Scooby-Doo (in its myriad forms) is without doubt the most successful cartoon franchise of the 1970's and might Hanna-Barbera's most successful of all time. Others are famous, but time has put a shadow on Boomer faves like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and though I will always love Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and that lot, but they are nostalgia. Scooby-Doo is still generating new versions of the show and spinning off characters. The original Scooby-Doo...Where Are You? show ran for just two seasons, but it ran in one form or other throughout the succeeding decades. The early shows are still the best, with some truly creepy creations such as the Creepy Clown and the Skull-Faced Alien. We all know that in the Scooby-verse such ghosts are merely the creations of criminals and scallywags, and though the supernatural might seem to be seeping into the reality, it will be reason which will rule the day, if only just.
The second Scooby-Doo show was in fact The New Scooby-Doo Movies which ran for an hour and guest-starred such pure 70's sensations as Sonny and Cher, Phyllis Diller, Jerry Reed, Jonathan Winters, and Sandy Duncan among others. None of the above were in danger of getting Emmys for their voice work. Alongside these we got repeat visits from The Three Stooges and The Harlem Globetrotters. Most famously, the Dynamic Duo of Batman and Robin appeared in two episodes. The classic Scooby formula was screwed up by the addition of the guests and the extension of time. For some reason no additional twists and turns were usually added, and we just got more running around for no reason.
The factory that was Hanna-Barbera was always more committed to getting their cartoons delivered on time than getting them good. For a time, the team managed both, but by the late 70's they were in a mad dash to keep animation on the continent and on Saturday mornings, a timeframe which was losing its punch as the Boomers aged out. But technically we got a third season of Scooby-Doo, though the shows got back to basics, the need to scare seemed to be absent. Too many fretful parents were on the prowl, and cartoons were getting gutted all over TV.
Goober and The Ghost Chasers from 1973 was perhaps the most overt copy of the Scooby-Doo formula, but like the aforementioned hour-long episodes suffered from too many guest-stars such as the inane Partridge Kids and for some strange reason Wilt Chamberlain. What they got right was the length, running at a brisk half-hour Goober, a Saluki to match Scooby's Great Dane was a hat-wearing fourth-wall breaking doggie who for reasons never explained could turn invisible. Unlike the Scooby-verse there were real ghosts in this universe along with unscrupulous villains. When the show was just Ted, Tina, Gilly, and Goober things were pretty decent, but add a guest-star things went to smash.
The Funky Phantom from 1971 was the first Scooby clone show and featured three teenagers named Skip, Augie and April along with a bulldog named Elmo. They hook up with Mudsy, "The Spirit of 1776" and his ghost cat named Boo. It's a crowded dune buggy indeed, but their misadventures uncover fake ghosts all across the United States and criminals as well. The show never loses its energy, though indifferent mixing made my disc set at times a bit frustrating to listen to.
Scooby-Doo...Where Are You came to Charlton Comics in the mid-70's and despite some indifferent artwork, I enjoyed it okay. Charlton would never win awards for its Hanna-Barbera work, but artwork by veteran Bill Williams was acceptable. Joe Gill wrote the thing as one might expect. Here's a cover gallery of the entire Charlton run.
A few decades later DC would start the whole comic book thing over again and make quite the run with it. I even checked out a few issues as Joe Staton was the artist for many of the issues. (More on Mr. Staton tomorrow.) The answer the question asked now for some decades of Scooby-Doo...Where Are You? is not very far at all.
Rip Off
