Why do we love Scooby-Doo?

That’s not a rhetorical question. This weird, cheap little talking-dog-solving-mysteries show has been around for, as of this writing, forty-seven YEARS, and it’s never really been out of the spotlight. Think about that – when’s the last time you’ve thought about Garfield? If it wasn’t for nostalgia-whoring listicle sites (which are NOTHING like The Odyssey, a quality journalism source with fantastic writers,) I’m pretty sure people from my generation would barely even remember Rugrats or Recess or plenty of stuff from when we were kids, but would still be well-versed in the Doo. Even something like The Flintstones, from the same era and the same studio -- sure you’ve got name recognition but the last time there was any real new content was back in 2000 with The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, one of Jenna Maroney’s earliest roles. (All right, correction, I just looked it up and they had a TV movie in 2001 and a… direct to video film featuring… WWE wrestlers that came out just last year? Ok. That happened. My point still holds. This is not a lucrative franchise.)

Maybe it’s because, for many of us, this was our first entry into horror. That sounds stupid, sure, but when you’re 7 or 8, you’ve never SEEN the creepy castles, the wandering mummies, the drifting fog. It’s all new. (At least, that was the case for me. Sheltered AF.) Maybe it’s the way it makes you think – it doesn’t want you to just sit there and watch the cartoon, it’s inviting you to solve a mystery. Kids are used to everyone talking down to them, so anything that doesn’t is almost automatically refreshing. Maybe it’s just the characters – sure, they’re types, but they’re loveable, memorable types that almost seem like they could be people you’d know. And a talking dog. Jesus Christ, never forget the appeal of a fucking talking dog. Honestly, it’s probably some combination of all of these things and some aspects I didn’t think of; differing amounts for different people. The point is, it’s some sort of cartoon perfect storm. It will be around long after we’re gone. Wait, that’s not impressive enough. It will be around long after The Simpsons are gone. Yeah, I said it. You can’t stop the Scoob.

I did a little research into the origins of Scooby-Doo (Wikipedia) to try and figure out where the show even came from. Not that “a group of teenagers and their talking dog drive around in a van and solve mysteries” is THAT unusual of a concept for a Saturday morning cartoon, but it definitely didn’t seem like the kind of thing that would pop into someone’s head fully formed. Turns out, Hanna Barbera was under fire by parent groups (which apparently had actual power forty-seven years ago) because their action based cartoons were too violent. At around the same time, an “Archie” TV show was not only extremely popular, but actually providing top 40 hits. So Hanna Barbera decided to combine a mystery solving horror comedy (still not sure how the answer to parental groups was “ok, we’ll do horror instead” but it was the 60’s so I’ll let it slide for now) with a cartoon about a touring band and HOLY SHIT EVERYTHING MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE. Of COURSE they were supposed to be a band! That’s why they travel around everywhere in a themed van. Why they don’t seem to have a home. The incredible drug habit that causes all of the to think their dog can talk. God damn. Everything that didn’t make sense about Scooby-Doo just got crystal fucking clear. Anyway, the band concept was dropped and the dog’s name was changed from “Too Much” to a riff on the end of a Frank Sinatra song, and they rolled that shit out in the fall of 1969.

You know, it really says something that someone at Hanna Barbera saw that concept, understood the logic of where it came from and went “yeah but the band angle is lame tho.” And everyone just shrugged and agreed and got back to snorting magic mushrooms and finger-painting the walls. (At least that’s what I assume happened at Hanna Barbera in the 60’s. They’d already put Looney Tunes out of business with their cheapness, so it’s not like they had to TRY.)

Hi, my name is Eric Looney, and I’m going to be reviewing every Scooby-Doo episode and movie.

That’s right. Once a week. Every single one. From Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? to S.C.O.O.B. and everything in between.

Why am I doing this? Well, I’m not totally sure, to be honest. I’m hardly the biggest fan of the show. I’m not really the biggest fan of any show, although when I was sixteen I could have probably made a half-decent argument for Scrubs. And I have no desire to become the biggest fan of the show either. Sure, it was my favorite show when I was eleven, but it was a lot of people’s favorite show when they were eleven. I want to start writing more. That’s definitely part of it. It may be as simple as that. Mostly though, I think it’s just that, when I asked myself, Eric, do you have three hundred and ninety-two plus things to say about Scooby Doo, I just sort of paused for a second and went… “yeah, why?”

So here’s how it’s going to work. Scooby-Doo had twelve tv series with three-hundred and sixty-one total episodes, and thirty-six movies as of September 17, 2016. That’s it. He appears in a crossover film, I don’t care. Buncha commercials? No dice. Laff A Lympics? Sorry. No. Scooby Doo shows only. This is already going to take me over eight years, if I even manage to get past week three. Now maybe if I want to change things up for a while or if I had to take a break because this is fucking insane and I want to make it up to you, I’ll take a few requests but mostly that’s not what we’re doing here. And yes, this will include Scooby-doo shows that don’t exist yet. Because why would I ever want to reach the end of this incredible expedition?
Am I going to go insane? Maybe. Will zoinks unironically enter my conversation? Undoubtedly. Am I going to start buying dog treats and rewarding myself with them? Buckle up kids, things are gonna get weird. Re-he-he-he, motherfucker.

Next week, we take the wayback machine to (that’s a reference you’d get if you were to be from Nineteen Sixty-Nine) to Nineteen Sixty-Nine for the first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? “What a Night for a Knight.”