Ruh-Roh! Fifty YEARS of Scooby and the Gang!

Over at ScoobySnax.com they're celebrating the 50th Birthday of on of pop culture's true icons.  Scooby-Doo hit the air for the first time Sept 13, 1969.  I happen to really like most things Scooby and recently completed my "complete" Scooby DVD collection and watched every one of them, so I feel all expert-ee.  The "" around complete is due to the fact that WB has yet to release over 130 episodes of various Scooby-Doo shows so I can't say it without the quotes.  Hopefully they'll sort that our sooner rather than later.  If not for the "How to have a complete Scooby-Doo collection" section of the ScoobySnax website I'd still be trying to figure out what has and hasn't hit dvd and probably figuratively tearing out my figurative hair in my quest to complete an as yet un-complete-able collection.

As part of the celebration, Wildwind Vampire, ScoobySnax's guru rated all the Scooby television shows from least to greatest and I thought I'd do the same.  I love Scooby, I love top-whatever lists and I'm all out of Scooby Snax so I got nuthin' else for the birthday dog!

I really had to think about this.  Pretty much everything below the top 6 are versions of Scooby I'm only a fan of because they're Scooby.  Scooby takes "meh" cartoon stuff and makes it a bit magical by his presence.  The top 6 just rock though.

And this is my opinion as I sit in my living room today.  Tomorrow you might get different answers.  Opinions are like culture.  They change with time and that's as it should be.

16. 🌼Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics🌼

Even as a kid I didn't much like this one.  And seriously, just one time they could have had the Really Rottens win.  Just once!

15. 🌼Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show🌼

I don't think this ever aired in Canada.  When I bought the dvd set none of it rang a bell.  Nothing special and most of the Richie Rich stuff was pure awful.

14. 🌼The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour🌼

All the Scrappy stuff irritates me to one degree or another.  Scrappy might actually be a fine addition to the show if they'd just voice him less "nails on chalkboard while banging on pots and pans with a wooden spoon inside my head". 

13. 🌼The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show🌼

See above.

12. 🌼The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show🌼

Daphne helps but not much.

 

11. 🌼The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries🌼

See above. 

 

10. 🌼The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo🌼

I prefer my Scooby to be supernatural and Scrappy free.  If not for Vincent Price this one would be MUCH lower on the list.

09. 🌼A Pup Named Scooby-Doo🌼

It is what it is and there are some mildly clever gags buried in the noise.  Thankfully, this is the last of the shows on my "If this wasn't Scooby I wouldn't watch" list.

08. 🌼Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!🌼

Despite Scott Menville's grating performance as Shaggy, this one actually works pretty well as a Get Smart version of the characters.  The addition of Casey Kasem also lifts it higher on the list.  Genuinely funny at times, it works despite the weird character design and total departure from the regular formula.

 

07. 🌼The New Scooby-Doo Movies🌼

Many of these suffer from woodenly acted guest parts and dragging plots but they are beautiful snapshots of pop culture in the mid-70s.  The only thing missing is a Scooby-Doo meets ABBA episode to put a bow on it.  Wooden acting plus thick Swedish accents in a Scooby cartoon set in a roller rink would have been GOLD.  Opportunity missed there.

 

06. 🌼Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?🌼

This one has the potential to be a less draggy snapshot of our current pop culture.  With luck they'll smooth out the rough spots.  It already looks very nice, the regular cast has a great handle on their characters and the shorter episodes either work at a better, snappier pace than TNSDMs or at least minimize the damage a lame guest does.

05. 🌼The Scooby-Doo Show🌼

Not a lot changed in this first real sequel to the original show and concept.  It generally works very well and may even have made up more of my Saturday mornings than the original.

04. 🌼Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!🌼

The weird, simplistic design and offbeat humour were at first off-putting but the writing and voice acting really sing and we got some of the best Scooby episodes EVER in this one.  On second and third viewing it just gets stronger.

03. 🌼Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated🌼

If you'd pitched me a season long Scooby Mystery when I was a kid I would have squealed with delight.  If you'd told me I could watch them one after another on something called DVD I would have dragged the fridge into the family room, hauled a mattress down from my bedroom, built a couch cushion fort and settled in for the long haul.

Note to self: Put the fridge back in the kitchen tomorrow morning.

02. 🌼What's New Scooby-Doo?🌼

The true heir to the original, this one gave us pretty much everything the original did but in a prettier, slicker package.  Some of the designs (oh, wherefore art thou, ascot?) were a bit TOO slick but there's not much to find fault with in this one.

01. 🌼Scooby-Doo, Where Are you!🌼

Original Coke,   Try as they might, nobody can improve on the original formula.  Sometimes it's nice to have a Cherry Coke, New Coke wasn't bad, a Coke float is a tasty treat and rum and Coke is a nice adult way to indulge but nothing, NOTHING, tastes quite as good as the original.

 

🌼Happy 50th Birthday to 🌼

🌼Daphne🌼, 🌼Velma🌼, 🌼Fred🌼,

🌼Shaggy🌼, 🌼Scooby-Doo🌼

and the 🌼Mystery Machine🌼 Too!

🌼Here's To 50 More!🌼