Why Scooby-Doo?

[Jim_s_Son]

@Jragon

I found this interview from 2002:

Sarah Michelle Gellar: 60 Questions For Sarah - Movieline

(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.

Now we know who loves Scooby Doo, having every episode on tape. Freddie Prinze Jr.

But, yes, it is interesting to wonder how much is PR hype and how much is something she really wanted (or if she even had other offers).

[The_Other_Waldo_Pepper]

@Jim_s_Son

Now we know who loves Scooby Doo, having every episode on tape.

Or do we?

Let’s split up and look for clues, gang!

[JSexton]

Eddie Izzard observed that of all beloved characters in literature, only three are cowards. Shaggy and Scooby are two of those, and the other is Falstaff. Falstaff! Right up there with Shakespeare!

[Ukulele_Ike]

@JSexton

Eddie Izzard observed that of all beloved characters in literature, only three are cowards. Shaggy and Scooby are two of those, and the other is Falstaff. Falstaff! Right up there with Shakespeare!

What about Dr. Zachary Smith? He was MUCH more beloved than Shaggy, Scooby, or Falstaff.

[Cartoonacy]

Anyone remember the time that the gang crossed paths with Johnny Bravo?

[GIGObuster]

@Cartoonacy

Anyone remember the time that the gang crossed paths with Johnny Bravo?

This Cartoon Network promo when they meet Speed Racer always kills me:

Speed Racer - Scooby Doo Cartoon Network Promo

[BigT]

I’d argue that the part everyone maligns is what kept it popular. It changed. It established a formula, which people liked. And all that stuff people say about that is true. But then it started subverting it. They introduced a kid character. But, when that fell out of favor, they changed it again. They had a version where they were kids. But they didn’t stay there. When they couldn’t keep a TV series going, they did movies. They came back and had them be kids, with both supernatural and non-supernatural stuff. Now they are like 201x shows, with the crude drawings.

The show kept changing with the times, and thus was more easily able to come back and ride the nostalgia train.

Edit: And they stayed with what was popular by constantly including guest stars and crossovers.

[Jragon]

@BigT

I’d argue that the part everyone maligns is what kept it popular. It changed. It established a formula, which people liked. And all that stuff people say about that is true. But then it started subverting it. They introduced a kid character. But, when that fell out of favor, they changed it again. They had a version where they were kids. But they didn’t stay there. When they couldn’t keep a TV series going, they did movies. They came back and had them be kids, with both supernatural and non-supernatural stuff. Now they are like 201x shows, with the crude drawings.

The show kept changing with the times, and thus was more easily able to come back and ride the nostalgia train.

Edit: And they stayed with what was popular by constantly including guest stars and crossovers.

Right, but most things that exist this long have changed with the times. The question is why Scooby-Doo kept getting the opportunity to come back over and over where other series didn’t.

Totally uprooting The Flintstones into a 2016-family in the stone age instead of a '50s Honeymooners in the Stone Age would seem jarring if you did it all at once, but if they had rebooted it every 5 years it would’ve worked fine. Scooby Doo had to keep changing and adopting gimmicks to remain popular, that much was never in question, but it was given far more opportunities, even in the face of failed series, than many of its contemporaries at any given time. Especially after the cartoon renaissances of the '90s and… uh… right nows. (Though, arguably, Scooby Doo managed to be a sponge for advances in cartoons; the better movies and series seem to be made when cartoons are good, and worse when they’re not. Mystery Inc was very much a product of the more recent Cartoon era and is better for it)

[cochrane]

@Jragon

Right, but most things that exist this long have changed with the times. The question is why Scooby-Doo kept getting the opportunity to come back over and over where other series didn’t.

Totally uprooting The Flintstones into a 2016-family in the stone age instead of a '50s Honeymooners in the Stone Age would seem jarring if you did it all at once, but if they had rebooted it every 5 years it would’ve worked fine. Scooby Doo had to keep changing and adopting gimmicks to remain popular, that much was never in question, but it was given far more opportunities, even in the face of failed series, than many of its contemporaries at any given time.

Seth MacFarlane and the Fox network wanted to reboot the Flintstones several years ago, but Fox didn’t like the script MacFarlane wrote, then MacFarlane became busy with his feature film Ted, so that project never was developed any further.

[cochrane]

@muldoonthief

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.

What, no Batmobiles?

[bmoak]

@Mr.Miskatonic

Oh noes!

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.

The human characters in Scooby-Doo were knockoffs of the main cast of “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis”

Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy = Dobie, Thalia, Zelda, and Maynard G. Krebs.

[bmoak]

@MrAtoz

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.

Definitely involving the loss of glasses. Whenever Velma split off with Shaggy and Scooby, the gag was that she would stumble or bump into something and lose her glasses. While groping around to find them, she would inevitably put her hands all over the monster “Is that you, Shaggy?”) while Shaggy and Scooby stammered and whimpered in the background.

[bmoak]

As to why Scooby-Doo was a popular show and why it has endured over the years in many forms…

1. While not a particularly good show, it was a good show in comparison to other cartoons of that area, especially the ones it was competing against on Saturday mornings. Hanna-Barbera, Filmation, and Ruby-Spears were in a race to the bottom to crank out shows quicker and cheaper through much of the 70s, and concerns about violence in children’s television combined with the iron grip of network Standards and Practices monitors that were determined that no child would see anything more exciting or traumatic than a cereal commercial on Saturday morning. Hanna-Barbera had an action-heavy line up in the late 60s built around Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, Herculoids, etc and the networks dropped all those shows simultaneously, leaving H-B scrambling to find replacements. Scooby-Doo is what they came up with that worked it that environment, so it’s no surprise that they flogged the hell out of it.

2. The repetitive formula of those episodes wasn’t seen as a negative then. There was no 24-hour children’s television, no videotapes, no binge-watching, no multi-hour blocks of reruns on cable stations. You watched the show when it was broadcast on Saturday mornings and you might see the same episode during a summer re-run. The point was to be consistent from week to week.

3. The formula actually was pretty finely honed and therefore effective. I can’t think of a show prior to Scooby-Doo that melded monster-based suspense with broad physical comedy. Of course, the format then launched what seemed like a hundred copycats. The show gimmick is flexible enough that it can be tweaked and reworked over the years.

[muldoonthief]

@cochrane

What, no Batmobiles?

Mystery Mobiles & Herbies are just paint jobs, Kitt is just an old trans am with a $20 light bar on the front. Batmobiles are well outside the budget of most residents of Lowell Massachusetts.