Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

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.