Beloved cartoon canine celebrating 50 years of mysteries, meddling and Scooby Snacks

Editor's note: July 3 marked the start of "the dog days of summer," the most sweltering days of the year. (For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, anyway.) To help you make it through, ASU Now is talking to experts from around the university about everything dog, from stars to language to man's best friend. Look for new stories every week through Aug. 9.

Zoinks! Look who’s turning 50.

Everybody’s favorite crime-cracking cartoon canine is celebrating a golden anniversary this year. In commemoration of this milestone moment and ASU Now's dog days of summer series, we spoke with Scooby expert Kevin Sandler, associate professor in the Film and Media Studies Program at Arizona State University, and did some sleuthing on our own. Here are 50 fun facts about Scooby-Doo:

1. Scooby-Doo made his debut on Sept. 13, 1969, with the premiere of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” The series joined CBS-TV’s Saturday morning cartoon lineup and introduced four intrepid teenage detectives and a talking dog named Scooby-Doo. “Where Are You!” was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera Productions, the birthplace of “The Flintstones,” “The Jetsons,” “The Yogi Bear Show” and other cartoon favorites.

2. The assassination of presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in 1968 propelled the production of the kid-friendly “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” according to Sandler, who is writing a book about Scooby-Doo. He says the series was a direct response to demands from the Johnson administration after the Kennedy assassination to address cartoon violence and the dangers it posed to children.


Robert F. Kennedy/Library of Congress

3. “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” premiered just a few weeks before the premiere of the PBS educational series “Sesame Street” on Nov. 10, 1969. Both series are celebrating 50 years in 2019.


Sesame Street characters/Flickr

4. Scooby-Doo’s full name is Scoobert Doo but he clearly prefers to be called Scooby as evidenced by his signature catchphrase: “Scooby-Dooby-Doo!”

5. The Frank Sinatra song “Strangers in the Night” is said to have been the inspiration for Scooby-Doo’s name. Fred Silverman, the former director of daytime programming at CBS, said he came up with the name after hearing Sinatra sing the song’s scat refrain, “Do be do be do.” Also a big fan of the 1948 horror comedy “Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,” Silverman also said he imagined “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” as a similar haunted-house comedy.


Frank Sinatra/Library of Congress

6. Scooby-Doo’s true age is a bit of a mystery, but he is forever young. Handlers for the snack-loving sleuth have never revealed his date of birth, but the magazine that accompanied the 2002 release of the live-action “Scooby-Doo” movie leaked Scooby’s age as 7, according to several reports. In dog years that would put Scooby in the age range of about 50 human years, which means he has been 50 years old in human years for about 50 years.  

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8. Scooby-Doo was almost a sheepdog. Initially concerned that Scooby’s Great Dane might be confused with the comic strip Great Dane Marmaduke, Scooby creators Ruby and Spears alternatively sketched Scooby-Doo to be a big shaggy sheepdog named Too Much. Sheepdogs are considered good-natured and sociable. They are said to have good herding instincts but are typically now bred to be show dogs or pets. Again facing comparisons to another cartoon canine — Hot Dog the sheepdog on “The Archie Show” — Ruby and Spears settled on making Scooby-Doo a Great Dane.


Old English sheepdog/Pixabay

9. Scooby-Doo is one-third of a set of triplets. His wombmates are brothers Skippy-Doo, a computer guru, and Dooby-Doo, a singer and entertainer. A litter of animals typically consists of three to eight offspring born from the same mother. Guinness World Records holds 24 as the largest litter of puppies born to one dog. Scooby-Doo’s other siblings include Howdy-Doo, Yabba-Doo and Ruby-Doo.

10. Scrappy-Doo is Scooby-Doo’s feisty nephew. Scrappy's mother is Scooby’s sister, Ruby-Doo. Scrappy made his debut in 1979, joining his already famous uncle for a new cartoon adventure that producers hoped would boost Scooby-Doo’s flagging ratings on ABC. It worked. Ratings rebounded and Scrappy saved Scooby from TV cancellation. His star power and catchphrases — “Scrappy Dappy Doo,” “Lemme at 'em” and “Puppy power!” — also helped propel merchandising for the Scooby-Doo franchise. 

11. Despite saving his uncle's show from near-cancellation and becoming a star in his own right, Scrappy-Doo's individual ratings have not fared well with the general cartoon-watching public in the years since his debut. A humanities lecture at ASU addressed the Scrappy problem in 2017, examining the quick rise and fall of the plucky Great Dane pup since branded the most hated character in television history. The lecture bore the foreboding title, “Scrappy-Doo, Where Are You? The Corporate Construction and Confinement of Scooby-Doo’s Annoying Nephew.”   

