June 24, 2017 • 41 mins
In this week's SYSK Select episode, for decades, Scooby Doo has captivated children across the world. It's been translated to multiple languages and remains as popular as newer programs. But why? Join Chuck and Josh as they shed light on the seemingly endless allure of Scooby Doo.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, Chuck here with this week's Saturday Select Pick
of the Week. I'm going for Scooby Doo this week.
Scooby Doo, where are you? We? You know, enjoy doing
our pop culture episodes and some classic TV shows here
and there, and Scooby Doo certainly falls into that category.
So I think everyone should enjoy this one. If you
haven't heard it, and maybe if you have, give it
(00:21):
another listen because there might be a secret code embedded.
I'm just getting to release it, but enjoy. Welcome to
stuff you should know from the house stuff works dot Com. Yeah, Scooby, Hey,
(01:00):
welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as
always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. He is no longer
older than me. We are both seven years old at
this moment, right. I knew you catch up eventually. I
just came home from elementary school. My backpack has just
made a thud on the floor, and then stones have
just gone off, and thank god, you know, and um
(01:23):
on comes Scooby Doo. I'm not here though, it doesn't matter.
What do you mean You're not here? I'm making out
with some girls. We're both we're both seven I know
that's what I'm saying. Everyone knows I was a late bloomber.
That's not true. You were quite the casanova chuck okay um,
And it didn't matter. Although I could have told you
(01:43):
within the first half of a second of hearing the
theme song, what Scooby Doo is about to come on?
Which episode? What? What version? Because remember there's ten ten,
ten point seven million incarnations of Scooby Doo, a lot
of them. What you just heard was, of course the
(02:06):
Russian version of the Scooby Doo theme. Those of you
who grew up in Vladivostock in Moscow, they're probably rocking
out to it. Scooby do. Yeah, that's pretty good, wasn't it. Yeah? Yeah,
that was from the well again, the Russian version of
the new Scooby Doo movies. But I mean the ones
that I was used to or um, Scooby Doo, where
(02:27):
are You? Which is of course the first one to me.
That is those twenty five episodes. That was Scooby Doo. See,
I think it extends a little bit, but it's more
encompassing than that. I'm a little older though, but it
only runs up to the limits of my nostalgia. I
don't watch it these days. I have to say, though,
I'm harden to know that Scooby Doo is still in
the world. As a matter of fact, I read a
(02:50):
study Chuck from two where they were trying to figure
out if cartoon characters have an effect on children's decisions
with food. So they gave kids, like some boxes that
had gummy bears, granola, just some there was snack food, right,
was there a Scooby snack in there? Um? And then
(03:10):
they gave them boxes of the exact same stuff, but
rather than like playing non cartoony boxes, they had cartoon
characters on the boxes they had. This is a two study,
So they had Shrek door of the Explorer in Scooby Doo.
No way. Guess which one of those three cartoon characters
was forty years old at the time, Um, the Explorer,
(03:34):
Scooby dooty years forty years The other two were like
ten years old at the time. And they're using this
on four to six year olds and Scooby Doo still
making them eat gummy bears. Well, I breezed through that
Slate article you sent that really sums it up nicely.
What and that's the reason we're doing Scooby Doo when
we're not doing uh, I'm trying to think of some
fly By Nights and cartoons. Yeah, the Jetson's or no
(03:56):
fly By Night shirt tails, but awesome, love the shirt tails.
Scooby Doo. The reason we're doing this is because it
has persevered through the years like Muppets and become so
iconic that it's more than a cartoon. Yeah. In that
Slate article there's a they quote the guy who created
Clarissa explains it all and he's like, no one can
(04:18):
explain why Scooby Doo is so iconic so popular, because
he's like, it's not it's not the best, it's not
the worst. So why has it been around for forty years?
And he's like, you know, every cartoon creators like, why
can't my crappy cartoon become iconic? You know? I mean
they don't even there's no answer, is there? There isn't.
And that's part of the allua Scooby Doo. Their their proposals,
(04:41):
like everybody loves a dog, um, everybody loves a mystery. Uh.
One of the um one of the reasons it's enduring
to kids. This author supposes is because they don't do
like the ironic like double entendres right to where you know,
adults get it and kids get it, but really, you know,
all for kids. It was all for kids plus kids
(05:02):
like uh. The reason, probably for the same reason that
things like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have persevered,
is because kids doing adult like things like solving mysteries
and getting the best and getting the best of adults.
Kids love that stuff. I was the Three Investigators fan,
Did you read them? Now? It was the three It
was Alfred Hitchcock's nephew and his two friends. Really, it
(05:24):
was awesome. I was big into a Encyclopedia Brown. I
loved him too. Yeah remember when he busted the kid
who was faking crying because the tears are coming out
of the wrong end of the eyes. Yeah. I could
never figure him out, though I always felt dumb. I
don't know if I ever figured any out either. Shouldn't
feel dumb. They were They were purposely made to obvious
skate the truth. Alright, So Dictionary Brown was great. Encyclopedia
(05:50):
Oh yeah, right, Scooby Doo. Let's go to the history.
How about that the birth of Scooby? Yeah, because it
wasn't and it wasn't immediate. No, it was not what
was an immediate hit, but it wasn't an immediate Uh.
Took a while to get on the air. Some incarnations happened.
Josh first one Scooby Doo, where are You? Originally, um, well,
let's go back a little bit before. Originally it was
(06:11):
called Who's Scared? And then they had another name that
kind of stuck for a little all called Mysteries five. Yeah,
And originally it was based on what was the radio
show I Love a Mystery. I Love a Mystery Slashdobe
gillis the TV show, which is what Shaggy's based on.
He's like a Beatnick. He's based on Ma Energy Crabs.
(06:32):
Fred is based on Adobe or other stuff. The other
way to look at is that they were based in
large part of the Archie Gang, and Shaggy takes after
joke Head. I didn't see that. Yeah, interesting, but and
I'm an Archie guy. There were There wasn't even a
dog in the in the original versions, well not in
the very original version. There was no dog at all.
(06:53):
The Mysteries five comes along, there is Jeff g Off
of all things Off, Mike Kelly, Linda, Linda's brother w W.
This is just unsettling, the unfamiliarity. And a dog called
too Much, Yeah, who was shaggy war like, he was
a shaggy dog, wore sunglasses and played the bongos because
(07:15):
they were a band. That was the original concept that
they were a band. So the dog played the bong
gos and they were worried. They had a Great Dane
idea at first. Then they were worried that the makers
of Marmaduke, You're gonna be like you ripped us off,
of course, and they tried too much and we're like,
too much sucks well, and Archie had ay a sheep dog,
so they steered away from that to the Great Danaans.
