Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

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.
"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" is the first incarnation of a long-running media franchise primarily consisting of animated series, several films, and related merchandise.
Overview.
The series centers on a group of characters consisting of teenagers Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy, and a 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.
Production.
Origin.
"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.
Writing.
"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:
Music.
The second season featured bubblegum "chase scene" songs produced by La La Productions (which had originally been contracted to create the music for "Josie and the Pussycats", the first of many animated series made from the same mold as "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"). These songs were written by Danny Janssen and Austin Roberts, and were performed by Roberts, who also made a new recording of the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" theme song for the second season. The series' theme song has been covered by several subsequent artists, including Matthew Sweet for the 1995 TV special and album ""; Third Eye Blind for the 1998 film "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" and the 2003 film "Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico"; Billy Ray Cyrus for "Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost" (1999); Jennifer Love Hewitt for "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders" (2000); the B-52's (Cindy, Kate and Fred) for "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase" (2001); MxPx for the live-action "Scooby-Doo" film (2002); and Krystal Harris for "Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire" (2003).
"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" utilized a laugh track, a common feature in most animated TV series until the late 1970s. It was removed for syndication in the 1980s. Following Turner's purchase of Hanna-Barbera and its networks' (TBS, TNT and Cartoon Network) initial broadcast of the series in 1994, the laugh track was reinstated in 1997.
Home media.
On July 4, 2002, Warner Home Video released four episodes from the series on a compilation DVD in Region 1 entitled "Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers". They later released all 25 episodes on DVD in Region 1 on March 16, 2004 under the title "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The Complete First and Second Seasons". A DVD entitled "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The Complete Third Season" was released on April 10, 2007, made up of episodes produced in 1978, added to the "Scooby's All-Stars" package, and later syndicated as part of "The Scooby-Doo Show".
On November 9, 2010, Warner Home Video released "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series". The eight-disc set features all 25 episodes of the series plus the 16 episodes produced in 1978 which aired as part of "Scooby's All-Stars". The set is encased in special collectible packaging in the form of a Mystery Machine replica. It also features a special bonus disc filled with new and archival material. The set was re-released on November 13, 2012. A Blu-ray version of the "Complete Series" boxset was released on September 3, 2019, for the series' 50th anniversary.
Starting on January 27, 2009, Warner Home Video released single-disc DVDs with four episodes each, plus an episode from "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue". Four volumes have been released through October 19, 2010.
Reception.
"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" was a hit for Hanna-Barbera and CBS, which led Hanna-Barbera to eventually create series with similar concepts on ABC, NBC, and CBS, including, "Josie and the Pussycats", "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show", The "Pebbles, Dino and Bamm-Bamm" segments on "The Flintstone Comedy Show", "The Funky Phantom", "Speed Buggy", "Jeannie", "Jabberjaw", "The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan", "Inch High Private Eye", "Goober and the Ghost Chasers", "Clue Club", "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels", "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids", and "The New Shmoo".
In 2005, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" came 49th in Channel 4's "100 Greatest Cartoons", in the UK, and was more recently voted the 8th greatest "Kids' TV Show" by viewers of the same channel. It was ranked the 24th greatest cartoon on IGN's "Top 100 Animated Series".