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.

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. 

41 years of Scooby-Doo...

Last summer I wrote about an up-coming new series of Scooby-Doo cartoons that were to hit the airwaves beginning in the fall of 2009. No doubt, over a year later, those familiar with all things Scooby are well aware that the series didn't exactly make it on the air until the fall of 2010. That series, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc., initially aired in April 2010 but didn't debut on a regular basis until July 2010. The program's home, Cartoon Network, continues to air the program...an entry into the series that's like nothing seen before. In this particular version the familiar concept of solving mysteries is still there but there's a much more realistic approach to each of the characters that was lacking in all versions of the program, except perhaps the original run during 1969-1971. In fact, publicity centered around the idea that this latest series was to be a continuation of the 1969-1971 era when the four teenagers were treated as teenagers instead of as adults in teenage clothing.

In the latest version there's a romantic overtone that was lacking in other versions...and I think this romantic element being inserted into the series is a direct result of the internet culture where people, for whatever reason, romantically link Fred and Daphne as well as Shaggy and Velma. There was always this romantic connection between Fred and Daphne, going back to the original 1969 episodes...what with Fred typically more concerned whenever Daphne would get into trouble or vanish. In an episode from 1976 titled "The Frightened Hound meets Demons Underground" Daphne is taken prisoner by one of the demons. Upon realizing this seconds later, Fred shouts out something like: "Daphne!!?! Quick...we gotta find her!!". So, yes, there was always a subtle hint that Fred and Daphne were boyfriend and girlfriend...but it was never an in-your-face distraction.

This sort of romantic insertion, personally speaking, was always troubling to me because it shown irreverence toward the crux of the series: mystery solving. Those familiar with all the different versions of the series will certainly get a shock when they see Scooby-Doo: Mystery Inc. for the first time...the series has it's great moments, though, but I find the romantic edge a distraction which plays more to a fan-fiction crowd than anything else. I prefer the traditional story of ghosts, monsters, goblins, and other assorted demons terrorizing the area and the teenagers, and Scooby, stumbling onto the mystery and solving it. This isn't to say that there's no mystery solving in the latest series...as I remarked, there's plenty of it...but having the romantic overtone is the equivalent of eating ice cream topped with pencil shavings (something Scooby and Shaggy may find incredibly appetizing). There's an on-going sub-plot in this series where the gang continues to find clues as to the whereabouts of another gang of four mystery solving teenagers and their dog who've long since disappeared.

In a rating scale of 5 stars, with 5 being great, I give the series 4 and a half. If the romantic element would be dropped I'd give it 5 stars.

This is the 11th individual series based on the original Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? concept. As the title of this blog entry suggests this is also the 41st year of Scooby-Doo. Here is a look at the various Scooby-related programs that have been on the air since 1969. This list doesn't include the home video/DVD market which have issued direct-to-video movies regularly since 1998...

1. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?; 1969-1971
2. The New Scooby-Doo Movies; 1972-1973
3. The Scooby-Doo Show; 1976-1978
4. The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show; 1979-1980**
5. The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show; 1980-1982**
6. The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show/The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries; 1983-1984***
7. The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo; 1985
8. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo; 1988-1991
9. What's New, Scooby-Doo?; 2002-2005
10. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue!; 2006-2008
11. Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated; 2010-present

**- there were 99 seven minute episodes produced and they aired as part of the package shows, The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show and The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. 34 hour programs {21 of the former, 13 of the latter} were produced altogether. In the second series there was a segment that featured Scrappy-Doo and new characters, Yabba-Doo and Deputy Dusty, solving cases with a western setting.

***- this series featured Scooby, Scrappy, Shaggy, and Daphne. There were 52 eleven minute episodes produced...2 eleven minute episodes aired per half hour...26 half hour episodes were produced altogether, 13 each season. The series went under the name of The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show in 1983 and The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries in 1984.