(07:37):
And then Jeff and Mike became they merged, became Ronnie,
and then Ronnie eventually became Fred, Kelly became Daphne, Linda
became Velma. W W became Shaggy but was no longer
Daphne's brother. But it seems like I've heard of some
(07:58):
sort of distant relation that they've made reference to in
Scooby Doo, like they were something. Yeah, well they were
somehow related, but not brother and sister. Interesting, I could
just be making that up though maybe. Yeah. Alright, so
that's um how it was for a little while. Then
it eventually became the Scooby Doo as we know, and
love became the great thing as we said, right, and
(08:21):
we left somebody out there's a studio exact who has
been who well, it was totally instrumental in this creation,
like he ordered the show from Hannah Barbera. His name
is Fred Silverman as far as I know, Fred's named
after him, right, oh really, And the whole reason there
was a dog in there was because Joe Ruby and
(08:41):
Ken Spears, the writers and developers of Scooby Doo, two
young guns at the time, right, they knew that, um,
Fred Silverman loved dogs. He was a dog guy. So
that's the whole reason they inserted a dog. And there's
two young writers like put a dog in there, and
the exactly love it, right, And they asked Joe Barbera
of Hannah Barbera if they could do that. In Barbara's responses,
do whatever you want, and so they put the dog right. Um.
(09:06):
But Fred Silverman also had an even bigger impact on
Scooby Doo, didn't he? Uh, the name Scooby Doo. Ye, yeah,
he got that supposedly from Dooby Dooby Doo, Frank Sinatra
Strangers in the Dark, Night Night, same thing. It was dark,
the night is dark. Let's see it's in Alaska. The
(09:29):
banners acceptionally quick today, thank you. So Fred was this
is kind of a landmark show at the time because
he wanted a half hour show, and cartoons weren't half
hour shows at the time. They were like Yogi Bear,
it was like eight minutes and then eight minutes and
eight minutes, or in the case of like the Flintstone,
that was a primetime thing. So this was geared towards
(09:49):
Saturday morning programming, and he wanted to have a full
half hour plot line and a little more substance going on.
He also um wanted to steer away from violence. Uh.
This The Scooby Doo came onto the scene at a
time when cartoon networks were um well, networks that show
cartoons were increasingly under pressure from parents groups, family groups,
(10:12):
church groups to stop showing as much violence in cartoons
like Johnny Quest there's a lot of rockham sock'm action
in that and um so they decided that Scooby Doo
and his his buddies would outwit villains rather than beat
them up. Yeah, they were never even like punches thrown
and Scooby Doo much less you know, mock gun violence exactly.
(10:34):
And and um yeah those guns in Johnny Quests were
cool though the two. Um, but think about it, like,
we wouldn't have had like all the contraptions that Fred
came up with, or any of them came up with,
like the the net that like you know, you tripped
and it just pulled you up or whatever. Well I
think that was a thing, right, it was, But you
(10:54):
don't need that if you just punched the guy. So
this whole aspect that these elaborate trap that they always
ended up setting that Scooby and Shaggy had debat the
bad guy into was a result of this movement toward
non violence. Well, at first cartoons, they point out in
this article, which I didn't realize cartoons at the time.
Before this, no one had really cared about the violent
(11:16):
thing because they weren't really geared towards kids. They were
shown before movies to general audiences in the theaters, and
then when it jumped to TV, kids started watching them.
Clearly because their cartoons and they do a study like that,
like why are kids inherently just like drawn to drawn image?
They're dumb, stupid kids. And uh, then people started saying,
(11:36):
a wait a minute, kids are watching these things. Now
we should have something not violent, right, and now Australia
is outlawing direct marketing to kids. So good for you Australia. Indeed, Josh, indeed,
uh when and we should mention September ninety nine when
Scooby Doo finally appeared and it was a big hit
right off of that. Yeah, here is a bit of
trivia for you. The first episode ever showed was titled
(12:01):
I didn't even know this? What a night? For a Night?
The second night is K and I g h T
What a night? And was it a ghost night? Yeah,
you've seen it before a million times. It's on. It's
in the intro good night with the red plume. Yeah. Absolutely,
Uh And that, Josh, is a staple of Scooby Doo.
That was um many times they were fighting zombies and
(12:25):
ghosts and demons, but to take a little bit of
the scare out of it, because that's what they were originally.
The only time they were really worried was the fact
that there was so many like scary elements, but they
were always humans projecting projecting a ghost on the wall
of the cave. There was never obviously any real ghost
because it was even though his cartoon was rooted in reality,
(12:46):
it was always a criminal. Yeah, and there's a there's
a couple of things that play here, which I didn't
think about until I started researching this. But UM Junior
Skeptic Magazine had this issue dedicated Scooby Doo because it's
like it's based on a completely skeptical view of the universe,
especially Fred. You know, there's not ghosts. It's it's all
(13:09):
it's very empirical, Like there's a ghost right there, but
it can't be a ghost because there's such thing as ghost.
So let's get to the bottom of it. And there
is like some sort of human explanation of it. And
that well, like I said, that was Fred, that was
his Well, let's get into the characters Fred was. They
all had their roles. Fred was a skeptic. He was
the leader of Mystery Incorporated, and he was usually the
(13:31):
one saying, nine times out of ten he was like, no,
that can't be that it is this and then we'll
get to the bottom of it. That was Fred Role.
He was very dapper, dandy guy with his scarf on
his neck. It's called a cravat, Chuck. It's perfectly normal.
People were cravats. Okay, see you've got one, you don't.
(13:51):
He was very handsome, a little square now he's a
He was a prep. He was a prep and he
was a little aloof maybe you're gonna saying, yeah he was.
He was the leader because he was the one that
was always trying to keep everyone on task and get
the mystery solved. And he was voiced by Frank Welker
right and still is today. If I'm not mistaken, I
(14:14):
don't know. I think he is. I can tell you
who has been doing voices from the get go, is
that Casey Casu Well, no more. Actually when did he
stop a couple of years ago? Okay, so when did
his Top forty run stop? Because he started Scooby Doo
and his Top forty hosting duties in the same year. No,
he did Scooby Doo longer because he he did Scooby
(14:36):
Doo all the way up until the latest incarnation and
Matthew Lillard took over. Actually, really, he's doing it now.
He does the voice because he did such an awesome job.
I'm no huge Matthew Lillard guy. But when I didn't
even see the Scooby Doo movies, I should point out didn't.
