The New Scooby Doo Movies: The Almost Complete Collection...

Me and the Scooby Doo Movies; 2020

This DVD consists of 23 episodes of the Saturday morning animated series, The New Scooby Doo Movies, which originally aired in first-run production on CBS from September 9, 1972 until October 27, 1973. The series officially consists of 24 episodes (16 produced in 1972 and 8 produced in 1973) but there wasn't an agreement met with the copyright holders of The Addams Family and so the Scooby Doo episode featuring the characters from The Addams Family aren't included here...which is why the DVD is titled The New Scooby Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection. I had previously purchased a 2005 DVD release titled The Best of the New Scooby Doo Movies. In that collection there are 15 episodes...at that point in time the rights to the remaining episodes hadn't been cleared. Now fast-forward from 2005 to 2019. On June 4, 2019 this DVD was released. The collection contained the 15 episodes from the 2005 release plus 8 additional episodes that had become cleared by their copyright holders. However, in between the time that the 2005 collection was issued and the spring of 2019, the only hold out was the rights to the episode guest starring The Addams Family. This is only my opinion but I assume the executives in charge of releasing/manufacturing this DVD (Warner Brothers) didn't want to keep the episodes on hold any longer while they awaited a potential change of mind from The Addams Family legal team and so they issued 23 of the 24 episodes in a June 2019 release, The New Scooby Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection. In case the fans didn't want to re-purchase the 15 episodes already released back in 2005 there was a companion DVD with the newly acquired 8 episodes called The Best of the New Scooby Doo Movies: The Lost Collection. I have the 2005 DVD release and I purchased the 23 episode DVD release last year. I did that because I decided to have nearly all of the episodes from this series housed in one collection...instead of having the 2005 DVD of 15 episodes and a 2019 DVD of 8 episodes.

The purists are furious because it doesn't feature The Addams Family and as a result, infuriating them anymore, the opening title sequence is an alternate version...not the one that originally aired. The audio/vocal track heard in the alternate opening sequence is the same and some of the animated sequences featuring the main characters from the series remain intact from the original 1972-1974 broadcasts but notably missing are the images of the guest stars. As the years went on and copyright ownership constantly changed hanged due to business acquisitions it meant that television reruns of The New Scooby Doo Movies as the 1980s and early 1990s came and went were limited to showing only the episodes that were approved by a legal team representing the celebrities who lent their voice and likeness to the series. Episodes of the series reran in 2 parts rather than air in an hour long format as they did when they originally aired on Saturday mornings in the early '70s. Anyway, by the latter half of 2018 the rights were secured to 8 remaining episodes of the series and so in the summer of 2019 along came this DVD of 23 of the 24 episodes.

Now then...here are the episodes that appear on this 2019 collection:

Disc One:
1. The Ghastly Ghost Town (with The Three Stooges)
2. The Dynamic Scooby Doo Affair (with Batman and Robin)
3. The Frickert Fracas (with Jonathan Winters)
4. Guess Who's Knott Coming To Dinner (with Don Knotts)

Disc Two:
1. A Good Medium is Rare (with Phyllis Diller)
2. Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde (with Sandy Duncan)
3. The Secret of Shark Island (with Sonny and Cher)
4. The Spooky Fog (with Don Knotts)

Disc Three:
1. The Ghost of Bigfoot (with Laurel and Hardy)
2. The Ghost of the Red Baron (with The Three Stooges)
3. The Ghostly Creep from the Deep (with The Harlem Globetrotters)
4. The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall (with Davy Jones)

Disc Four:
1. The Phantom of the Country Music Hall (with Jerry Reed)
2. The Caped Crusader Caper (with Batman and Robin)
3. The Loch Ness Mess (with The Harlem Globetrotters)
4. The Mystery of Haunted Island (with The Harlem Globetrotters)

Disc Five:
1. The Haunted Showboat (with the cast from Josie and the Pussycats)
2. Mystery in Persia (with the cast from Jeannie)
3. The Spirited Spooked Sports Show (with Tim Conway)
4. The Exterminator (with Don Adams)

