Retro Saturday Morning: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-78)(CBS/ABS)

This week I am continuing to focus on cartoons from the early 1970s with what is undoubtedly one of the most successful television series of all time, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Okay, I know that the theme song is playing in your head (it certainly is in mine) so let's get it over with!

 

Sing Along!

Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?
We got some work to do now
Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you?
We need some help from you now
Come on Scooby Doo, I see you
Pretending you got a sliver
But you're not fooling me, 'cause I can see
The way you shake and shiver
You know we got a mystery to solve
So, Scooby Doo, be ready for your act
Don't hold back
And, Scooby Doo, if you come through
You're gonna have yourself a Scooby Snack
That's a fact
Scooby Dooby Doo, here are you
You're ready and you're willing
If we can count on you, Scooby Doo
I know we'll catch that villain

That never get's old!

History:

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning cartoon schedule on September 13, 1969, and aired for two seasons until October 31, 1970. In 1978, a selection of episodes from the later series Scooby's All-Stars and The Scooby-Doo Show were aired on ABC under the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! name, and they were released in a DVD set marketed as its third season. 

The series centers on a group of characters consisting of four teenagers Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy, and a titled-character, the talking pet Great Dane named Scooby-Doo. The group travels in the Mystery Machine, a blue and green van decorated with orange flowers, solving mysteries involving local legends; in doing so, they discover that the perpetrator is almost invariably a disguised person who seeks to exploit the legend for personal gain. 

 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was the result of CBS and Hanna-Barbera's plans to create a non-violent Saturday morning program that would appease the parent watch groups that had protested the superhero-based programs of the mid-1960s. Originally titled Mysteries Five and later Who's Scared?, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! underwent a number of changes from script to screen (the most significant being the downplaying of a musical group angle). However, the basic concept—a group of teenagers and their dog solving supernatural-related mysteries—was always in place.

Scooby-Doo creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears served as the story supervisors on the series. Ruby, Spears, and Bill Lutz wrote all of the scripts for the 17 first-season episodes, while Lutz, Larz Bourne, and Tom Dagenais wrote the eight second-season episodes with Ruby and Spears as story editors. The plot varied little from episode to episode. The main concept was as follows:

The gang is driving in the Mystery Machine, either returning from or going to a regular teenage function, when their van breaks down for any of a variety of reasons (overheating, flat tire, out of gas) in the immediate vicinity of a large mostly vacated property (ski lodge, hotel, factory, mansion).

Their unintended destination turns out to be suffering from a monster problem (ghosts, Yetis, vampires, witches, etc). The gang then volunteers to investigate the case.

The gang splits up to cover more ground, with Fred and Velma finding clues, Daphne finding danger, and Shaggy and Scooby finding food, fun and the ghost/monster, who chases them.

Eventually, enough clues are found to convince the gang that the ghost/monster is a fake. Fred then develops a much too complex trap to capture it (only for it to invariably go awry). Alternatively, the gang calls the local sheriff, only to get stopped by the villain half-way.

Eventually, the ghost/monster is apprehended and discovered to be disguised. Once unmasked, the ghost/monster turns out to be an unsuspected authority figure or otherwise innocuous local who is using the disguise to cover up something, such as a crime or a scam.

After giving the parting shot of "And I'd have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids", the offender is then taken away to jail and the gang is allowed to continue on the way to their destination.

Trivia:

Under the title of "W-Who's S-S-Scared?", this series was originally rejected by CBS executives, who thought the presentation artwork was too frightening for children and that the show must be the same. CBS Executive Fred Silverman was listening to Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night" (with the scatted lyric "dooby-dooby-doo") on the flight to that ill-fated meeting. After the show was originally rejected, a number of changes were made: the Hanna-Barbera staff decided that the dog should be the star of the series (instead of the four kids) and renamed him Scooby-Doo (after that Sinatra lyric), the spooky aspects of the show were toned down slightly, and the comedy aspects tuned up. The show was re-presented, accepted, and presented as the centerpiece for CBS's 1969-1970 Saturday Morning season.

Velma's famous line, "My glasses, I can't see without them!" was not originally scripted for the show. During a table read for the voice artists, Velma's voice-over actress Nicole Jaffe, who was near-sighted as well, lost her glasses and uttered a variation of what became Velma's famous catchphrase. The writers liked the line so much that Velma losing her glasses became one of the show's trademark gags. Velma loses her glasses in the first episode, Scooby Doo, Where Are You!: What a Night for a Knight (1969), but the actual line is first spoken in Scooby Doo, Where Are You!: Decoy for a Dognapper (1969).

The original names for the characters during the show's development, when it was known as "Mystery Five" or "Mysteries Five," and later "W-Who's S-S-Scared?"

Freddy: "Geoff", later "Ronnie" (Freddy was actually identified as Ronnie on the final storyboards for the first few episodes of the series)
Daphne: "Kelly"
Velma: "Linda"
Shaggy:"W.W."
Scooby-Doo: "Too Much" (as in: "That's just too much!" a popular catchphrase of the time)

"Too Much" (later Scooby-Doo) was originally written as a Great Dane, but fearing their creation would be too close to the titular character in the comic strip "Marmaduke," creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears changed Scooby/"Too-Much" to be a big, sloppy sheepdog (which itself was far too close to "Hot Dog" from the "Archie" comics that inspired the series). After meeting with Hanna and Barbera about the issue, Scooby was changed back to a Great Dane. Character designer Iwao Takamoto went to a dog-breeding colleague at the studio for advice on what elements made up a prize-winning Great Dane, and then preceded to break every "rule" in his design of Scooby, including the double-chin, the bow-legged hind-legs, and the spots on his back (No *real* Great Dane has spots). Scooby's utter lack of prize-winning characteristics is spoofed in episode 1.5, "Decoy for a Dognapper." - IMDB

Fandom for the series has continued on for the better parts of five decades. The characters are as popular with this generation as they were with mine. One of the more interesting things about this is the popularity of the brilliant but nerdy character Velma. There is a whole genre of Cosplay (the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game) dedicated to her alone. I the eyes of modern fans Velma takes on a form of repressed sexuality and in almost all cases she is portrayed as being very buxom and very naughty. 

Just plug "Velma Cosplay" into Google sometime and see what ya find.

Check Out:

Retro Saturday: Partridge Family: 2200 A.D. (CBS)(1974-75)

Retro Saturday Morning: Jeannie (1973 - 75)(CBS)

Retro Saturday Morning: The New Adventures of Gilligan (1974 - 77)(ABC)

Retro Saturday Morning: The Addams Family (1973-75)(NBC)

Retro Saturday Morning: Emergency +4 (1973-74)(NBC)

Retro Saturday Morning: Hong Kong Phooey (ABC)(1974)

Retro Saturday Morning: Devlin (1974)(ABC)

Retro Saturday Morning: Land of the Lost (NBC)(1974-1977)

Retro Saturday Morning: Valley of the Dinosaurs (1974)(CBS)