I didn't see them all, but I saw parts and
I remember thinking, wow, that dude is shaggy. I remember
(14:58):
thinking like, wow, my eyes are bleeding. I don't think
they're the best movies. Were they good casting? Though they
raked in some dough good casting. Austin Roberts was responsible
for the famous theme song that they used in the
original and then that was uh many times. It was
also another pop song played while they come montage. Yeah,
(15:19):
there's a whole bunch of them on YouTube. Yeah, and
that was generally Austin Roberts as well. And apparently if
you go onto YouTube and start searching, um Scooby Doo songs, yeah,
you're gonna find that they If you're not familiar with
Scooby Doo and you just came across these, you would
assume that Fred and Daphne were in love and dating.
I always assumed that as a kid. Yeah, but if
(15:39):
you if you watch it again, like friend Zam paying
that much attention to Dafney, she could have taken her left. Fred, Yeah,
I think that was all just like I was a
kid and I thought, well, they're clearly the two most attractive.
That's projecting your own hormones on friends. What it was,
so they should be hooking up, Josh. I'm gonna ask
the listeners a question here. Okay, listeners, we're gonna sit
(16:02):
around for a week or two. No, no, no, it's
just rhetorical listeners. If someone came this is a Fred
noon In style question. If someone came up to you
and introduced themselves as Norville Rogers, how many people do
you think would have any kind of reaction to that
other than what's nice to me, Norvil? I say nine
out of ten would have no idea that that is
Shaggy's name. Did you know? I I knew at some point,
(16:24):
but no, I don't think I ever. Had you walked
up to me asked me that, I would have been like,
get on my face, normal, normal. Shaggy Roberts was Scooby
Doo's best bud Casey Kayson as the voice as you
said forever, Well, no, it was a finite amount of well,
of course, one of my favorites. I think the probably
(16:46):
the unsung hero, the real overlooked one was Velma. Velma Dinkley.
Yeah she had a last name too. Yeah. That I
didn't know all of them, did I mean? And spears
they went to, Uh, they went to the mattresses. Maybe
you could say over this the mat Sure, yeah, Elmy,
is she your she your faith in that? I I
(17:08):
root for underdogs. I tend to. She lost her glasses
all the time. She was a little bookish. She was
pretty ugly, little square as well. Yeah, um and uh
she but she got things done. She was very smart,
she was suspicious, She was a lot of times she
was about like a crooked real estate like anybody else.
A lot of times she was the one that kind
(17:29):
of put it all together. Yeah, Fred kind of took
the credit many times. But because it was the sixties,
of course, she was voiced by Nicole Jaffee at first,
then later Pat Stevens and then do you know who
does her voice now on the new one, Mindy Cone.
But the Facts of Life, No way, she's Velma Dinkley.
Now wow, on the new Scooby Doo Show. I've kind
to check out the new Scooby Doo. It's like a
(17:49):
star studied cast. I know I haven't seen it, so
I need to do so as well. So we got
to talk about well, jinkies is her her little catchphrase?
Yes and zinks clearly as Shaggy's. Everyone knows that. Yeah,
what was Daphne's catchphrase? Help, I'm stuck somewhere. She used
(18:11):
to get in trouble quite a bit, if somebody was
going to fall into a pit or be pulled back
into a tramp door, a sliding bookcase or something like that,
be separated from the gang. Yeah, it was Daphne. It
was Daphnie. They portrayed her as fairly helpless for many,
many years until now she's evolved a little bit. The
(18:32):
newest incarnation. She knows karate cool, a little bit more
self sufficient, doesn't rely, She's not like the oh goodness,
the damsel in distress type, right and well, the reason
um everybody always made sure to rescue Daphne instead of
just leaving her behind because she was hot, Well that
was one. She was also very rich and her dad
(18:53):
bankrolled mystery ink. I did not know that either. He
purchased the mystery machine. I assumed that he probably kept
Scooba in Scooby snacks, maybe gassed up the Mystery Machine
tires when you needed it, that kind of thing. I
don't know what else. They needed, food, money, They slept
in the Mystery Machine a lot. Yeah, well it's assumed,
so I guess you don't really see him sleeping. Yeah.
(19:14):
They didn't have a house that I know of. No,
they roamed around, yeah, solving mysteries. Daphne was voiced by
Endeira Stefania Christofferson, then later Heather North, then later Grade
de Least Lee the Leslie de Least. Where are you
getting this information? Well, I did a little digging around
and h then we got to cover the man himself.
(19:36):
And by man I mean dog, Yes, Scoob. Yeah. Don Messic,
the Great Don Messic voiced Scooby. And if you think
he sounds like Astro from the Jetsons, it's because he
voiced Astro from the Jetsons too, which one was asked,
Oh the dog, Yeah, yeah, it sounds like Scooby. Yeah,
(19:57):
that's because it was the same guy. Yeah, Okay, who
else was there? Wasn't um why iowa Iawa Takamoto. Yeah,
I think he's still the a VP at at the
Hanna Barbara. Yeh, but did he create Scooby Doo? I
thought Ruby and Spears did. What was I think the role?
(20:19):
I think he was just on the early development executive
development team and remains there Today's mistaken. I'm sure he
had a big hand into that. He also created, um,
the let's see the Great Gazoo. Oh really yeah, man?
And um, well this is the Great Gorilla mc Gilla Gorilla, No, no,
the Great Great Pape. Yeah he created those two. Yeah,
(20:42):
that's a nice track record there. Yeah. So the Gang,
it's you know, most of the shows are sort of
similar to The Gang encounters uh some mystery and they
usually uncovered at the end, these meddling kids. If it
wasn't for you, I would have made off with the loot.
It's very by the numbers, which is sort of funny
that it's this cartoon is persevered for this many years
because it was all the same and that that show
(21:06):
description you just gave, that was geared towards the children
who were raised by wolves over the last forty years, right,
who's never seen it? Yeah? Like really, Scooby and Shaggy
were always hungry. They love the Scooby snacks. They were
always scared, and usually they would tempt them with food
and to get them to act brave at the last minute.
That kind of thing. Well, let's you want to talk
(21:28):
about it now, about what you know what I'm talking
about A Chuggy and Scooby were always hungry. Yeah, that's
factor fiction here. I hear fiction, So go ahead and
spill it well substantively around the bush there. Okay. So
of course there's the the um, the rumor that Shaggy
(21:50):
and Scooby were Stoner's right, long standing rumor. Well, yeah,
and it makes a lot of sense. They're always hungry.
