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| - These characters drive around the world in a van called the "Mystery Machine", and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation (usually a criminal of some sort trying to scare people away so that they can commit crimes). Later versions of the show featured different variations on the supernatural theme of the show, and include additional characters, such as a warlock named Vincent Van Ghoul, a kid named Flim-Flam, Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum, and nephew Scrappy-Doo, in addition to or instead of some of the wanted characters.
- In 1968, parent-run organizations, particularly Action for Children's Television (ACT), began to protest about what they perceived as excessive violence in Saturday morning cartoons. Most of these shows were Hanna-Barbera action cartoons like Space Ghost, The Herculoids and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and virtually all of them were canceled by 1969 because of pressure from the parent groups. Members of these watchgroups served as advisers to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that their new programs would be safe for children. Fred Silverman, executive in charge of daytime programming for the CBS network at the time, was looking for a show that would revitalize his Saturday morning line and please the watch groups at the same time. The result was The Archie Show, based up
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| abstract
| - In 1968, parent-run organizations, particularly Action for Children's Television (ACT), began to protest about what they perceived as excessive violence in Saturday morning cartoons. Most of these shows were Hanna-Barbera action cartoons like Space Ghost, The Herculoids and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio, and virtually all of them were canceled by 1969 because of pressure from the parent groups. Members of these watchgroups served as advisers to Hanna-Barbera and other animation studios to ensure that their new programs would be safe for children. Fred Silverman, executive in charge of daytime programming for the CBS network at the time, was looking for a show that would revitalize his Saturday morning line and please the watch groups at the same time. The result was The Archie Show, based upon Bob Montana's teenage humor comic book Archie. Also successful were the musical numbers The Archies performed during each program (one of which, "Sugar, Sugar", was the most successful Billboard number-one hit of 1969). Silverman was eager to build upon this success, and contacted producers William Hanna and Joseph Barbera about possibly creating another show based on a teenage rock group, this one featuring teens who solved mysteries in between gigs. Silverman envisioned the show as a cross between the popular I Love a Mystery radio serials of the 1940s and either the Archie characters or the popular early 1960s television series The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis. After attempting to develop his own version of the proposed show called House of Mystery, Joseph Barbera, who handled the development and sale of Hanna-Barbera shows while William Hanna handled production, passed the task along to story writers Joe Ruby & Ken Spears and artist/character designer Iwao Takamoto. Their original treatment, based in part on The Archie Show, was titled Mysteries Five, and featured five teenagers: Geoff, Mike, Kelly, Linda, Linda's brother "W.W." and their dog, Too Much, who were all members of the band "Mysteries Five", including the dog who played bongos. When "The Mysteries Five" were not performing at gigs, they were out solving spooky mysteries involving ghosts, zombies, and other supernatural creatures. Ruby and Spears were unable to decide whether Too Much would be a large cowardly dog or a small feisty dog. When the former was chosen, Ruby and Spears wrote Too Much as a Great Dane, but revised the dog character to a large sheepdog (similar to the Archies' sheepdog, Hot Dog) just before their presentation to Silverman, as Ruby feared the character would be too similar to the comic strip character Marmaduke. Silverman rejected their initial pitch, and after consulting with Barbera on next steps, got Barbera's permission to go ahead with Too Much being a Great Dane instead of a sheepdog. Lead character designer Takamoto, while designing the characters, consulted a studio colleague who happened to be a breeder of Great Danes. After learning the characteristics of a prize-winning Great Dane from her, Takamoto proceeded to break most of the rules and designed Too Much with overly bowed legs, a double chin, and a sloped back, among other abnormalities. Ruby and Spears' second pass at the show used Dobie Gillis as the template for the teenagers rather than Archie. The treatment retained the dog Too Much, while reducing the number of teenagers to four, removing the Mike character and retaining Geoff, Kelly, Linda, and W.W.[9] As their personalities were modified, so were the characters' names: Geoff became "Ronnie"[12] – later renamed "Fred" (at Silverman's behest), Kelly became "Daphne", Linda "Velma", and W.W. "Shaggy". The teens were now based on four teenage characters from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Thalia Menninger, Zelda Gilroy and Maynard G. Krebs, respectively. The revised show was re-pitched to Silverman, who liked the material but, disliking the title Mysteries Five, decided to call the show Who's S-S-Scared?[16] Silverman presented Who's S-S-Scared? to the CBS executives as the centerpiece for the upcoming 1969–70 season's Saturday morning cartoon block. CBS president Frank Stanton felt that the presentation artwork was too scary for young viewers and, thinking the show would be the same, decided to pass on it. Now without a centerpiece for the upcoming season's programming, Silverman had Ruby, Spears, and the Hanna-Barbera staff revise the treatments and presentation materials to tone down the show and better reflect its comedy elements. The rock band element was dropped, and more attention was focused upon Shaggy and Too Much. According to Ruby and Spears, Silverman was inspired by Frank Sinatra's scat "doo-be-doo-be-doo" at the end of his recording of "Strangers in the Night" on a flight to one of the development meetings, and decided to rename the dog "Scooby-Doo" and re-rechristen the show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The revised show was re-presented to CBS executives, who approved it for production.
- These characters drive around the world in a van called the "Mystery Machine", and solve mysteries typically involving tales of ghosts and other supernatural forces. At the end of each episode, the supernatural forces turn out to have a rational explanation (usually a criminal of some sort trying to scare people away so that they can commit crimes). Later versions of the show featured different variations on the supernatural theme of the show, and include additional characters, such as a warlock named Vincent Van Ghoul, a kid named Flim-Flam, Scooby's cousin Scooby-Dum, and nephew Scrappy-Doo, in addition to or instead of some of the wanted characters.
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