20 Things You Didn't Know About Scooby Doo

Zoinks!

1.  In 1968, parent watchdog groups like Action for Children's Television, condemned Saturday morning cartoons for being too violent. By the following year, the backlash had led to the cancellation of nearly all these shows, forcing Hanna-Barbera and other studios to scramble to develop new shows, many of which were based on Archie comics.
2. Originally, the series was to focus on five bongo-playing teenagers and a sheep dog named Too Much. When the gang wasn't busy playing gigs as Mysteries Five, they would actually be out solving mysteries. After several major overhauls were made to the premise (most notably reducing the number of teens to four, changing the sheep dog to a great dane, and oh yeah, getting rid of the fucking bongos), the series began resembling the Scooby Doo, Where Are You! that we all know and love.
3. The characters were originally named Geoff (then Ronnie, finally Fred), Kelly (Daphne), Linda (Velma), W.W. (Shaggy), and Too Much (Scooby). That's Too Much grossness for me to handle. Glad they changed 'em!
4. Scooby Doo's name was inspired by Frank Sinatra's scat "doo-be-doo-be-doo" at the end of his song "Strangers in the Night".
5. Since its debut in 1969, 11 different series have been produced. The original and most iconic one, Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, only ran for 25 episodes.
6. Frank Welker has provided the voice of Fred since the show's debut in 1969, though he was briefly replaced by Carl Steven for A Pup Named Scooby Doo. In total, 5 actors have voiced Shaggy, 5 have voiced Daphne, 7 have voiced Velma, and 4 have voiced Scooby. These don't count the portrayals in the live action films.
7. The original Scooby Doo theme song was written at the last minute... literally. It just barely made it into the first episode.
8. Radio star Casey Kasem was originally uncomfortable voicing Shaggy, as he had never before played a hippie character. He originally wanted to play Fred. Casey left the role in 1995 after being asked to perform it for a Burger King commercial, despite that fact that he is vegetarian. He returned in 2002 and continued voicing Shaggy until 2009.
9. Fred originally had brown hair but was made blonde for diversity amongst the characters.
10. The gag in which Velma loses her glasses and exclaims, "My glasses, I can't see without them!" was inspired by original voice actress Nicole Jaffe, who lost her glasses during a table read an uttered something similar.
11. Beginning in 1972, The New Scooby Doo Movies (aka not actually movies but hour-long episodes) began pairing the gang with weekly guest stars, some were real (Don Knotts, Phyllis Diller, etc.) and some were fictional (Batman & Robin, the Addams Family, etc.).
12. Longstanding rumors of Fred and Daphne's relationship were never dealt with canonically until the new millennium, and even then, the characters do not officially start dating until 2010's Scooby Doo! Mystery, Incorporated. The rumors originated from Fred and Daphne's frequent absences while the gang would split up to solve mysteries. Fans thought they were getting it on, but the writers have since claimed that they found the two characters so boring, they purposely wrote them off so they wouldn't have to deal with them.
13. In the 1980, the franchise was revamped to focus on the fuckery Scooby, Shaggy, and (unfortunately) Scrappy got themselves into. Daphne was added back into the gang by 1983, with a new feminist attitude to boot, but Fred and Velma didn't return permanently until 1988.
14. Scrappy's introduction into the series was an attempt to boost ratings, but he has since become the bane of every Scooby fan's existence. It's a lesson Hollywood will never learn. Bringing on cute kids (or kid-like characters) will not boost ratings. #CousinOliverSyndrome
15. A Pup Named Scooby Doo is part of a 1980s television trend called "babyfictation," in which shows would focus on younger versions of popular cartoon characters. The Flintstones and Looney Toons are among the other franchises that received the same treatment.
16. Velma is heavily rumored to be gay, and the 2002 live action film originally included scenes hinting at her homosexuality, but they were removed to retain a PG rating. In fact, the entire film was originally supposed to be darker and more marijuana references you could count, but it was changed drastically after casting was completed.
17. Though the various incarnations of the series change certain aspects, Scooby Doo! Mystery, Incoportated (2010-2013) probably changed the most. It switched the gang's hometown from Coolsville to Crystal Cove, heavily featured their families, and had overarching storylines that extended to both the mysteries and the personal relationships between the characters.
18. Hot off the presses! Warner Bros. is planning a theatrical animated Scooby movie, although no details have been announced.
19. A heavily circulated rumor stated that the five members of Mystery, Inc. were based on the five colleges of the Five College Consortium in Massachusetts, but the original writers insist the characters were based on their counterparts in the radio program I Love a Mystery and the sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
20. On Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, Buffy is part of a group of teenagers known as "the Scooby Gang" that fights supernatural creatures. Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy in the show and also portrayed Daphne in the two theatrical live action films.