They talk, you know, kind of slow and sluggish. Shaggy
just look at him, yes, exactly, look at the Mystery Machine. Sure, yeah,
and it's nineteen nine when it premiered, exactly. I mean,
like got flowers on the side. They're originally a band,
(22:10):
so they they they just assumed that it was like
Ruby and Spears or some of the development guys um
in joke that they made Shaggy and Scooby a um uh.
Stoner's right, and not just assumed, but people say that like,
oh no, dude, it was this big inside joke like
this is almost the conspiracy bent to it. But um,
(22:32):
the people who were there creating these characters swear up
and down that they're they're not. And apparently you could
be like, well, of course they're not going to say that. Now,
why would you want to say that now? Can't come
out and say that. But Fred Silverman, the guy who's
the studio executive, who had his fingers all involved in this,
(22:52):
apparently he would never have gone along with that kind
of thing. He was so involved that he he was,
he just would have known. Well, And Tacamoto said the
same thing, right, he said this came out years after,
you know, the show premiered. It was not a thing
like it makes I get it. I get it, guys,
but it's not true. But the beauty of it is
(23:12):
is like it doesn't matter. Takemotos can't say that all
day long. You know, it's gonna believe him, you know,
I mean like there's still gonna be some sixteen or
old that says exactly man, did you ever notice blank?
I think that's like a coming of age, first the
hormones and then the stoner epiphany. Yeah, yeah, Well there
was also the rumor that um, Velma was gay. And
(23:37):
that's not true either, of course, because they in the
New Incarnation they're hinting Mindy Cohen's taking in a really
sexual direction. Well, they are hinting at Shaggy and Velma
having a relationship. I don't think they've gone full blown
with it, but they're kind of poking around that area. Well,
they always like if the gang split up, it was
no Velman and Daphney went off with Fred, didn't they. Well,
(23:57):
it's usually Fred and Daphne, So that was another rumor,
Was it Fred and Daphney We're off doing their thing?
But that's not true either because Fred you know? Or
is it Isn't It up to the imagination of the
individual maybe so rather than the intention of the creators. Yeah,
we don't want to kill anything. You'd just be a sick. Oh,
as much as you want dear stuff, you should know
a listener, uh Josh In seventy two and I don't
(24:19):
know if you like these, but the full hour long
the new Scooby Doo movies started coming out, the ones
with the guest stars all of a sudden, with don
k Nots not don Knots playing someone don k Nots
just Don Notts. He was in two yea Phillis Diller.
Who else Harlem Globetrotters. Obviously they were I think Batman
(24:41):
and Robin weren't. Two and just who were actually mostly
dead at the time, but their voices done by um impersonators.
I wondered about that. Actually, Don Adams from Get Smart,
I was he on there? Um Jerry read Little Mayory
Sunshine all right with me? He's saying that's something they
found him. It was a haunted opera. I think Sunny
(25:05):
and Share Mama Cass working at a handy factory, or
she owned a cane factor. It's just mean back in
the days when obesity was funny. Well, they took the
show an hour. That was a good one. They took
the show to an hour and just in a slightly
odd direction, but it worked for me. I enjoyed those
(25:26):
shows very much, and no one seemed to, you know,
the you could suspend the disbelief that sure the Harlem
globetrot her shirt there in the cave all of a sudden,
right and they're in their uniforms with a basketball tricks. Yeah. Yeah,
it was a good press for all them, I'm sure,
although if you're really having to rethink suspending belief, disbelief
(25:47):
when it's a cartoon, it's time to check in somewhere.
Side characters, Josh gotta mention Scrappy Doo, who annoyed me
a bit. Oh yeah, there are a lot of people
out there that hate Scrappy do I mean hate him
like he's Hitler's dog. Scrappy was actually, uh, Scooby's nephew,
and as everyone knows, he was the counter to Scooby.
(26:08):
Was very brave and brash. You could even have brash,
very much brash, and then it's kind of a kind
of a jerk. He was a little bit of a Ye,
he was a troublemaker. And then my favorite, which was
Scooby Dumb. Was he your favorite? Yeah? I love Scooby Dumb.
He was the like the exploitation character. He had like
that hat and he had a pork pie hat, was
(26:29):
dumb looking, and he had a huge Southern drawl and yeah,
clearly a hillbilly. He was voiced, my friend, by the
legendary DAWs Butler. And if you're a cartoon fan, if
your cartoon aficianano, you're like, of course Dalls Butler. If
you're not. You still are a fan because he did
Yogi Bear, Quick Drama, Grawl, Snaggle plus yeah, and huckleberry Hound.
(26:52):
That's quite a range, well, huckleberry Hound, Quick Drama, Growl
and Scooby Dumb or not a range, but Snaggle Puss
thrown in there, and it was like it's a shining
moment Yogi and he has actually a really great long list.
I think he did Fred Flintstone for one year or
one episode, maybe the pilot, and then he did Barney
for a little while. Um he I mean his You
(27:12):
got to his I M D P d P page
and it's like cartoon all star. God, dude, did you
go to the Hanna Barbara's corporate page. What's it like?
They have a page that has like a listing of
all their cartoons and it's alphabetical. Um, they have everything.
They did everything. The only one that I watched that
(27:33):
I loved that was not a part of my late youth.
Um that they didn't do was Thunder of the Barbarian. Yeah,
I didn't watch that one. That was good. I was
speaking of Hong Kong Foo though. I think that was
everything was they did. Um, the super Friends they did
Yogi Bear, they did um adam Ant, like all those
(27:57):
cats that hung out with Yogi Bear, Justine, the Pussycats,
probably the Yeah, the hair Bear bunch, what's the Bears?
Teen Wolf? Did you watch the Team Wolf cartoon? There's
like four or five episodes? Pretty cool? Was this after
the movie? Yeah? Yeah, I see, I was beyond the
movie was based on the four episode run cartoons like
you know what this needs needs, Michael J. Fox, that'll
(28:17):
bring it back to life. They did everything that was
pretty cool. It's like this nice trip down memory lane
to go on. Hannah Barbara's like page of cartoons that
they've done well. And that's why Fred Silverman went with
them because they were at the time. I think they
said they did at least more than half of the
cartoons on the air, Like I believe it. Yeah, it's
probably more like it's my guest. Hong Kong Foo was
(28:39):
great number one super guy. Um. Let's talk about the
animation a little bit, getting to the tech. Yeah, because
Hannah Barbara was responsible for about fifty of the cartoons
in existence when Scooby Doo came out, because they figured
out how to make cartoons cheap enough for TV budget, Right,
it's pretty brilliant. Yeah, just called limited or planned animation,
(29:02):
and uh full ten years before so I guess in
the fifties, late fifties is when they devise this. And
it's very simple concept. But if a body part doesn't
have to move, then you don't have to draw it
over and over for each frame, for each cell. So
that's why when you look at Scooby Doo now sort
(29:23):
of clear, you'll be like, why did Shaggy walk? He
looked like the upper half of his body never moved
and he just had those low pie legs. Because they
didn't want to draw it over and over again. They
just drew one leg when leg when like, And they
did that using cells, like clear sheets of cellular remember
the overhead projector in high school? Yea, like those sheets cellular, right,
and the bottom sheet would have Shaggy's upper body, and
(29:43):
then there'd be another sheet with his right leg, another
sheet with his left leg, and they just they only
had to animate the two upper sheets rather than the
whole sheet, and that just changed everything. You can buy
the cells that this great place in Hollywood. It sells
like framed original cells cartoons. You should get a Simpsons.
