).

>>>
Boo Brothers: Shaggy Inherits someplace, Scoob and Scrap accompanny him on a treasure hunt through the house, they call on a couple of Ghost hunters calling themselves "Boo Brothers" who turn out to be the only real ghosts in the movie, very silly.

Reluctant Werewolf: Shaggy gets turned into a werewolf and is forced by Dracula to race in the anual Goul race, for some reason Shaggy is an expert driver in the movie and has a girlfriend. <<<

Um...yeah. I'll be sure to catch 'em both... or something....

-B.

**Mister Intensity** · 03-02-2002, 09:14 PM

When Scooby-Doo was first syndicated, it was Scrappy-free for about the first two or three years despite the fact Scrappy made his first appearance about a year or two before (I believe this was 1980 or 1981). As the years went on the Scrappy episodes were added up until the All-New Scooby and Scrappy Show (the first season of Daphine's return). I don't recall seeing The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries or the Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo during the syndicated run until the episodes went to the USA Network.

Interesting tidbit, if you add all of the Scooby-Doo show episodes to the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You reruns, you have the magic syndication number of 65 episodes. While The Scooby-Doo Show episodes that originally aired of the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Show (the episodes without the title cards) were quite good, with some truly classic episodes, the episodes that originally aired as part of Scooby's All-Stars (the ones with title cards) were quite boring, derivative, and illustrated that the show was running out of steam, thus the addition of Scrappy the following season.

I wouldn't mind if they added the 24 episdoes of The Scooby-Doo Show (which makes 49 episodes on KidsWB) that aired between 1976 and 1977 but the decline of quality of the 1978 episodes would drag the quality down too much.

Mister Intensity

**Nelson** · 03-07-2002, 01:19 AM

CARTOON NETWORK SHOULD PUT SCOOBY DOO TO SLEEP

That's all they ever show on their network, give it a rest

**Viper** · 04-05-2002, 02:47 PM

As a cartoon fan, I've always enjoyed Scooby. There are a number of different eps that I thought I'd share with all of you as my faves.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies:
1. the very first Batman and Robin ep
2. the Davey Jones ep (former Monkee)
3. Don Knotts--the parody of Mayberry
4. The Phantom of the Country Music Hall w/ then country singer Jerry Reed (famous songs were Amos Moses and When You're Hot, You're Hot)
5. The Harlem Globetrotters haunted island ep
6. the Dick Van **** ep where he runs his own amusement park

My only favorites with Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy are when they go hanggliding, join the army for a day, and try to get away from 2 angry truck drivers.

The New Scooby and Scrappy (w/ Daphne): my three favorite eps are

1. they go up against a mummy and a foreign spy on the Orient Express
2. an ancestral ghost tries to ruin Shaggy's sister's wedding--she doesn't look like him but she talked a little like him
3. the ep where they go up against a shark and a seaweed monster while trying to recover an island's long lost treasure--70% of the cartoon, Daphne wears a gorgeous bikini and Shaggy looks like a surfer dude.

There were also a few other cartoons during the 1970's that tried to duplicate Scooby, but sadly they weren't as popular as Scooby:

The Funky Phantom (1971)--three teenagers and their dog arrive at an old mansion on a stormy night then reset an old grandfather clock to 12 (stopped at 6:30) and a ghost and his cat come out, a Revolutionary War soldier who hid in the clock to escape the British and got trapped inside. They go on mysteries and mainly unmask crooks, like Scooby.

Speed Buggy (1973)--three teenagers involved in the field of auto racing create their own talking dune buggy with the brain of a St. Bernard and go on adventures, mainly agianst evil scientists who try to take over the world.

Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973)--almost the same as Scooby only whenever this ghost-hound got scared, he would disappear leaving only his hat and scarf showing.

Captain Caveman and the Teen-Angels (1977-79)--three lovely teenage girls solve mysteries with the help of their pre-historic friend they thawed out while exploring a cave. Nice show while it lasted. The brunette, Brenda, was sort of like a female Shaggy, always getting scared.

Even though these weren't as popular, they still made pretty good cartoon shows while they lasted, IMO. So, please tell me what you think of these eps and let me know if any of you remember these short-lived shows. This was decent catoons at its finest, long before Poke-crap.

**hdofu** · 04-05-2002, 04:24 PM

Nice list, Another Duplication Atempts, How Bout Clue Club (I liked that one), Funky Phantom (Also Liked), Can't forget Buford and the Galloping Ghost (You can't, I've tried), and There I say it Jossie and the Pussy Cats and Jabber Jaw, to some Degree, Fang Face and Dynomut.

