Let's have a show of hands...has anybody seen the most recent revival of the Scooby Doo franchise? It's a series titled "Be Cool, Scooby Doo" and it airs in the United States on Cartoon Network. It debuted back on October 4th in the United Kingdom and Ireland and then October 5th in America and then on October 8th in Canada. It's the 12th incarnation of the Scooby franchise and much like the last couple of previous incarnations it offers something a bit different than the franchise's original premise. In this particular series the gang's all here: Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne...as is the Mystery Machine. The characters have all been redesigned and some of the character traits have been altered slightly.
Fred's returned to being the all-American leader rather than being the clueless, oblivious moron that recent incarnations have cast him as being even though there are moments that see Fred revert to his clueless demeanor. Daphne, this time around, is portrayed as the goofy character...and that only adds to the mix given that Shaggy and Scooby remain goofy, nervous, frightened, and hungry. Velma is the one constant...although in this series the character gets a different voice actress, Kate Micucci. The previous voice actress, Mindy Cohn, continues to voice Velma in the direct-to-DVD animated projects and the video games but she doesn't reprise the role in this series. Matthew Lillard returns as the voice of Shaggy. Grey Griffin (formerly billed as Grey DeLisle) is once more on hand as Daphne...and the vocal God, Frank Welker, is on hand as Fred and Scooby.
Be on the lookout for monsters and villains that carry similarities with iconic monsters and villains from past episodes. In "All Paws on Deck" the gang is terrorized by a monster resembling the Beast from a late '70s episode titled "The Beast is Awake in Bottomless Lake". In the 2015 episode Velma has hydrophobia...something that isn't consistent with her history...for in several episodes in the franchise's history she clearly enjoyed being in large bodies of water and scuba-diving and so the need for Velma's hydrophobia is a plot-device. In addition to having similar looking monsters and villains there is the inclusion of the much iconic chase scene...something that appeared in the classic episodes (1969-1973) and in some of the other installments but mostly the chase scenes are identified as a hallmark of the original programs...each episode features a chase scene.
The publicity surrounding this series hyped the existence of 26 half hour episodes already completed...14 of those 26 have since aired on Cartoon Network. The last first-run episode to air occurred on October 28th. As you can see it's a daily series...having aired half of season 1 in a month's time span already. Ordinarily this is why a 13 episode half-season airs weekly for 13 weeks...that way it gives people plenty of time to get used to the series, enables promoters to advertise and hype the series, or for potential audiences to discover it during the 13 week rerun cycle. An episode of the series aired on-line on October 30th...but according to on-line sources it shouldn't have aired and it has since been removed (an episode titled "If You Can't Scooby Doo the Time, Don't Scooby Doo the Crime").
It has never, to date, aired on television yet but you can search for it on-line...I'm sure it's available for viewing somewhere out there.
On December 10th a first-run episode finally emerged...titled "Scary Christmas". Technically this is episode 15 of the 26 that have already been completed (episode 14 has never aired) but in broadcast chronology the December 10th airing is listed as episode 14. The series is set to debut in other parts of the world on December 28th and so if it isn't airing locally in your geographic's then chances are it'll begin airing later this month.
Once I'm able to catch a full episode for myself I'll be a bit more detailed in my opinions. At the moment I'm going by the clips that have been posted on YouTube and those are just too brief to form an educated opinion. I could be like so many others and just say "yuck! ick! I hate it, hate it!!!" or "these can't compare to the originals...I hate it!!". I've never been that sort of reviewer and so I'll gather my thoughts and post more detailed about this series at a future date. Who knows, by that time, a DVD of Season 1 may be available for Amazon purchase!?!!
Showing posts with label Mystery Machine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mystery Machine. Show all posts
Friday, December 18, 2015
Monday, September 15, 2014
Scooby-Doo and John Stephenson, Too...
Hello all...this is part 3 of my Scooby blog series spotlighting the 45th anniversary (1969-present) of the franchise. I posted part 2 earlier this morning and I posted the initial entry (referred to as part 1) back in March of this year.
This particular entry simply shines the light on the various characters that were voiced by John Stephenson during the program's various incarnations...imagery from the first 8 years, specifically (1969-1978). I created 8 collage's of John Stephenson's characters and I'm going to post them as a salute to his contributions to the Scooby franchise. You can click on each collage and see the bigger image. I'll be sharing 8 collage's...this should be interesting...
In this collage of 9 pictures, they originate from the first 2 seasons of the program. The character names are Elias Kingston, Uncle Stuart, Mr. Sims, Mano Tiki Tia, The Creeper, Redbeard the Pirate, the Magnus Butler, C.L. Magnus, and The Ghost Clown. As I've mentioned in previous Scooby blogs, many of the episodes had titles filled with alliteration and rhyming. Those 9 characters come from the following episodes: What The Hex Going On?; A Tiki Scare is No Fair; Jeepers, It's the Creeper; Go Away Ghost Ship; and Bedlam in the Big Top. The Kingston Manor, depicted in What the Hex Going On?, appears in the opening credits of the first season...it's also referred to as the black castle with the bats flying around. Also, scenes from that episode appear more times in the opening sequence of the first season than the other episodes. It's also worth pointing out, since this is a John Stephenson character salute blog entry, that his first roles in the Scooby cartoons occurred on the What the Hex Going On? episode.The Magnus Butler is one of several characterizations from Stephenson vocally based on Boris Karloff.
In this collage of 6 pictures I took a look at some of the characters that John voiced in the 1972-1974 series, The New Scooby Doo Movies. The 2 at the top of the collage come from the episode "The Frickert Fracas" (guest starring Jonathan Winters as himself and Maude Frickert). John voiced the characters Simon Shakely and Vernon Crow. In the third box there's the farmer character from the episode "The Ghost of the Red Baron" (guest starring The Three Stooges). It's one of the only characters John voiced in the Scooby cartoons that comes close to sounding like his most famous character, Mr. Slate (from The Flintstones). The fourth picture is Hans Eitherwise, a German-American ski instructor in the episode guest starring Laurel and Hardy, "The Ghost of Big Foot". The bottom 2 sinister looking cut-throats are Morgan and Winslow from the episode "The Loch Ness Mess" (guest starring The Harlem Globetrotters). John, as Winslow, does an impression of Titus Moody (a character from Fred Allen's radio programs and Pepperidge Farm television commercials played by Parker Fennelly).
These 8 images represent characters voiced by John Stephenson during the mid-late '70s episodes, roughly 1976-1978. The big image is that of a Coast Guard employee that appears near the end of the episode "Scooby-Doo, Where's the Crew?". Off to the right are Mr. Wells, Mr. Speck, The Specter, Elwood Crane, The Demon Shark, a Customs Agent, and Avery Queen. Mr. Wells, the Demon Shark, and the Customs Agent all come from the episode "There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark". In that episode John roars and growls as the Demon Shark and speaks in a gravelly voice for Mr. Wells. Elwood Crane comes from the episode "The Headless Horseman of Halloween". In the episode he's referred to as Cousin Elwood. John also voiced the Headless Horseman character but I didn't post an image of him...these collage's aren't meant to be a career defining project...just a sampling of his character roles through the various Scooby episodes. Scooby-Dum makes an appearance in that episode...and Janet Waldo voices one of the guest characters, Beth Crane. The Specter and Mr. Speck come from the episode "High Rise Hair Raiser". Avery Queen comes from the episode "The Ghost of the Bad Humor Man".
A five picture collage reveals characters largely stemming from 1976 and 1978. The creepy character in blue is Dr. Tooksbury from the episode "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium". John also provides the voice of a Canadian Mountie at the end of that episode. In the episode Scooby and the gang must solve a mystery surrounding a sanitarium and the legend of a ghostly doctor that's come back to haunt the area. Next to him is Officer Grizzly, a hard of hearing night watchman at the Ice Cream factory in "The Ghost of the Bad Humor Man". As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Stephenson also voiced the owner of the Ice Cream factory, Avery Queen. Below those characters are Zarko and Merlin from the episode "Scared a Lot in Camelot". Zarko appears near the beginning of the episode performing a magic act. Shaggy and Scooby become volunteers from the audience to participate in a magic act. The act backfires thanks to the terrified duo thinking they were really going to be cut in half...Zarko's laughed off the stage (the gang make a run for the exit in the process). Merlin appears throughout the remainder of the episode as he haunts the castle of Shaggy's uncle, Shagworthy. The larger picture is that of the leader of a gang of zombies and witch doctors (Mamba Wamba) in the pop music-inspired episode, "Mamba Wamba and the Voodoo Hoodoo". Scooby and the gang visit friends of theirs who have become rock music stars. The group perform a song about voodoo and are soon being chased by the ghost of Mamba Wamba and his henchman who are after a parchment...the real mystery is explained, of course, at episode's end.
In this collage of John Stephenson characters there's Mayor Dudley, Mr. Doherty, Mr. Prentice, The Rambling Ghost, and Mr. Grumper. These characters appear in the 1976 episodes "The 10,000 Volt Ghost", "High Rise Hair Raiser", "The Ghost That Sacked the Quarterback", and "The Spirits of '76". On a personal note, "The Ghost That Sacked the Quarterback" happened to originally air on December 4, 1976 (2 days after I was born!). In that episode the gang solves the mystery of a haunted football team and the legend of The Rambling Ghost. The team's owner is Mr. Prentice. Coinciding with America's Bicentennial celebrations in 1976, Scooby and the gang encounter ghosts at The Smithsonian Institution in form of Bendict Arnold, Major Andre, and William Demont. John voices the ill-tempered Mr. Grumper, one of the security guards. John voices a Federal Agent near the end of the episode. Mayor Dudley is John's more humorous characterization compared to the other characters. I should say the mayor comes across lighthearted. As is the case in many Scooby episodes things are not exactly as they seem.
The Red Baron, from "The Ghost of the Red Baron", appears first in this collage. The character, along with a farmer, were voiced by John Stephenson. The episode features The Three Stooges. Next to the Red Baron is the dapper Sam Crenshaw from the episode "The Frightened Hound meets Demons Underground". The bearded Albert Tross is another Stephenson-voiced character from that same episode. The irritated Mr. Dilly, co-owner of The Dilly Dally Dolly Company, appears in the episode "The No Faced Zombie Case" as does the next character in the collage, the police Lieutenant (another character similar in vocal tone to his Mr. Slate characterization). The character in the blue coat and red shirt is the Captain in "Scooby-Doo, Where's the Crew?". That was John's main character in the episode...at the end he gave voice to the rescuing officer from the Coast Guard that I mentioned earlier.
