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When word got out that HBO Max was working on a Velma origin story, fan responses were all over the place. It's not that "Scooby-Doo" fans dislike the four-eyed, orange-clad investigator who's been integral to Mystery Inc. since it first began in 1969. Rather, the hesitant responses to "Velma" were related to other aspects of the Mindy Kaling-led show, including its adult humor and violence, changes in animation style and characterization, and a conspicuous lack of the crime-solving Great Dane himself.

But if you look closely at the history of the long-running franchise, it's clear that for as long as Scooby and the gang have been on the air in some form or another, the shows have been repeatedly reinventing. And while that constant reinvention has often caused cyclical, ahistorical outrage from picky viewers, it's also the key to what makes "Scooby-Doo" so satisfying after all these years.

The 1969 Classic...

Former Days of our Lives actress Heather North died on November 30. She was 71.

North passed away at her home in Studio City after a long illness, family friend Jodie Mann confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter.

Her husband, H. Wesley Kenney, the Emmy Award-winning producer and director of daytime soap operas, died in January 2015.

North and Kenney had met on the set of Days of our Lives and were married in 1971. She had played Sandy Horton from 1967-1972 on the NBC daytime serial.

A native of Pasadena, North also starred as Kurt Russell's love interest in Disney's The Barefoot Executive (1971), about a chimpanzee who can predict which TV shows will be a success on the air.

North was the longtime voice of the danger-prone Daphne Blake on TV's Scooby-Doo. She was first heard as Daphne in September 1970 on the second-season opener of the CBS/Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning hit Scooby Doo,...

Scooby-Doo holds a special place in the heart of anyone who grew up in the 80s or 90s. Whether it was one of your top Saturday morning cartoon contenders or the last-ditch option when the ones you liked ended, everyone and their grandmother has seen at least one episode of this Hanna Barbera classic. Now, after quite a few season releases and plenty of single-disc 4-episode samplers, Warner Brothers has seen fit to give us a complete series set, and they’ve had the brilliant sense to box it in a semi-functional replica of the gang’s Mystery Machine. You can’t argue with the packaging, so really the only criticisms to be leveled at the series are for the preservation of the colors, the animation, and the show formula itself.

If you’ve never seen and episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! before, consider this next paragraph to be...

Zoinks! One of the most successful cartoon characters in history is having a birthday. Scooby-Doo doesn't look it but the scaredy-cat Great Dane turns 40 on Sunday. That's 280 in dog years!

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? is the first series to star the lovable hound and his teenage friends, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. Working together, the gang of Mystery, Inc. solve supernatural mysteries which typically turn out to be hoaxes. The animated pup and the "meddling kids" are played by Don Messick, Casey Kasem, Frank Welker, Nicole Jaffe, Indira Stefanianna Christopherson, and Heather North.

The series, originally based on the characters from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, lasted for just 25 episodes over two seasons. However, the characters proved so popular that they've appeared in more than 10 spin-off series, almost 20 TV and direct-to-video movies, and two feature films.

Zoinks! One of the most successful cartoon characters in history is having a birthday. Scooby-Doo doesn't look it but the scaredy-cat Great Dane turns 40 on Sunday. That's 280 in dog years!

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? is the first series to star the lovable hound and his teenage friends, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy. Working together, the gang of Mystery, Inc. solve supernatural mysteries which typically turn out to be hoaxes. The animated pup and the "meddling kids" are played by Don Messick, Casey Kasem, Frank Welker, Nicole Jaffe, Indira Stefanianna Christopherson, and Heather North.

The series, originally based on the characters from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, lasted for just 25 episodes over two seasons. However, the characters proved so popular that they've appeared in more than 10 spin-off series, almost 20 TV and direct-to-video movies, and two feature films.

  To celebrate the gang's 40th birthday, Cartoon Network is debuting Scooby-Doo: The...