I should maybe I should get you one day. Okay,
(30:04):
that cannon generic beer from Los Angeles, Empty cannon generic beer.
It's the best gift. Um what else? Chok uh Oh?
The the cravat you were making fun of about wearing, Um,
it was actually kind of an old animator's trick. Well,
(30:25):
I thought they did not do that. They did with Fred,
like that's the reason why he was wearing a cravat,
I think. But um, you can. You can change facial
expressions very easily. You can animate the whole rest of
the body and just change the head in the face,
right if you have separation right, So you can't have
separation that there's not supposed to be a line between
(30:45):
the neck and the stern um, but there can be
if there's a cravat there. Yeah, And they say, if
you pay attention to these older cartoons, you see a
lot of neck ties and collars, Like uh, I think
Hulcle berry Hound had a necktie of collar, remember that.
And I don't snaggle Puss. He dressed like a Chippendale,
didn't He had like the cuffs and like the tuxedo.
(31:06):
That's the second time we've mentioned that on the show
the Chippendale thing. But they did not have and this
was apparently a Takamoto um decision. They did not have
what are called muzzle lines. Right, do you remember that
that uh animated show that's in pulp fiction that Bruce
(31:27):
Willis when he was a kid, he was, okay, yeah,
where it's like an animated face and then just like
the lips are movie. Well, they used to animate just
the lips moving and the rest of the face wouldn't.
But Tacamoto apparently wanted more expression than that. We made
it so the animators couldn't just draw the mouth and
leave anything else. He drew too many extra lines that
(31:49):
gave expression to the face, and the result was they
forwarded the whole animation process forwarded fast forwarded, Josh. The
rest of the show is a little bit like a
regular show. They scripted like a regular show. They storyboard it,
They did the voice recording just like you you know,
would imagine. Uh. They lay it out and break it
(32:11):
down on paper, and then it is sent to animation
at that point where they lip sync it all to
the mouths. And that largely has been done in Korea
and other places overseas for many years, Like the Have
you've seen the Banks the intro to that Simpsons. Yeah, man,
that's awesome, Man, that is so awesome. Did you hear
(32:32):
that there was some guy on um eBay auctioning off banks?
He's identity that really he had come up with it
over the past few years. He was researching um the
sale price of some of banks these pieces and tax
records that showed the same amounts, and he put it
together and was auctioning off for a million dollars and
(32:52):
was about to get it and apparently got paid off
by banks. That's what they think, or knowing Banksy. The
whole thing was Banks. The good point, what a guy.
So when they animated back in the day, Josh, they
traced with ink and then painted onto the back of
the acetate. And today, of course, with computers, the drawings
(33:13):
are generally scanned, although they do say that there's still
a lot of drawing done and most of the coloring
and details and things like that are added with computers,
so there's still some purity to that. Most cartoons are
not live because it's a terrible strain on the animator's
risk exactly. And here's the other thing too, there is
(33:35):
some editing that goes on in post production. But because
this animation, you want to plan it out such that
it's sort of just runs in a line or fashion
and you don't have to worry about it. So a
lot of the editing is um sound effects editing, other
sound editing, adding props and just things to enhance it,
stuff like that. So that's the deal there. That is
(33:56):
quite a deal. It's a free deal. It takes about
six months for one half hour show. They say, yeah,
it's a long time. Yeah, I mean think about that.
Imagine if they hadn't come up with limited animation, how
much that would take? How much longer it would take? Yeah,
six months for a show? Is that possible? Well, I
don't know if that was. No, I think it's now.
(34:16):
That's how long it takes. What. I don't know if
that's then or now? You know what, We've had some
animators and stuff right in so somebody that we need
to find out in the industry. Yeah, how long does
it take to make a half hour cartoon? Yeah? Minutes shows?
Oh that's kind of true. We had some myths and
(34:37):
facts that we've already busted, but one of them we
didn't get to was, um, there was a myth that
the show's characters were based on the five Boston colleges. Yeah,
I've not heard this one. I had neither. Fred was Amherst,
Daphne was Holyoake, Mount Holyoake, Velma was Smith College, Shaggy
was obviously Hampshire, and the party animal Scooby was clearly
(34:59):
you Mask. And they said that that's not true either.
In fact, Hampshire College came about a year after Scooby
Doo premiered, So they said that one kind of kills that,
and they I think Takamoto said this, these are Bostonians
trying to kind of get a little regional pride going.
But I didn't get if they were from Boston. There
(35:21):
they were supposed to be from Boston. I heard that.
I don't know where. Yeah, if Boston people just made
it up, or if there was some sort of reference
to Boston. And here's the other thing I couldn't find that.
Hopefully someone will know is I seem to remember as
a child learning something about then being on a track
team at some point, like Shaggy was on the track team.
(35:43):
I think I remember some episode where they referenced that.
So I couldn't find that and hopefully there's like some
Scooby efficionados that will say, oh yeah, of course, of
course he's a poll vaulter because he poll vaulted in
episode number twenty four to get away from the wax
Fanom exactly, you got anything else I do? Actually? Um,
(36:04):
remember we talked about Fred Silverman. If you look at
the list of Scooby Doo incarnations in uh in nineteen
seventies six, it goes from CBS, which in originally ran
Scooby Doo to ABC. Yeah, yeah, and he did that
because Fred Silverman went to ABC. This guy loved this
show this much, he just took it wherever he went. Yeah,
I got one more little factory too. I saw that
(36:24):
Casey Caysum agreed to come back, and uh, not the
latest one because Matthew Lillard does it, but I think
it was the previous. If he could make Shaggy a
vegetarian because he's a big vegetarian, and yeah, sure, who cares,
do whatever you want? What if you wanted, it doesn't matter.