For this seven image collage I decided to mix things up more and include an image of John Stephenson himself...from the 1950's. The six characters come from episodes that originally aired during 1976-1978. Captain Eddie, The Ghost of Juan Carlos, Uncle Leon, and the Vampire Ghost are the characters that appear on the left. The 2 characters off to the right are Professor Salari and an Indian leader, Red Harron. Captain Eddie and the Ghost of Juan Carlos (one of John's most maniacal roles in the series) come from the episode "Don't Go Near the Fortress of Fear". Professor Salari, the curator of a local museum, appears in the episode "A Menace in Venice". Red Harron appears in "Watch Out! The Willawaw!!". The Vampire ghost and Uncle Leon appear in "Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats". In that episode, also co-starring Scooby-Dum, Scooby and the gang investigate the family legend of their friend, Lisa. It seems her late grandfather and members of the family (including her uncle) have kept a secret from her...members of the family have been known to turn into vampires!!
Lastly, I made this collage. If you notice I also included another black and white photo of John...this time laughing. The characters mostly come from 1976-1977. On the top there's back to back Viking characters, then there's Mr. Bohannon. In the second row there's a nameless pilot and next to him, from a different episode, another pilot by the name of Luis. Samson the Strongman concludes the animated character collage. The vikings come from "The Curse of Viking Lake". Mr. Bohannon comes from "Hang In There, Scooby-Doo". The nameless pilot comes from "Scooby's Night with a Snow Beast Fright". Luis comes from "Jeepers, It's the Jaguaro!". John also provided the guttural moans for the Jaguaro creature and I assume electronic enhancing created the shrilling effect (you'll hear what I mean once you see that particular episode). Samson the Strongman appears at the beginning of 1969's "Bedlam in the Big Top". As a side note, John does a great impression of Sydney Greenstreet's characterization of Nero Wolfe for the Mr. Bohannon character.
As I pointed out earlier these collages and this blog post aren't meant to be a career retrospective...just a glimpse at some of the characters John Stephenson gave voice to during his years associated with Scooby-Doo. These do not include characters from other cartoon programs, of course, or the characters he did on the Laff-a-Lympics episodes (even though the series was billed as Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics). Since that series deviated from the mystery solving concept I excluded his many vocal contributions on Laff-a-Lympics (he voiced several Really Rottens members and did a Paul Lynde impression as Mildew Wolf).
If you're interested I'd highly encourage you all to purchase the various DVD releases of the Scooby series to hear the vocalizations of John Stephenson and the other voice artists that contributed to the overall success of the franchise. Here are links to some of the DVD projects...
Scooby Doo First and Second Season DVD
Scooby Doo and Dynomutt
Scooby Doo DVD 1978 episodes
The Best of the Scooby Doo Movies
The link I call 'Scooby Doo and Dynomutt' takes you to a DVD consisting of the episodes that aired during the 1976-1977 season of the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Adventure Hour. I mentioned some of the episodes that featured a John Stephenson vocal characterization but I didn't get into the episodes of Dynomutt that have a Stephenson vocalization. The episodes feature their syndicated opening titles...meaning that each cartoon program airs back to back and has it's own opening and closing sequence. Some of the fans voiced their outrage at the time of the DVD's release because the episodes didn't feature the official opening sequence of the hour long series (which would have one opening and closing sequence per episode) and instead the company utilized the opening and closing sequences from the syndicated airings of each cartoon program. Regardless of the outrage from some...the episodes are intact and that's all that's important for a lot of us. It's that 1976-1977 season that contained Stephenson episodes such as "High Rise Hair Raiser", "The No Face Zombie Case", "The Spirits of '76"...
The link referring to the 1978 episodes takes you to a 2-disc release billed as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Season Three. Technically there isn't a season three of that series. The company that released the DVD took the 16 half hour episodes from 1978 that originally aired during the Saturday morning programs, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars, and issued those episodes as 'Season Three'. The 16 episodes found on the DVD utilize the opening sequence of The Scooby-Doo Show (it's the opening that features Scooby water skiing and having his ski's eaten by a hungry shark). It's anyone's guess as to why the 8 half hour episodes from 1977, which also follow the formula from the first 2 seasons, hadn't been released on DVD. Those, technically, could've been marketed as 'Season Three' and the 16 episodes from 1978 as 'Season Four'. The episodes "The Curse of Viking Lake", "Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats", and "Hang In There, Scooby-Doo" that I mentioned earlier due to John Stephenson's vocal involvement originally aired in 1977 but haven't been released on DVD yet.
This particular entry simply shines the light on the various characters that were voiced by John Stephenson during the program's various incarnations...imagery from the first 8 years, specifically (1969-1978). I created 8 collage's of John Stephenson's characters and I'm going to post them as a salute to his contributions to the Scooby franchise. You can click on each collage and see the bigger image. I'll be sharing 8 collage's...this should be interesting...
As I pointed out earlier these collages and this blog post aren't meant to be a career retrospective...just a glimpse at some of the characters John Stephenson gave voice to during his years associated with Scooby-Doo. These do not include characters from other cartoon programs, of course, or the characters he did on the Laff-a-Lympics episodes (even though the series was billed as Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics). Since that series deviated from the mystery solving concept I excluded his many vocal contributions on Laff-a-Lympics (he voiced several Really Rottens members and did a Paul Lynde impression as Mildew Wolf).
If you're interested I'd highly encourage you all to purchase the various DVD releases of the Scooby series to hear the vocalizations of John Stephenson and the other voice artists that contributed to the overall success of the franchise. Here are links to some of the DVD projects...
Scooby Doo First and Second Season DVD
Scooby Doo and Dynomutt
Scooby Doo DVD 1978 episodes
The Best of the Scooby Doo Movies
The link I call 'Scooby Doo and Dynomutt' takes you to a DVD consisting of the episodes that aired during the 1976-1977 season of the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Adventure Hour. I mentioned some of the episodes that featured a John Stephenson vocal characterization but I didn't get into the episodes of Dynomutt that have a Stephenson vocalization. The episodes feature their syndicated opening titles...meaning that each cartoon program airs back to back and has it's own opening and closing sequence. Some of the fans voiced their outrage at the time of the DVD's release because the episodes didn't feature the official opening sequence of the hour long series (which would have one opening and closing sequence per episode) and instead the company utilized the opening and closing sequences from the syndicated airings of each cartoon program. Regardless of the outrage from some...the episodes are intact and that's all that's important for a lot of us. It's that 1976-1977 season that contained Stephenson episodes such as "High Rise Hair Raiser", "The No Face Zombie Case", "The Spirits of '76"...
The link referring to the 1978 episodes takes you to a 2-disc release billed as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Season Three. Technically there isn't a season three of that series. The company that released the DVD took the 16 half hour episodes from 1978 that originally aired during the Saturday morning programs, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars, and issued those episodes as 'Season Three'. The 16 episodes found on the DVD utilize the opening sequence of The Scooby-Doo Show (it's the opening that features Scooby water skiing and having his ski's eaten by a hungry shark). It's anyone's guess as to why the 8 half hour episodes from 1977, which also follow the formula from the first 2 seasons, hadn't been released on DVD. Those, technically, could've been marketed as 'Season Three' and the 16 episodes from 1978 as 'Season Four'. The episodes "The Curse of Viking Lake", "Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats", and "Hang In There, Scooby-Doo" that I mentioned earlier due to John Stephenson's vocal involvement originally aired in 1977 but haven't been released on DVD yet.
Scooby-Doo and 45 Years, Too...part 2...
Earlier this year I published a blog about the Scooby franchise turning 45 this year. This past Saturday (September 13, 2014) was the exact date that Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? made it's premiere on Saturday morning television...45 years to the day!
It aired on CBS-TV for 2 seasons (1969-1971) and then in reruns for another season. The gang returned in all-new episodes for the 1972-1973 season, titled The New Scooby-Doo Movies. These episodes ran roughly 45 minutes (an hour including commercials). This is the version that has the gang meeting celebrities, both fictional and non-fictional. This incarnation ran 2 seasons also (1972-1974). After 2 seasons of Saturday morning reruns on CBS, the network soon dropped the series.
According to commentary from Fred Silverman from various interviews he's given about Scooby, once CBS dropped the series he picked it up for the ABC Saturday morning schedule. Fred Silverman had been instrumental at CBS in bringing Scooby to television in the first place...and how ironic that after moving to ABC he'd be instrumental in bringing the character back to the spotlight once more in a new series in the fall of 1976. In that series Scooby shared top billing with a new character, Dynomutt (a/k/a Dog Wonder) on an hour long series called The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Adventure Hour. Dynomutt ineptly solved crime with his super-serious, super hero partner/master, Blue Falcon.
In the meantime, Scooby would remain an ABC staple for the rest of it's Saturday morning network run (not counting cable-TV and off-network syndicated reruns) until the removal of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo from the ABC Saturday morning line-up in the early '90s. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo had ended production of new episodes in 1991 (after having debuted in 1988). Since the mid '90s Scooby reruns have aired on various cable-TV networks and beginning in the late '90s direct-to-video Scooby animated movies started appearing for retail purchase. All new half hour television episodes returned in 2002 in the appropriately named What's New, Scooby-Doo? and that series remained in production through 2005.
A live action theatrical series of films based on the Scooby franchise became financially popular...coexisting with the direct-to-video animated movies and the TV series that aired in the latter half of the 2000s. In 2010 a more adult/romantic fan-fiction interpretation of the characters took center stage in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. That series ran another 3 seasons (it's final episodes airing in 2013). The erratic scheduling of this series caused hat would have been a 2-season series to stretch into 3 seasons. There are 52 episodes of this incarnation (26 for season one, 26 for season two). However, Cartoon Network aired the show erratically and placed it on several hiatuses...causing significant air-date gaps (there would be a period of several months sandwiched between the airing of episodes). The final first-run episodes that aired in 2013 had actually been produced as early as 2011/2012.
Since the end of that series and the 45th anniversary date of Scooby's debut this past Saturday, the franchise lost one of it's legendary vocalists, Casey Kasem. From the debut of the series in 1969 through 1991 and once again from 2002 until 2005, Casey voiced the character of Shaggy Rogers (the most popular character on the series aside from Scooby himself). While it's a fact that Casey didn't voice Shaggy during the final two incarnations of the series (Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) and previously had left the role in the mid '90s during the direct-to-video animated film era (Scott Innes, among several others, took over the role in the interim), Casey nonetheless remained strongly connected to the franchise. Casey returned to the role of Shaggy in 2002 and retired from the role after What's New, Scooby-Doo? ended production. He had a recurring role as Shaggy's uncle, Dr. Albert Shaggleford, in Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! (2006-2008), transmitting messages/clues to Shaggy and Scooby while he was on the run.
It's interesting to point out that in several episodes throughout the history of the series there have been rich relatives of Shaggy appear and ultimately be the focal point of a mystery. My guess is because Shaggy is suppose to represent a beatnik/hippie and be turned off by material possessions, what better way to invoke comical irony than to have Shaggy come from a long line of millionaires?!?
