Ubiquitous
2019-09-12 21:58:19 UTC
Fifty years ago, the world was introduced to a motley crew of crime-
solvers and their gawky, talking Great Dane.
On Sept. 13, 1969, CBS premiered animated comedy "Scooby-Doo, Where Are
You!" The first episode, "What a Night for a Knight," followed the so-
called Mystery Gang of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby as they
investigated an archaeologist's disappearance and faced off against a
sentient suit of armor, launching indelible gags ("My glasses! I can't
see without them!") and catch phrases ("Zoinks!") along the way.
At the time, the show was an outgrowth of sorts of sci-fi adventure
series "Jonny Quest," which was also produced by the Hanna-Barbera
studio, but was canceled in 1965 after one season.
Daphne, left, Velma, Shaggy, Fred and Scooby in the original "Scooby-
Doo, Where Are You!," which premiered in 1969 and ran for three
seasons.
"Quest" was "full of guns and pretty hard-core, especially for its
day," says Tony Cervone, a producer on several direct-to-video
"Scooby-Doo!" movies and director of next year's CGI-animated "Scoob!"
But the studio still "thought, 'Hey, there's something to this
adventure aspect. Maybe we should tone it down a little bit, and play
with Scooby and Shaggy,' by having these comical, 'Tom and Jerry'-like
cartoon characters in the middle of a real-world mystery. It was pretty
groundbreaking for that time."
Voice actor Frank Welker was a then-struggling 22-year-old stand-up
comic in Los Angeles when he auditioned for "Scooby": first as the
title pooch and hippie Shaggy, before he was offered the role of the
ascot-wearing Fred, whom he still voices five decades later on
streaming service Boomerang's "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?," which wraps
its first season Sept. 19.
"I really wanted Shaggy, because he was the comedy part," says Welker,
73. But producer Joseph Barbera "kept pushing me towards Fred. He said,
'You know, you're kind of the same age. Just do your own voice, and
think 'Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy': You're the leader of the
gang and got a driver's license.' And that was pretty much it."
Now, actors typically record voice-overs alone, but the core "Scooby"
cast assembled in the recording booth, where they were encouraged to
ad-lib and play off each other, and even voiced different monsters from
week to week.
"Velma, who was (portrayed) by Nicole Jaffe back in the early days, was
the one who said, 'Jinkies!' And Joe was like, 'What was that?,'"
Welker remembers. "Then, the cast started trying to do our own little
things. Mine was, 'Hold the phone!,' which came in later years."
A new "Scooby-Doo: Where Are You!" DVD/Blu-ray box set of the complete,
41-episode series was released earlier this month.
Like any long-running franchise, "Scooby" has had its share of creative
lows throughout various TV incarnations and movies, including two
critically reviled live-action adventures released in the early 2000s.
Fans roundly rejected Cartoon Network's 2010 series "Mystery
Incorporated," which abandoned the procedural format for a serialized
story, and controversially paired Shaggy and Velma as secret lovers.
The show continues to evolve: "Scooby's talking a lot more (now) than
he ever did, and Daphne is more sarcastic and less innocent than when
other actresses have played her," says Grey Griffin, who has voiced the
character since 2000. But mostly, "they've really stuck with the
classic formula. If it's not broke, don't fix it."
Going back to the spirit of the original "Where Are You!," "Guess Who?"
brought in comedians including Wanda Sykes, Ricky Gervais and "Weird
Al" Yankovic to play themselves, sometimes with a villainous streak.
"Whenever celebrities guest star, everybody gets a big thrill out of
saying the 'meddling kids' line," Griffin says with a laugh. "They
always freak out when they get to say that. They kind of turn into 10-
year-old kids."
--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
solvers and their gawky, talking Great Dane.
On Sept. 13, 1969, CBS premiered animated comedy "Scooby-Doo, Where Are
You!" The first episode, "What a Night for a Knight," followed the so-
called Mystery Gang of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby as they
investigated an archaeologist's disappearance and faced off against a
sentient suit of armor, launching indelible gags ("My glasses! I can't
see without them!") and catch phrases ("Zoinks!") along the way.
At the time, the show was an outgrowth of sorts of sci-fi adventure
series "Jonny Quest," which was also produced by the Hanna-Barbera
studio, but was canceled in 1965 after one season.
Daphne, left, Velma, Shaggy, Fred and Scooby in the original "Scooby-
Doo, Where Are You!," which premiered in 1969 and ran for three
seasons.
"Quest" was "full of guns and pretty hard-core, especially for its
day," says Tony Cervone, a producer on several direct-to-video
"Scooby-Doo!" movies and director of next year's CGI-animated "Scoob!"
But the studio still "thought, 'Hey, there's something to this
adventure aspect. Maybe we should tone it down a little bit, and play
with Scooby and Shaggy,' by having these comical, 'Tom and Jerry'-like
cartoon characters in the middle of a real-world mystery. It was pretty
groundbreaking for that time."
Voice actor Frank Welker was a then-struggling 22-year-old stand-up
comic in Los Angeles when he auditioned for "Scooby": first as the
title pooch and hippie Shaggy, before he was offered the role of the
ascot-wearing Fred, whom he still voices five decades later on
streaming service Boomerang's "Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?," which wraps
its first season Sept. 19.
"I really wanted Shaggy, because he was the comedy part," says Welker,
73. But producer Joseph Barbera "kept pushing me towards Fred. He said,
'You know, you're kind of the same age. Just do your own voice, and
think 'Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy': You're the leader of the
gang and got a driver's license.' And that was pretty much it."
Now, actors typically record voice-overs alone, but the core "Scooby"
cast assembled in the recording booth, where they were encouraged to
ad-lib and play off each other, and even voiced different monsters from
week to week.
"Velma, who was (portrayed) by Nicole Jaffe back in the early days, was
the one who said, 'Jinkies!' And Joe was like, 'What was that?,'"
Welker remembers. "Then, the cast started trying to do our own little
things. Mine was, 'Hold the phone!,' which came in later years."
A new "Scooby-Doo: Where Are You!" DVD/Blu-ray box set of the complete,
41-episode series was released earlier this month.
Like any long-running franchise, "Scooby" has had its share of creative
lows throughout various TV incarnations and movies, including two
critically reviled live-action adventures released in the early 2000s.
Fans roundly rejected Cartoon Network's 2010 series "Mystery
Incorporated," which abandoned the procedural format for a serialized
story, and controversially paired Shaggy and Velma as secret lovers.
The show continues to evolve: "Scooby's talking a lot more (now) than
he ever did, and Daphne is more sarcastic and less innocent than when
other actresses have played her," says Grey Griffin, who has voiced the
character since 2000. But mostly, "they've really stuck with the
classic formula. If it's not broke, don't fix it."
Going back to the spirit of the original "Where Are You!," "Guess Who?"
brought in comedians including Wanda Sykes, Ricky Gervais and "Weird
Al" Yankovic to play themselves, sometimes with a villainous streak.
"Whenever celebrities guest star, everybody gets a big thrill out of
saying the 'meddling kids' line," Griffin says with a laugh. "They
always freak out when they get to say that. They kind of turn into 10-
year-old kids."
--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.