Frank Welker voices Fred in all of the incarnations of the series except for A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in which the characters were all small kids...even though Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy and Don Messick resumed his role as Scooby for that series. Casey was the voice of Shaggy in all incarnations of the series except Shaggy and Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue! and the latest, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. Don Messick was the voice of Scooby in all incarnations of the series through 1991. Don retired in 1996 following a stroke and passed away in 1997 and since then the character had been voiced, first by Scott Innes from 1998-2001, and then by Frank Welker starting in 2002. Innes was also the voice of Shaggy during 1999-2001, prior to Casey returning to the role. The Scott Innes characterizations are found on the various home video/DVD/video game releases since there was no television series in production at the time. Heather North, the second voice of Daphne but the actress who held the position the longest, joined in 1970 and remained with the series on and off through 1997. The original voice of Daphne was an actress with the unique name of Stefanianna Christopherson during the initial 1969-1970 season. Mary Kay Bergman held the role from 1998-2000. The current voice is Grey DeLisle...she took over the role in 2001. Velma has had several voice actresses through the years...most notable are Nicole Jaffe, Pat Stevens, and B.J. Ward. The current voice, since 2002, is Mindy Cohn, the face actress known by millions as Natalie on the 1979-1988 TV series, Facts of Life.

Laff-a-Lympics, Volumes One and Two...

About a year ago I wrote a blog about the soon to be released DVD, Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. I'd bought Volume One earlier in the year and a few weeks ago I finally got around to purchasing Volume Two of this obscure, though popular, series. I know those who read this may wonder "how can something be popular yet be obscure at the same time?". This sort of thing is common among vintage cartoon series...programs that achieve a level of popularity with an audience but over the course of time it becomes obscure and largely forgotten by the masses...yes, largely forgotten...except by those who have a fondness for the series. This holds true for Laff-a-Lympics. The series ran in the late '70s and would often turn up in reruns at various times in the 1980's. Personally speaking I first saw this program when it aired as part of the USA Network's Cartoon Express on Sunday mornings. I believe this happened to be the late '80s or early '90s at the latest. I've always had what some may classify as off-beat taste and I generally appreciated all forms of cartoons...even at a younger age. When I first saw this series I remember being excited seeing all of these unrelated characters from various cartoon programs featured in an ensemble program. Yogi's Treasure Hunt is another ensemble program that aired in reruns on Cartoon Express around the same time as Laff-a-Lympics.

Laff-a-Lympics focuses on three sets of teams: The Yogi Yahooies, The Scooby-Doobies, and The Really Rottens. Throughout each episode one or two characters from each team would compete in sporting events. The goal was to receive the most points by the end of the episode...and the winner would receive the Laff-a-Lympics gold medal. The hosts of the show were Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf...each character wore yellow sports jackets to mirror the style of jackets in use by real life ABC-TV sportscasters of that time period. The play-by-play broadcaster heard on every program making commentary on the sporting events was Don Messick.

The Yogi team was comprised mostly of Hanna-Barbera characters that originated in the late '50s and early '60s: Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Quickdraw McGraw, Snooper and Blabber, Pixie Mouse, Dixie Mouse, Mr. Jinx, Wally Gator, Augie Doggy and Doggy Daddy, Yakky Doodle, Hokey Wolf...the lone exception was Grape Ape, a character that originated in the mid '70s.

Scooby's team consisted of a collection of what would be considered Hanna-Barbera's more contemporary characters: Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Scooby-Dum, Babu, Captain Caveman, Brenda, Dee Dee, Taffy, Hong Kong Phooey, Speed Buggy, Tinker, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt.

The Rottens consisted of brand new characters, except the team captain, Mumbly. This team was basically used for comical antagonism and conflict...playing tricks and cheating their way to hopeful victory. Mumbly was switched from a good detective to a cheating scoundrel in this series. Originally Mumbly appeared in a series of shorts which later appeared as part of the short-lived Mumbly Cartoon Show. The shorts originally aired on a series known as The Tom and Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show. In this series Mumbly embarked in crime solving adventures while his human boss, Schnooker, attempted to take the credit for everything. Mumbly's appearance is a dead ringer for Muttley...right down to the speech pattern and snickering laugh. Dread Baron, a new character created for the Rottens team, is said to be a redesign of an earlier character, Dick Dastardly.

The Rottens consisted of Mumbly, Dread Baron, The Great Fondoo, Magic Rabbit, Dinky Dalton, Dirty Dalton, Dastardly Dalton, Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, Junior Creepley, Orful Octopus, Daisy Mayhem, and Sooey Pig.