Disc Six:
1. The Weird Winds of Winona (with the cast of Speed Buggy)
2. The Haunted Candy Factory (with Cass Elliot)
3. The Haunted Carnival (with Dick Van Dyke)

When you look at those hour long episodes and the wide variety of special guest stars you'll see that some celebrities made multiple vocal appearances. You'll also notice that in some cases Scooby Doo and the gang meet celebrities mostly representative of a by-gone era. The Three Stooges, by 1972, were still hugely popular on television through repeated play of their classic live action short subject films. There were comic book adaptations and animated cartoons depicting The Three Stooges along side the television airings of their Columbia Studios films during the 1960s (they made 190 short subject comedy films for the studio). The Stooges themselves, however, professionally retired in 1970. By this time the third stooge was Joe DeRita, who went by the stage name Curly Joe. The vocalization for Moe Howard was supplied by Pat Harrington, Jr. while Daws Butler supplied the vocals for Larry Fine and Curly Joe. The irony is Daws incorporated a few 'nyuk, nyuk' catchphrases associated with the original Curly (played by Moe's brother) which weren't part of the 'Curly Joe' character. Larry Fine and Moe Howard died in 1975.

Laurel and Hardy are an iconic comical duo and it's safe to assume that in 1972 their likeness and name were still synonymous with classic film comedy, as were The Three Stooges. However, by the time The New Scooby Doo Movies came along in 1972 both of those comic icons had passed away. Stan Laurel, born in 1890, died in 1965 (74 years old) while Oliver Hardy, born in 1892, died in 1957 (65 years old). Nevertheless the iconic comedy duo were still popular and so they, too, made an appearance on this 1972 animated series. The voice of Oliver Hardy was performed by Jim MacGeorge while Stan Laurel's voice was performed by Larry Harmon. The two voice actors had previously provided the vocals for Laurel and Hardy in a syndicated cartoon series which aired during the 1966-1967 season. There were 156 five minute adventures produced. In the 1980s Jim MacGeorge, who visually looks like Stan Laurel, appeared in live action commercials as Laurel along side Chuck McCann as Hardy.

In addition to the episodes guest starring The Three Stooges (2 episodes) and Laurel and Hardy (1 episode) there are guest appearances by characters who had appeared on animated series of their own. The cast of Josie and the Pussycats guest star in an episode. The cast of Speed Buggy guest stars and then there's an episode featuring the cast of Jeannie (Jeannie, Cory, Henry, and Babu). Animated versions of The Harlem Globetrotters had been depicted on television prior to this 1972 Scooby Doo series but the exhibition basketball team known for their tricks and skills hold the record for most appearances on this series...three episodes. The real-life Globetrotters didn't provide their voices for the animated appearances. Scatman Crothers, most notably, provided the voice of Meadowlark Lemon and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson voiced Bobby Joe Mason. Batman and Robin appear as guests in two episodes. Their animated history dates back to 1967 when the Filmation Studio released The Superman/Batman Hour of Adventure. The voice of Batman was supplied by legendary radio and television character actor, Olan Soule. Robin was voiced by disc jockey Casey Kasem...several years before taking on the role of Shaggy in the Scooby Doo cartoons in 1969 and eventually becoming nationally and internationally famous as the host of American Top-40 beginning in 1970. In the two Scooby Doo episodes guest starring Batman and Robin both Olan and Casey reunited as the Caped Crusaders. Ted Knight returned as the voice of Penguin and Joker. Olan and Casey would continue to voice the Dynamic Duo on ABC Television's Super Friends series (produced by Hanna-Barbera) throughout the rest of the 1970s and into the mid 1980s.

The rest of the episodes in the 1972 Scooby series feature the actual celebrities voicing their animated versions. The main vocal performers are Don Messick (Scooby Doo; Sebastian; additional voices); Casey Kasem (Shaggy; Robin; Alexander Cabot II; additional voices); Frank Welker (Fred; additional voices); Nicole Jaffe (Velma); and Heather North (Daphne). This series would mark the final time Nicole Jaffe voiced Velma on a regular basis. She reprised the role several decades later in a direct-to-video animated Scooby film but as far as the television episodes are concerned this 1972 series was her last as Velma. John Stephenson, a vocal legend for Hanna-Barbera, was on hand for this Scooby series providing vocals for an assortment of villains and an occasional good guy.

