Scooby Doo, Where Are You!

I will not pretend that Scooby Doo, Where are You! is high art, or the greatest animated series ever; however, there is a reason this is a classic and so fondly remembered. This hits so many strong points, from the eerie music, the oppressive yet whimsical tone, and the creepy and sometimes scary villains. Perhaps the most daring has to be the choice of such a dark color scheme(especially for 1969.) All this contributes to the wonderful mood that permeates Scooby Doo. It is a shame that many future Scooby Doo series could not equal the magic that was there in 1969, because they got so much right. The first season is by far the best, but do not knock the second, both are great.

The Gang(Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, Fred, and of course Scooby Doo) travel around in their van(The Mystery Machine) and investigate seemingly supernatural events. This allows each episode to have it's own spooky locale with a wacky spin on the horror genre. Primarily Shaggy and Scooby Doo are the main focus of the show, acting as comic relief to the goings on. Lastly by encouraging critical thinking, having rational explanations, and showing them confronting their fears teaches good lessons to children, who are the target audience. Not that adults can't absolutely love this show, as the superb mix of comedy, mystery, horror, and atmosphere all make this a great cartoon for all ages!

If you liked this show and wanted more Scooby shows, I recommend, The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. They are all a little different, but are about as good if not better.

I heard that the creators wanted to have the youngsters solve mysteries that involved scary characters, but the execs found the bad guys a bit too intense for young audiences. Enter Scooby-Doo, the wacky, funny great dane. They make him the focus of the series, the counterbalance to the villains, and the rest is history.

I enjoy the many memorable lines, and contrary to what you might think, they're not just from Shaggy. They include Daphne saying to the Swamp Witch, "You can't believe everything you read" or Freddie saying to Shaggy as he's trying to get into the museum to see the Knight, "That's it, no more jack." Just a great series, especially if you enjoy the quirks and sayings of the late 60's/early 70's.

Scooby Doo is a classic cartoon. Now they're releasing new Scooby Doo videos, and I must say, the one I saw wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but NOTHING touches the classic. Now if there were only a real snack called Scooby Snacks:)(there're some for animals)

P.S. The episodes that came later with Scrappy are stupid. Don't watch them.

"Scooby-Doo, Where are you!" is probably my favorite "Scooby-Doo" show. Each episode featured Scooby, and the gang riding along in their van called "The Mystery Machine", and stumble into a mystery. Along the way, the gang would discover clues, Shaggy and Scooby would be eating a lot, and get scared constantly, the ghost/demon/monster/zombie whatnot would be unmasked unveiling someone that the gang encountered earlier, and that would be that for the half-an-hour of programming bliss.

I have to agree with the majority, this has to be Hanna-Barbera's CROWNING achievement, and I hope it's on for years to come (just a little less with Cartoon Network airing it too much). This gets a perfect 10!!

SCOOBY DOOBY DOO!!!!!!!!!

This is definitely one of the classic series in animation. You had four kids (the hunk, the beauty, the nerdy chick and the supposed stoner) joined by a huge cowardly dog who go around solving mysteries all over the country in a green, flower covered van. This show was so funny that it still watchable today. Forget the latter versions with all the stupid members of Scooby's family (Scooby Dum and of course that insufferable brat Scrappy). This will always be a classic.

Also, check out some of the earliest episodes. In those you will see that Shaggy wasn't the coward he became later on. He was actually quite brave in the first four or five episodes.