Throwback Thursday: Scooby Doo

You wanna solve mysteries? You betta work, bitch!

While the Scooby Doo franchise has been reincarnated countless times for each generation, nothing quite beats the show that started it all: Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

From the instantly recognizable theme song to the five protagonists who would eventually become some of the most prolific cartoon characters of all time, this incredibly formulaic series was a staple in my childhood and continues to be a major part of my life.

The show focused on Mystery, Incorporated: leader and Rube Goldberg aficionado Fred Jones; chic and vain Daphne Blake; homely and intelligent Velma Dinkley; cowardly and hungry Shaggy Rogers; and, of course, Scooby, the dog with a speech impediment.

Each episode would begin with the gang arriving in a psychedelically renovated rapist van. Their destinations would range form abandoned amusement parks, abandoned airports, abandoned barnyards, and the like. Apparently, these kids never had school or any extracurricular activities and would just drive around the greater Coolsville area aimlessly until they happened upon an allegedly haunted facility.

They also didn't have other friends. Probably because they danced like this:

Once the gang decided that they wanted to get to the bottom of things, Fred would take charge with an aggressive leadership style I always thought compensated for his secret bisexual tendencies. He would suggest the gang "split up" into teams to collect clues. If he was lucky, he and Daphne would get to go off and fuck while Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby did all the heavy lifting.

But occasionally, Velma would worm her way into the "cool group" and Shaggy and Scooby would be left to their own devices.

Don't worry, V. I feel you!

Regardless of Velma's presence, Shaggy and Scooby would get deterred from the hunt for clues by their own hunger because (1) Shaggy was a massive stoner and (2) Scooby was a dog the size of a horse. Hijinks would ensue and they would fsu, but it would usually lead to the discovery of an important clue.

At that point, the gang would reconvene and probably come face to face with the ghost/miner/clown/whatever the hell is terrorizing the place and run in a montage against a looping background. And then Daphne would get captured and become the damsel in distress (and the bane of Velma's existence.) It's probably for the best, though; Daphne's contributions to solving the mystery were usually something along the lines of this:

God damn it, Daphne.

At this point, Fred would devise a plan to catch the villain with some asinine contraption. He had about a 30% success rate if I remember correctly. The other times, they would just accidentally knock the bag guy to the ground and unmask him then.

And who was under the mask? Nine times out of 10, it was the guy they met at the beginning of the episode and their motive is money. Ten times out of 10, they say something along the lines of "And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for those meddling kids and their dumb dog!"

Well suck a dick, bitch, because you done get caught by a group of newly-licensed teenagers. Have fun touting around that rep in prison.

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.