For my Kids...

This post is for my kids. 

They're big fans of Scooby-Doo, because frankly, who's not? They've devoured most of the offerings on HBO and have circled back around to them again in their limited screen time. The voice work has remained fairly constant for something that started airing 55 years ago, what with Frank Welker voicing Fred for nearly the entirety of the time. Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy from 1969 until 2009, and returned to voice Shaggy's wealthy uncle as well as his father in what turned out to be some of his last work before he passed.

It was the animation styling that inspired me to do this, and in skimming the Internet to find the images I would use, I learned about more than I realized. I thought the animation models were pretty standard, even when they were mostly "updated". I guess all in good time.

So...I was going to start listing out the shows and movies and all, but the list was unwieldy. Let's get to some pictures. To start, the original models, and Scrappy:

These models were virtually the same for quite a while, even if most of the time Scrappy starred in a show with just Shaggy and his uncle Scooby. Later on, Daphne got in on the action, specifically with the supernatural-themed Scooby-Doo and the 13 Ghosts:

This rendition had Scrappy, Daphne with new hair, Vincent Price playing a version of himself (as a wizard), and a kid the kid-viewers could relate to named Flim-Flam (that's him in yellow above). I've seen regretfully too many of the thirteen episodes. (I could do with less Scrappy.)

Now the actual redesigns start to show up. In the 1990s, they did a kid version called "A Pup Named Scooby," and we see new versions of the characters for the first time in nearly 25 years:

We haven't seen any of those episodes. (This is the only time Fred wasn't voiced by Frank Welker up until the movie "Scoob.") I didn't even know it existed until tonight. Same thing with the next picture, another redesign, this time from 2006, for a show called "Shaggy and Scooby: Get a Clue:"

I guess the animation is "very different," but I'm not sure what to make of that. I haven't gone to find clips yet. This might be the first time that Matthew Lilliard took over the voice work of Shaggy, as Casey Kasem was pulling back from acting work for health reasons. He voiced Shaggy's wealthy uncle. Lilliard played Shaggy in the two live action movies (2002 and 2004).

Next is one of my favorite Scooby properties, a reboot I suppose, called "Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated:"

The models are basically updated versions of the originals, the story that covers the two seasons has elements of both monster-of-the-week type story along with an over-arching storyline that covers the entirety of the two seasons. This was the program that has Casey Kasem's last work before he died, as Shaggy's dad. They even busted out a reference that caused me to try to explain something that I simply couldn't:

And yes, that dude was voiced by Michael J. Anderson, the very same from Twin Peaks.

While that series was rather dark, the next series veered further toward humor and silliness, and they added another drastic redesign of the character models. This was "Be Cool, Scooby Doo:"

They kept the clothes the same, and the spirit's the same, the voices are the same, but it is far sillier. It's grown on Corrie and me in the time since the kids, especially Camille, have fixated on it. Daphne is especially weird, which has its moments.

I put the models from "Scoob" next. This was the digitally animated film that was due out in Summer of 2020 that got shelved, on and off, for a while:

I only got to see bits and pieces, but it is jarring a little. None of the regular voice actors from the shows are used. While there are a bunch of other characters from other Hannah-Barbera cartoons, I think Captain Caveman, voiced by Tracy Morgan, was my favorite. The models kinda had to to changed, as the jump in dimension forced animators' hands.

Next I grabbed a shot of the four teens in the crew from the show "Velma:"

Mindy Kaling produced the show and stars as Velma. I haven't seen any episodes, and thankfully Max doesn't put this title in the streaming line with all the other Scooby properties. Maybe because Scooby isn't involved? There's no Scooby Doo. Also, everything I've read about it basically uses it as a toilet. I've read both Norville (who doesn't like being called Shaggy) and Fred are highly unlikable characters, Daphne's vapid and sexed up, and Velma has a crush on her. Something like that. It's, eh...it's a show.

By this point, I figured I'd throw in some shots of the live-action productions. First, there was the cast from the first two films:

Then the third movie was released directly to video and was a prequel:

And, lastly, there was a web-series called "Mystery Inc." that I only heard about tonight. You can find it on Youtube. (If you follow that link, it looks like there at least a few fan-made Scooby projects. People LOVE these characters.)

One more thing: tonight I also learned some of the background of the original show. I learned how the dog's name was originally Too Much, but listening to Frank Sinatra scat "doo-be-doo-be-doo" at the end of "Strangers in the Night," they changed it. I also learned that the primary inspirations for the show were the radio serial show "I Love a Mystery" and "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."

I'd heard of Dobie Gillis before, and was confused for the longest time becase I thought Bob Denver was Dobie Gillis. Like, I thought that actor's name was Dobie Gillis, or whatever. I mean, he was Gilligan and all. The names just crossed me up. Plus, I was eight years old and didn't really watch Dobie Gillis. I did like Gilligan's Isle, though.

What I'm trying to get to is that Shaggy is directly modeled after Maynard G. Krebs, the character that Bob Denver played in Dobie Gillis. Fred is based on Dobie, for sure, and Daphne and Velma also have corresponding characters from that show, but Shaggy is Maynard. The use of language tics like saying "like" a lot, the goatee, the outfit, the laziness and desire to just eat instead of working. I guess Bob Denver's character was the first beatnik on US television. He played the bongos, liked jazz music, and used the slang associated with that world. I didn't know that either. 

Anyway, I found this picture online, too, just to complete the circle:

Also thought I'd share the following parody: Bendee Boo and the Mystery Crew:

Update: I just found this mockup showing the Dobie Gillis comparisons/inspirations. Scooby as a dog sidekick was taken from an animated Archie program they were looking to ape: