Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Reviewing Scooby Doo And Scrappy Doo:

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, at least in its first season... picks up
where "The Scooby-Doo Show" left off. The Scooby-Doo is actually a
retitled group of episodes that aired during The Scooby-Doo Dyno-Mutt
Hour. These 40 or something episodes aired in the mid 1970s with an
overhauled look of Scooby-Doo, to fit with the action packed
opposite-of-ukulele music of that time period. At the same time, they
began to phase out the music that is heard in the background of "Scooby
Doo, Where Are You?". Also they had improved backgrounds. This is
something worth paying attention to because many Hanna-Barbera cartoons
are very low quality. They introduced a few new characters, such as
Scooby-Dee (who I think was supposed to be his girlfriend) and
Scooby-Dumb, a male cousin. And of course, they paired Scooby-Doo with
Dyno-Mutt.

This is an old article pending revision.

In 1979, they overhauled the show once again with Scooby's nephew,
"Scrappy-Dappy-Doo". The show was named "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo",
but Scrappy ended up getting the most lines than ANYBODY. As far as
Scooby is concerned, we have a "Talking Dog" that partially speaks
English but with Scrappy, who is YOUNGER than Scooby, can speak fluent
English. Scrappy gets to close the show first, and then Scooby chimes
in with "and Scooby-Dooby-Doo, too!"

Scrappy is obviously and literally stealing the show.

He takes away air time from the other characters. The first season is
16 episodes. Scrappy in the first season is voiced by Lennie Weinrib
and all characters are present. During this show, there is an episode
where Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and a few of Scrappy's friends are in
the majority of the episode. Later, Velma (for whatever reason) gets
changed from voice actor Pat Stephens of "The Scooby-Doo Show/Scooby
Doo and Dyno-Mutt Hour" years to Marla Frumkin. Velma has no lines in
episode 16. There might have been a casting issue with Velma that they
just did not want to worry about and this in combination of Scrappy's
character development could have been the reason of why Velma (and
Fred, and half the time, Daphne!) were all dropped. There was also
pressure from the network executives (who are always Cancel-Happy) to
change the format. This is why they added many new features, pacing,
types of mysteries, and pairing with Dyno-Mutt. Instead of putting the
show on hiatus and trying again in a few years, they decided to exhaust
the plot and setting with the new character Scrappy-Doo.

And exhaust they did. There was three more years of Scrappy-Doo, with a
different voice actor now. He was at first a loving, ambitious "puppy"
and was amusing at first because of his opposite personality of Scooby.
Scrappy rarely thought about his actions, which is something that his
other puppy friends thought he should have been more cautious. But his
personality became an annoyance after just one season and yet they
decided to continue.

Further episodes were reduced to Segments, and there was little
character development. However, this was the time when The Production
Staff began to explore "real" or supernatural villains instead of
criminals in a clever disguise.

By the fall of 1983, Daphne was added back to the cast, for a period of
three years. The next year, Fred and Velma were given recurring
appearances alongside a Michael-Jackson Theme and the name was changed
to "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries". The year after that, Velma and Fred
were gone once again with the addition of "focus group material"
Film-Flam and a spooky albeit comic setting guided by "Vincent Van
Ghoul". Daphne was dropped after that show (canceled mid-season I
should add) and then no show was around. There were three movies
continuing the "13 Ghosts Of" format EXCEPT without Daphne (and the new
characters) and in 1988 there was another "Kids" show which had
significant character development, with huge focus on (usually) well
written comedy. (but did I forget to mention that "A Pup Named" is one
of those Hanna-Barbera "Kids" Shows?!)

Nobody got to see "The Gang" together again until the four 1990s
"anime" films, without Scrappy and was put together the way the three
80s movies COULD have and SHOULD have been. After this, we have two
"Where Are You?" styled films and then several "What's New" styled
films.

Like I said in the title, the Mid 1970s is a Golden Age of Scooby-Doo.
It unfortunately did not last, and neither did the 1990s Golden Age of
Scooby-Doo. Frankly Scooby-Doo has not been the same since either of
these golden ages. "Mystery Incorporated" is interesting, just like
"What's New", but neither are I guess the word is Spectacular in
comparison to the two Golden Ages.

1979's "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" is a rare and short-lived time of
the first Golden Age. And it was in the process of declining at the
same time. There is even MORE exciting music added, even more improved
backgrounds, and even improved Mysteries. It is a very promising show,
but during these 16 episodes, it began declining with unfortunate focus
on Scrappy. And then it declined even further with about eight
additional years of various "Scrappy" settings.

Looking back, The Production Staff might have realized that they
shouldn't listen to too many focus groups.

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