12. Scooby-Doo has been translated into 15 languages and has aired in more than 45 countries worldwide. Arabic, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish are among the languages Scooby has “spoken” over the decades.  

13. Don Messick was the original voice for Scooby-Doo and another earlier cartoon Great Dane: Astro from “The Jetsons.” Scooby and Astro share a similar speech pattern and signature expression — “Ruh-roh” — that often draws comparisons.

 
  Scooby Doo/Flickr                                           Astro/Hanna-Barbera Wiki

14. Scooby-Doo’s signature style of speech is unique. In 2014, Steven Long of Marquette University’s Speech Pathology and Audiology Department diagnosed Scooby's habits of adding “r's” to his words — like  “ruh-roh” for “uh-oh” and “rapple” for “apple’ — as the invented phonological disorder “rhotic replacement.” Long told Discover magazine that he didn't expect to see many examples of this unique speech pattern given that “rhotic replacement” is a condition that appears to be exclusive to talking dogs.

15. “Mysteries Five” was the original title for “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” The series was modeled after the music-driven cartoon comedy “The Archie Show” after CBS honcho Fred Silverman suggested that the new series follow the adventures of a teenage rock band that also solved mysteries. The rock band element of the show was eventually dropped. In their musical alter egos, The Archies released the single that now seems prophetic in the context of Scooby-Doo. Their song, “Feelin’ So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y-D.O.O),” began its climb on the music charts in December 1968, around the same time Scooby-Doo was in development.

16. The “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” theme song was performed by pop-country crossover artist Austin Roberts. Roberts is also known for his 1975 top 40 hit single “Rocky” and has written songs for Kenny Rogers and Reba McEntire, among others.

17. Collectively, Scooby-Doo and his mystery-solving friends Fred Jones, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake and Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, are known as Mystery Incorporated or Mystery Inc.


Scooby-Doo and friends/Flickr

18. The Scooby-Doo gang are from the coastal town of Crystal Cove. Scooby-Doo fans have referred to the village as the “Most Hauntedest Place on Earth” citing Crystal Cove "reports" of paranormal activity and residents' brushes with urban myths and legends. Mystery Incorporated's headquarters is located in Crystal Cove's City Hall, and the Crystal Cove Spook Museum, owned by Velma's parents, holds many of the costumes worn by the villains that Mystery Inc. has unmasked over time. 

19. Scooby-Doo’s Mystery Inc. pals were based on the characters on the show “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” Fred, Mystery Inc.’s clean-cut leader, was modeled after the title character Dobie Gillis, played by Dwane Hickman. The brainy Velma took inspiration from "Dobie Gillis’" resident teen genius Zelda Gilroy, played by Sheila James Kuehl. The pretty and popular Daphne was fashioned after Dobie’s crush Thalia Menninger, played by Tuesday Weld. And Scooby’s bearded bestie Shaggy was a version of Dobie Gillis’ best friend Maynard G. Krebs, played by Bob Denver.


Some of the cast of "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis"/CBS-TV/
Wikimedia Commons

20. Romance or “Ruh-roh-mance?” Members of the Mystery Inc. gang have moved out of the friend zone, at least in the “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated” universe. In the former Cartoon Network series, Fred and Daphne are officially dating, although it’s revealed that the relationship has had a few hiccups along the way. Shaggy and Velma also developed a bit of a romance, but Shaggy apparently found it difficult to put his relationship with Velma ahead of his friendship with his canine companion Scooby-Doo. Some dog lovers might be able to relate. Clive Wynne, the founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at ASU, says dogs have an “unbounded capacity” to love humans, which is why it is so easy to form affectionate relationships with them.

21. Villains outed by the Scooby-Doo gang frequently referred to the group as “meddling kids.” The phrase has become a lighthearted go-to for pop culture fans looking to assign blame for missed opportunities.

22. Scooby-Doo's pals also have a few catchphrases of their own. Notorious for misplacing her glasses, Velma frequently says, “My glasses, I can’t see without my glasses!” or “Jinkies!” when she has discovered an important clue. Daphne owns the line “Jeepers!” when she’s scared or when she finds a clue. Shaggy’s “Zoinks” has gone mainstream to express fear or surprise. And while Fred has been known to state the obvious on occasion as in, “Looks like we’ve got another mystery on our hands," his catchphrases are a little less memorable than the others.

