# Why Scooby-Doo? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 12, 2016, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731 "2016-07-12T16:24:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/21 "2016-07-12T18:39:14Z")
I’ve heard the original _Scooby-Doo_ series described as the “anti-_X-Files_,” in that every mystery that appeared supernatural at first turned out to have a prosaic explanation at the end. As such, it performed a valuable service by teaching kids (well, some kids, anyway) to think skeptically. Most of the later versions (_The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo_ being particularly offensive) took a firm stand on the side of the believers. Maybe that ultimately made it more popular, and so it survived longer. I don’t know. But formulaic as it was, the original was a decent series. Which reminds me of a gag panel I read about 20 years ago: Mulder and Scully are interviewing the Mystery Machine gang. Mulder asks Freddy, “Now let me get this straight. You say you know it wasn’t really a ghost because your \*dog \*told you so?” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/22 "2016-07-12T18:43:58Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > I’ve heard the original Scooby-Doo series described as the “anti-X-Files,” in that every mystery that appeared supernatural at first turned out to have a prosaic explanation at the end. As such, it performed a valuable service by teaching kids (well, some kids, anyway) to think skeptically. “If someone says a dog can carry on a conversation with you, it might be one of those talking dogs who’ll fix himself a sandwich after dressing up as an Italian barber.” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/23 "2016-07-12T18:50:08Z")
> [@edwards\_beard](#): > > Mystery Machine One of the most bizarre things I saw in Europe a few years ago was a perfect replica of the Mystery Machine, suitably time- and road-worn… …in the shadow of the Millennium Wheel, in London. Just parked in a serviceway, nothin’ special. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/24 "2016-07-12T19:59:13Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > One of the most bizarre things I saw in Europe a few years ago was a perfect replica of the Mystery Machine, suitably time- and road-worn… I hope it was a Chevy Van, preferably of mid-Sixties vintage. Anything else would look wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/25 "2016-07-12T20:06:47Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I hope it was a Chevy Van, preferably of mid-Sixties vintage. Anything else would look wrong. The drive-up burger hut down the road from my house has a [classic full-length sedan](http://nebula.wsimg.com/9694ba3c661a2d68b5c41f02feb2297e?AccessKeyId=98C7376D03F1237CB7FD&disposition=0&alloworigin=1) done up as the Mystery Machine, which the owners and family drive around town for promotional purposes. Here you can see it [parked next to the TARDIS replica they have in the parking lot](http://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s480x480/e15/11176596_377498212441283_217832905_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=OTcxODkwMDQwNjI0MDgwNTQ2.2) (because of course they have a TARDIS replica). ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/26 "2016-07-12T20:18:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The drive-up burger hut down the road from my house has a [classic full-length sedan](http://nebula.wsimg.com/9694ba3c661a2d68b5c41f02feb2297e?AccessKeyId=98C7376D03F1237CB7FD&disposition=0&alloworigin=1) done up as the Mystery Machine, which the owners and family drive around town for promotional purposes. > > Here you can see it [parked next to the TARDIS replica they have in the parking lot](http://scontent.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s480x480/e15/11176596_377498212441283_217832905_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=OTcxODkwMDQwNjI0MDgwNTQ2.2) (because of course they have a TARDIS replica). After you showed how wrong the sedan looked I was expecting the TARDIS to look more like this with a bright blue paint job: [![Imgur](https://live.staticflickr.com/3571/3481040549_84afd647c9_z.jpg "Modern Police Box") ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/55976115@N00/3481040549) Those new police boxes look more like Daleks though. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/27 "2016-07-12T20:36:32Z")
Agreed with **MrAtoz,** as a kid (in the 70s) I loved this show because it was genuinely creepy. Even though it was obvious it was never really going to be a ghost, but always a real estate scam! And Mystery Inc was awesome, even for adults because it was so meta (although a weird combo of “random guys pretending to be a supernatural creature” and an over-arching actual supernatural plot). Scooby Doo has been a favorite of my daughter, who is now five, and she probably started watching about around three years old, which seems way too young but apparently we don’t supervise her screen time well enough because she showed up one day with an expert knowledge of the basic Scooby gang set-up. She loves anything with Scooby Doo, in a way that she’s not interested in a lot of older cartoons. One thing that always perplexed me about the original is that usually Fred, Daphne and Velma went one way (as already mentioned, _ahem_) and Shaggy and Scooby in the other … but maybe 1 in 10 times, Velma got switched to Shaggy and Scooby. Why? Is there a pattern? Does it mean something? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/28 "2016-07-12T20:46:12Z")
