While we may argue debate the merits of the many incarnations of Scooby Doo, under no circumstances may we say that “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” sucked. This show was and is an important artistic and educational work only masquerading as as quasi-horror-mystery Saturday morning fare. Indeed, just as most of the adults in the series were unable to see past the mask of the villain, so are the anti-Scooby crowd unable to see past a superficial reading of the show. The very strength of the show lies in the similar plots, less than stellar animation, and repeatably solvable mysteries.
Any in-depth study of the 1969-1970 Scooby Doo episodes must first place the series in its historical context, and also remember that the perspective of this historical context must be perceived through the mind of a child. Not a very young child, for whom the show was probably “too scary”, but in the mind of a child reaching out towards the mystery of the adult.
There is no need to go through a listing of what was happening historically in this country at this time. Obviously this was an especially difficult period to be a child. Right and wrong, good and evil, truth and fiction—these divisions were surfacing in America in ways never before seen in our history. Children could not help but be aware of these divisions and uncertainties.
Enter “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?”
Unlike most previous Saturday morning cartoons,the original Scooby Doo dealt with a world of norms seemingly gone to chaos. And the chaos was something any child could understand. The chaos was the monster. As we grow old we leave a world where everything is a new wonder to a world where there are rules, routines, and often rote lives. But there is a between time. It’s an age where we know there is no monster in the closet, but we still aren’t quite comfortable with the light going out a night.
“children remembered/ but only a few/ and down they forgot/ as up they grew”.
e.e. cummings
In 1969, we were confronting a world where norms were being shaken. And in the original Scooby Doo this was represented in the dichotomy of the mask. The confusion over appearance and reality that is the central theme of the show is evident in the main characters themselves. Freddy and Daphne are the beautiful ideals. They are the Brad Pitt and Brittany Spears of today. Shaggy and Velma were their opposites. They were normal in appearance. Viewers had crushes on Freddy and Daphne. They were who every kid wanted to be. Shaggy and Velma represented more the type of kids who watched the show, and more importantly represented who every child COULD BE!
Freddy drove the Mystery Machine. Freddy demanded the solving of every mystery. Freddy cooked up the Rube-Goldbergesque traps at the end of that ultimately failed to solve the mystery. Daphne (AKA Danger-prone Daphne)tended to more often than not get the gang into trouble with her ineptness. It is no surprise that Freddy and Daphne were always paired together, while Shaggy, Velma and Scooby Doo usually formed a team. For where Freddy’s outlandish traps would fail, the cowardly Shaggy and Scooby Doo always were the ones who finally caught the monster. Velma used her mind and deciphered the clues. Freddy and Daphne may have set up the parameters to find a solution, but it was always Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby Doo who actually solved the cases.
Now while Freddy and Daphne wore the masks of the hero, and Velma and Shaggy performed much of the actual heroism…what of Scooby Doo? (Scooby Doo, where are you?) I believe Scooby actually represents the viewer. Caught between the ideal (Freddy and Daphne)and the reality (Shaggy and Velma)Scooby not only co-exists between the two, he cements them. Just as we cannot and perhaps should not sacrifice our ideals, so must we always live with the realities.
The ghost/monster is almost always presented early on in complete supernatural imagery. Take, for instance, the episode where Scooby and his relatives must spend the night in a haunted castle to inherit a fortune. The two Phantom Shadows are transparent early on, but as the episode progresses, they become more and more real. Just before Mr. Creeps and Mr. Crawls are unmasked, the transparancy has disappeared. The reality replaces the fakery. But until perceived truth is debunked, that faux-truth must take on the appearance of actual truth. How deliciously wonderful that the fortune involved also turns out to have been wearing a mask–it is confederate money!
More important though, then the presentation of the dichotomy of the mask is what can be called the morality of the mask. In dealing with a world where the natural and supernatural are confused, where right and wrong as well as good and evil may be wearing the mask, the true question is what is our response? And I think here we begin to see why the message of the show resonates with kids and adults alike some 31 years later.
The adults present a world gone haywire. The Scooby gang, does not respond by placing blame on these adults. They do not rebel and retaliate against the world but instead make a challenge to it. “Scooby Dooby Doo, where are you? We’ve got some work for you now…we need some help from you now” The chaotic inexplicable world is a challenge. In other words, “We’ve got a mystery—dare to make sense of it!”
The main characters of Scooby Doo are always on the road, never resting. Because there is no home, they are forever riding forth in the mystery of life. There may be a mummy in the museum, a space ghost at the airport, or an evil ghost clown at the circus. No matter. The differences of ideal and reality not only co-exist, they thrive on each other. We, like Velma, may lose our glasses for a time. But eventually we find them. Or we find a spare set. And we go on. Scooby acts as the unifying center for the ideal and the potential, the chaos and the order, the masked and the unmasked.
“We had to help. Scooby Doo is our dog. And we love him very much.” So says Freddy when Scooby is saved from the witchdoctor/dognapper. It’s a world we want to love very much. We must go out and try to save it. Would you do it for a Scooby snack? Yes, because of the many many Scooby Snacks we will face the many many monsters.
