Ubiquitous
2019-09-12 21:58:18 UTC
There was little fanfare around " Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" when CBS
launched the Saturday-morning animated series about four crime-fighting
teens and their talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo.
That was Sept. 13, 1969. Fifty years later, "Scooby-Doo" remains one of
TV's most iconic animated series, spawning a slew of spinoffs, five
big-screen movies and a merchandising empire - while adding Scooby's
"ruh-roh" to the American lexicon.
"I've tried to figure out what made people like `Scooby-Doo' so much,"
says Frank Welker, who's voiced square peg Fred Jones on the series
since Day 1 (and later added the voice of Scooby-Doo). "I'm totally
blown away that we've been on for 50 years. If you put a show like
`SpongeBob SquarePants' next to `Scooby' it's like, `Whoa! Time warp!'"
Maybe that's the secret to "Scooby-Doo," since its template and
characters have changed little, with ascot-wearing Fred Jones, Daphne
Blake, Velma Dinkley, hippie dude Norville "Shaggy" Rogers and Scooby
tooling around in their psychedic "Mystery Machine" van solving crimes
and (inevitably) unmasking the bad guy, often disguised as a ghost or
monster. Creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears based the characters on the
1959-63 CBS series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" - think of Shaggy
as an animated version of Bob Denver's beatnik Maynard G. Krebs.
"What's appealing is that the animation [in `Scooby-Doo'] is slower-
moving. There's time to digest it and the characters are fully
rounded," says Welker, who was a 23-year-old aspiring standup comedian
sharing an LA stage with Steve Martin when he was hired for "Scooby-
Doo." "I don't know if it's the friendship between Scooby and Shaggy -
they're complete goofballs, yet they totally respect and love each
other - or the solving of mysteries that has people intrigued. I
totally believe that keeping it as original as possible through the
years seems to have been the key [to its longevity]."
In addition to Welker, the original series cast included Casey Kasem as
Shaggy, Nicole Jaffe as Velma, Indira Stefanianna as Daphne and Don
Messick as the beloved Scooby-Doo, a role he voiced until his death in
1997 at the age of 71.
"Casey was already huge in radio at the time . and he was so busy that
he would always refer jobs to me," says Welker. "We would go out for
lunches and I would just sit there in awe and listen to his stories
about Dick Clark and the wars between radio stations. It was
fascinating.
"Don was kind of quiet - he was more of an intellectual type," says
Welker, who tears up talking about his late co-star. "I remember
thinking, `Wow. He knows so many big words. He plays this dog yet he
talks so well.' "
The "Scooby-Doo" franchise moved from CBS to ABC in 1976. Kasem, who
died in 2014, played Shaggy from 1969-1997 and from 2002-2009, while
Thelma and Daphne have been voiced by different people in the many
"Scooby-Doo" iterations. The live-action 2002 movie version featured
Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda
Cardellini and Neil Fanning as Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Velma and a
computer-generated Scooby.
Welker took over as Scooby in 2002. "You can't capture somebody's soul,
but you can do a voice and bring your own qualities to it," he says. "I
just hope I do honor to Don and to the fans."
And, after all these years, there's still one thing about Fred that
bothers Welker.
"The guy still wears an ascot and that's beyond me," he says. "I never
quite got that. Of all the `Scooby-Doo' mysteries, that one's never
been solved."
--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.
launched the Saturday-morning animated series about four crime-fighting
teens and their talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo.
That was Sept. 13, 1969. Fifty years later, "Scooby-Doo" remains one of
TV's most iconic animated series, spawning a slew of spinoffs, five
big-screen movies and a merchandising empire - while adding Scooby's
"ruh-roh" to the American lexicon.
"I've tried to figure out what made people like `Scooby-Doo' so much,"
says Frank Welker, who's voiced square peg Fred Jones on the series
since Day 1 (and later added the voice of Scooby-Doo). "I'm totally
blown away that we've been on for 50 years. If you put a show like
`SpongeBob SquarePants' next to `Scooby' it's like, `Whoa! Time warp!'"
Maybe that's the secret to "Scooby-Doo," since its template and
characters have changed little, with ascot-wearing Fred Jones, Daphne
Blake, Velma Dinkley, hippie dude Norville "Shaggy" Rogers and Scooby
tooling around in their psychedic "Mystery Machine" van solving crimes
and (inevitably) unmasking the bad guy, often disguised as a ghost or
monster. Creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears based the characters on the
1959-63 CBS series "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" - think of Shaggy
as an animated version of Bob Denver's beatnik Maynard G. Krebs.
"What's appealing is that the animation [in `Scooby-Doo'] is slower-
moving. There's time to digest it and the characters are fully
rounded," says Welker, who was a 23-year-old aspiring standup comedian
sharing an LA stage with Steve Martin when he was hired for "Scooby-
Doo." "I don't know if it's the friendship between Scooby and Shaggy -
they're complete goofballs, yet they totally respect and love each
other - or the solving of mysteries that has people intrigued. I
totally believe that keeping it as original as possible through the
years seems to have been the key [to its longevity]."
In addition to Welker, the original series cast included Casey Kasem as
Shaggy, Nicole Jaffe as Velma, Indira Stefanianna as Daphne and Don
Messick as the beloved Scooby-Doo, a role he voiced until his death in
1997 at the age of 71.
"Casey was already huge in radio at the time . and he was so busy that
he would always refer jobs to me," says Welker. "We would go out for
lunches and I would just sit there in awe and listen to his stories
about Dick Clark and the wars between radio stations. It was
fascinating.
"Don was kind of quiet - he was more of an intellectual type," says
Welker, who tears up talking about his late co-star. "I remember
thinking, `Wow. He knows so many big words. He plays this dog yet he
talks so well.' "
The "Scooby-Doo" franchise moved from CBS to ABC in 1976. Kasem, who
died in 2014, played Shaggy from 1969-1997 and from 2002-2009, while
Thelma and Daphne have been voiced by different people in the many
"Scooby-Doo" iterations. The live-action 2002 movie version featured
Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda
Cardellini and Neil Fanning as Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, Velma and a
computer-generated Scooby.
Welker took over as Scooby in 2002. "You can't capture somebody's soul,
but you can do a voice and bring your own qualities to it," he says. "I
just hope I do honor to Don and to the fans."
And, after all these years, there's still one thing about Fred that
bothers Welker.
"The guy still wears an ascot and that's beyond me," he says. "I never
quite got that. Of all the `Scooby-Doo' mysteries, that one's never
been solved."
--
Watching Democrats come up with schemes to "catch Trump" is like
watching Wile E. Coyote trying to catch Road Runner.