A modern-day version of this series is the most recent incarnation of the Scooby Doo franchise. That series is called Scooby Doo and Guess Who?. I'm not into modern-day celebrities or contemporary television productions (beyond news and sports programs) and so I've never watched too many episodes of that current Scooby series but my guess is it captures the essence of the 1972 series but places it squarely into modern times.

Heathcliff...

It's a cute series in places, a laugh out loud series in places, and above all it's fun. I'm speaking of the animated series, Heathcliff. The cartoon series debuted in 1980 but research shows that the character's been around since 1973...as a comic strip. The original series of Heathcliff episodes aired for two seasons, 1980-1981 and 1981-1982. The first episodes aired as Heathcliff and Dingbat. The second season episodes featured Heathcliff sharing top-billing with Marmaduke (another comic strip character) in Heathcliff and Marmaduke. Scatman Crothers performed the theme song. In the first season, much like in the second season, Heathcliff stars in his own segments. The Dingbat segment from season 1 features a trio of bizarre characters: Dingbat, a dog with an accent similar to Bela Lugosi. Spare Rib, a skeleton, and the Jimmy Durante sounding Nobody the jack-o-lantern, rounded out the trio. The official title of the second segment was Dingbat and the Creeps. Altogether there were 25 episodes produced during 1980-1982.

I'm not listing each and every role in the series but here's a brief overview of who voiced who in the 1980-1982 series...

Mel Blanc provided the voice of Heathcliff and Spike in the first 25 episodes. June Foray provided most of the female voices but other female artists like Janet Waldo and Marilyn Shreffler provided voices, too. Frank Welker provided the voice of Dingbat while Don Messick was the voice of Spare Rib and Nobody. Messick, as mentioned, gave the Nobody character a Jimmy Durante kind of voice while his vocalization for Spare Rib was similar to other high-pitched roles that Messick provided in the past: Pixie Mouse, Ruff the Cat, Scrappy-Doo, etc. etc. Paul Winchell provided the voice of Marmaduke and Phil Winslow. Henry Corden was the voice of Clem and Digby.

The 1980-1982 version of the show, airing on ABC-TV, was not broadcast heavily in reruns. I never saw any episodes from the series until You Tube came along! A lot of the reason why the original 25 episodes weren't heavily reran probably had to do with the fact that in 1984 a syndicated version of the series debuted. This 1984 version didn't feature Marmaduke and it replaced the Dingbat and the Creeps segment with a new segment called Catillac Cats. In fact, the syndicated series was referred to as Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats but it was never officially given that name.

This syndicated series contained much of the same style of Heathcliff stories as in the past: Heathcliff either playing pranks on neighborhood businesses, or, annoying the easily annoyed Grandpa Nutmeg; or getting in cat fights with other cats AND dogs who either harassed him or attempted to steal his girlfriend, Sonja, away. The Catillac Cats segment centered around a comical gang of alley cats who hung out in a junkyard. The leader of the pack was Riff-Raff who was more of a con-artist forever dreaming up get-rich-quick schemes. Next in "command" was Hector...a brown cat who was often intimidated by the smaller Riff-Raff but wasn't afraid to verbally assault the roller-skate rhymer, happy-go-lucky white cat Wordsworth or the heavyset purple cat, Mungo. Cleo, a female cat, was depicted as Riff-Raff's girlfriend. Leroy, an easily irritated but also easily confused dog, was the Guard dog of the junkyard.

Hector, Wordsworth, and Cleo were designed with distinct 1980's fashions and although it enabled the series to become dated it nevertheless became one of the memorable aspects of the syndicated version of Heathcliff. Hector wore a headband with an '80s hairstyle...Wordsworth, in addition to always being on roller skates, wore headphones while presumably listening to music on a walk-man (which perhaps explained why he always spoke in rhyme). The actual device was rarely visible but the headphones were always seen. Cleo wore lavender leggings...what was probably an acknowledgement to the exercise craze that seemed to take off in the '80s.