One of the earliest episodes to feature a rich uncle of Shaggy's is "The Loch Ness Mess", a 1972 episode guest starring The Harlem Globetrotters. In the episode the gang meet up with the Globetrotters while driving through the New England countryside and they all make their way to the mansion of Shaggy's uncle, Nathaniel, and are ultimately caught up in a mystery involving a sea serpent and the ghosts of Paul Revere and his 2 partners in crime. In a 1976 episode the gang visits another rich uncle of Shaggy's, appropriately named Shagworthy. He's also described as an eccentric millionaire that had a castle imported from England to the United States stone by stone. He's gone missing and is ultimately found by Scooby and the gang. This mystery is played out in the episode "Scared a lot in Camelot" (the villains are The Black Knight and Merlin).
In the Mystery Incorporated series Casey voiced Shaggy's father, Colton Rogers, in several episodes. Casey retired from the entertainment business not long after that series and of course, as you all should know by now, he passed away several months ago at the age of 82.
The voice cast throughout the history of the Scooby series is rather large and prolific.
The original voice of Scooby, Don Messick, passed away in 1997. He had been the voice of Scooby since 1969 and he remained the voice of Scooby through the end of A Pup Named Scooby Doo in 1991.
As previously mentioned, Casey Kasem passed away this past June and he had been the voice of Shaggy the longest (1969-1991, 1995, 1997, 2002-2009).
Frank Welker's voiced the teenaged Fred since 1969. The only animated depiction of Fred that hasn't been voiced by Frank is the child version of the character on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Frank became the official voice of Scooby beginning in 2002...a role he continues to play.
Prior to 2002, Scooby had been voiced in animated cartoons by Scott Innes starting in 1998 (Don Messick retired in 1996 following a career ending stroke). After Frank took over as Scooby in 2002, Scott continued to voice Scooby in a series of video games through 2006. Scott had also been the voice of Shaggy following Casey's departure from the role in the mid-late '90s. Scott voiced Shaggy in video game releases through 2009. Shaggy's current voice actor is Matthew Lillard (2010-present).
The female half of the gang, Daphne and Velma, don't have as many voice actresses in their history so it won't be as confusing/convoluted as the previous paragraph might appear to some.
Daphne's voice originally was supplied by an actress named Stefanianna Christopherson during the program's first season (1969-1970). Heather North became the second voice actress of Daphne in 1970 and she held this role on various Scooby incarnations through the early 1980's. She returned to the role in 2 direct-to-video Scooby animated movies in 2003: Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire and Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico. Kellie Martin voiced the child Daphne in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Mary Kay Bergman voiced Daphne in direct-to-video animated movies from 1997-2000 and her replacement, Grey DeLisle, has voiced Daphne ever since.
Velma's original voice actress is Nicole Jaffe (1969-1974). Pat Stevens became the second voice of Velma in the mid '70s (1976-1979). After this, Velma's appearances (as well as Fred and Daphne) became sporadic. Velma's next voice actress happened to be Marla Frumpkin for brief, non-recurring appearances through 1984. The child version of Velma on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was voiced by Christina Lange. B.J. Ward became the next voice actress associated with Velma. She voiced the character in the string of direct-to-video animated movies in the late '90s (1997-2001). Mindy Cohn (Natalie from the 1979-1988 sitcom, The Facts of Life) became the next voice of Velma in 2002. She's been the voice ever since.
Aside from those that gave voice to Scooby and the four teenagers there have been other voice artists that have contributed to the franchise...one in particular, John Stephenson. I'll spotlight his contributions on the next Scooby 45th anniversary blog entry that I post later today...be on the look-out for it!!
It aired on CBS-TV for 2 seasons (1969-1971) and then in reruns for another season. The gang returned in all-new episodes for the 1972-1973 season, titled The New Scooby-Doo Movies. These episodes ran roughly 45 minutes (an hour including commercials). This is the version that has the gang meeting celebrities, both fictional and non-fictional. This incarnation ran 2 seasons also (1972-1974). After 2 seasons of Saturday morning reruns on CBS, the network soon dropped the series.
According to commentary from Fred Silverman from various interviews he's given about Scooby, once CBS dropped the series he picked it up for the ABC Saturday morning schedule. Fred Silverman had been instrumental at CBS in bringing Scooby to television in the first place...and how ironic that after moving to ABC he'd be instrumental in bringing the character back to the spotlight once more in a new series in the fall of 1976. In that series Scooby shared top billing with a new character, Dynomutt (a/k/a Dog Wonder) on an hour long series called The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Adventure Hour. Dynomutt ineptly solved crime with his super-serious, super hero partner/master, Blue Falcon.
In the meantime, Scooby would remain an ABC staple for the rest of it's Saturday morning network run (not counting cable-TV and off-network syndicated reruns) until the removal of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo from the ABC Saturday morning line-up in the early '90s. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo had ended production of new episodes in 1991 (after having debuted in 1988). Since the mid '90s Scooby reruns have aired on various cable-TV networks and beginning in the late '90s direct-to-video Scooby animated movies started appearing for retail purchase. All new half hour television episodes returned in 2002 in the appropriately named What's New, Scooby-Doo? and that series remained in production through 2005.
A live action theatrical series of films based on the Scooby franchise became financially popular...coexisting with the direct-to-video animated movies and the TV series that aired in the latter half of the 2000s. In 2010 a more adult/romantic fan-fiction interpretation of the characters took center stage in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. That series ran another 3 seasons (it's final episodes airing in 2013). The erratic scheduling of this series caused hat would have been a 2-season series to stretch into 3 seasons. There are 52 episodes of this incarnation (26 for season one, 26 for season two). However, Cartoon Network aired the show erratically and placed it on several hiatuses...causing significant air-date gaps (there would be a period of several months sandwiched between the airing of episodes). The final first-run episodes that aired in 2013 had actually been produced as early as 2011/2012.
Since the end of that series and the 45th anniversary date of Scooby's debut this past Saturday, the franchise lost one of it's legendary vocalists, Casey Kasem. From the debut of the series in 1969 through 1991 and once again from 2002 until 2005, Casey voiced the character of Shaggy Rogers (the most popular character on the series aside from Scooby himself). While it's a fact that Casey didn't voice Shaggy during the final two incarnations of the series (Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated) and previously had left the role in the mid '90s during the direct-to-video animated film era (Scott Innes, among several others, took over the role in the interim), Casey nonetheless remained strongly connected to the franchise. Casey returned to the role of Shaggy in 2002 and retired from the role after What's New, Scooby-Doo? ended production. He had a recurring role as Shaggy's uncle, Dr. Albert Shaggleford, in Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! (2006-2008), transmitting messages/clues to Shaggy and Scooby while he was on the run.
It's interesting to point out that in several episodes throughout the history of the series there have been rich relatives of Shaggy appear and ultimately be the focal point of a mystery. My guess is because Shaggy is suppose to represent a beatnik/hippie and be turned off by material possessions, what better way to invoke comical irony than to have Shaggy come from a long line of millionaires?!?
One of the earliest episodes to feature a rich uncle of Shaggy's is "The Loch Ness Mess", a 1972 episode guest starring The Harlem Globetrotters. In the episode the gang meet up with the Globetrotters while driving through the New England countryside and they all make their way to the mansion of Shaggy's uncle, Nathaniel, and are ultimately caught up in a mystery involving a sea serpent and the ghosts of Paul Revere and his 2 partners in crime. In a 1976 episode the gang visits another rich uncle of Shaggy's, appropriately named Shagworthy. He's also described as an eccentric millionaire that had a castle imported from England to the United States stone by stone. He's gone missing and is ultimately found by Scooby and the gang. This mystery is played out in the episode "Scared a lot in Camelot" (the villains are The Black Knight and Merlin).
In the Mystery Incorporated series Casey voiced Shaggy's father, Colton Rogers, in several episodes. Casey retired from the entertainment business not long after that series and of course, as you all should know by now, he passed away several months ago at the age of 82.
The voice cast throughout the history of the Scooby series is rather large and prolific.
The original voice of Scooby, Don Messick, passed away in 1997. He had been the voice of Scooby since 1969 and he remained the voice of Scooby through the end of A Pup Named Scooby Doo in 1991.
As previously mentioned, Casey Kasem passed away this past June and he had been the voice of Shaggy the longest (1969-1991, 1995, 1997, 2002-2009).
Frank Welker's voiced the teenaged Fred since 1969. The only animated depiction of Fred that hasn't been voiced by Frank is the child version of the character on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Frank became the official voice of Scooby beginning in 2002...a role he continues to play.
Prior to 2002, Scooby had been voiced in animated cartoons by Scott Innes starting in 1998 (Don Messick retired in 1996 following a career ending stroke). After Frank took over as Scooby in 2002, Scott continued to voice Scooby in a series of video games through 2006. Scott had also been the voice of Shaggy following Casey's departure from the role in the mid-late '90s. Scott voiced Shaggy in video game releases through 2009. Shaggy's current voice actor is Matthew Lillard (2010-present).
The female half of the gang, Daphne and Velma, don't have as many voice actresses in their history so it won't be as confusing/convoluted as the previous paragraph might appear to some.
Daphne's voice originally was supplied by an actress named Stefanianna Christopherson during the program's first season (1969-1970). Heather North became the second voice actress of Daphne in 1970 and she held this role on various Scooby incarnations through the early 1980's. She returned to the role in 2 direct-to-video Scooby animated movies in 2003: Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire and Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico. Kellie Martin voiced the child Daphne in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Mary Kay Bergman voiced Daphne in direct-to-video animated movies from 1997-2000 and her replacement, Grey DeLisle, has voiced Daphne ever since.
Velma's original voice actress is Nicole Jaffe (1969-1974). Pat Stevens became the second voice of Velma in the mid '70s (1976-1979). After this, Velma's appearances (as well as Fred and Daphne) became sporadic. Velma's next voice actress happened to be Marla Frumpkin for brief, non-recurring appearances through 1984. The child version of Velma on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was voiced by Christina Lange. B.J. Ward became the next voice actress associated with Velma. She voiced the character in the string of direct-to-video animated movies in the late '90s (1997-2001). Mindy Cohn (Natalie from the 1979-1988 sitcom, The Facts of Life) became the next voice of Velma in 2002. She's been the voice ever since.
Aside from those that gave voice to Scooby and the four teenagers there have been other voice artists that have contributed to the franchise...one in particular, John Stephenson. I'll spotlight his contributions on the next Scooby 45th anniversary blog entry that I post later today...be on the look-out for it!!
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Scooby Doo and 45 Years, Too...
Scooby Doo, you're hitting 45 this year...and some of the celebration's started early for just recently in DVD format you've been paired up with various personalities from the wrestling world.
