Swordgai: The Animation

The friendly, pink-furred mountain lion called Snagglepuss was a minor character in several Hanna-Barbera cartoons before he got his own series, although his first appearance is open to debate. A character similar in design, called Snaggletooth, originally appeared in an episode of Quick Draw McGraw in 1959, but despite the name difference he clearly formed the seed of the Snagglepuss character. In addition to Quick Draw McGraw, Snagglepuss got work as a supporting character on Augie Doggie & Doggie Daddy and with Snooper & Blabber before getting his own segment. Beginning in 1961, seven-minute Snagglepuss segments played alongside segments of Yogi Bear and Yakky Doodle on The Yogi Bear Show.

Despite having an air of sophistication and fancying himself an actor and poet, Snagglepuss’s mountain lion heritage meant he spent much of his time in the gun sights of hunters or having to escape capture. It was an ignoble existence for someone whose natural home was a furnished cave with modern amenities. Snaggle’s passion for classic literature came through in his frequent ‘mis’quotes of Shakespearean phrases or passages. Any viewer must surely remember his favorite catchphrase “Heavens to Mergatroyd!” when he was alarmed, or “Exit… stage left! (or right)” before running off screen when fleeing danger.

Snagglepuss found himself in conflict with a different adversary in nearly every episode. The only recurring supporting character in the series was Major Minor, an otherwise successful big game hunter whose one failure was bagging Snagglepuss. Major Minor’s membership with The Adventurers Club was always in jeopardy because of this embarrassment.

When his own series ended, Snagglepuss went on to appear in a variety of made-for-TV specials, as well as becoming a regular cast member of several brand new series, including Yogi’s Gang (1973), Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977), Yogi’s Treasure Hunt (1985) and Yo Yogi! (1991).

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! started the trend of cartoons starring mystery-solving teens that became popular with Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s. Never before had a group of teens run across so many random mysteries. The Great Dane Scooby-Doo and his unlikely group of friends had a knack for finding themselves in the creepiest of places, haunted by an unwelcoming monster or ghost. Being the mystery-solving sleuths that they were, the five friends wouldn’t rest until they uncovered the secrets of the haunted place, which inevitably turned out to be a criminal posing as a supernatural being to scare away unwanted meddlers.

Traveling from place to place in their van The Mystery Machine, the group was led by blond haired, all-American boy Fred. Red haired, danger-prone Daphne wore a skirt well, and was odds-on favorite among the teens to fall into a trap or get kidnapped. Brainy Velma excelled at discovering clues and working out the details of a crime. Beatnik Shaggy acted mainly as comic relief, and was best friends with the group’s canine companion, Scooby-Doo.

Shaggy and Scooby shared the common bond of having a healthy appetite and an acute sense of self-preservation. Despite being the biggest cowards of the group, the two were almost always paired whenever the teens split up to search for clues. Under especially dire circumstances, the only way to persuade Scooby to carry out a mission involved bribing him with a dog biscuit, or as the teens called it, a “Scooby snack”. The teens always had a few handy, and if a single Scooby snack wasn’t enough, the teens could up the ante until Scooby’s greedy stomach overcame his fear. To a lesser degree, the same trick sometimes worked on Shaggy.

The series ran for two seasons of original episodes beginning in 1969. The gang reappeared for more mystery solving fun in the 1972 series, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and continued to turn up for decades afterwards in a multitude of offshoot series, following a wide range of formats.