SCOOBY-DOO, YOUR RAY IS BLU!

Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo has been around for so many years, it’s easy to either forget or not realize, not only how big the cartoon was out of the gate, but what its first two series set in motion, even outside the confines of masked “It’s Mr. Greenway!” and confines of Those meddling kids!”

The first seasons of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? laid the ground rules for the subsequent decades of movies and series, It’s interesting to see where it all began. The format, the catchphrases, the unmasking, so much of it started from the first episode, but that’s not all.

So did the musical score. Ted Nichols’ background music actually FIT the action in the first episode, then it was edited into cues and used endlessly in subsequent episodes. This was common practice, not only in Hanna-Barbera cartoons but even in live-action shows of the mid- to late 20th century. John Williams only wrote enough score for four episodes of Lost in Space (as well as both themes) but it was also edited into cues that were heard for the following three seasons. Other fine composers wrote music for additional episodes and were also shows that had no new scoring but relied completely on previous cues (the credits list no composer, just a music supervisor).

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? is actually several different bundles of shows all together in the complete series Blu-ray. The second season has pop songs during the chase scenes, like Hanna-Barbara’s other current teen cartoon adventure, Josie and the Pussycats. The difference is that Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne and Scooby do not have a band, the songs just play. The singer is studio vocalist Austin Roberts. He sings one of the songs also heard sung by guest star Davy Jones on The New Scooby-Doo Movies, “I Can Make You Happy.”

The remaining episodes were combined with Dynomutt, Dog Wonder when Scooby moved to ABC. The theme song is a variation on the Dynomutt theme and was also used in the syndication package, The Scooby-Doo Show.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies was a huge ratings winner for CBS (so much so that, after its second season, when the CBS executive waffled about renewing it, Joe Barbera and his business manager walked right across the street in New York to ABC, where Michael Eisner eagerly snapped up Scooby and the gang). One of its most important contributions was getting superheroes back on Saturday morning.

According to Hanna-Barbera’s World of Adventure by Michael Swanigan and Darrell MacNeil, after action shows had been swept from Saturday mornings for perceived excessive violence, Batman’s two appearances on The New Scooby-Doo Movies (as well as Superman and Wonder Woman—her first for TV—on Filmation’s Brady Kids) proved superheroes could be presented in a more peaceful manner.

Sure, the animation is limited, but check out the backgrounds. And perhaps the first few shows done as the Australian studios were getting used to the process were not as slick. You have never seen the color styling so vivid on broadcast TV as on Blu-ray. Some of it is overpowering. There were shortcuts, but there were a lot of skillful people behind these shows and they can still impress and entertain—and make you chuckle at the occasional cheesy grooviness.

Also of note is that Warner managed to get all but one of The New Scooby-Doo Movies in the Blu-ray set this time around. The only one missing now is the Addams Family, because of estate legal issues.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The New Scooby-Doo Movies are available on Blu-ray.