Scooby IS turning 45 this year. His debut on television occurred on September 13, 1969 in a series titled Scooby Doo, Where Are You?. A lot of the character traits, catchphrases, and basic formula is established in this series which ran on CBS in first run production from September 1969 through January 1971 for a total of 25 episodes. The series returned in the fall of 1972 in an hour long format titled The New Scooby Doo Movies. It's in these hour long episodes that introduced the famed team-up format of Scooby and the gang (Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne) meeting famous celebrities and solving various mysteries. One of the peculiarities of the series is the inclusion of several celebrities that had passed away by 1972 or had been out of the public eye for at least 5 years. I'm referring to the episodes that had Scooby and the gang meeting Laurel and Hardy and in a couple of episodes the gang meet The Three Stooges (Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe). There were 16 episodes aired during the 1972-1973 season and 8 more that aired during an abbreviated 1973-1974 half season. The rest of the season was filled out with reruns of the 24 episodes. The original half hour series (1969-1971) continued to air in reruns on CBS, too. These 49 episodes continued to air in reruns on Saturday mornings on CBS until the first half of 1976. After CBS canceled the series and removed it from it's line-up, Fred Silverman at ABC (formerly at CBS and responsible for Scooby's debut on CBS in 1969) jumped on the program and bought it rather immediately (this is according to his own words in a Scooby documentary you can see on-line). I've embedded the video clip here...narrated by Gary Owens and featuring a lot of behind the scenes information from producers and creative talents associated with the series...
The video clip leads into the creation of Scooby's debut series on ABC in the fall of 1976 titled The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour and how the series continued it's Saturday morning popularity as the years went by. There were 16 episodes produced during the 1976-1977 season. Scooby's cousin, also referred to as his brother, Scooby Dum, made his debut on this series and appeared in 2 episodes: "The Gruesome Game of the Gator Ghoul" and "The Headless Horseman of Halloween". Dynomutt (also referred to as Dog Wonder) ran as a separate series within the hour long format but in several episodes Scooby and the gang made cross-over appearances to help Dynomutt and his human side-kick, Blue Falcon, solve a baffling mystery. Blue Falcon and Dynomutt's base of operations is called Big City. The Scooby series by this time began to add more characters and incorporate more and more "ghosts of the week". ABC launched the ambitious 2-hour program, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, to the 1977-1978 line-up. The series featured 5 half hour programs: Laff-a-Lympics, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, further adventures of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt (Eight 2-part episodes running 11 minutes each...equaling 4 half hour episodes total), a brand new half hour Scooby adventure (featuring additional episodes guest starring Scooby-Dum and in one episode, "The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller", the introduction of their cousin, Scooby-Dee; 8 episodes altogether), and reruns of the original CBS Scooby series filled out the 2-hour programming block.
In the fall of 1978 the current ABC series got re-titled to Scooby's All-Stars. The programming block was reduced from 2-hours to 90 minutes. It removed reruns of the CBS run of Scooby and the Dynomutt/Blue Falcon series and in it's place added brand new episodes of Laff-a-Lympics and Captain Caveman. All new Scooby episodes continued to air that season, too...a total of 16 episodes aired throughout the 1978-1979 season. Those 16 episodes later surfaced on DVD as Scooby Doo, Where Are You? Season Three!.
The 8 Scooby episodes that aired during the 1977-1978 season that I mentioned earlier (the episodes guest starring Scooby Dum, Scooby Dee, and featuring the obligatory parade of ghosts and goblins) have never been released on DVD (not to my knowledge).
You may be able to find these 8 episodes on-line but I've never seen them become available on a commercially released DVD in their complete form:
1. The Curse of Viking Lake; September 1977
2. Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats; September 1977
3. Hang In There, Scooby Doo; September 1977
4. The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller; October 1977
5. The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race; October 1977
6. The Ozark Witch Switch; October 1977
7. Creepy Cruise; October 1977
8. The Creepy Heap from the Deep; October 1977
As if you all didn't realize, a lot of Scooby episode titles from each series from 1969 to the present are filled with alliteration and rhyming. Following the 1978-1979 season, Scooby returned in a dramatically overhauled program titled Scooby and Scrappy Doo. This series aired first run episodes from September 22, 1979 until January 5, 1980. The focal point relied heavily on Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy and less on Fred, Daphne, and Velma. Scooby had been on the air for 10 years at that point in time and the introduction of Scrappy, like him or not, gave the franchise the jolt that it needed and his involvement brought in a lot of new viewers for the series, too. Upon the introduction and success that Scrappy provided the franchise it shouldn't come to no surprise that further episodes would come to focus exclusively on the comic trio of Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy and that's exactly what happened as the new decade began. The 1980-1981 season got underway in November (due to a voice actor strike) and the new Scooby series this time seen him receive second billing, sharing a title with Richie Rich. The Richie Rich/Scooby Doo Show as it's officially called, featured 13 half hour Scooby episodes during 1980-1981. The length of each episode also seen severe cuts. Each half hour consisted of three 7 minute comic adventures (a total of 39 seven minute shorts). Seven additional half hour episodes aired during 1981-1982, in the same 3 short episode per half hour format, giving the series 21 seven minute episodes...bringing the overall total to 60. The program returned under a different title for the 1982-1983 season, The Scooby and Scrappy Doo/Puppy Hour. 33 seven minute shorts aired during this season...bringing the grand total number of episodes produced during the 1980-1983 time span to 99. In that season every third 7 minute short per half hour starred only Scrappy and featured to new characters, Deputy Dusty and the Texan canine, Yabba-Doo (explained to be one of Scrappy's other Uncles).
Scooby returned to ABC's fall line-up in 1983 under The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. This series (and that title) remained for 13 half hour episodes. Daphne, not seen since 1979, returned as a regular and became the 'leader', in a sense. She joined Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy in adventures that featured real ghosts and phantoms (rather than ordinary people in disguise). Fred and Velma appear infrequently.
Here's the intro that appeared during the 1983-1984 season (airing from September 10, 1983 until December 10, 1983)...
Here's the intro that appeared during the 1984-1985 season (September 8, 1984 until December 1, 1984) after the title had been changed to The New Scooby Doo Mysteries...the monster dance is the most memorable thing about the intro, obviously...
Upon the conclusion of this series, ABC brought it back in the fall of 1985 as The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. This series, running exactly 13 episodes, featured Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, and Daphne joined by a con-artist/good guy named Flim Flam who travel the globe searching 13 ghosts that Scooby and Shaggy mistakenly set free. Vincent Price co-stars as the voice of Vincent van Ghoul, the mysterious sorcerer/magician that keeps track and offers help in spirit form to guide Scooby and pals on their journey. The intro features narration from van Ghoul and explains the premise of the series. The villains of the series, in addition to the monsters, are dimwit ghosts named Bogel and Weerd. The fictional Amulet of Ish Kabibble is a recurring artifact mentioned throughout the series. It ran from September 7, 1985 to December 7, 1985...and in reruns through 1986. This series ultimately became the final incarnation of Scooby, in adult form, on network television. Reruns of all various incarnations of Scooby had continued to air in syndication since 1980 in addition to the new episodes that aired weekly on ABC each season. ABC canceled the series following the 1985-1986 season...but that wasn't the end...
The popularity of The Muppet Babies had spawned, by the mid '80s, several inspirations...the most notable being The Flintstone Kids. ABC brought back Scooby and the gang in 1988 as A Pup Named Scooby Doo...complete with 30 half hour episodes and an entirely different take on the franchise. The animation was patterned after the famed styles of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett (exaggerated physical expressions and fast-paced movement). The first episode debuted on September 10, 1988 and the last first run episode aired on August 17, 1991. This is rather misleading, though, because the series aired in weekly fashion consistently from September 1988 through November 1989. A total of 21 half hour episodes were produced and aired in that time frame. The series returned with new episodes in September 1990 but only four were produced. 2 episodes aired in September 1990 and 1 new episode aired in both October and November 1990...accompanied by reruns from the first season. The last 5 episodes, bringing the series to 30 half hour episodes in total, aired in August 1991.
So, you can see, this series had an erratic schedule during 1990-1991 as only 9 first run episodes were produced altogether. ABC continued to air this program in reruns through the 1992-1993 season and after that point in time the Scooby franchise left network TV and moved to cable TV exclusively.
Reruns of the various incarnations of Scooby appeared on USA Network, TBS, and later Cartoon Network and much later, Boomerang (all of this spanning the years 1993-2002). After a series of direct-to-video Scooby movies had been released starting in the mid '90s and moving forward, their on-going successes and a live-action adaptation caused the Scooby series to be revived as a weekly Saturday morning cartoon series once more in 2002. What's New, Scooby Doo? aired on the cable channel The WB from 2002 until 2005. It marked the first time since 1984 that all four teenagers and Scooby appeared together in teenage form solving a mystery. The series also contained an element of self-parody...something that's been becoming ever more prominent with each subsequent Scooby series ever since. It ran from September 2002 through April 2005 with a final, single first run episode airing more than a year later in July 2006. 42 episodes were produced.
Scooby, as mentioned, made his debut on the big screen in live-action form in June 2002. Scooby appeared in animatronic/CGI form but the human cast members were live action actors/actresses. The film went on to make more than $275,000,000 at the box office. It was followed by a sequel in 2004 and a prequel in 2009. The 2004 film grossed more than $181,000,000 at the box office. An otherwise huge hit but because it's compared to the 2002 box office totals it's considered "a failure" (it's mind boggling to me, too. Such an astronomical figure like that is considered a failure...geesh!).
The 2009 prequel aired on Cartoon Network...bringing in an audience number of more than 6 million! A fourth live-action incarnation appeared in 2010 and drew more than 5 million viewers. I should list the titles of these live-action films: Scooby Doo (2002), Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009), and Scooby Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010). As all of that as playing out, a new animated Scooby series debuted in 2006 and modeled after the live-action character designs. Scooby appeared in animated form based on his appearance in the live-action films. The series, Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue!, ran for 26 episodes during September 2006 through March 2008 on The CW cable channel. Each season consisted of 13 half hour episodes. The series included a villain called Dr. Phibes (the name based on a character appearing in a couple of horror films starring Vincent Price).
Upon the releases of the most recent live action Scooby film in 2010, Scooby returned to a more traditional animated appearance in the soap opera-like Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated. The series ran on Cartoon Network and aired for 56 half hour episodes during a highly erratic schedule. It had numerous hiatuses where the program wouldn't air for months on end, only to resurface on the schedule, before vanishing after a couple of months. These on and off erratic airings persisted during the program's entire existence and the 56 half hour cliff-hanger episodes were spread out over 3 seasons (2010-2013). In fact, the 56 episodes aired between April 5, 2010 and April 5, 2013. To date that is the last weekly Scooby series to air.
The voice cast remained somewhat consistent throughout 1969-1991 as far as Scooby and Shaggy are concerned. Don Messick voiced Scooby from the 1969 debut on through the final episode of "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" in 1991. Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy throughout that time period, too, and would go on to portray the character in direct-to-home video Scooby cartoons through 1997. He stepped away from the role for nearly 5 years...returning in 2002. In his absence, Scott Innes voiced Shaggy and also voiced Scooby after Don Messick suffered a career ending stroke in 1996. Scott portrayed Scooby and Shaggy throughout the rest of the '90s and into the early 2000s. As mentioned, Casey returned as Shaggy in 2002 for the What's New, Scooby Doo? series. He portrayed Shaggy for the last time in 2009. Since then, Scott Menville and Matthew Lillard have voiced the character. The latter portrayed Shaggy in several of the live-action movies and so he was already familiar with the characteristics and speech patterns. At the start of the 2002 Scooby series, Scooby's voice was taken over by Frank Welker. Frank's been the voice of Fred on the Scooby series since it's 1969 debut...the only time Frank hasn't voiced Fred happened in A Pup Named Scooby Doo...for the child version of Fred, an actor by the name of Carl Steven took over for that series.