A running gag in the series is the constant deduction of points due to cheating...often applied to the Rottens...but there are a few episodes where Yogi Bear cheated and points were taken away. In some episodes where it appeared the Rottens were going to win, cleanly, something would happen to cause them to lose. In one particular episode Daisy Mayhem was on her way to winning an event but one of her team mates, the Great Fondoo, wanted to make sure she won. He cast a spell which backfired...causing Daisy to lose.

Each DVD features 4 half-hour episodes. There are two "on-location" locales per episode. Volume One features the following:

1. The Swiss Alps and Tokyo, Japan
2. Acapulco and England
3. The Sahara Desert and Scotland
4. Florida and China

Volume Two features the following:

1. France and Australia
2. Athens, Greece and the Ozarks
3. Italy and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
4. Egypt and Sherwood Forest

As you can tell, the series was a spoof of The Olympics, ABC's Wide World of Sports and Battle of the Network Stars. At the conclusion of most episodes, announcer Don Messick would parody the kind of narration heard on Wide World of Sports by enthusiastically saying something like: "...tune in next week for the thrills, chills, and all-around exciting spills as we go around the world with our star athletes...".

The voice cast, as you could imagine, was rather large. The Yogi team, however, consisted of just a couple of voice actors. This is due to the multi-talents of Daws Butler, by and large, as well as Don Messick.

Don Messick voiced Boo-Boo and Pixie Mouse while Frank Welker did the voice of Yakky Doodle. Welker was a replacement voice for Jimmy Weldon. Doggy Daddy was voiced by John Stephenson. Grape Ape's voice was performed by Bob Holt. Julie Bennett did the voice of Cindy Bear. Daws Butler did the voices of all of the other characters in the Yogi team: Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Hokey Wolf, Quick Draw McGraw, Mr. Jinx, Dixie Mouse, Snooper and Blabber, Augie Doggy, and Wally Gator.

The voices in the Scooby team were a bit more lengthy as almost every character had it's own voice actor/actress:

Don Messick did the voice of Scooby-Doo. Casey Kasem did the voice of Shaggy. Daws Butler did the voice of Scooby-Dum. Mel Blanc was on hand as the voice of Captain Caveman and Speed Buggy. Frank Welker did the voices of Dynomutt and Tinker. Gary Owens did the voice of Blue Falcon. Joe Besser was the voice of Babu. Scatman Crothers did the voice of Hong Kong Phooey. Laurel Page was the voice of Taffy. Marilyn Schreffler was the voice of Brenda. Vernee Watson was the voice of Dee Dee. Collectively Dee Dee, Taffy, and Brenda were known as The Teen Angels who assisted Captain Caveman at solving mysteries. The Teen Angels, of course, were a parody of Charlie's Angels.

The voices in the Rottens team were more in line with the Yogi team in that only a few voice actors/actresses did the entire cast:

Don Messick did the voices of Mumbly, Mr. Creepley, and Dastardly Dalton. Bob Holt did the voice of Dinky Dalton and Orful Octopus. Daws Butler was the voice of Dirty Dalton. Frank Welker provided the voice effects for Sooey Pig, Junior Creepley, and Magic Rabbit. John Stephenson provided the voices for Dread Baron and The Great Fondoo. Laurel Page was the voice of Mrs. Creepley while Marilyn Schreffler did the voice of Daisy Mayhem.

Last but not least are the hosts. Snagglepuss was voiced by Daws Butler. Mildew Wolf was voiced by John Stephenson. The character of Mildew was originally voiced by Paul Lynde in a series of short subjects titled "It's The Wolf" which aired as part of the Cattanooga Cats program but he was either not available or not interested in reprising the role for Laff-a-Lympics and so the role was given to John Stephenson.

Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble make guest appearances demonstrating the art of Lacrosse. Alan Reed voiced Fred Flintstone...reports suggest this was the final time the character was voiced by Reed, who passed away in 1977. Mel Blanc returned to his role as Barney Rubble. In another sporting event Jabberjaw makes a guest appearance as an underwater referee. The character was voiced by Frank Welker. He gave the character a voice based on Curly Howard of The Three Stooges.

