Scooby Dooby Doo, Where Are You?!?!?! Blog 6

March 2, 2010

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A couple of days ago I was flipping through the television channels at home and came across “Scooby Doo” on Boomerang.  I hadn’t seen the show for a while and upon seeing it again was reminded of how much I used to love watching “Scooby Doo” as a kid.  I noticed that the theme song had changed since the last time I saw it and started to wonder exactly how long the show has been on, and how it has changed throughout the years. Below is the theme song for Scooby Doo from 1969.

According to an article written on the history of Scooby Doo called “A Tribute to Scooby Doo,” in 1969, the head of CBS’s daytime programming, Fred Silverman, was tired of the same old super hero programming.  He wanted something new and adventurous to program.  Influenced by a radio show called I Love a Mystery, among other influences, Silverman approached Hanna-Barbera who then assigned Ken Spears and Joe Ruby to write the show.  According to Wikipedia, the original concept was a show called “Mysteries Five” which had teenagers named Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, and W.W, who was Linda’s brother.  They had a dog called “Too Much” and all of them combined were in a rock band called “The Mysteries Five,” where “Too Much” the dog would play the banjos.  When they weren’t playing anything with the band, they would go out and solve mysteries.  In order to decide what kind of dog “Too Much” would be, they decided to make him a coward, and had problems deciding between him being a German Shepherd or a Sheepdog.  It was eventually decided that “Too Much” was going to be a Great Dane.  Other than “Too Much,” the other things that changed in the original story before it was presented were some of the characters.  Geoff and Mike got merged from two different character to one named Geoff.  Later on, Geoff became Fred.   Kelly became Daphne and Linda became Velma, with W.W becoming Shaggy, (and in contrast with the original plot, W.W and Velma were no longer brother and sister.)  Silverman also renamed the show from “The Mysteries Five” to “Who’s S-S-Scared?”   Once completed, the show was then sent to the President of CBS, who rejected the show based on its scary animation or art, that would most likely scare the kids into not watching the show.

After this, Silverman worked with the original writers to make the show funnier and less scary, with the main concentration on Shaggy and the dog Too Much.  The whole idea of the whole group being in a band was also dropped.  It wasn’t until Silverman was listening to Frank Sinatra’s song “Strangers in the Night,” That he thought of the name of “Scooby Doo” for the dog that was originally named “Too Much.”  I looked up the lyrics to this song.  Here is the last stanza:

“Ever since that night we’ve been together

Lovers at first sight, in love forever

It turned out so right for strangers in the night

[doo-be-doo-be-doo]“

From this song, Silverman got the idea for “Scooby Dooby Doo,” and when he got back he wanted to name the show “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” and wanted to make the central star Scooby.

Don Messick became the original voice for Scooby, creating the famous Scooby way of talking and goofy laugh.  DJ Casey Kasem became the voice for Shaggy, Frank Welker became Freddy, Nicole Jaffe became Velma, and Heather North became Daphne.  David Coulier, who later played Uncle Joey on Full House was also an original voice on the show, a role he got at 18 years of age.

Scooby moved to ABC after 7 successful years with CBS, and since then has appeared under numerous titles including “The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo,” “A Pup Named Scooby Doo,” What’s New Scooby Doo?” “Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated,” etc.  The series has also aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang, and has turned into a live action movie by Warner brothers.

IGN named Scooby- Doo at number 24 of its list of the top 100 animated T.V shows in January 2009.

Having said all that, it is also important to note that “Scooby-Doo” had some adult themes, especially when it transitioned from a cartoon to a live action movie.  According to Wikipedia, in the live action movie of Scooby Doo, there are references made, although as a joke, about Shaggy and Scooby’s drug use.  This is supposed to originate from Shaggy’s hippie roots.  In the film, Shaggy falls in love with a girl with the name Mary Jane, which is a slang term for marijuana.    In an Adult Swim animation, they use this and have Shaggy and Scooby arrested for possession of Marijuana, but both are later released because they were too unintelligent to really be blamed.

*I commented on Mike Kush’s Blog (#25) and Alissa Potter (#38)

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