So Matthew Lillard is to Casey Casum what Ryan Sea
(36:46):
Chris is Dick Clark. Huh uh yeah sure in a way. Well,
although Dick Clark still does the rock and if he
just has helped, Yeah, he's a co host now. So
the sort of the scene, all right, No, I've got
a little more. If just trolling the internet you get bored,
search Scooby Doo among some of the other stuff, you'll
(37:07):
find some gems. Mental Floss actually has a um quiz
where you have to guess whether it's an actual real
life event or Scooby Doo plot. Are it's kind of
some of them. It's pretty neat awesome. Just the concept
alone means you should take that quiz. Well, that means
that they found a few things that were so close
(37:28):
that they decided to base an article. Yeah, people do
crazy stuff, real estate developers, they do nuts stuff. Um there.
List Verse has a very cool top ten of odd villains,
including the wax fantom uh and then Google did you
notice last Halloween had five different logos for Halloween and
all the more Scooby Doo themed. Yah. So true. So
(37:50):
after all these years, man, all these shows have come
and gone that were huge, and Scooby Doo has persevered
and continues too. That's right, that's pretty awesome. Hats off
to you, Scooby Doo. Do you got anything else? I
think that's the limits of my bad impressions. If you
want to learn more about Scooby Doo, and I mean
like everything, especially if you're interested in television show development,
(38:14):
you should read this very unique article on the site.
Just type in Scooby Doo and the search part how
stuff works dot com, which means now it's time for
listener mail Josh. A while ago we talked about um acupuncture.
Acupuncture is that we did when yes, I know we're calling,
(38:35):
Oh you were fall We got hammered by people because
a lot of people don't like acupuncture. But at the
end of that show, we called for surgery horror stories
and we got quite a few, actually, and this is
one of them. Okay, and here it is, all right, guys,
and Jerry hope all as well. A friend of a
friend went in to have a cancerous testicle removed and
(38:59):
they took out the wrong one. No, it was a
basic mistake when you go in for it's not a
basic mistake, that's what he Frank in l A describes
it as a basic mistake. It wasn't Frank's testicle either.
It was a basic mistake when you go in for
that operation. A nurse puts an X on the inside
of the thigh that corresponds with the testicle that is
(39:21):
to be removed, and she marked the wrong leg pretty easy.
Someone caught it after it was too late, and they
ended up taking both of them out. When they told him,
he started crying. I'll vet with laughter, but his wife
was the one that was furious. I know they received
a settlement, but I don't know those details. So this
(39:41):
is a true story, and I'm more than happy to
have my buddy verify it. Really enjoyed the podcast. Frank
in l A. Well, Frank's uh friend of a friend. Sorry, Bud,
it sounds like you got a good sense of humor
about it. Well his friend knows at least, well a
friend of a friend. Yeah, so yeah, nurses watch out
(40:03):
with that sharpie. Yeah, you want to be like fully
awake and aware and paying attention when they come into marrow.
It doesn't matter what it is. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Wow,
that's all I got. That's quite enough, Chuck. Thank you
for that, and thank you for joining us with us
talking about Scooby doo Um. We'll see you next time
(40:25):
in the meantime, go check us out on Facebook, follow
us on Twitter. We're on fire and uh We're s
Y s K podcast on Twitter. By the way, uh
and you can email us the old fashioned way at
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com For more
(40:48):
on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
stuff works dot com. The
Hey, everybody, Chuck here with this week's Saturday Select Pick
of the Week. I'm going for Scooby Doo this week.
Scooby Doo, where are you? We? You know, enjoy doing
our pop culture episodes and some classic TV shows here
and there, and Scooby Doo certainly falls into that category.
So I think everyone should enjoy this one. If you
haven't heard it, and maybe if you have, give it
(00:21):
another listen because there might be a secret code embedded.
I'm just getting to release it, but enjoy. Welcome to
stuff you should know from the house stuff works dot Com. Yeah, Scooby, Hey,
(01:00):
welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as
always is Charles W. Chuck Bryant. He is no longer
older than me. We are both seven years old at
this moment, right. I knew you catch up eventually. I
just came home from elementary school. My backpack has just
made a thud on the floor, and then stones have
just gone off, and thank god, you know, and um
(01:23):
on comes Scooby Doo. I'm not here though, it doesn't matter.
What do you mean You're not here? I'm making out
with some girls. We're both we're both seven I know
that's what I'm saying. Everyone knows I was a late bloomber.
That's not true. You were quite the casanova chuck okay um,
And it didn't matter. Although I could have told you
(01:43):
within the first half of a second of hearing the
theme song, what Scooby Doo is about to come on?
Which episode? What? What version? Because remember there's ten ten,
ten point seven million incarnations of Scooby Doo, a lot
of them. What you just heard was, of course the
(02:06):
Russian version of the Scooby Doo theme. Those of you
who grew up in Vladivostock in Moscow, they're probably rocking
out to it. Scooby do. Yeah, that's pretty good, wasn't it. Yeah? Yeah,
that was from the well again, the Russian version of
the new Scooby Doo movies. But I mean the ones
that I was used to or um, Scooby Doo, where
(02:27):
are You? Which is of course the first one to me.
That is those twenty five episodes. That was Scooby Doo. See,
I think it extends a little bit, but it's more
encompassing than that. I'm a little older though, but it
only runs up to the limits of my nostalgia. I
don't watch it these days. I have to say, though,
I'm harden to know that Scooby Doo is still in
the world. As a matter of fact, I read a
(02:50):
study Chuck from two where they were trying to figure
out if cartoon characters have an effect on children's decisions
with food. So they gave kids, like some boxes that
had gummy bears, granola, just some there was snack food, right,
was there a Scooby snack in there? Um? And then
(03:10):
they gave them boxes of the exact same stuff, but
rather than like playing non cartoony boxes, they had cartoon
characters on the boxes they had. This is a two study,
So they had Shrek door of the Explorer in Scooby Doo.
No way. Guess which one of those three cartoon characters
was forty years old at the time, Um, the Explorer,
(03:34):
Scooby dooty years forty years The other two were like
ten years old at the time. And they're using this
on four to six year olds and Scooby Doo still
making them eat gummy bears. Well, I breezed through that
Slate article you sent that really sums it up nicely.
What and that's the reason we're doing Scooby Doo when
we're not doing uh, I'm trying to think of some
fly By Nights and cartoons. Yeah, the Jetson's or no
(03:56):
fly By Night shirt tails, but awesome, love the shirt tails.
Scooby Doo. The reason we're doing this is because it
has persevered through the years like Muppets and become so
iconic that it's more than a cartoon. Yeah. In that
Slate article there's a they quote the guy who created
Clarissa explains it all and he's like, no one can
(04:18):
explain why Scooby Doo is so iconic so popular, because
he's like, it's not it's not the best, it's not
the worst. So why has it been around for forty years?