Frank, like the late Don Messick, is a voice specialist. Frank is cast in just as many human character roles as he is monsters, animals, and creatures of all species. Frank became the voice of Scooby in 2002 and continues to this very day. He also continues to voice Fred.
Moving on to the females...Daphne's been voiced by an array of voice actresses over the last 45 years and so has Velma. Daphne's original voice actress has the unique name of Stefanianna Christopherson. She voiced Daphne in the first season only (1969). Heather North took over the role in 1970 and she remained the voice of Daphne through 1985...at that point the character was written out. She voiced the character for several future projects in 1997, 2002, and 2003 but is mostly retired from the role. The child version of Daphne in A Pup Named Scooby Doo was voiced by Kellie Martin. In the late '90s direct-to-video animated movies, those released from 1998-2000, Daphne's voice was supplied by Mary Kay Bergman.
Since 2001, with the exception of a couple of special projects in 2002 and 2003 that Heather North took part in, Daphne's been voiced by Grey Delisle.
Velma, on the other hand, has had even more voice actresses. Her original voice was supplied by Nicole Jaffe (1969-1973). Nicole returned to the role during 2002 and 2003 for some retro-styled Scooby direct-to-home video animated movies (as did Heather North as Daphne). Pat Stevens voiced Velma from 1976 until 1979. Marla Frumkin voiced Velma briefly during 1979-1980 and 1984. The child version of Velma was voiced by Christina Lange. In 1997, adult Velma returned to the Scooby franchise and this time her voice was supplied by B.J. Ward. She remained the voice of Velma through 2001. Mindy Cohn (Natalie from The Facts of Life) became the voice of Velma starting in 2002 and she's remained in the role ever since.
In the classic episodes (1969-1985), several other voice artists became familiar to the viewer's ears. John Stephenson voiced almost all of the villains, scientists, policemen, detectives, and red herring passerby throughout the 1969-1973 time frame. John mostly voiced characters that sounded like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Joe Flynn, and Paul Lynde in addition to using to his distinctive natural speaking voice, too. Don Messick and Frank Welker voiced multiple incidental characters, in addition to their starring roles. Casey Kasem also voiced an array of policemen, scientists, and other incidental characters to fill out the story.
I keep reading commentary across the internet and most of the time people think Scooby originated in movie form and that the cartoons they see on Cartoon Network are based on those movies. I'm in my mid 30s and love the older Hanna-Barbera cartoons of Scooby and the gang from all time periods (1969-1991). The most recent, Mystery Incorporated, wasn't terrible or anything but I prefer the stories to be self-contained, less edgy, less self-parody, and with zero drama and romance.
Scooby's a comedy cartoon (or it's suppose to be) so it's kind of difficult to take in scenes of say, Fred and Daphne, bickering and teasing one another and talking like love-struck kids. It borders too much on fan-fiction.
Attention Scooby cartoon writers: Return the action to what made the franchise popular in the first place. Leave the 'Fred loves Daphne' or 'Velma's got a crush on Shaggy' stuff to fan-fiction and return the series to the conventional formula of 4 teens and a talking Great Dane traveling the country solving mysteries.
Scooby IS turning 45 this year. His debut on television occurred on September 13, 1969 in a series titled Scooby Doo, Where Are You?. A lot of the character traits, catchphrases, and basic formula is established in this series which ran on CBS in first run production from September 1969 through January 1971 for a total of 25 episodes. The series returned in the fall of 1972 in an hour long format titled The New Scooby Doo Movies. It's in these hour long episodes that introduced the famed team-up format of Scooby and the gang (Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne) meeting famous celebrities and solving various mysteries. One of the peculiarities of the series is the inclusion of several celebrities that had passed away by 1972 or had been out of the public eye for at least 5 years. I'm referring to the episodes that had Scooby and the gang meeting Laurel and Hardy and in a couple of episodes the gang meet The Three Stooges (Larry, Moe, and Curly Joe). There were 16 episodes aired during the 1972-1973 season and 8 more that aired during an abbreviated 1973-1974 half season. The rest of the season was filled out with reruns of the 24 episodes. The original half hour series (1969-1971) continued to air in reruns on CBS, too. These 49 episodes continued to air in reruns on Saturday mornings on CBS until the first half of 1976. After CBS canceled the series and removed it from it's line-up, Fred Silverman at ABC (formerly at CBS and responsible for Scooby's debut on CBS in 1969) jumped on the program and bought it rather immediately (this is according to his own words in a Scooby documentary you can see on-line). I've embedded the video clip here...narrated by Gary Owens and featuring a lot of behind the scenes information from producers and creative talents associated with the series...
The video clip leads into the creation of Scooby's debut series on ABC in the fall of 1976 titled The Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour and how the series continued it's Saturday morning popularity as the years went by. There were 16 episodes produced during the 1976-1977 season. Scooby's cousin, also referred to as his brother, Scooby Dum, made his debut on this series and appeared in 2 episodes: "The Gruesome Game of the Gator Ghoul" and "The Headless Horseman of Halloween". Dynomutt (also referred to as Dog Wonder) ran as a separate series within the hour long format but in several episodes Scooby and the gang made cross-over appearances to help Dynomutt and his human side-kick, Blue Falcon, solve a baffling mystery. Blue Falcon and Dynomutt's base of operations is called Big City. The Scooby series by this time began to add more characters and incorporate more and more "ghosts of the week". ABC launched the ambitious 2-hour program, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, to the 1977-1978 line-up. The series featured 5 half hour programs: Laff-a-Lympics, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, further adventures of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt (Eight 2-part episodes running 11 minutes each...equaling 4 half hour episodes total), a brand new half hour Scooby adventure (featuring additional episodes guest starring Scooby-Dum and in one episode, "The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller", the introduction of their cousin, Scooby-Dee; 8 episodes altogether), and reruns of the original CBS Scooby series filled out the 2-hour programming block.
In the fall of 1978 the current ABC series got re-titled to Scooby's All-Stars. The programming block was reduced from 2-hours to 90 minutes. It removed reruns of the CBS run of Scooby and the Dynomutt/Blue Falcon series and in it's place added brand new episodes of Laff-a-Lympics and Captain Caveman. All new Scooby episodes continued to air that season, too...a total of 16 episodes aired throughout the 1978-1979 season. Those 16 episodes later surfaced on DVD as Scooby Doo, Where Are You? Season Three!.
The 8 Scooby episodes that aired during the 1977-1978 season that I mentioned earlier (the episodes guest starring Scooby Dum, Scooby Dee, and featuring the obligatory parade of ghosts and goblins) have never been released on DVD (not to my knowledge).
You may be able to find these 8 episodes on-line but I've never seen them become available on a commercially released DVD in their complete form:
1. The Curse of Viking Lake; September 1977
2. Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats; September 1977
3. Hang In There, Scooby Doo; September 1977
4. The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller; October 1977
5. The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race; October 1977
6. The Ozark Witch Switch; October 1977
7. Creepy Cruise; October 1977
8. The Creepy Heap from the Deep; October 1977
As if you all didn't realize, a lot of Scooby episode titles from each series from 1969 to the present are filled with alliteration and rhyming. Following the 1978-1979 season, Scooby returned in a dramatically overhauled program titled Scooby and Scrappy Doo. This series aired first run episodes from September 22, 1979 until January 5, 1980. The focal point relied heavily on Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy and less on Fred, Daphne, and Velma. Scooby had been on the air for 10 years at that point in time and the introduction of Scrappy, like him or not, gave the franchise the jolt that it needed and his involvement brought in a lot of new viewers for the series, too. Upon the introduction and success that Scrappy provided the franchise it shouldn't come to no surprise that further episodes would come to focus exclusively on the comic trio of Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy and that's exactly what happened as the new decade began. The 1980-1981 season got underway in November (due to a voice actor strike) and the new Scooby series this time seen him receive second billing, sharing a title with Richie Rich. The Richie Rich/Scooby Doo Show as it's officially called, featured 13 half hour Scooby episodes during 1980-1981. The length of each episode also seen severe cuts. Each half hour consisted of three 7 minute comic adventures (a total of 39 seven minute shorts). Seven additional half hour episodes aired during 1981-1982, in the same 3 short episode per half hour format, giving the series 21 seven minute episodes...bringing the overall total to 60. The program returned under a different title for the 1982-1983 season, The Scooby and Scrappy Doo/Puppy Hour. 33 seven minute shorts aired during this season...bringing the grand total number of episodes produced during the 1980-1983 time span to 99. In that season every third 7 minute short per half hour starred only Scrappy and featured to new characters, Deputy Dusty and the Texan canine, Yabba-Doo (explained to be one of Scrappy's other Uncles).
Scooby returned to ABC's fall line-up in 1983 under The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. This series (and that title) remained for 13 half hour episodes. Daphne, not seen since 1979, returned as a regular and became the 'leader', in a sense. She joined Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy in adventures that featured real ghosts and phantoms (rather than ordinary people in disguise). Fred and Velma appear infrequently.
Here's the intro that appeared during the 1983-1984 season (airing from September 10, 1983 until December 10, 1983)...
Here's the intro that appeared during the 1984-1985 season (September 8, 1984 until December 1, 1984) after the title had been changed to The New Scooby Doo Mysteries...the monster dance is the most memorable thing about the intro, obviously...
Upon the conclusion of this series, ABC brought it back in the fall of 1985 as The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. This series, running exactly 13 episodes, featured Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, and Daphne joined by a con-artist/good guy named Flim Flam who travel the globe searching 13 ghosts that Scooby and Shaggy mistakenly set free. Vincent Price co-stars as the voice of Vincent van Ghoul, the mysterious sorcerer/magician that keeps track and offers help in spirit form to guide Scooby and pals on their journey. The intro features narration from van Ghoul and explains the premise of the series. The villains of the series, in addition to the monsters, are dimwit ghosts named Bogel and Weerd. The fictional Amulet of Ish Kabibble is a recurring artifact mentioned throughout the series. It ran from September 7, 1985 to December 7, 1985...and in reruns through 1986. This series ultimately became the final incarnation of Scooby, in adult form, on network television. Reruns of all various incarnations of Scooby had continued to air in syndication since 1980 in addition to the new episodes that aired weekly on ABC each season. ABC canceled the series following the 1985-1986 season...but that wasn't the end...