> [@delphica](#): > > One thing that always perplexed me about the original is that usually Fred, Daphne and Velma went one way (as already mentioned, _ahem_) and Shaggy and Scooby in the other … but maybe 1 in 10 times, Velma got switched to Shaggy and Scooby. Why? Is there a pattern? Does it mean something? I don’t know how I know this trivia, but I’ve heard that the writers tended to send Fred and Daphne off together because they were kind of boring and didn’t really know what to have them to do. So they would send the ones they found more interesting in the other group, usually Shaggy and Scooby (since they had an easily exploitable quirk), but also frequently Velma. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/29 "2016-07-12T20:49:22Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > One of the most bizarre things I saw in Europe a few years ago was a perfect replica of the Mystery Machine, suitably time- and road-worn… > > …in the shadow of the Millennium Wheel, in London. Just parked in a serviceway, nothin’ special. [Oh noes!](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/b9/17/47/b917470b0109b8fa7d07bc2eab13a2d3.jpg) IN answer to the OP. Scooby was popular for a few reasons. 1. It was one of the few HB shows that weren’t derivative of other mediums or comedians acts. 2. The characters were memorable. When HB did all their knock off shows all the human characters were very forgetttable. Seriously, can you name a human member of the JabberJaw or Speed Buggy team without looking it up?The only reason I even remember what some of them look like is because of guest appearances on Harvey Birdman AAL. 3. The mysteries, while cliched and often ridiculous, did have a rational explanation. A lot of HB knock offs didn’t really do mysterys but just had the characters have adventures. The Mysteries gave everyone a role (except maybe Daphne). ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/30 "2016-07-12T20:51:50Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > 1. The characters were memorable. When HB did all their knock off shows all the human characters were very forgetttable. Seriously, can you name a human member of the JabberJaw […] team without looking it up? Clamhead, Shelly, Bubbles, and Biff I don’t know this because I remember anything about Jabberjaw, it’s because [this old Cartoon Network groovy is a great song by a great band](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeDsKxQjGyM) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/31 "2016-07-12T21:07:30Z")
> [@Mr.Miskatonic](#): > > The Mysteries gave everyone a role (except maybe Daphne). "Danger-prone Daphne"s role was to f\*\*\* up whatever plan they concocted to catch the bad guy. It was from _Scooby-Doo_ that I learned an infallible law of narrative construction that has served me well ever since: Whenever Our Heroes think up an elaborate scheme, if we are presented with an explanation of the way the scheme is supposed to work, something will go wrong so that it does not work as planned. However if the scheme is not explained ahead of time, it will work according to plan. It’s pretty obvious why this is the case, but still, it has enabled me to predict with remarkable accuracy whether or not any scheme in any story is going to turn out to be successful. ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/32 "2016-07-12T21:59:43Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > Pure dreck. Probably the only series worse was the one with a talking shark that sounded like Curly Howard. In the world of cartoons I personally find it really hard to hate on one that never ever pushed the supernatural as real. (well other than a talking dog or 3) Hell that show was probably educationally valuable to kids. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/33 "2016-07-12T22:17:03Z")
It was Scooby-Doo…or **Scrappy**! As Good Americans, our choice was clear. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/34 "2016-07-12T22:30:26Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > I hope it was a Chevy Van, preferably of mid-Sixties vintage. Anything else would look wrong. Yes. I don’t mean it was some kind of Opel Boxvagen - it was an Amurrican short-wheelbase van, finished and detailed well enough for on-screen use. But fairly worn. What it was doing in London, I will never know. I might have a picture somewhere. ETA: And I do. It’s a Ford van and the modeling is a little less perfect than I recall, but still pretty good. It looks from a bumper strip that it was associated with something called “The Movieum,” which appears to be a now-defunct movie memorabilia store in London. