A PROBLEM IN NEED OF A SOLUTION
Scooby's career as every child's favorite cartoon canine can be traced all the way back to Fred Silverman, the head of daytime programming for CBS. You can see a picture of him above. Silverman was looking for a totally fresh, new idea for a cartoon. The 1960s was a time when the cartoon world was pretty much dominated by super hero shows and other shows of that nature. In fact, a number of parental watchdog groups, namely Action for Children's Television (ACT), were concerned about all the violence their children were observing! Silverman wanted to change that. He wanted something different, something that would appeal to both boys and girls of all ages and would satisfy parents, as well. The result was The Archie Show, a cartoon based on Bob Montana's humor comic book teen. The show was a great success. Eager to expand upon it, Silverman contaced William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, two producers who had begun their careers working on the cartoon Tom and Jerry and now owned their very own animation studio! This time, Silverman wanted to incorporate a mystery theme, sort of a combination of the I Love a Mystery radio show and The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis television show.
GIVING THE IDEA A FIRST DRAFT
William Hanna and Joe Barbera presented this task to Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, two of their head writers, and Iwao Takamoto, an art/character designer. A picture of Takamoto is viewable above. Check out his orginal character designs below! Soon, the team set to work. Their first draft was entitled, Mysteries Five. Each episode was to be a fifteen-minute cliff-hanger. The show revovled around a group of teens (Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, and "W.W.") and their dog, Too Much, which was a commom phrase of the time. They all played in a rock group together. Even the dog played an instrument, the bongos! A major debate in this draft was whether to make Too Much a Great Dane or a Sheepdog. In the end, they decided to make him a Great Dane, due to the fact that in The Archie Show, Jughead's dog, Hot Dog, was of the Sheepdog breed. The story of how Mr. Takamoto got his inspiration for the design of the dog is actually quite interesting. It turned out that a fellow employee at Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was a champion Great Dane breeder! He talked to her and asked about all the qualities of a prize-winning dog. After he had learned the facts, he took their exact opposites and incorporated them into the design. For example, a Great Dane worthy of a prize would move suavely and elegantly. Too Much, with his over-sized paws, was actually quite clumsy.
PERFECTING DETAILS WITH A SECOND DRAFT
Ruby's, Spears', and Takamoto's second draft was entitled Who's S-S-Scared? due to the fact that Fred Silverman wasn't particularily fond of the title Mysteries Five. It was decided that Geoff and Mike would merge and become one character, named Ronnie. Kelly was re-named Daphne, Linda had now become Velma, and "W.W." was changed to Shaggy. As you can see in the presentation board above, the characters are recognizable, but there are a few major differences from what they look like today. For instance, Velma isn't wearing her distinctive, thick-framed eyeglasses and is donning a pendant necklace! Scooby isn't showcasing any spots, and Ronnie (who will soon be known as Fred) is a redhead! Soon, it was time for the big moment: the pitch to CBS. One of the presentation boards they used is viewable below. Unfortunately, they were hit hard with a devastating refusal! CBS decided that the show was too frightening for many young viewers!
THE SAVE AFTER THE DISASTER
Devastated, Fred Silverman flew home to Los Angeles. As the story goes, he was listening to Frank Sinatra's Strangers in the Night song while on his plane. You can see a picture of Sinatra above. In case you didn't know, the scat phrase Scooby-dooby-doo can be heard in the song. Suddenly, it hit him. They would change the dog's name from Too Much to Scooby-Doo and would make him the star of the show! (Before, he was just a supporting character and didn't have a very big role.) He also got a personality change, which was inspired by Bob Hope. You can see a picture of him below. Ruby and Spears remembered how he played a coward in many of his old movies. However, when there was danger, no matter how scared he was, he always came through to save his friends. There would also be a theme change. First of all, the rock band concept was thrown out. Second, they focused on making it funny instead of scary! The show was re-named Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? The very next day, Sinatra flew right back and briefed the rest of the team about his revelation. They made the improvements, then presented it again to CBS. This time, it was approved! The show had been saved!
THE PREMIER...AND BEYOND
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? premiered Saturday morning, September 13, 1969 with the episode What a Night for a Knight. It was competing head-to-head with The Hardy Boys, another cartoon coming out at that time. Everyone's hard work paid off, though. The show got an astronomical 65 points for its rating! Its first season consisted of seventeen episodes, with eight more following in the second season the next year...and that was just the beginning! On September 9, 1972, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, Scooby's second series, premiered! This one had an hour-long format instead of just a half-hour. It also featured guest stars in each episode like the Harlem Globetrotters, Batman and Robin, the Three Stooges, and many others! After that, in 1976, The Scooby-Doo Show debuted! Then, in 1979, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo rolled along! Many years and many series later, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Scooby's most current cartoon, premiered on Kids WB on Septmeber 14, 2002, one day after Scooby's thirty-third anniversary. It featured an updated Mystery, Inc. gang, complete with the latest techno-gadgets and a Mystery Machine with a global positioning system! To date, the series has three seasons and forty-two episodes (including holiday specials). Total, including every Scooby series, there are 371 episodes. In fact, Scooby even got the Guinness Book Record in 2006 for the most episodes for an animated cartoon, defeating The Simpsons! Fortunately, Scooby shows no signs of slowing down! His success has endured the test of time with flying colors! Why? Don Messick, the original voice actor for Scooby, sums it up pretty well: "I’ve loved Scooby from the inception, and so has everyone else. I think it’s because he embraces a lot of human foibles. He’s not the perfect dog. In fact, you might even say he’s a coward. Yet with everything he does, he seems to land on his four feet. He comes out of every situation unscathed. I think the audience, kids and more mature people as well, can identify with Scooby’s character and a lot of his imperfections." Good job, Scoob!