The popularity of The Muppet Babies had spawned, by the mid '80s, several inspirations...the most notable being The Flintstone Kids. ABC brought back Scooby and the gang in 1988 as A Pup Named Scooby Doo...complete with 30 half hour episodes and an entirely different take on the franchise. The animation was patterned after the famed styles of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett (exaggerated physical expressions and fast-paced movement). The first episode debuted on September 10, 1988 and the last first run episode aired on August 17, 1991. This is rather misleading, though, because the series aired in weekly fashion consistently from September 1988 through November 1989. A total of 21 half hour episodes were produced and aired in that time frame. The series returned with new episodes in September 1990 but only four were produced. 2 episodes aired in September 1990 and 1 new episode aired in both October and November 1990...accompanied by reruns from the first season. The last 5 episodes, bringing the series to 30 half hour episodes in total, aired in August 1991.
So, you can see, this series had an erratic schedule during 1990-1991 as only 9 first run episodes were produced altogether. ABC continued to air this program in reruns through the 1992-1993 season and after that point in time the Scooby franchise left network TV and moved to cable TV exclusively.
Reruns of the various incarnations of Scooby appeared on USA Network, TBS, and later Cartoon Network and much later, Boomerang (all of this spanning the years 1993-2002). After a series of direct-to-video Scooby movies had been released starting in the mid '90s and moving forward, their on-going successes and a live-action adaptation caused the Scooby series to be revived as a weekly Saturday morning cartoon series once more in 2002. What's New, Scooby Doo? aired on the cable channel The WB from 2002 until 2005. It marked the first time since 1984 that all four teenagers and Scooby appeared together in teenage form solving a mystery. The series also contained an element of self-parody...something that's been becoming ever more prominent with each subsequent Scooby series ever since. It ran from September 2002 through April 2005 with a final, single first run episode airing more than a year later in July 2006. 42 episodes were produced.
Scooby, as mentioned, made his debut on the big screen in live-action form in June 2002. Scooby appeared in animatronic/CGI form but the human cast members were live action actors/actresses. The film went on to make more than $275,000,000 at the box office. It was followed by a sequel in 2004 and a prequel in 2009. The 2004 film grossed more than $181,000,000 at the box office. An otherwise huge hit but because it's compared to the 2002 box office totals it's considered "a failure" (it's mind boggling to me, too. Such an astronomical figure like that is considered a failure...geesh!).
The 2009 prequel aired on Cartoon Network...bringing in an audience number of more than 6 million! A fourth live-action incarnation appeared in 2010 and drew more than 5 million viewers. I should list the titles of these live-action films: Scooby Doo (2002), Scooby Doo: Monsters Unleashed (2004), Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009), and Scooby Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010). As all of that as playing out, a new animated Scooby series debuted in 2006 and modeled after the live-action character designs. Scooby appeared in animated form based on his appearance in the live-action films. The series, Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue!, ran for 26 episodes during September 2006 through March 2008 on The CW cable channel. Each season consisted of 13 half hour episodes. The series included a villain called Dr. Phibes (the name based on a character appearing in a couple of horror films starring Vincent Price).
Upon the releases of the most recent live action Scooby film in 2010, Scooby returned to a more traditional animated appearance in the soap opera-like Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated. The series ran on Cartoon Network and aired for 56 half hour episodes during a highly erratic schedule. It had numerous hiatuses where the program wouldn't air for months on end, only to resurface on the schedule, before vanishing after a couple of months. These on and off erratic airings persisted during the program's entire existence and the 56 half hour cliff-hanger episodes were spread out over 3 seasons (2010-2013). In fact, the 56 episodes aired between April 5, 2010 and April 5, 2013. To date that is the last weekly Scooby series to air.
The voice cast remained somewhat consistent throughout 1969-1991 as far as Scooby and Shaggy are concerned. Don Messick voiced Scooby from the 1969 debut on through the final episode of "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" in 1991. Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy throughout that time period, too, and would go on to portray the character in direct-to-home video Scooby cartoons through 1997. He stepped away from the role for nearly 5 years...returning in 2002. In his absence, Scott Innes voiced Shaggy and also voiced Scooby after Don Messick suffered a career ending stroke in 1996. Scott portrayed Scooby and Shaggy throughout the rest of the '90s and into the early 2000s. As mentioned, Casey returned as Shaggy in 2002 for the What's New, Scooby Doo? series. He portrayed Shaggy for the last time in 2009. Since then, Scott Menville and Matthew Lillard have voiced the character. The latter portrayed Shaggy in several of the live-action movies and so he was already familiar with the characteristics and speech patterns. At the start of the 2002 Scooby series, Scooby's voice was taken over by Frank Welker. Frank's been the voice of Fred on the Scooby series since it's 1969 debut...the only time Frank hasn't voiced Fred happened in A Pup Named Scooby Doo...for the child version of Fred, an actor by the name of Carl Steven took over for that series.
Frank, like the late Don Messick, is a voice specialist. Frank is cast in just as many human character roles as he is monsters, animals, and creatures of all species. Frank became the voice of Scooby in 2002 and continues to this very day. He also continues to voice Fred.
Moving on to the females...Daphne's been voiced by an array of voice actresses over the last 45 years and so has Velma. Daphne's original voice actress has the unique name of Stefanianna Christopherson. She voiced Daphne in the first season only (1969). Heather North took over the role in 1970 and she remained the voice of Daphne through 1985...at that point the character was written out. She voiced the character for several future projects in 1997, 2002, and 2003 but is mostly retired from the role. The child version of Daphne in A Pup Named Scooby Doo was voiced by Kellie Martin. In the late '90s direct-to-video animated movies, those released from 1998-2000, Daphne's voice was supplied by Mary Kay Bergman.
Since 2001, with the exception of a couple of special projects in 2002 and 2003 that Heather North took part in, Daphne's been voiced by Grey Delisle.
Velma, on the other hand, has had even more voice actresses. Her original voice was supplied by Nicole Jaffe (1969-1973). Nicole returned to the role during 2002 and 2003 for some retro-styled Scooby direct-to-home video animated movies (as did Heather North as Daphne). Pat Stevens voiced Velma from 1976 until 1979. Marla Frumkin voiced Velma briefly during 1979-1980 and 1984. The child version of Velma was voiced by Christina Lange. In 1997, adult Velma returned to the Scooby franchise and this time her voice was supplied by B.J. Ward. She remained the voice of Velma through 2001. Mindy Cohn (Natalie from The Facts of Life) became the voice of Velma starting in 2002 and she's remained in the role ever since.
In the classic episodes (1969-1985), several other voice artists became familiar to the viewer's ears. John Stephenson voiced almost all of the villains, scientists, policemen, detectives, and red herring passerby throughout the 1969-1973 time frame. John mostly voiced characters that sounded like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Joe Flynn, and Paul Lynde in addition to using to his distinctive natural speaking voice, too. Don Messick and Frank Welker voiced multiple incidental characters, in addition to their starring roles. Casey Kasem also voiced an array of policemen, scientists, and other incidental characters to fill out the story.
I keep reading commentary across the internet and most of the time people think Scooby originated in movie form and that the cartoons they see on Cartoon Network are based on those movies. I'm in my mid 30s and love the older Hanna-Barbera cartoons of Scooby and the gang from all time periods (1969-1991). The most recent, Mystery Incorporated, wasn't terrible or anything but I prefer the stories to be self-contained, less edgy, less self-parody, and with zero drama and romance.
Scooby's a comedy cartoon (or it's suppose to be) so it's kind of difficult to take in scenes of say, Fred and Daphne, bickering and teasing one another and talking like love-struck kids. It borders too much on fan-fiction.
Attention Scooby cartoon writers: Return the action to what made the franchise popular in the first place. Leave the 'Fred loves Daphne' or 'Velma's got a crush on Shaggy' stuff to fan-fiction and return the series to the conventional formula of 4 teens and a talking Great Dane traveling the country solving mysteries.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Mask of the Blue Falcon review...
I'm fresh off the chair after having just watched the DVD release of Scooby-Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon. The movie is good for the kind of movie it is...it has a lot of visual appeal and high octane action much in the same way the rest of the direct-to-DVD Scooby projects have had over the last 15+ years. This movie isn't necessarily what I was assuming it would be back in late 2012 when I initially heard of it's upcoming release. I originally thought that the movie would bring back the Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and have the duo team up with Scooby and company to solve a mystery of some sort. Instead, the movie is about Shaggy and Scooby's obsession with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt...throughout the majority of the movie Scooby is wearing a Dynomutt costume while Shaggy wears a blue shirt with the letter F on it as an honor to his super hero idol. As always, my reviews feature several spoilers so for those who hadn't seen the movie and do not want to know how things turn out you shouldn't read the remaining of the commentary.
The movie's opening sequence is great. It's patterned after the live action Batman series of the '60s. The action of the movie centers around a comic book convention in California. The event is known more officially as 'Comic Con' but for humor the convention has an outlandish name. Since the movie is set inside a venue housing a comic book convention it makes full use of cartoon characters from a number of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Not only are there posters all over the walls promoting classic programs such as The Mighty Mightor and Hong Kong Phooey but in typical conventioneer behavior we see fans and enthusiasts showing up in costume as their favorite cartoon characters. Blink and you'll probably miss a dozen characters parading across the screen inside the convention center. I spotted an assortment of fans dressed as Zan and Jayna from the Super Friends; I saw a really quick shot of a fan dressed as Apache Chief and Samurai, both from the Super Friends. There's also some screen shots of people dressed as Space Ghost, Coil Man from The Impossibles, and then there are more posters. As mentioned, Scooby and Shaggy dress up as Dynomutt and Blue Falcon. Along for the ride is, of course, the rest of the gang: Fred, Daphne, and Velma. News surfaces that there will be a brand new, ultra-modern depiction of the Blue Falcon and Dynomutt. Fred and Daphne can't wait to see this...Shaggy and Scooby prefer the traditional characterizations while Velma's basically non-interested in the goings-on until she senses a mystery on the horizon when the villainous Mr. Hyde shows up and unleashes his uncontrollable anger on the city. This 'mystery' turns out to, on the surface, tie in with the upcoming movie of Blue Falcon.
As is the case with the Scooby television series, there are several red herring characters who are designed to appear to have a motive for being the villain but turn out innocent. This red herring treatment is given to a couple who are all too eager to receive publicity for the upcoming movie. Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy meet the original Blue Falcon at an autograph table. The actor, Owen Garrison, is bitter over the movie's producers overlooking him and forbidding him to wear the Blue Falcon costume during public appearances. The more dedicated of fans will immediately recognize that the name, Owen Garrison, is a reference to the original voice actor of Blue Falcon, Gary Owens. In addition to Owen Garrison we also get to meet a character named Joe Rabble who states that he's a friend of Owen's and an autograph signing partner.
