Scooby Doo, Where Are You! is the first incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. It premiered on September 13, 1969 at 10:30 AM EST and ran for two seasons on CBS as a half-hour long show. Twenty-five episodes were produced (seventeen in 1969-1970 and eight more in 1970).

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was the result of CBS and Hanna-Barbera's plans to create a non-violent Saturday morning program, which would appease the parent watch groups that had protested the superhero-based programs of the mid-1960s. Originally titled Mysteries Five, and later Who's S-S-Scared?, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! underwent a number of changes from script to screen (the most notable of which was the downplaying of the musical group angle borrowed from The Archie Show). However, the basic concept—four teenagers Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy, along with a large goofy Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, solving supernatural-related mysteries—was always in place. Character development was not a major focus of early sitcoms (especially animated cartoons), so little was offered about the personal lives of the Mystery Inc. members before the show, aside from the obvious (i.e. they are high school students). Also, each episode is a self-contained story, with connections to previous or future episode. (A story arc for the franchise did not exist until Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which is essentially a reboot with everything that WAY didn't have or wasn't allowed to.)

Writing

  • Scooby-Doo creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears served as the story supervisors on the series. Ruby, Spears, and Bill Lutz wrote all of the scripts for the seventeen first-season Scooby episodes, while Ruby, Spears, Lutz, Larz Bourne, and Tom Dagenais wrote the eight second-season episodes. The plot varied little from episode to episode. The main concept was as follows:

  • The Mystery Inc. gang turn up in the Mystery Machine, en route to or returning from a regular teenage function when their van develops engine trouble or breaks down for any of a variety of reasons (overheating, flat tire, etc.), in the immediate vicinity of a large, mostly-vacated property (ski lodge, hotel, factory, mansion, etc.).

  • Their (unintended) destination turns out to be suffering from a monster problem (ghosts, Frankenstein, Yeti, etc.). The kids volunteer to investigate the case.

  • The gang splits up to cover more ground, with Fred and Velma finding clues, Daphne finding danger, and Shaggy and Scooby finding food, fun, and the ghost/monster, who gives chase. Scooby and Shaggy in particular love to eat, including dog treats called Scooby Snacks which are a favorite of both the dog and the teenage boy.

  • Eventually, enough clues are found to convince the gang that the ghost/monster is a fake, and a trap is set to capture it.

  • The trap may or may not work (more often than not, Scooby-Doo falls into the trap and they accidentally catch the monster another way, usually if the plan is explained in detail before attempted execution it fails). Invariably, the ghost/monster is apprehended and unmasked. The person in the ghost or monster suit turns out to be an apparently blameless authority figure or otherwise innocuous local who is using the disguise to cover up something such as crime or a scam.

  • After giving the parting shot of "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you blasted meddling kids" (sometimes adding "...and your stupid dog!"), the offender is then taken away to jail, and the gang is allowed to continue on their way to their destination.

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  • VHS [he/him]
    ·
    1 year ago

    if there's one thing i know it's that you never go to a second location