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Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

IF YOU ignore THE FLINTSTONES, which we find easy to do, probably *the* flagship H-B show. Burned-into-minds-of-everyone-under-40 line-up: dull, lantern jawed Fred (plus cravat), “decorative” monster fodder Daphne, orange-jumpered plot-solver Velma (catchphrases – “Jinkies!” “My glasses!”) and the hoary-reminisci-package pairing of Scooby Doo and Norville “Shaggy” Rodgers (voice of CASEY “AMERICA’S TOP TEN” KASEM). Original series stuck rigidly to the well-known format: Kids roll up in Mystery Machine to Daphne’s aunt’s summer house overlooking the old lagoon/mine/deserted mansion; strange things happen; Fred does the old “I’ll go with Daphne – you lot piss off over there” ploy; Velma finds “piece of monster costume”; Velma loses glasses; Shag and Scoob encounter the monster but escape by pretending to be comedy barbers/jugglers/chefs etc; Daphne gets kidnapped and then appears behind a secret panel; the entire gang are chased about to a flaccid 60s bubblegum song; Fred devises elaborate monster trap in which Scoob gets captured instead; monster is eventually captured and, yes, it was the old caretaker/lighthouse keeper/kindly Uncle Wilberforce all along, who wanted to “scare people away” from the whatever so he could have all the secret whatever for himself. Subsequent revivals, however, meddled with this cast-iron formula, first with the “New Adventures” (song: “When Scooby Doo is running from a spooky ghost/Shaggy is a-doing what he does the most”) but then, even worse, with THAT hateful nephew. Most recently seen bedecked with yet another “relation”, Yabba Doo. Eh?

8 Comments

8 Comments

  1. The Haj

    August 8, 2012 at 1:26 pm

    My sister bought me the DVD of the complete Seasons 1 & 2, suddenly I was five again.

    It was brillant and watchable and not one-of-those-things-that-shouldn’t-be-viewed-again-when-an-adult affairs.

    You’re right about the nephew, things when downhill when he appeared, especially when they dropped Fred, Daphne and Velma and brought in the 3-in-1 format.

    Cheers, Bill and Joe!

  2. THX 1139

    November 2, 2015 at 2:39 pm

    It passed me by at the time, but because of Lenny Henry I really notice when Fred called Shaggy “Shag” now, which according to Sir Len was hilarious. Anyway, the best episode of the originals was the one with the robot at the fairground, because it took chances and shook up the format considerably.

  3. Glenn Aylett

    October 17, 2019 at 8:04 pm

    Classic, anyone aged 45-60 will have memories of this show that are mostly good. I always liked The Archies style theme tune and typical early seventies bubblegum pop song that appeared during a crucial part of the story. Those pesky kids interfering with my plans is one line that seemed to crop up on Scooby Doo when some old janitor’s monster disguise fell off.

  4. THX 1139

    October 18, 2019 at 11:52 am

    One reboot they got absolutely right was Scooby-Doo: Monsters Inc from a few years ago, which built on the original series in a way that was frankly, brilliant, far better than anyone would have expected. Highly recommended, it’s one of the great cartoon TV series of the 21st Century and a real shame it’s relatively obscure. And no Scrappy!

  5. THX 1139

    October 18, 2019 at 11:54 am

    Sorry, MYSTERY Inc, not Monsters Inc! Getting my franchises mixed up.

  6. richardpd

    October 18, 2019 at 2:39 pm

    The rights for this series seemed to swap between the BBC & ITV a few times over the years, most imports seemed to stay with one or the other.

  7. Droogie

    October 18, 2019 at 5:32 pm

    I remember Craig Ferguson as his alter ego Bing Hitler doing a hilarious stand-up routine in the 90’s about Scooby Doo. He asked the brilliant question – what exactly were the baddies doing that was illegal that got them arrested at the end of each episode? Impersonating a ghost? Illegal use of a film projector to project fake ghostly images?

    • Glenn Aylett

      October 19, 2019 at 11:20 am

      Wearing a monster costume, making a robot to scare people, however, this was part of the fun. Obviously they couldn’t feature a serial killer in a Nixon mask, but often the villain was someone who was involved in some illegal financial deal or stealing something valuable. Yet we shouldn’t criticise Scooby Doo as it was a well loved and well made cartoon show and Velma probably was the original female geek.

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