Throughout the movie Garrison is often caught in embarrassing situations as his anger overtakes him and he unleashes his jealousy and annoyance over the 'new' Blue Falcon and the financial turmoil he's gone through due to television channels dropping reruns of the original cartoon in the lead-up to the newer Blue Falcon. Dynomutt, in reality, doesn't have much of an impact as far as screen time in the movie...he's seen in updated 'clips' of the original series where Frank Welker (the voice of Dynomutt) and Jeff Bennett (the voice of Owen Garrison/Blue Falcon) recreate dialogue lifted from the original Dynomutt series. While the Hyde monster unleashes his anger all over the city it becomes apparent that Owen Garrison must be the villain since he's the only person with enough motive to want to see the new Blue Falcon film burn in flames. While all of this was happening, security guard Mr. Becker gets involved and shuts down the comic book convention. Shaggy and Scooby later find themselves on the run of a river of green slime that's raging out of control all over the city. Later, the green slime was revealed to be harmless and nothing more than pistachio flavored foam.
Popping in and out of the movie is the Mayor...drawn almost exactly as he was in the Dynomutt series.
Mr. Becker's physical appearance, with a voice patterned after Paul Lynde, is what you might call a combination of Sylvester Sneekley/The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Mr. Pertwee from Where's Huddles, and Mr. Peevely from The Hair Bear Bunch all rolled into one. Paul Lynde gave voice to the first two characters while John Stephenson used his Joe Flynn impression for Mr. Peevely. Scooby and Shaggy grow disillusioned when they become a laughing stock on 'Scoob Tube'. A nameless spectator had taped their encounter with the 'green slime' and uploaded it onto the internet. The climax of the movie begins at a baseball stadium. It is here where a now giant Mr. Hyde shows up and goes on a rampage. Eventually the giant Hyde monster is defeated, revealed to be a monster robot, and much to the dismay of Shaggy and Scooby, inside the Hyde monster is none other than Owen Garrison!! Well, the mystery is solved now, yes? Not exactly! Fred, Daphne, and Velma conclude that Owen couldn't be the Hyde monster because of it being too obvious. Mr. Hyde shows up once more...and this time the original Blue Falcon and Dynomutt arrive in their Falcon Car. Blue Falcon gives Hyde an upper cut...knocking him out. Velma does the honors and rips off the real Mr. Hyde's mask to reveal it to be...Joe Rabble! Remember him? He secretly hated Owen and was bitter over his own failed business exploits in his younger days. As he was being hauled away he delivered the traditional line nearly all villains stated in the franchise.
As a side note, Owen Garrison's voice, to my ears at least, is patterned after Adam West instead of Gary Owens. The Blue Falcon, after all, was a parody of Batman...and this movie opens with a visual reference to the iconic fight scenes in the '60s television show. It's something to wonder about.
I give The Mask of the Blue Falcon a great rating. There are so many in-jokes and references to the original series and to Saturday morning television and comic books, in general, from the '70s that it's sure to go over the heads of those not too familiar with classic cartoons. A helium balloon of '60s cartoon character, Frankenstein Jr., features prominently in one of the movie's action scenes. Also to look for is a hilarious sequence where Fred, Daphne, and Velma dress as members of The Herculoids.
As is the case with the Scooby television series, there are several red herring characters who are designed to appear to have a motive for being the villain but turn out innocent. This red herring treatment is given to a couple who are all too eager to receive publicity for the upcoming movie. Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy meet the original Blue Falcon at an autograph table. The actor, Owen Garrison, is bitter over the movie's producers overlooking him and forbidding him to wear the Blue Falcon costume during public appearances. The more dedicated of fans will immediately recognize that the name, Owen Garrison, is a reference to the original voice actor of Blue Falcon, Gary Owens. In addition to Owen Garrison we also get to meet a character named Joe Rabble who states that he's a friend of Owen's and an autograph signing partner.
Throughout the movie Garrison is often caught in embarrassing situations as his anger overtakes him and he unleashes his jealousy and annoyance over the 'new' Blue Falcon and the financial turmoil he's gone through due to television channels dropping reruns of the original cartoon in the lead-up to the newer Blue Falcon. Dynomutt, in reality, doesn't have much of an impact as far as screen time in the movie...he's seen in updated 'clips' of the original series where Frank Welker (the voice of Dynomutt) and Jeff Bennett (the voice of Owen Garrison/Blue Falcon) recreate dialogue lifted from the original Dynomutt series. While the Hyde monster unleashes his anger all over the city it becomes apparent that Owen Garrison must be the villain since he's the only person with enough motive to want to see the new Blue Falcon film burn in flames. While all of this was happening, security guard Mr. Becker gets involved and shuts down the comic book convention. Shaggy and Scooby later find themselves on the run of a river of green slime that's raging out of control all over the city. Later, the green slime was revealed to be harmless and nothing more than pistachio flavored foam.
Popping in and out of the movie is the Mayor...drawn almost exactly as he was in the Dynomutt series.
Mr. Becker's physical appearance, with a voice patterned after Paul Lynde, is what you might call a combination of Sylvester Sneekley/The Hooded Claw from The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, Mr. Pertwee from Where's Huddles, and Mr. Peevely from The Hair Bear Bunch all rolled into one. Paul Lynde gave voice to the first two characters while John Stephenson used his Joe Flynn impression for Mr. Peevely. Scooby and Shaggy grow disillusioned when they become a laughing stock on 'Scoob Tube'. A nameless spectator had taped their encounter with the 'green slime' and uploaded it onto the internet. The climax of the movie begins at a baseball stadium. It is here where a now giant Mr. Hyde shows up and goes on a rampage. Eventually the giant Hyde monster is defeated, revealed to be a monster robot, and much to the dismay of Shaggy and Scooby, inside the Hyde monster is none other than Owen Garrison!! Well, the mystery is solved now, yes? Not exactly! Fred, Daphne, and Velma conclude that Owen couldn't be the Hyde monster because of it being too obvious. Mr. Hyde shows up once more...and this time the original Blue Falcon and Dynomutt arrive in their Falcon Car. Blue Falcon gives Hyde an upper cut...knocking him out. Velma does the honors and rips off the real Mr. Hyde's mask to reveal it to be...Joe Rabble! Remember him? He secretly hated Owen and was bitter over his own failed business exploits in his younger days. As he was being hauled away he delivered the traditional line nearly all villains stated in the franchise.
As a side note, Owen Garrison's voice, to my ears at least, is patterned after Adam West instead of Gary Owens. The Blue Falcon, after all, was a parody of Batman...and this movie opens with a visual reference to the iconic fight scenes in the '60s television show. It's something to wonder about.
I give The Mask of the Blue Falcon a great rating. There are so many in-jokes and references to the original series and to Saturday morning television and comic books, in general, from the '70s that it's sure to go over the heads of those not too familiar with classic cartoons. A helium balloon of '60s cartoon character, Frankenstein Jr., features prominently in one of the movie's action scenes. Also to look for is a hilarious sequence where Fred, Daphne, and Velma dress as members of The Herculoids.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Scooby-Doo: Mask of the Blue Falcon...
In late February 2013 there will be a new DVD that'll hit the marketplace. Scooby-Doo: The Mask of the Blue Falcon is set to be released on February 26, 2013 and it has a runtime of 70-78 minutes according to various web-sites that have been writing about this upcoming movie since the middle of November.
I have seen the video clip advertisement and for fans of Gary Owens you may be interested to know that he doesn't return to the role of Blue Falcon. Owens voiced the character from it's creation in 1976. The first appearance of the character happened on September 11, 1976 in the series titled Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. Blue Falcon and Dynomutt was a parody of the live-action Batman and Robin series from the mid '60s. The overly excited Blue Falcon narrator, Ron Feinberg, was an exaggeration on William Dozier, the narrator and executive producer of the live-action Batman series.
The Mask of the Blue Falcon film is visually patterned on the current Scooby-Doo series on the air titled Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. This particular series began in 2010 and it's had one of the most bizarre scheduling feats of all time. Rather than airing at a set time and on a select day of the week this particular series has aired on multiple days of the week and at various times on a string of cable television outlets overseas and on the Cartoon Network in America. At the moment there have been 41 episodes produced of this particular series.
I have seen the video clip advertisement and for fans of Gary Owens you may be interested to know that he doesn't return to the role of Blue Falcon. Owens voiced the character from it's creation in 1976. The first appearance of the character happened on September 11, 1976 in the series titled Dynomutt, Dog Wonder. Blue Falcon and Dynomutt was a parody of the live-action Batman and Robin series from the mid '60s. The overly excited Blue Falcon narrator, Ron Feinberg, was an exaggeration on William Dozier, the narrator and executive producer of the live-action Batman series.
The Mask of the Blue Falcon film is visually patterned on the current Scooby-Doo series on the air titled Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. This particular series began in 2010 and it's had one of the most bizarre scheduling feats of all time. Rather than airing at a set time and on a select day of the week this particular series has aired on multiple days of the week and at various times on a string of cable television outlets overseas and on the Cartoon Network in America. At the moment there have been 41 episodes produced of this particular series.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Scooby...
I couldn't do an animation blog without including Scooby-Doo and for all the jokes and spoofs the series has gotten and still receives every so often, it's a series that will continue to thrive in one form or another. I am partial to the original versions that aired into the mid 1980's. The child version, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, was entertaining as well. I was not that fond of the last versions primarily because the 2002 revival changed the series charm and the dialogue made the characters self-aware with jokes about their own pop-culture identities and it often departed from the formula. The formula being: four kids and their dog travel the country in their van solving mysteries. Although that formula is cliched and although the series is the basis for numerous spoofs because of it's formula-based stories, when it's all said and done, it's Scooby-Doo and what more is there to expect?
Scooby-Doo hit the CBS-TV airwaves in 1969 and it ran for two seasons: 1969-1970, 1970-1971. The show's full name is Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and according to the show's producers the show was a combination of all sorts of teenage programs all rolled into one. The Archies was one inspiration...Fred representing the 'Archie' character while Velma represents the 'Betty' character...Daphne representing 'Veronica'...and Shaggy representing 'Jughead'. Also, Dobie Gillis is often cited as an inspiration because of the show's teenage approach. The beatnik character of Maynard Krebbs being an inspiration for Shaggy. The live-action drama, The Mod Squad, was another inspiration for the show as those teenagers traveled around in a bus solving mysteries. Ironically, too, is Scooby's full title was inspired by Car 54, Where Are You? an early 1960's comedy series about two police officers. The Scooby-Doo 'name' was thought up by Fred Silverman after listening to Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers In The Night". At the end of the song, Sinatra sings "doobie doobie doo...doh doh dah dah dah..." and so Silverman christens the dog, "Scooby-Doo", and it's main theme song carries the famed "Scooby doobie doo" lyric. The series that became Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? went through a series of tests and had various character changes and name changes before it hit the air. The kids travel in a van decorated with flowers, a symbol of the late '60s hippie culture, and they call it The Mystery Machine.
The series returned to the air with new episodes in 1972 under the name The New Scooby-Doo Movies and this series teamed the gang with a special guest each episode. Actors and actresses voiced animated versions of themselves. This series is one of the more talked-about and a lot of the episodes have been issued on DVD. Several of the episodes have never been released on DVD because the actors/actresses involved signed contracts back then allowing them partial owership over the episodes they appeared in. This version of Scooby ran until 1974. There was no more new Scooby produced for CBS afterwards. The series went into re-runs on that network and it was ultimately canceled. Fred Silverman had left CBS and went to ABC-TV at this time and he bought the Scooby show after CBS dropped it.