23. Late radio legend Casey Kasem was the voice of Shaggy for decades but abruptly quit the series in 1997 when he was asked to speak up for Shaggy in a Burger King commercial. Kasem, who was a strict vegan, reportedly refused to promote the hamburger brand and walked away from the role when producers rejected his requests to make the Shaggy character vegan. Kasem eventually returned to the series in 2002 when it was decided that Shaggy would adopt a vegetarian diet.

24. Frank Welker has been the voice of Mystery Inc.’s trap-master Fred since the first episode of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are you!” He also voices the characters Megatron and Soundwave in the Transformers franchise.

25. “What a Night for a Knight” was the first episode of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” The episode revolved around the discovery of the armor of a knight in an abandoned truck and an urban legend about a Black Knight that came alive every full moon. The episode established long-running gags of the Scooby-Doo gang unmasking villains and Velma losing her glasses.

26. The 1992 comedy “Wayne’s World” features an alternate ending in which the character Wayne, played by Mike Myers, and Garth, played by Dana Carvey, unmask Rob Lowe’s Benjamin Kane character as “Old Man Withers” in a spoof of the Scooby-Doo formula of unmasking villains.

27. Scooby-Doo loves his snacks. No one knows for sure what’s in the little brown treats that get him so excited, but Scooby and Shaggy’s love of food is well documented. Research suggests insatiable appetites like those of Scooby and Shaggy’s could be propelled by esteem issues. ASU marketing Professor Naomi Mandel once led the lecture “Compensatory Consumption: Situational Factors Leading to Overspending and Unhealthy Food Choices.” Mandel said the need to maintain high self-esteem can lead to poor consumption choices such as overeating. She also contributed to a study that found people tend to eat more food and calories if the portions they snacked on were presented in small sizes and packages. Bite-size Scooby Snacks have been great motivators for the decidedly cowardly Great Dane and his Shaggy companion. Small portions and esteem uncertainty could explain their constant need to feed.

28. For every Scooby Snack there is a Shaggy Sandwich. Shaggy Rogers’ triple-decker sardine and marshmallow fudge sandwich is the stuff of cartoon lore. The Super Shaggy Sandwich is composed of just about anything and everything found in the refrigerator or pantry and is typically larger than the average mouth. It was introduced in the first season of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” and consisted of ham, cheese, lettuce, sardines, marshmallow and fudge in between 16 slices of bread, all topped off by an olive. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet for healthy adults. The College of Health Solutions at ASU is exposing kids to healthier alternatives to variations of the Shaggy Sandwich. Through the college’s annual Camp Crave program, young people are learning how to prepare meals, regulate portions and engage in physical activity on their way to becoming healthy adults.

29. In the 1998 direct-to-video animated movie “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island,” Scooby and Shaggy are fired from their jobs at an airport for eating too much food.

30. The Scooby-Doo franchise once faced accusations of fat-shaming in the 2014 direct-to-DVD release "Frankencreepy." The storyline found Daphne subjected to a terrifying “curse” and growing from a size 2 to a size 8. According to a study published in the “International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education,” the average American woman was between a size 16 and 18 in 2016. While body shaming has been conroversially deployed as a way to get people to lose weight, research shows that people who feel stigmatized because of their weight actually tend to avoid exercising in public, which could lead to additional weight gain. Warner Bros. later explained in a statement that the loss of Daphne's appearance in the "Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy" episode was actually a teaching moment about what matters most.

31. Scooby-Doo earned science cred with renowned astrophysicist Carl Sagan. The late author and science advocate gave Scooby a shout-out in his seminal book “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as our Candle in the Darkness.” Sagan praised the series for encouraging kids to seek logical and rational explanations for strange phenomenon like the supernatural scenarios that the Scooby gang often stumbled upon. 

32. Mystery Inc.’s Mystery Machine van is an innovative wonder. The psychedelic colors of the van’s exterior was deceptive casing for a trove of “modern” equipment and tools for the case-cracking quintet. In Scooby-Doo's early years, the Mystery Machine held ladders, lanterns, ropes, a table, chairs and even a wall panel of computer equipment. New technology allowed Scooby-Doo and the gang to modify the van's features to adapt to various situations. To some super fans, the Mystery Machine is the sixth member of the Mystery Inc. crew.


Scooby-Doo!/Mystery Machine/WB Kids/YouTube

33. Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began a road trip for her 2016 presidential campaign in an armored van reportedly nicknamed “Scooby” because it reminded Clinton of the Mystery Machine. 

34. A Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine replica was sold at the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona, in January 2019. The 1968 Ford Econoline van was snapped up for almost $60,000.