I happen to enjoy Laff-a-Lympics and I hope more episodes become available. Some belly-ache that there are only 4 episodes being released on each DVD but the way I see it you can't predict the future. It's hard to tell if more episodes will become available...I hope more episodes are released...but until then the first 8 episodes will have to do. Laff-a-Lympics originally ran for 16 episodes in 1977 during the months of September through December. The official name, as I mentioned at the start of the blog entry, was Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics. In 1978, eight more episodes were produced and aired as Scooby's All-Stars. This gives the Laff-a-Lympics format a total of 24 episodes.

Scooby's Laff-a-Lympics and more

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

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

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

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

Casey Kasem: 39 years of countdowns

Casey Kasem began his weekly music countdown program on July 4, 1970. American Top-40 became one of the highest rated syndicated programs on radio...in fact, it became the highest rated. Casey and his associates also created the American Country Countdown which featured the same formula as the pop/rock counterpart. The idea of the show was to spotlight the hit singles of the previous week from #40 to #1. The countdown began at #40 and there would usually be 8 or 9 songs within an hour's time frame when you factor in song length and commercial breaks. A 40 song countdown would run at least 4 hours because of this pattern.

American Top-40 had it's share of features, too. There was the long-distance dedication which listeners would write the countdown letter's, usually of the Dear Abby variety of a former lover wanting to send a song to someone in their past; Casey always opened the segment saying "Dear Casey..." and he read the requests, using vocal dramatics at times if the letter was sad or depressing. If the dedication was read over the airwaves Casey would play the requested song. Another feature of the show as the countdown got closer to the Top-10 or to #1 was the recurring practice of the "AT40 extra" which was a song that had been a hit in the past by an artist still on the chart, typically preceding or following the current hit by the artist. Another feature was the radio station credit where Casey would name off some of the radio stations that aired the countdown. In the internet age, this feature was expanded to something like: "AT40 is heard from coast to coast and around the world on great radio stations like..." and he'd start naming off the stations. Once the countdown had reached the #2 spot, after the runner-up song was over, Casey would tease the listeners by saying something like "before we see who's #1 this week, let's hear the song that was #1 five years ago...". Also, Casey would name off the #1 songs on the other weekly charts, too, once the countdown grew closer to #1.

Casey remained the host of American Top-40 for 18 years, 1970-1988. In this time he had become a TV star as well. His weekly syndicated program, America's Top-10, would countdown the Top-10 singles of the week in a variety of music formats and play music video's, which was something new at the time. The series was in production for over 10 years. It was a half-hour show.

Casey was also a prominent voice actor for Hanna-Barbera. He gave voice to three popular cartoon characters: Robin on the various Superfriends cartoons of the '70s and '80s; Casey, in fact, voiced Robin in the late '60s cartoon series of The Adventures of Batman. Casey became the voice of Shaggy on countless Scooby-Doo projects. Lastly, Casey gave voice to Alexander Cabbot in Josie and the Pussycats. Casey, as far as I know, isn't putting an end to his voice-over career...just the countdown program.

After Casey left AT40, as it's commonly referred to, he created Casey's Top-40 which competed with AT40. Casey's program was using the chart data from Radio and Records. The AT40 data was supplied by Billboard magazine. Casey also started two more countdown programs: Casey's Countdown which counted down the Top-20 Adult-Contemporary songs of the week and Casey's Hot 20 which counted down the Top-20 Hot Adult-Contemporary songs of the week. The countdown's were 3 hours in length...a lot of features and extra songs were played to fill out a countdown that would actually be 2 hours since each show counted down 20 songs.

AT40 was taken over by Shadoe Stevens...he hosted the program from 1989 until 1995. Casey's countdown shows were higher rated than the program he had hosted for 18 years and so AT40 ended in 1995 after a 25 year run. In the meantime, Casey had put an end to his syndicated TV series. On Nick-at-Nite he became famous for the annual New Year's Eve program, The Rerun Countdown. On this show he counted down the top 25 reruns of the year determined by viewers. He presided over this program for 9 years and it kicked off at noon on New Year's Eve and because the TV shows were half an hour in length, the program ran for 12 and a half hours. The #1 rerun of the year was announced around midnight and the airing of the #1 rerun brought in the new year...the show would wrap up typically around 12:30am New Year's Day. I was a child of the '80s and a teenager in the '90s and I was hooked on Nick-at-Nite and loved watching the older TV shows and so on New Year's Eve, for me anyway, it was watching Casey's rerun countdown. Casey was no stranger to marathon's, though. He has appeared for years on the annual Jerry Lewis MDA telethon as one of the recurring co-hosts and he often provides voice-over's for a lot of the video footage that gets spotlighted.