**Pilmedium** · 04-05-2002, 08:00 PM

For the most part, I hate all Scooby, and therefore don't have much to say, except two comments:

I would be upset if Scooby Movies (2am) gets taken off the air. Why? Because it often ends early, allowing time for them to show a short cartoon afterwards, often a classic one.

I would like to see some airings of Scooby, Where Are You replaced with a different show. What show? Goober and the Ghostchasers! I would like a chance to see that, and a break from the original series (which I haven't watched in years.)

**Lucky Bob** · 04-05-2002, 11:11 PM

It's a little off-topic, but how about Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels? Do they show that on Cartoon Network?

**Craig Marinaro** · 04-06-2002, 09:47 AM

Originally posted by Viper
6. the Dick Van **** ep where he runs his own amusement park

Awww...not only does poor Dick get stuck with the most unfortunate name in the history of humanity...now we can't even talk about him on our Board! It's a sad day.

**Anthonynotes** · 04-06-2002, 12:36 PM

Originally posted by Craig

Awww...not only does poor Dick get stuck with the most unfortunate name in the history of humanity...now we can't even talk about him on our Board! It's a sad day.

The problem with Internet automatic filtering, I guess (where it doesn't take into account such aspects as Mr. Van ****'s name)...

Re: Scooby: Noticing they're rerunning "THe Scooby Doo Show" episodes on KWB now...wonder if they'll bother running repeats with the Scrappy One in them ...

-B.

**hdofu** · 04-06-2002, 02:42 PM

Originally posted by Brainatra

The problem with Internet automatic filtering, I guess (where it doesn't take into account such aspects as Mr. Van ****'s name)...

Re: Scooby: Noticing they're rerunning "THe Scooby Doo Show" episodes on KWB now...wonder if they'll bother running repeats with the Scrappy One in them ...

-B.

Just as long as they stay away from the Flim Flam Episodes (Despite the like I have for Vincent Van Goul)

**Viper** · 04-06-2002, 03:18 PM

Originally posted by luckybob1985
It's a little off-topic, but how about Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels? Do they show that on Cartoon Network?

Unfortunately no, but the Boomerang Channel does show it occasionally. I also have a bootlegged copy of some of their cartoons from a collector.

**Sharklady** · 04-06-2002, 05:07 PM

> The problem with Internet automatic filtering, I guess... <

Do tell!

I've run into a similar problem, refering to the gentleman who directed 'The Birds.'
He keeps turning into Alfred Hitch****.

**The Mad Hatter** · 04-07-2002, 04:13 PM

Wait... the language filter picks up "Hitchcock?"

God bless literal-minded computers.

**The Mad Hatter** · 04-07-2002, 04:14 PM

...or perhaps it doesn't. Hey Brian, did you fix it?

**Sharklady** · 04-07-2002, 04:50 PM

> ...or perhaps it doesn't. Hey Brian, did you fix it? <

Looks like somebody did. Good! The Master of Suspense deserves better than to have his name chopped up (even if he has done as much to others...)

**Pilmedium** · 04-07-2002, 08:15 PM

Originally posted by Craig
Awww...not only does poor Dick get stuck with the most unfortunate name in the history of humanity...now we can't even talk about him on our Board! It's a sad day.

That was pointed out on the TTTP not all that recently.

**Viper** · 04-10-2002, 02:02 PM

This is a bit off-topic to this thread, but I'd thought I'd mention that there's a Speed Buggy episode coming on CN's Boomerang segment this Saturday Morning. For those of you who are fans of really good '70's cartoons, I strongly suggest checking it out. It's scheduled for Sat. April 13 @ 7:00 A.M. Eastern/Pacific. Try to watch it or if you can, tape it and give me your opinions on it. I'll also provide my own brief review of it like Dr. Belch does with his KidsWB shows. Finally, once I finally get the Boomerang channel from Digital Time Warner Cable, I'll do the same with a few other shows as well. BTW, the title of this ep is "Gold Fever" in case you're all wondering. This one is my #1 fave.

**hdofu** · 04-10-2002, 06:54 PM

It''s essentially Jossie and the Pussie Cat's Substitute racing for singing and add a talking car that stutters like Porky Pig. Only bout a bakers Dozen episodes at most. Also Makes a guest apperance in the The New Scooby Doo Movies (Which made him eligible to take part in the Laf Olympics as a member of the Scooby Doobies) and later at the end of episode of Johny Bravo (Also with Scooby Doo)