Scooby Doo, Where Are You?
 Let's get one thing straight:
Drugs!
This show is about
drugs, conceived by people on drugs, written by
people on drugs and mostly watched by people on
drugs.
Shaggy is a drug addict, Scooby Snacks are drugs, Scooby
Doo is probably a drug-sniffer dog gone wrong . . .
That's why they saw edible donut-shaped fog, fish in empty
buckets, levitating ham sandwiches, eyes peering from behind
portraits in empty mansions etc etc etc
Every week the same thing happened: Scooby and the gang would
rock up in their van, The Mystery Machine, to visit some relative
who lived in an old house near a swamp or disused mine.
Upon arriving at the house, said relative would be acting odd,
evil and/or absent, and the house would be haunted.
The
ghosts would chase a terrified Scooby and Shaggy (real name,
Norville Rogesr) all over the
house - and through secret tunnels and passageways - usually to
the accompaniment of a groovy 70s bubblegum pop song.
In the meantime Fred (the hunky one), Daphne (the babelicious
one) and Velma (the brainy one) would’ve found a box
of balloons, and a canister of helium. This would lead them to
deduce that the ghost is nothing but a helium-inflated puppet
operated by the evil local sheriff/real estate agent who would
then reveal a scheme to dig for gold in the disused mine or dredge
for diamonds in the lake at the back of the house, which he would’ve
gotten away with if it wasn’t for "You meddling kids".
 From
1972 to 1974, the show became The New Scooby-Doo Comedy Movies.
This format had the kids meeting up with such guest stars as Mamma
Cass, the Globetrotters, Sonny and Cher, and Don Knotts (all
playing themselves) to solve more mysteries.
For one season in 1976, the gang became half of The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt
Show, sharing the bill with the "robonic" Dynomutt
and his human superhero partner, The Blue Falcon.
Scooby's gang was joined by Scooby’s cousin Scooby-Dum, who
(you guessed it) was dumb.
From ’76 to ’80, Scooby was granted ninety minutes under
the title Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (later renamed
Scooby’s All-Stars). This show featured a plethora of
Hanna-Barbera characters - dating as far back as the 1950’s -
engaged in a variety of competitions.
Scrappy Doo was introduced in 1979 and managed to annoy Iranian
students so much that they took hostages to get him removed from
the show, thereby leading to higher gas prices, the defeat of
Jimmy Carter, and all sorts of other stuff. (It's all true - just
hasn't been declassified yet.)
In 1980 Scooby was paired with a famous mini-millionaire in The
Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show.
Scooby and Scrappy were still together in 1982, but now they
split their time with another canine in The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo/Puppy’s
New Adventures Hour. Joining these new shows were airings of
reruns now called The Best of Scooby-Doo.
In 1984 The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (which brought back
the teens as well as holding on to Scrappy) were aired, as were a
bunch of reruns, this time called Scary Scooby Funnies.
It’s interesting to note that while the show itself underwent
many changes, the characters did not. Aside from a modified Daphne
appearing in The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, the gang retained
their late-sixties garb well into the eighties and nineties.
This included knee-highs, a mini-skirt and lumpy turtleneck
sweater for Velma, a rockin’ mini dress and head scarf for
Daphne, and groovy bell-bottoms for the guys.
In The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985-86), Scooby,
Scrappy, Shaggy and Daphne were joined by 9-year-old Flim Flam.
The group, helped by warlock Vincent Van Ghoul (Vincent Price),
fought off wicked sorcery.
That season the Great Dane could also be seen in another rerun
collection, Scooby’s Mystery FunHouse. In 1986 Scooby
could only be seen in reruns of Laff-a-Lympics.
The airwaves were deprived of Scooby for two years. Then, in
1988, a new show called A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was
produced. Like many cartoons of the time, this show took familiar
characters back to their early years.
Thus, Shaggy, Freddy, Velma and Daphne were now preteens.
Scooby, of course, was but a pup. This version had the kids
constantly running into the character Red Herring (wink, wink),
whom the gang always suspected of committing crimes.
This show ran in reruns until 1993, when it finally left
network television.
Scooby-Doo continues to appear semi-regularly in
direct-to-video cartoon features.
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