New Scooby shows started to air on ABC in 1976 and new episodes would continue to pop up throughout the rest of the decade and into the early 1980's. Scooby's nephew, Scrappy-Doo, became a big part of the series at the turn of the decade. Scrappy is one of the most hated characters because of the way the character breaks up the coward formula that Scooby and Shaggy both share...Scrappy's catch-phrases are "Puppy Power!!" and "Let me at 'em!!". He's also prone to saying "splat!" when describing what he wants to do with criminals and ghosts. Two ensemble programs, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars, aired in 1977-1979. These programs spoofed the Olympics and ABC sports. Scooby was the captain of the Scooby-Doobie team. Yogi Bear was the captain of the Yogi Yahooey team. Mumbley was the captain of the Really Rottens team. The series was 90 minutes in length and it featured a half hour Scooby cartoon from previous seasons, a new Scooby half hour adventure produced exclusively for this series, plus the half hour Laff-a-Lympics segment.
After these programs went out of production, Scrappy was introduced in 1979 and further adventures would consist mainly of Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy solving mysteries in short-subject adventures, usually two eleven minute adventures each episode. There was one season where Scooby and the gang, including Scrappy, all solved mysteries together in a formula similar to the original concept...but by 1981/1982 Fred, Daphne, and Velma were written off the show. Daphne made a return in 1983 episodes...but the series had drifted so much from the original concept of four teenagers and their dog solving mysteries. There was even a version that focused on Scrappy in the wild west with a character named Yabba-Doo, Scooby's brother.
After four seasons of producing short-subject episodes, 1979-1983, there was a new half-hour adventure with Scooby in 1985, The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo which featured Vincent Price. This series left the air in 1986. ABC ended it's 10 year run of Scooby cartoons in 1986 and the series went into syndicated reruns thereafter, never to return to network TV with new episodes ever again.
But...that wasn't end of Scooby...
Scooby and the gang returned three seasons later in 1989 in child form. Inspired by the success of The Muppet Babies and other cartoons that came along after that show debuted in 1984 which featured kid-versions of adult characters, Scooby and the gang were brought back in child form on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. This series ran for two seasons, 1989-1990 and 1990-1991 before going into re-runs. ABC continued airing the show for two more seasons, consisting of re-runs during 1991-1993.
After this series was taken off the ABC schedule in 1993, Scooby was off network TV for good, or, as of this writing, 11-12-08. It's a safe bet to say the series won't make a return to network TV. Network TV refers to the channels owned by CBS, NBC, or ABC. Cable TV is another story however...
Scooby made a return to animation in 2002 on the cable TV network, The WB. What's New, Scooby-Doo? debuted in 2002 as a result of the success of the Direct-to-Video Scooby films of the mid to late 1990's. This series had a longer run than any previous version, remaining in production through 2006. This series marked the return of the core line-up: Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby solving mysteries. These episodes, as I touched upon at the start of this blog, were borderline satire on how pop-culture views Scooby and it's characters blending into self-awareness and parody instead of sticking with the original formula. The characters were patterned, visually, the way they appeared in the late 1990's Scooby video movies. The animation was did in the Warner Brothers style, instead of the classic Hanna-Barbera style. During the run of this 2002-2006 series, a live-action version was released to theatre's. It became a box-office hit as did it's sequel. A network known as The CW aired an updated Scooby cartoon patterned after Scooby's appearance in the live-action movies. This series was called Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue and it was a parody of Austin Powers movies. That series lasted two seasons.
Some of the catch-phrases:
"Scooby-Doo!! Where are you???"- often said by Shaggy in the early versions and used in the main theme in most versions of the show; Scooby's a cowardly Great Dane.
"Would ya do it for a Scooby snack?"- this line was most often said by Velma trying to coax cowardly Scooby into being brave. A Scooby snack is simply a dog treat but humorists tend to tie it in with a drug reference.
"Scooby doobie doo!!"- this was said by Scooby in a rush of excitement or at the close of each episode.
"Zoinks!!"- Shaggy
"Jinkies!"- Velma
"Jeepers!!"- Daphne
Fred never actually had a one word catch-phrase like the other three but he did use a line, or a variation of that line, on every episode...
"Let's split up and look for clues"
"Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum"- Scooby-Dum
"Puppy Power!", "Let Me at 'Em!", "Splat"- Scrappy-Doo
Last but not least...the villains would utter...
"And I would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!!"
and another one was...
"And I would've gotten away with it if you kids and that dog hadn't shown up!!".
Scooby-Doo hit the CBS-TV airwaves in 1969 and it ran for two seasons: 1969-1970, 1970-1971. The show's full name is Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? and according to the show's producers the show was a combination of all sorts of teenage programs all rolled into one. The Archies was one inspiration...Fred representing the 'Archie' character while Velma represents the 'Betty' character...Daphne representing 'Veronica'...and Shaggy representing 'Jughead'. Also, Dobie Gillis is often cited as an inspiration because of the show's teenage approach. The beatnik character of Maynard Krebbs being an inspiration for Shaggy. The live-action drama, The Mod Squad, was another inspiration for the show as those teenagers traveled around in a bus solving mysteries. Ironically, too, is Scooby's full title was inspired by Car 54, Where Are You? an early 1960's comedy series about two police officers. The Scooby-Doo 'name' was thought up by Fred Silverman after listening to Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers In The Night". At the end of the song, Sinatra sings "doobie doobie doo...doh doh dah dah dah..." and so Silverman christens the dog, "Scooby-Doo", and it's main theme song carries the famed "Scooby doobie doo" lyric. The series that became Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? went through a series of tests and had various character changes and name changes before it hit the air. The kids travel in a van decorated with flowers, a symbol of the late '60s hippie culture, and they call it The Mystery Machine.
The series returned to the air with new episodes in 1972 under the name The New Scooby-Doo Movies and this series teamed the gang with a special guest each episode. Actors and actresses voiced animated versions of themselves. This series is one of the more talked-about and a lot of the episodes have been issued on DVD. Several of the episodes have never been released on DVD because the actors/actresses involved signed contracts back then allowing them partial owership over the episodes they appeared in. This version of Scooby ran until 1974. There was no more new Scooby produced for CBS afterwards. The series went into re-runs on that network and it was ultimately canceled. Fred Silverman had left CBS and went to ABC-TV at this time and he bought the Scooby show after CBS dropped it.
New Scooby shows started to air on ABC in 1976 and new episodes would continue to pop up throughout the rest of the decade and into the early 1980's. Scooby's nephew, Scrappy-Doo, became a big part of the series at the turn of the decade. Scrappy is one of the most hated characters because of the way the character breaks up the coward formula that Scooby and Shaggy both share...Scrappy's catch-phrases are "Puppy Power!!" and "Let me at 'em!!". He's also prone to saying "splat!" when describing what he wants to do with criminals and ghosts. Two ensemble programs, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics and Scooby's All-Stars, aired in 1977-1979. These programs spoofed the Olympics and ABC sports. Scooby was the captain of the Scooby-Doobie team. Yogi Bear was the captain of the Yogi Yahooey team. Mumbley was the captain of the Really Rottens team. The series was 90 minutes in length and it featured a half hour Scooby cartoon from previous seasons, a new Scooby half hour adventure produced exclusively for this series, plus the half hour Laff-a-Lympics segment.
After these programs went out of production, Scrappy was introduced in 1979 and further adventures would consist mainly of Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy solving mysteries in short-subject adventures, usually two eleven minute adventures each episode. There was one season where Scooby and the gang, including Scrappy, all solved mysteries together in a formula similar to the original concept...but by 1981/1982 Fred, Daphne, and Velma were written off the show. Daphne made a return in 1983 episodes...but the series had drifted so much from the original concept of four teenagers and their dog solving mysteries. There was even a version that focused on Scrappy in the wild west with a character named Yabba-Doo, Scooby's brother.
After four seasons of producing short-subject episodes, 1979-1983, there was a new half-hour adventure with Scooby in 1985, The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo which featured Vincent Price. This series left the air in 1986. ABC ended it's 10 year run of Scooby cartoons in 1986 and the series went into syndicated reruns thereafter, never to return to network TV with new episodes ever again.
But...that wasn't end of Scooby...
Scooby and the gang returned three seasons later in 1989 in child form. Inspired by the success of The Muppet Babies and other cartoons that came along after that show debuted in 1984 which featured kid-versions of adult characters, Scooby and the gang were brought back in child form on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. This series ran for two seasons, 1989-1990 and 1990-1991 before going into re-runs. ABC continued airing the show for two more seasons, consisting of re-runs during 1991-1993.
After this series was taken off the ABC schedule in 1993, Scooby was off network TV for good, or, as of this writing, 11-12-08. It's a safe bet to say the series won't make a return to network TV. Network TV refers to the channels owned by CBS, NBC, or ABC. Cable TV is another story however...
Scooby made a return to animation in 2002 on the cable TV network, The WB. What's New, Scooby-Doo? debuted in 2002 as a result of the success of the Direct-to-Video Scooby films of the mid to late 1990's. This series had a longer run than any previous version, remaining in production through 2006. This series marked the return of the core line-up: Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby solving mysteries. These episodes, as I touched upon at the start of this blog, were borderline satire on how pop-culture views Scooby and it's characters blending into self-awareness and parody instead of sticking with the original formula. The characters were patterned, visually, the way they appeared in the late 1990's Scooby video movies. The animation was did in the Warner Brothers style, instead of the classic Hanna-Barbera style. During the run of this 2002-2006 series, a live-action version was released to theatre's. It became a box-office hit as did it's sequel. A network known as The CW aired an updated Scooby cartoon patterned after Scooby's appearance in the live-action movies. This series was called Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue and it was a parody of Austin Powers movies. That series lasted two seasons.
Some of the catch-phrases:
"Scooby-Doo!! Where are you???"- often said by Shaggy in the early versions and used in the main theme in most versions of the show; Scooby's a cowardly Great Dane.
"Would ya do it for a Scooby snack?"- this line was most often said by Velma trying to coax cowardly Scooby into being brave. A Scooby snack is simply a dog treat but humorists tend to tie it in with a drug reference.
"Scooby doobie doo!!"- this was said by Scooby in a rush of excitement or at the close of each episode.
"Zoinks!!"- Shaggy
"Jinkies!"- Velma
"Jeepers!!"- Daphne
Fred never actually had a one word catch-phrase like the other three but he did use a line, or a variation of that line, on every episode...
"Let's split up and look for clues"
"Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum"- Scooby-Dum
"Puppy Power!", "Let Me at 'Em!", "Splat"- Scrappy-Doo
Last but not least...the villains would utter...
"And I would've gotten away with it if it hadn't been for you meddling kids!!"
and another one was...
"And I would've gotten away with it if you kids and that dog hadn't shown up!!".
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