The 1984 syndicated series became a huge hit...it's popularity kept the series in first-run production for four years through 1988. There were 86 episodes produced altogether...compare this to the 25 from it's original run (1980-1982). Upon the conclusion of it's last first-run episode and subsequent reruns the series became a hit all over again on Nickelodeon. The channel aired reruns of the syndicated series for four years, 1989-1993. Afterward, research shows that the reruns aired on The Family Channel for 6 more years, 1993-1999. What this means is the episodes that originally aired in syndication (1984-1988) remained on the air in reruns non-stop for 11 more years. Currently the episodes are airing on the This TV brand of networks and you can watch various episodes on DVD and on You Tube. The early episodes from 1980-1982 can sometimes be found on You Tube.

Mel Blanc provided the voice of Heathcliff in the ABC-TV version and the syndicated version. This character is often cited as being the final original character that Blanc provided a voice to. Much of the '70s and '80s saw Mel Blanc reprising his iconic Looney Tunes roles for television productions or commercials...and he also returned to his role as Barney Rubble in the many Flintstones animated productions and cereal commercials. The Heathcliff series pretty much dominated Blanc's schedule during the decade (1980-1982, 1984-1988). I do not know how many years it took to actually produce the 86 syndicated episodes...the voices are often recorded first and it wouldn't be unusual to have voice actors/actresses do all of their lines weeks before the actual cartoon went into production. Whatever the production schedule was the fact is the cartoons aired for 4 years (1984-1988) and then were reran for 11 more consecutive years. Blanc passed away in 1989...and it made national and international news. His last performances of his Looney Tunes roles came in 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. A finished recording of his Mr. Spacely role in The Jetsons upcoming movie made it's debut in 1990. Ironically, Blanc and George O'Hanlon (the voice of George Jetson) both passed away in 1989 during production of the Jetsons movie. O'Hanlon passed away on February 11, 1989 and Blanc passed away on July 10, 1989 (tomorrow marks the 22nd anniversary of that sad day).

Scooby's Laff-a-Lympics and more

There will be a couple of DVD releases coming in January 2010. One of them is the long-awaited release of "Laff-a-Lympics" onto DVD format by a major company. The plus side is that the episodes are finally being put onto DVD circulation but the down side is, from the looks of it, it'll be a 4-episode per volume collection. There were 16 episodes produced of the series in 1977-1978...and it all adds up to 4 volumes of "Laff-a-Lympics" on DVD containing 4 episodes each. Now, of course, I would have preferred the episodes be released in one complete collection...8 episodes on 2 discs...but that isn't the way it's going to happen. So, what consumers should do, is purchase the first volume that's available for pre-order at Amazon and other on-line stores.

"Why...it only contains 4 episodes???!!???!!"

Well, for those who take that approach here's something important you should know. The company that's releasing this Volume One collection is pretty much going to base their follow-up plan based on the success rate of the DVD. What this means is if the first volume of episodes doesn't show any sales success then it'll more than likely cause the company to decide against releasing further episodes. You can't take a wait and see approach or have the opinion of "I'm just going to wait until a proper release comes along" because the on-going release of more episodes of "Laff-a-Lympics" onto DVD will be based on the sales success of this Volume One collection that hits in January 2010. You all can do whatever you want to, of course. I'll more than likely purchase the collection.

In another report on DVD releases pertaining to vintage cartoons we have the news of the upcoming release of the original "Superfriends" with Wendy and Marvin and their dog aiding the Superfriends. This original series wasn't as heavily reran as later episodes featuring the Wonder Twins...I believe at some point earlier this year the original episodes ran late at night on Boomerang. Well, anyway, fans of the series have been hoping for a release of the original episodes for years and in January 2010 they will get their wish. The original run of the series featured Ted Knight as the narrator instead of William Woodson. Also, the original episodes had a much more limited animation style than the series that became more well-known. The DVD will feature 8 episodes and they each ran about 45 minutes in length...an hour when you factor in television commercial interruptions. There were 16 episodes produced of the original series, which was on the air during the 1973-1974 season. As with the "Laff-a-Lympics" release, the plans of following up "Superfriends" with the rest of the episodes will depend on the success of the Volume One collection.

