Contact the
NeverTown at
Way back in 1969, CBS decided to try something different with their Saturday morning line-up: instead of the standard superhero action cartoon (which was by far the most popular type of kiddie show on the air back then), they wanted to try something that mixed comedy with adventure. Cartoon studio Hanna Barbera was tapped to come up with a new concept, and they developed a show that featured four teenage detectives travelling cross-country in their van while solving mysteries. The show, first called Mysteries Five, included creepy cases in every episode, as the four detectives arrived at a variety of haunted houses in their “Mystery Machine” van. The detectives in this first show owned a somewhat familiar dog, a Great Dane, but the dog wasn’t planned to be a major character.
However, CBS thought the show looked too scary for a Saturday morning cartoon, so they rejected it. They liked the concept and they liked the characters, but the mysteries were just too creepy and the show too serious for kids of the time. Not long after that rejection, Fred Silverman, the head of Daytime Programming for CBS, was listening to the Frank Sinatra song Strangers in the Night when for some reason he fixated on the line, “Scooby-dooby-doo.” Like a bolt from the blue, Silverman suddenly envisioned the Great Dane as the star of the show, with the name Scooby-Doo. And thus a cartoon legend was born.
The newly renamed “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” was more humorous than horrifying, and continued to costar four teenage detectives:
Fred Jones, the blond, blue-eyed, alpha male, who often seemed to act as the spokesman for the group. Fred always had a gung-ho attitude, and seemed to enjoy the mysteries more than any of the other team members, except for maybe Velma.
Daphne Blake, the gorgeous but usually vapid redhead, was easily the quietest member of the cast. “Danger-Prone Daphne,” as she was often called, had an annoying tendency to repeatedly become a hostage (as most beautiful females did in ‘60’s cartoons).
Velma Dinkley, the brains of the group, seemed to be something of a tomboy. She was very conservatively dressed as opposed to Daphne, and loved a good mystery more than just about anything. She couldn’t see a thing without her glasses.
“Shaggy,” whose real name was Norville Rogers (no kidding!), was the owner of Scooby-Doo. The dog’s best friend, they shared both a strong cowardice and an intense love of anything edible. Despite his huge appetite, Shaggy retained a lanky frame. He was best known for his groovy one-liners, such as “Zoinks!” and “Like, wow, man!”
Together with the always-hungry and usually-cowardly Scooby-Doo (a talking Great Dane), this group formed Mystery, Inc., a freelance detective service specializing in cases involving hauntings and ghosts.
The quickly successful Scooby-Doo franchise would move through many incarnations in the next three decades, including “13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo,” (a scarier show without Fred and Velma) “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo,” (which featured pint-sized versions of all of the characters) and “The New Scooby-Doo Movies.” (hour-long installments that featured guest stars like Batman, the Harlem Globetrotters, and even Don Knotts!) The gang was also joined by several other costars as the years progressed, ranging in quality from the entertaining (including Scooby-Dum and Scooby-Dee, who unfortunately aren’t covered in this book) to the moronic (such as Scrappy-Doo, whom the author will desperately attempt never to mention again). Through all of the concept’s series, specials, and movies, though, the original five members proved to be the ones most fondly remembered. In fact, when the 2002 “Scooby-Doo” live-action movie was released, the original five characters were given the starring roles, and the movie was most reminiscent of the original 1969 “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” series.
In my own surveys from leadership seminars, more people thought Fred was the leader of Mystery, Inc., than any other character: about half of my participants regularly vote for Fred. Another 30% usually vote for Velma, and about 15% will support Scooby-Doo himself as the group’s leader. Daphne and Shaggy are usually left with only a few votes each. Often a person’s vote seems to be heavily correlated to how familiar they are with the Scooby-Doo concept. For instance, people who have seen the live-action movie are much more likely to vote for Shaggy, and people unfamiliar with the cartoon generally vote for Fred or Scooby-Doo. Also, some demographic factors come into play. For instance, males tend to support Fred while females are more likely to vote for Velma.
In this book, we’ll be investigating those original adventures of Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Fred (as well as touching on their movie appearances). I was surprised at how many qualities of real leadership they possess and demonstrate throughout their appearances, and I think you will be, too.
Want to leave your mark in the NeverTown? Earn your citizenship by leaving comments and thoughts on what you just read. Just fill out the simple form below, and become a personage of importance in the NeverTown!
Keep it relatively clean, guys - the NeverTown is a family place.
© Copyright James Lemoine, 2003-2006. Copying and stealing information from this website without express written permission from Jimmy is strictly forbidden and an indicator that you are not the kind of nobody who hangs out in the Nevertown. So don't do it. The Beyond Wonderland font is provided by Chris Hansen, one hell of a talented font designer. Some javascript appropriated from javascript-fx.com, and used only after heavy modification.
|
|
|
|