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/35 "2016-07-13T12:46:55Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > I don’t know how I know this trivia, but I’ve heard that the writers tended to send Fred and Daphne off together because they were kind of boring and didn’t really know what to have them to do. So they would send the ones they found more interesting in the other group, usually Shaggy and Scooby (since they had an easily exploitable quirk), but also frequently Velma. The division of (narrative) labor was pretty clear. Fred, Velma, and Daphne would do the mystery solving. They would find the clues, puzzle about them, and say things like “Hmmm. Why would a ghost need a treasure map?”\* Shaggy and Scooby’s role was to actually encounter the ghost, and be comically chased by it, to the accompaniment of a forgettable pop tune. The mystery solving scenes were narratively necessary, but the chase scenes were surely more fun to write and animate. It is true that Velma occasionally (I wouldn’t say frequently, myself) accompanied Shaggy and Scooby, rather than Fred and Daphne. I don’t see any clear reason, unless it was that the writers had an idea for something funny for her to do in that particular episode. Probably involving the loss of her glasses. I gather that in some of the later versions, Shaggy and Velma have been paired up romantically, which just seems kind of weird to me. \*One curious thing is that the gang never seemed to learn from experience. Even though it’s been a guy in a costume on every previous occasion, they always start each new mystery with the assumption that it might be a real ghost this time, and always act surprised when they start to uncover evidence that it’s not! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/36 "2016-07-13T13:00:47Z")
> [@MrAtoz](#): > > One curious thing is that the gang never seemed to learn from experience. Even though it’s been a guy in a costume on every previous occasion, they always start each new mystery with the assumption that it might be a real ghost this time, and always act surprised when they start to uncover evidence that it’s not! Not to drive a joke into the ground, but it’s possible the first case they investigated was the apparent hoax of a talking dog [del]who can fix sandwiches and dress up like an Italian barber[/del], and they looked for a weird old man using electronic equipment and stage magic to pull off the effect, only to learn that, nope, that just happened. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/37 "2016-07-13T16:15:34Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yes. I don’t mean it was some kind of Opel Boxvagen - it was an Amurrican short-wheelbase van, finished and detailed well enough for on-screen use. But fairly worn. What it was doing in London, I will never know. > > I might have a picture somewhere. > > ETA: And I do. It’s a Ford van and the modeling is a little less perfect than I recall, but still pretty good. It looks from a bumper strip that it was associated with something called “The Movieum,” which appears to be a now-defunct movie memorabilia store in London. [Too new and way too big.](https://www.flickr.com/photos/26684129@N02/2501666679/) [Here’s how a proper real life Mystery Machine should look.](http://fairsyndication.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/mystery-machine-van.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/38 "2016-07-13T17:10:21Z")
A few years ago I went to a Lowell Spinners game (Red Sox Class A minor league team) on “bring your TV car to the game” night. 3 Mystery Mobiles, 2 KITTs, and 4 or 5 Herbies. One of the Mystery Mobiles is there most games - they drive it around the field between innings with a guy launching T-shirts from the roof. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/39 "2016-07-13T18:42:02Z")
What I never understood is why Sarah Michelle Gellar was in two “Scooby” movies. Couldn’t she have gotten something better after “Buffy”? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2016, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731/40 "2016-07-13T21:43:16Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > What I never understood is why Sarah Michelle Gellar was in two “Scooby” movies. Couldn’t she have gotten something better after “Buffy”? I found this interview from 2002: > **[Sarah Michelle Gellar: 60 Questions For Sarah](http://movieline.com/2002/05/01/sarah-michelle-gellar-60-questions-for-sarah/)** > > When we threw Sarah Michelle Gellar an arsenal of our toughest questions, she stepped up to the plate and let fly on everything from how she expects to survive “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”… > [@](#): > > Q: You and Freddie have something else in common: you’re both starring in Scooby-Doo. Who was more excited about doing the film? > A: Both of us. Before we even read the script he’d seen every single “Scooby-Doo” episode and had them on tape. When I had to do research, I didn’t have to go anywhere. (This was when the two were engaged). It’s hard to tell how much of this is bullshit PR speak, but it seems she thought it might be fun. She was filming it before Buffy had even ended, though. In fact, I think she was co-filming the **sequel** to that movie and Season 7. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-scooby-doo/759731.md?page=3)