Saturday Morning Cartoons: 1970's, Volume One!

This DVD collection features 12 cartoons on 2 discs...6 cartoon programs on each DVD. One of the programs is an hour-long and so technically you get 2 cartoons within the 1 hour time-frame. The hour cartoon is The Batman-Tarzan Hour. There are three extra's on the DVD. First we have something called "Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call" which is narrated by Casey Kasem. Mainstream audiences know of him for radio countdown programs while cartoon watchers immediately recognize his voice as Shaggy on Scooby-Doo, Alexander on Josie and the Pussycats, and Robin on Superfriends. The second and third extra are more traditional with interviews and commentary. There is a look at the cartoon series, The Amazing Chan and the Chan Clan, with interviews by Eddie Carroll and Jamie Farr. The two of them describe what it was like writing a cartoon with a lot of interference from the censors and parental control groups. The third extra is a look at the Funky Phantom series with remarks about the series from fans in the cartoon industry and a brief acknowledgment to Daws Butler, the voice of the title character.

The extra's are a bit more irreverent but they aren't blatantly disrespectful to the audience. There is a companion Volume Two of this series and there is a two volume collection of the previous decade, the 1960's. Each collection has similar cover art. Several episodes on the DVD collections can be found on other releases. This DVD set is more or less for the general public and really isn't meant for the avid collector...even though the avid collector will no doubt purchase the series just to have it. The DVD being a sampler means that you're not going to be seeing the same characters over and over as you would in a DVD collection of one cartoon series. I liked all of the cartoons in this set and I was treated to a few I'd never seen before. Roman Holidays is by far the one that stands out because until this DVD came along I'd never seen that cartoon before. I'd also never seen any Tarzan cartoons, either, until now. Here's a list of what's on this DVD:

THE JETSONS

THE NEW ADVENTURES OF BATMAN

TARZAN: LORD OF THE JUNGLE

HONG KONG PHOOEY

GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS

SPEED BUGGY

WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH

YOGI’S GANG

THE AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN

THE ROMAN HOLIDAYS

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS

THE NEW SCOOBY DOO MOVIES {with the Harlem Globe Trotters}

THE FUNKY PHANTOM

EXTRA FEATURES: Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call; Solving Crimes the Chan-Clan Way; and Heavens To Betsy Ross: The Spirit of the Funky Phantom.

Saturday morning commercials...from my era...

I have touched upon this topic in the past...wrote about how I think and feel about modern-day cartoons verses the ones I grew up watching. I also gave my thoughts about the style of commercials that aired on Saturday morning TV...a kind of commercial that would make any dentist howl in disgust. At my house, I can pretend it's Saturday morning everyday if I wanted to...and the kind of Saturday morning from my era. I'm not incredibly old...I'm 32...so my "era" is pretty much the 1980's into the early 1990's. I grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons...and those endless cereal commercials...I liked seeing the commercials with the animated mascot's: Lucky Charms, Cap'n Crunch, Cocoa Puffs, Golden Crisp, Cookie Crisp, Crispy Critters, Rice Krispies, Froot Loops, Fruity and Cocoa Pebbles, the Monster cereals: Boo-Berry, Count Chocula, and Frankenberry.

In the picture above I'm showing off a box of cereal called Smorz. It's a combination of tasty, sugary squares and small white marshmallow's with a chocolate swirl effect blended in to create the S'mores taste in the cereal.



The milk in my bowl is turning chocolate as of this writing...I always prefer cereal to turn the white milk to chocolate because it gives it a better flavor, I think.



Can anyone think of anymore cereal brands that paraded around on Saturday morning TV before the activists took over and ruined it all? I was a bit too young to remember Quisp and Quake but I know of those commercials being a student of nostalgia. How about the frog, Dig 'Em, in the cereal commercials for Smacks. Oh, and then there's all of those Frosted Flakes commercials with Tony the Tiger.

Saturday morning commercials from my era...they're all grr-rea-a-a-a-t!!