This month our blog series is “Get Animated,” and today we are taking a look at the Scooby Doo gang. Launched in 1969, Scooby Doo was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The show featured five teenagers who work together to solve mysteries. It ran on ABC from 1969-1976 when it moved to ABC until 1985. Since then there have been several reboots, a new show A Pup Named Scooby Doo, and several movies, but today we are focusing on the original series.

Fred Silverman, head of daytime programming at CBS, was looking for a new series that could take on the popularity of The Archies. Silverman had a concept in mind of a group of friends who played rock concerts and solved mysteries. The original concept was called Mysteries Five featuring Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, W.W., and a bongo-playing dog called Too Much.

Designer Iwao Takamoto was brought on board. Takamoto had been incarcerated at Manzanar, a concentration camp in WWII. He began sketching scenes to pass the time. In 1945, Takamoto was hired by Walt Disney Studios with no experience or education apart from the sketching he taught himself during the war. At Disney he worked on Lady and the Tramp. He later worked for Hanna-Barbera and worked on The Flintstones in addition to Scooby Doo. After reading a dog breeder’s description of a pedigree Great Dane, he created Scooby, adding a hump back, bowed legs, and several features that were not highly rated in dog show winners.

The teens were based on the cast of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. That show was on the air from 1959-1963. The Scooby gang became Fred based on Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), Daphne based on Thalia Meninger (Tuesday Weld), Velma based on Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James), and Shaggy based on Maynard Krebbs (Bob Denver). Silverman based the dog’s name, Scooby Doo on Frank Sinatra’s doo-be-doo-be-doo in “Strangers in the Night.” The title became Scooby Doo, Where Are You?

When the show aired the voices were Don Messick (Scooby), Casey Kasem (Shaggy), Frank Welker (Fred), Nicole Jaffe (Velma), and Indira Stefanianna (Daphne). The group of friends traveled in the Mystery Machine, a very-sixties-looking van with psychedelic colors and flowers.

As they travel the country, they run into situations where ghosts and paranormal activity threaten the locals. The plots were pretty basic, like the Hallmark Christmas movie formulas, the kids ran into someone being scared by a ghost, zombie, etc., and the kids would decide to help out their new friend. Eventually after at least one person, often Shaggy, went missing, before the kids unmasked the villain who turned out to be a human they had already dealt with in their investigation.

The ratings were amazing with up to 65% of viewers tuning in on Saturday mornings. It was renewed for a second season in 1970; however, a season of cartoons was only eight episodes.

In later years, the series received two Emmy nominations.

David Mook and Ben Raleigh wrote the theme song which was performed by Larry Marks.

Gold Key Comics published comic books starting in December 1969. It was drawn by Phil DeLara, Jack Manning, and Warren Tufts. The first ones were adaptations of the television shows, but eventually new stories were created. The series has been published off and on the past six decades.

This brand has sold billions of dollars of merchandise since it first began. In fact it sold a billion in 2004 alone. The early items included a board game in 1973, lunch boxes, coloring books, records, and underwear. The years since have featured a ton of items including a kids’ multivitamin, Scooby Snack dog treats, Barbie dolls, and Hot Wheels.

I loved this show growing up. The kids seemed fun and sophisticated and we all wanted to solve mysteries. For years there was a Mystery Machine in the town where we lived when my boys were little, and I felt nostalgic whenever I saw it parked around town.