And he's like, you know, every cartoon creators like, why
can't my crappy cartoon become iconic? You know? I mean
they don't even there's no answer, is there? There isn't.
And that's part of the allua Scooby Doo. Their their proposals,
(04:41):
like everybody loves a dog, um, everybody loves a mystery. Uh.
One of the um one of the reasons it's enduring
to kids. This author supposes is because they don't do
like the ironic like double entendres right to where you know,
adults get it and kids get it, but really, you know,
all for kids. It was all for kids plus kids
(05:02):
like uh. The reason, probably for the same reason that
things like Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys have persevered,
is because kids doing adult like things like solving mysteries
and getting the best and getting the best of adults.
Kids love that stuff. I was the Three Investigators fan,
Did you read them? Now? It was the three It
was Alfred Hitchcock's nephew and his two friends. Really, it
(05:24):
was awesome. I was big into a Encyclopedia Brown. I
loved him too. Yeah remember when he busted the kid
who was faking crying because the tears are coming out
of the wrong end of the eyes. Yeah. I could
never figure him out, though I always felt dumb. I
don't know if I ever figured any out either. Shouldn't
feel dumb. They were They were purposely made to obvious
skate the truth. Alright, So Dictionary Brown was great. Encyclopedia
(05:50):
Oh yeah, right, Scooby Doo. Let's go to the history.
How about that the birth of Scooby? Yeah, because it
wasn't and it wasn't immediate. No, it was not what
was an immediate hit, but it wasn't an immediate Uh.
Took a while to get on the air. Some incarnations happened.
Josh first one Scooby Doo, where are You? Originally, um, well,
let's go back a little bit before. Originally it was
(06:11):
called Who's Scared? And then they had another name that
kind of stuck for a little all called Mysteries five. Yeah,
And originally it was based on what was the radio
show I Love a Mystery. I Love a Mystery Slashdobe
gillis the TV show, which is what Shaggy's based on.
He's like a Beatnick. He's based on Ma Energy Crabs.
(06:32):
Fred is based on Adobe or other stuff. The other
way to look at is that they were based in
large part of the Archie Gang, and Shaggy takes after
joke Head. I didn't see that. Yeah, interesting, but and
I'm an Archie guy. There were There wasn't even a
dog in the in the original versions, well not in
the very original version. There was no dog at all.
(06:53):
The Mysteries five comes along, there is Jeff g Off
of all things Off, Mike Kelly, Linda, Linda's brother w W.
This is just unsettling, the unfamiliarity. And a dog called
too Much, Yeah, who was shaggy war like, he was
a shaggy dog, wore sunglasses and played the bongos because
(07:15):
they were a band. That was the original concept that
they were a band. So the dog played the bong
gos and they were worried. They had a Great Dane
idea at first. Then they were worried that the makers
of Marmaduke, You're gonna be like you ripped us off,
of course, and they tried too much and we're like,
too much sucks well, and Archie had ay a sheep dog,
so they steered away from that to the Great Danaans.
(07:37):
And then Jeff and Mike became they merged, became Ronnie,
and then Ronnie eventually became Fred, Kelly became Daphne, Linda
became Velma. W W became Shaggy but was no longer
Daphne's brother. But it seems like I've heard of some
(07:58):
sort of distant relation that they've made reference to in
Scooby Doo, like they were something. Yeah, well they were
somehow related, but not brother and sister. Interesting, I could
just be making that up though maybe. Yeah. Alright, so
that's um how it was for a little while. Then
it eventually became the Scooby Doo as we know, and
love became the great thing as we said, right, and
(08:21):
we left somebody out there's a studio exact who has
been who well, it was totally instrumental in this creation,
like he ordered the show from Hannah Barbera. His name
is Fred Silverman as far as I know, Fred's named
after him, right, oh really, And the whole reason there
was a dog in there was because Joe Ruby and
(08:41):
Ken Spears, the writers and developers of Scooby Doo, two
young guns at the time, right, they knew that, um,
Fred Silverman loved dogs. He was a dog guy. So
that's the whole reason they inserted a dog. And there's
two young writers like put a dog in there, and
the exactly love it, right, And they asked Joe Barbera
of Hannah Barbera if they could do that. In Barbara's responses,
do whatever you want, and so they put the dog right. Um.
(09:06):
But Fred Silverman also had an even bigger impact on
Scooby Doo, didn't he? Uh, the name Scooby Doo. Ye, yeah,
he got that supposedly from Dooby Dooby Doo, Frank Sinatra
Strangers in the Dark, Night Night, same thing. It was dark,
the night is dark. Let's see it's in Alaska. The
(09:29):
banners acceptionally quick today, thank you. So Fred was this
is kind of a landmark show at the time because
he wanted a half hour show, and cartoons weren't half
hour shows at the time. They were like Yogi Bear,
it was like eight minutes and then eight minutes and
eight minutes, or in the case of like the Flintstone,
that was a primetime thing. So this was geared towards
(09:49):
Saturday morning programming, and he wanted to have a full
half hour plot line and a little more substance going on.
He also um wanted to steer away from violence. Uh.
This The Scooby Doo came onto the scene at a
time when cartoon networks were um well, networks that show
cartoons were increasingly under pressure from parents groups, family groups,
(10:12):
church groups to stop showing as much violence in cartoons
like Johnny Quest there's a lot of rockham sock'm action
in that and um so they decided that Scooby Doo
and his his buddies would outwit villains rather than beat
them up. Yeah, they were never even like punches thrown
and Scooby Doo much less you know, mock gun violence exactly.
(10:34):
And and um yeah those guns in Johnny Quests were
cool though the two. Um, but think about it, like,
we wouldn't have had like all the contraptions that Fred
came up with, or any of them came up with,
like the the net that like you know, you tripped
and it just pulled you up or whatever. Well I
think that was a thing, right, it was, But you
(10:54):
don't need that if you just punched the guy. So
this whole aspect that these elaborate trap that they always
ended up setting that Scooby and Shaggy had debat the
bad guy into was a result of this movement toward
non violence. Well, at first cartoons, they point out in
this article, which I didn't realize cartoons at the time.
Before this, no one had really cared about the violent
(11:16):
thing because they weren't really geared towards kids. They were
shown before movies to general audiences in the theaters, and
then when it jumped to TV, kids started watching them.
Clearly because their cartoons and they do a study like that,
like why are kids inherently just like drawn to drawn image?
