I have never actually watched one of these from start to finish, even as a kid, but was wondering if the mysteries are complex and hart to solve, or can a five year old figure out who the monster is with regularity? Are they up to the level of Agatha Christie? Murder She Wrote?
The bad guy is generally the third lead. If a farmer and his daughter are being menaced by a scarecrow ghost, the culprit is the farm hand or the lawyer who appears in the first five minutes and is not seen again until the unmasking. If such a character is “kidnapped” by the ghost, that’s an even clearer signal.
“If the mask don’t fit, you must aquit.”
You do realise these are not true crime documentaries?
… and he invariably would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for those darned kids!
The criminal is always obvious before the first commercial. Apply Ebert’s Rule of Conservation of Characters.
Hint: In this show, what appears to be a supernatural phenomenon is always faked.
For some reason, they broke with that august and venerable tradition when they made the movie.
Well, except for that thing with Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy and the Boo Brothers.
And the Witch’s Ghost…
And Alien Invaders, where there is a fake-up, but also a real ET…
OK, mostly it’s some guy in a costume, but they have transgressed once or twice, to the harming of the franchise IMHO.
Also the 13 Ghosts season with Vincent Price.
The fun part is not typically “who?” but how (movie projector/robot) and why (wants to buy the property for cheap/wants hidden treasure for himself).
Sorta like Monk nowadays, except typically the only the audience knows “who” (and sometimes even why) when the opening credits roll. That Freddie, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo can never seem to learn anything from episode to episode on the course their mysteries always take is simply the good ol’ fashioned “reset button”.
I always found them pretty easy.
I thought it was the Scooby snacks.
BTW did you see when the Scooby gang showed up on the Venture Brothers? Man watching a cracked out shaggy get pimp slaped by a midly insane Fred was just aswesome. Also, his pimping of daphine and Velma’s lesbianism were nice touches as well.
Interesting that in that regard, “Scooby Doo” is far more intelligent a show than several other current and recent programs I can think of (both dramatic series and “reality” shows) that treat supernatural phenomena credulously.
(I’m looking at you, “Medium,” “Ghost Whisperer,” John Edward, Oprah, Larry King, et cetera…)
Each one of the members of “the Groovy Gang” in that episode was a parody of a particular notorious 1960-70’s celebrity:
Fred = Ted = Ted Bundy, the serial killer
Daphne = Patty = Patty Hearst, the kidnapped heiress turned revolutionary
Velma = Val = Valerie Solanas, the radical feminist who shot Warhol
Shaggy = Sonny = David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam killer who believed that dogs talked to him
Absolutely brilliant and so dark. I almost died laughing.
When I was a kid (and heck, even sometimes now), I didn’t always find out who the bad one was until it was uncovered. Sure, I knew it wasn’t supernatural (it was the premise of the show)… but sometimes they had a couple of creepy characters, and either one of those I found (or find) could be the guilty ones.
Of course, that has changed with the “new” modern version of Scooby and his gang that Cartoon Network showed a few years ago.
Yeah, there’s always someone who warns the kids to stay away from the haunted forrest. And He’s always the ghost.
nowhere near.
Somewhat more complex and believable.
Then how come you wound up tied up in a bag half the time?
Ohhhh BURN!!
Just so people know, there is a new version of Scooby Doo on Saturday mornings.
My son who just likes almost all TV and is 6 and loves Scooby (old version, new version from Cartoon network, even Scrappy Doo version), **thinks it stinks ** and the **cartooning is dumb ** looking.
My daughter who really likes the original and the Cartoon Network version hates it. She actually hates it. She was wondering why they would ruin such a good show. She is only 9.
The producers have possibly achieved a worse version of Scooby than the Scrappy Doo years or the Boo Brothers year. I am mostly ignorant of the years after Scrappy joined and before the Cartoon Network version. Scrappy killed the franchise for me and I was getting too old for it anyway.
The Cartoon Network Version was actually great. It had humor aimed at the older (parents watching with kids) crowd and the typical Scooby Doo humor and mysteries. I would say it was better than the original. I watched the originals at first airings when I was only 3 with my older brother. They were spooky back then at that age.
Peter Morris, I love your comparison to Murder She Wrote. I concur.
Velma, you really need to invest in either LASIK or a Croaky[sup]TM[/sup]
Jim