Mystery Machine replica/Wikimedia Commons

35. Scooby-Doo once held the Guinness World Record for having the most episodes for any animated television series, toppling “The Simpsons" from the perch with 350 episodes. The record stood for one year from 2004-2005 before “The Simpsons” reclaimed the record. 


Graphic by S. Wilson

36. One of Scooby-Doo’s biggest fans lives in Canada. Danielle Meger of Rocky View, Alberta, has the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of Scooby-Doo memorabilia. Guinness says Meger has at least 1,806 Scooby-related items.

37. “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” ended after two seasons and was reinvented as “The New Scooby-Doo Movies.” The show's hourlong episodes featured guest stars including the Harlem Globetrotters, the Three Stooges, Batman and Robin, Dick Van Dyke and Josie and the Pussycats, among others.

38. The 1980s series “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” depicted puppy and child versions of Scooby and his pals, joining a TV time-travel trend referred to as the “babyfication” of cartoon characters. “The Flintstone Kids,” “The Muppet Babies” and “The New Archies” were among the characters that got the “babyfication” treatment in the 1980s. “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” aired from 1988-1991 on ABC.

39. Sixteen original series bear the Scooby-Doo name, the most of any U.S. television series ever. The newest series “Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?” premiered on the Boomerang Channel on June 27, 2019.

40. Scooby-Doo has been adapted into five feature-length films since Scooby’s 1969 debut, beginning with the theatrical live-action and computer-animated movies “Scooby-Doo” (2002) and “Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed” (2004). The Cartoon Network also aired the made-for-TV films “Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins” (2009) and “Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster” (2010). The spin-off film “Daphne & Velma” was released on DVD in 2018.

41. Matthew Lillard, who played Shaggy in the first two live-action Scooby-Doo movies, took over as the voice of Shaggy in the cartoon series after longtime Shaggy voice actor Casey Kasem retired in 2009.

42. Jamaican reggae artist Shaggy, born Orville Richard Burrell, took his stage name from Scooby-Doo’s Shaggy character. Shaggy, known for hits such as “It Wasn’t Me,” and “Boombastic,” even remade the original Scooby-Doo theme song for the 2002 live action “Scooby-Doo” movie. The song was titled “Shaggy, Where Are You.”

43. The members of the rock band Kiss performed a Halloween concert for the Scooby-Doo gang and helped them solve a mystery in the 2015 direct-to-DVD feature “Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery.” The action began when Mystery Inc. traveled to the amusement park Kiss World so that Daphne could meet her Kiss crush Starchild, portrayed by guitarist and vocalist Paul Stanley.

44. Scooby-Doo and World Wrestling Entertainment have teamed up for two videos. WarnerMedia produced two direct-to-video films in conjunction with WWE Studios: “Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery” (2014) and “Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon” (2016).

45. The group of characters in television’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (WB and UPN, 1997-2003) who battle the supernatural forces of evil identified themselves as the “Scooby Gang” or the “Scoobies.” “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, who also played Daphne in the 2002 live-action “Scooby Doo” movie.

46. The Scooby-Doo gang took a decidedly dark turn in the DC Comics adventure “Scooby Apocalypse.” The limited-series comic reimagines the mystery-solving do-gooders in a postapocalyptic world stricken by a virus that causes mutant creatures to negatively react to their fears. Scrappy-Doo is portrayed as a villain bent on killing his uncle Scooby-Doo with the help of his Scrappy Gang. Unlike the kid-friendly themes on which the original Scooby-Doo cartoon was founded, the storyline for “Scooby Apocalypse” earned the comic a teen-plus rating.


"Scooby Apocalypse" cover/Wikimedia

47. Scooby-Doo was voted the second-greatest cartoon character in TV history after Bugs Bunny on Ranker.com. Animal Planet ranked Scooby-Doo No. 13 in Animal Planet’s Greatest TV Animals.


"Scooby-Doo! Case File 1: The Glowing Bug Man"/Warner Bros/YouTube

48. “TV Guide Magazine” ranked Scooby Doo No. 5 on its list of the “60 Greatest Cartoons of All Time.”


"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!"/CBS-TV/Flickr

49. A new Scooby-Doo movie is in development. Titled “Scoob,” the movie is described as an “origin story” that will recount how Scooby and the gang first met. It will be the first animated Scooby-Doo movie to be released theatrically. “Scoob” is due out in 2020.

50. Scooby-Doo is touring like a rock star for his 50th anniversary. A new production titled “Scooby-Doo and the Lost City of Gold” will combine innovative technology with music, puppetry, dance and video to share the story in large-scale theaters across the world, according to Billboard.com. The show is expected to launch in March 2020 and visit more than 30 countries over the next five years.

Top photo courtesy: Flickr