From The TV IV

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is an animated comedy that aired on CBS. It was the first in a series of Scooby-Doo cartoons.

The show centers around four kids, who were unofficially called "Mystery Inc." whose hobby was mystery solving. The basic premise remained unchanged through the many series of the franchise: criminal activities were covered up as faux supernatural events with red herrings and clues leading up to the eventual denoument. The kids were patterned after the characters of The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis: Fred Jones is the stocky, straight-laced member; Daphne Blake, beautiful but accident-proned red-head; Velma Dinkley, the pudgy, bespectacled brains of the outfit; Norville "Shaggy" Rogers, the pencil-thin chow hound; and the star of the show, the gangly, bow-legged Great Dane Scooby Doo.

Kids immediately embraced Scooby because he's been funny to them and he's true to himself--a craven coward and he's not afraid to admit it, although he's been known to set his cowardice aside for the common good.

The show's very beginnigs had creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears (who did double duty as story writers for The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop) harkening back to old radio shows like I Love A Mystery and Hardy Boys novels. The kids, under the original designs were nothing like what they became, and the dog was originally meant to be a sheepdog named Too Much. However, The Archie Show (also on CBS) already had a sheepdog named Hot Dog, so taking a cue from a Hanna-Barbera staffer who raised Great Danes as a hobby, the dog was turned into a Great Dane. This presented a secondary problem: the comics section of the newspaper had a Great Dane named Marmaduke. H-B character designer Iwao Takamoto gave this TV dog a bulging chin, a slanted back, and bow legs. He still didn't have a name, as the kids were the stars. The show had "Mysteries Five" and "Who's Scared?" as working titles, but CBS rejected the presentation art as too scary. They had to have a show for the cornerstone 10:30 AM spot, otherwise the schedule would have fallen apart.

Fred Silverman, head of CBS daytime and children's programming, was on a flight to New York when he heard Frank Sinatra singing "Strangers In The Night" on his in-flight radio. The ending tag, "scooby dooby doo", caught his fancy. Once in New York, Silverman called Joe Barbera and told him to give the show a comedy slant, make the dog the star and call him Scooby Doo. The rest is cartoon history.

The show originally aired for two seasons from September 13, 1969 to October 31, 1970. Then, on September 9, 1978, a new batch of Scooby-Doo episodes were ran as a third season through December 23, 1978. Its original run on CBS ended in August 1976, as the network replaced it with Clue Club, a Scooby clone that they hoped would be as successful.

Scooby Doo has been featured in comic books since his first season four decades hence. His appearances:

• Gold Key (Western Publishing): 30 regular issues, 4 March Of Comics premium (in conjuction with Sears), Dec. 1969 - Dec. 1974
• Charlton: 11 issues, Feb. 1975 - Oct. 1976
• Marvel: 9 regular issues (7 issues had lead-in stories in issues of Dynomutt), 13 issues of Laff-A-Lympics (appearances as Scooby Doobies captain), 2 appearances in special issues (Yogi Bear's Easter Parade and Laff-A-Lympics: The Man Who Stole Thursdays), Aug. 1977 - Feb. 1979
• Harvey Comics: 3 issues (reprints from Charlton stories), June 1992 - Dec. 1992
• Archie Comics: 21 regular issues, 1 special appearance (Hanna-Barbera Christmas Parade), plus 1 issue of A Pup Named Scooby Doo, Aug. 1995 - May 1997
• DC Comics: Still in publication, 150 regular issues as of Nov. 2009 and counting, plus 4 special issues, June 1997 - present

Contents 1 Cast 2 Seasons 3 In-Depth 4 DVD Releases 5 External Sites

[edit] Cast

Actor	Character	Duration
Billed Cast
Don Messick	Scooby-Doo	1	2	3
Casey Kasem	Shaggy	1	2	3
Frank Welker	Freddy	1	2	3
Stefanianna Christopherson	Daphne	1
Heather North			2	3
Nicole Jaffe	Velma	1	2
Pat Stevens				3

[edit] Seasons

Season	Premiere	Finale	#
CBS
Season One	September 13, 1969	January 17, 1970	17
Season Two	September 12, 1970	October 31, 1970	8
Season Three	September 9, 1978	December 23, 1978	16

[edit] In-Depth

• At a Glance: Additional information about the series

[edit] DVD Releases

Title	Release Date	#
Season Sets
The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons	March 16, 2004	4	purchase
The Complete Third Season	April 10, 2007	2	purchase
Episode Collections
Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries	March 14, 2000	1
Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers	June 4, 2002	1
Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries	May 6, 2003	1
Volume 1: A Monster Catch	January 27, 2009	1	purchase
Volume 2: Bump in the Night	May 5, 2009	1	purchase
Volume 3: Hello Mummy	September 1, 2009	1	purchase
Episode Collections - Various Series
Cartoon Network: Cartoon Crack-ups	July 3, 2001	1
Scooby-Doo's Spookiest Tales	August 21, 2001	1
Scooby-Doo! Winter Wonderdog	October 8, 2002	1

[edit] External Sites

• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! at the Internet Movie Database
• The Scooby-Doo Case Files

The Scooby-Doo Franchise
TV Shows
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You • The New Scooby-Doo Movies • The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour • Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics • Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo • The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show • The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour • The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show • The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries • The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo • A Pup Named Scooby-Doo • What's New Scooby-Doo? • Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!
Specials/TV Movies
Scooby Goes Hollywood • Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers • Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School • Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf • Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights • Night of the Living Doo