Scooby Doo Where Are You!

On Saturday morning, September 13, 1969, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered. This is probably one of the most popular cartoons ever that even spawned a few live-action movies and tons of merchandise. The show went through many stages before it was ready for the public.

In 1968 Fred Silverman envisioned the show as a cross between the popular I Love a Mystery radio serials of the 1940s and the popular early 1960s TV show The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, and artist/character designer Iwao Takamoto worked on Silverman’s idea. Their original concept of the show had the title 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. Ruby and Spears then had to decide what to make their dog. The dog was going to be a sheepdog but that would conflict with the Archies (who had a sheepdog, Hot Dog, in their band) but then settled on a Great Dane.

The executives felt that the presentation artwork was too frightening for young viewers, and, thought the show would be the same, decided to pass on it.

Ruby and Spears reworked the show to make it more comedic and less frightening. They dropped the rock band element and began to focus more attention on Shaggy and Too Much. According to Ruby and Spears, Silverman was inspired by the ad-lib “doo-be-doo-be-doo” he heard at the end of 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 rest as they say…is history!

Matthew Sweet did a version of the theme that I really like

 

The original theme song

 

 

http://scoobyaddicts.com/History.aspx

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

22 thoughts on “Scooby Doo Where Are You!”

  2. I loved Scooby Doo and Friends. This was a show without any aggravating characters. What I think I liked best about Scooby Doo is it showed how con artists manipulated the masses but setting up false fronts. I’d love to see Saturday Night Live do a skit with the Scooby Crew about Cheeto and the impeachment developments. 🙂

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      1. Remember when they called vans “shaggin wagons”? I know that Sammy Johns’ “Chevy Van” probably had something to do with it, but now I’m wondering if Shaggy’s van from Scooby Doo did also?

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      2. That would be cool if it was…. but I always thought it was the British slang term… I was curious….so I looked it up…yep…shag

        “a motor vehicle in which one shags – i.e. has sex.”

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      4. I know….the first thing I did in 1995 was to go out and find all the answers to all the trivia I had questions on…. now in 2019….I go out and find all the answers to all the trivia I have questions on!

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    1. I like the original theme the best… plus Matthew Sweet did a version I like

      I really hated Scrappy Doo… oh geez I didn’t keep up after that damn Scrappy Doo.

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      1. Hey! I’d never heard the Matthew Sweet version. That was cool.

        I spelled it wrong but, Scooby-Dum showed up in 1976, shortly after the show moved to ABC:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scooby-Doo_characters#Scooby-Dum

        Same with Dee. Scrappy was later. Considering he showed up in 1979, it just shows that the kids a decade later were different. Scrappy actually helped the ratings:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scooby-Doo_characters#Scrappy-Doo

        In retrospect, he has been determined to be a negative change, even being dissed in the live action film.

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      2. I always thought of Scrappy as Cousin Oliver from the Brady Bunch trying to boost the sagging ratings. I didn’t know he was that much later. The first two years is what I like the best.
        I remember the live action films…Freddie Prinze Jr was in it I believe. I shorten the post…oh geez it was 6 paragraphs so I trimmed it up a lot. It has the most history of any animation I’ve done so far without a doubt.

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      3. Matthew Lillard did an incredible Shaggy but, Freddie…as Fred? Talk about cultural appropriation! And, I cannot STAND Sarah Michelle Gellar. What an annoying brat. Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the Scooby Gang? I don’t think so. WE are the Scooby Gang…the originals. THEY are cheap knock-offs.

        The original Buffy was Kristy Swanson. She and Luke Perry made the story fun. Gellar was just constipated. Swanson…’69. Perry…’66 (RIP). Whedon…’64. True Scooby Gang.

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      4. She is his wife right? In real life? Gellar and Prinze?

        Yes we are! I totally agree to that! I never once watched Buffy I’m proud to say.

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      5. Oh, yeah. Probably the only reason he was in the movie. They bleached his hair (Look! An hispanic Fred Jones…not!) and dyed HER hair red. Lillard was the only one in the movie with any talent.

        I’m sorry to say that I was exposed to some clips…and I wanted wretch every time. I don’t like David Boreanaz, either…which means I never liked Bones. I like Zooey Deschanel but, her sister Emily? No. She is just creepy to me.

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      6. I forgot about the bleached hair! I do agree Lillard was the most talented of the bunch as Shaggy. I remember him in Hackers.

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      8. I know…you don’t see him much. In the 90s I went to see Hackers in the theaters…it had Angelina Jolie in her first big role I think. I never liked her all that much.

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