In 1998 AT40 was re-launched and Casey was back as the host. His two other countdown programs were re-titled American Top-20 and American Top-10. The Top-10 show was a revamped edition of the Hot Adult-Contemporary Top-20 countdown, previously known as Casey's Hot 20. The AT10 show ran 2 hours. The AT20 show ran 3 hours as usual, counting down the Adult-Contemporary songs.

In 2004, Casey stepped down as host of AT40...replaced by Ryan Seacrest. Casey continued to host his other two countdown programs. A syndicated series called AT40 Flashback started airing on satellite radio in 2006 and then the show started airing on mainstream Top-40 radio stations in 2007. The program is 3 hours and it presents a vintage Top-40 episode from the '70s or the '80s. The reason it isn't 4 hours is because a lot of the original commercials are edited out. In some broadcasts of the Flashback show you'll hear Casey lead up to a commercial but then the program resumes after a brief second or two of silence. This makes the show seem to move along quicker when you cut out the commercials and station identifications. Although Casey does provide station ID's for the stations airing the Flashback show. He typically says: "you found it, AT40 Flashback..." and he names the radio station.

The weekend of July 4, 2009 proved to be a shocker...Casey, without prior warning, announced that it would be his final time counting down the songs...bringing a close to an exact run of 39 years of counting down the hits. I assume the secrecy was because he didn't want a big fuss or farewell made because he's still going to be busy with other projects and it isn't like he's retiring from working. I'm sure he'll still be providing the voice of Shaggy in whatever new Scooby-Doo program that comes along, though. In a statement he commented that he wanted to focus on a myriad of other projects but he said he loved every minute of doing the countdown program's.

Scooby-Doo...Here You Come Again...

There is not much known about the latest addition to the Scooby-Doo universe. There is news that Cartoon Network will air, in the fall of 2009, a brand-new cartoon centered around Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby...it'll be called Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc. which has sort of been the unofficial/official name of the amateur detectives since the series began in 1969. It hasn't been revealed what the character design will look like, though, so it's difficult to really say you're looking forward to something based simply on a premise.

Here is the official release concerning this series AND the movie...the movie will be live-action...

Scooby-Doo - Mystery, Inc.: A sleepy little village, Crystal Cove, boasts a long history of ghost sightings, poltergeists, demon possession, phantoms and other paranormal occurrences. The renowned sleuthing team of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo arrive to prove all of this simply isn't real--but they don't realize the locals don't welcome their help. The series is produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins: Discover the never-before-told story of how a mismatched quartet of teenagers first came together before becoming known as the Mystery Inc. gang. Freddy (Robbie Amell), the school athlete; Velma (Hayley Kiyoko), the science fair-winning brainiac; Daphne (Kate Melton), the drama beauty; Shaggy (Nick Palatas), the beatnik; and Shaggy's newly adopted dog, Scooby Doo, are forced to band together to clear their names. Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins, a Cartoon Network co-production with Warner Premiere and directed by Brian Levant (Snow Dogs, The Flintstones), is slated to premiere in fall 2009.

And so...it looks to be a Scooby-Doobie fall/winter TV season. Given that the series originated in 1969 and this is the 40th anniversary of the series it would be nice if this latest series features the 1969 character designs instead of the more up-dated designs of the last several years. Also something to ponder...it wasn't revealed if this latest Scooby series will use traditional animation or use 3-D animation like on TOY STORY, GARFIELD, and other similar films where the films are clearly computer-driven but the characters look real.

This Scooby series will be the latest in a string of Scooby cartoons that have been on the air without a break for 40 years. CBS, ABC, WB, and the CW were the homes of the series and it's sequels over the last 40 years...Cartoon Network is the series' latest home, being the network debuting "Scooby-Doo, Mystery, Inc."