They're dumb, stupid kids. And uh, then people started saying,
(11:36):
a wait a minute, kids are watching these things. Now
we should have something not violent, right, and now Australia
is outlawing direct marketing to kids. So good for you Australia. Indeed, Josh, indeed,
uh when and we should mention September ninety nine when
Scooby Doo finally appeared and it was a big hit
right off of that. Yeah, here is a bit of
trivia for you. The first episode ever showed was titled
(12:01):
I didn't even know this? What a night? For a Night?
The second night is K and I g h T
What a night? And was it a ghost night? Yeah,
you've seen it before a million times. It's on. It's
in the intro good night with the red plume. Yeah. Absolutely,
Uh And that, Josh, is a staple of Scooby Doo.
That was um many times they were fighting zombies and
(12:25):
ghosts and demons, but to take a little bit of
the scare out of it, because that's what they were originally.
The only time they were really worried was the fact
that there was so many like scary elements, but they
were always humans projecting projecting a ghost on the wall
of the cave. There was never obviously any real ghost
because it was even though his cartoon was rooted in reality,
(12:46):
it was always a criminal. Yeah, and there's a there's
a couple of things that play here, which I didn't
think about until I started researching this. But UM Junior
Skeptic Magazine had this issue dedicated Scooby Doo because it's
like it's based on a completely skeptical view of the universe,
especially Fred. You know, there's not ghosts. It's it's all
(13:09):
it's very empirical, Like there's a ghost right there, but
it can't be a ghost because there's such thing as ghost.
So let's get to the bottom of it. And there
is like some sort of human explanation of it. And
that well, like I said, that was Fred, that was
his Well, let's get into the characters Fred was. They
all had their roles. Fred was a skeptic. He was
the leader of Mystery Incorporated, and he was usually the
(13:31):
one saying, nine times out of ten he was like, no,
that can't be that it is this and then we'll
get to the bottom of it. That was Fred Role.
He was very dapper, dandy guy with his scarf on
his neck. It's called a cravat, Chuck. It's perfectly normal.
People were cravats. Okay, see you've got one, you don't.
(13:51):
He was very handsome, a little square now he's a
He was a prep. He was a prep and he
was a little aloof maybe you're gonna saying, yeah he was.
He was the leader because he was the one that
was always trying to keep everyone on task and get
the mystery solved. And he was voiced by Frank Welker
right and still is today. If I'm not mistaken, I
(14:14):
don't know. I think he is. I can tell you
who has been doing voices from the get go, is
that Casey Casu Well, no more. Actually when did he
stop a couple of years ago? Okay, so when did
his Top forty run stop? Because he started Scooby Doo
and his Top forty hosting duties in the same year. No,
he did Scooby Doo longer because he he did Scooby
(14:36):
Doo all the way up until the latest incarnation and
Matthew Lillard took over. Actually, really, he's doing it now.
He does the voice because he did such an awesome job.
I'm no huge Matthew Lillard guy. But when I didn't
even see the Scooby Doo movies, I should point out didn't.
I didn't see them all, but I saw parts and
I remember thinking, wow, that dude is shaggy. I remember
(14:58):
thinking like, wow, my eyes are bleeding. I don't think
they're the best movies. Were they good casting? Though they
raked in some dough good casting. Austin Roberts was responsible
for the famous theme song that they used in the
original and then that was uh many times. It was
also another pop song played while they come montage. Yeah,
(15:19):
there's a whole bunch of them on YouTube. Yeah, and
that was generally Austin Roberts as well. And apparently if
you go onto YouTube and start searching, um Scooby Doo songs, yeah,
you're gonna find that they If you're not familiar with
Scooby Doo and you just came across these, you would
assume that Fred and Daphne were in love and dating.
I always assumed that as a kid. Yeah, but if
(15:39):
you if you watch it again, like friend Zam paying
that much attention to Dafney, she could have taken her left. Fred, Yeah,
I think that was all just like I was a
kid and I thought, well, they're clearly the two most attractive.
That's projecting your own hormones on friends. What it was,
so they should be hooking up, Josh. I'm gonna ask
the listeners a question here. Okay, listeners, we're gonna sit
(16:02):
around for a week or two. No, no, no, it's
just rhetorical listeners. If someone came this is a Fred
noon In style question. If someone came up to you
and introduced themselves as Norville Rogers, how many people do
you think would have any kind of reaction to that
other than what's nice to me, Norvil? I say nine
out of ten would have no idea that that is
Shaggy's name. Did you know? I I knew at some point,
(16:24):
but no, I don't think I ever. Had you walked
up to me asked me that, I would have been like,
get on my face, normal, normal. Shaggy Roberts was Scooby
Doo's best bud Casey Kayson as the voice as you
said forever, Well, no, it was a finite amount of well,
of course, one of my favorites. I think the probably
(16:46):
the unsung hero, the real overlooked one was Velma. Velma Dinkley.
Yeah she had a last name too. Yeah. That I
didn't know all of them, did I mean? And spears
they went to, Uh, they went to the mattresses. Maybe
you could say over this the mat Sure, yeah, Elmy,
is she your she your faith in that? I I
(17:08):
root for underdogs. I tend to. She lost her glasses
all the time. She was a little bookish. She was
pretty ugly, little square as well. Yeah, um and uh
she but she got things done. She was very smart,
she was suspicious, She was a lot of times she
was about like a crooked real estate like anybody else.
A lot of times she was the one that kind
(17:29):
of put it all together. Yeah, Fred kind of took
the credit many times. But because it was the sixties,
of course, she was voiced by Nicole Jaffee at first,
then later Pat Stevens and then do you know who
does her voice now on the new one, Mindy Cone.
But the Facts of Life, No way, she's Velma Dinkley.
Now wow, on the new Scooby Doo Show. I've kind
to check out the new Scooby Doo. It's like a
(17:49):
star studied cast. I know I haven't seen it, so
I need to do so as well. So we got
to talk about well, jinkies is her her little catchphrase?
Yes and zinks clearly as Shaggy's. Everyone knows that. Yeah,
what was Daphne's catchphrase? Help, I'm stuck somewhere. She used
(18:11):
to get in trouble quite a bit, if somebody was
going to fall into a pit or be pulled back
into a tramp door, a sliding bookcase or something like that,
be separated from the gang. Yeah, it was Daphne. It
was Daphnie. They portrayed her as fairly helpless for many,
many years until now she's evolved a little bit. The
(18:32):
newest incarnation. She knows karate cool, a little bit more
self sufficient, doesn't rely, She's not like the oh goodness,
the damsel in distress type, right and well, the reason
um everybody always made sure to rescue Daphne instead of
just leaving her behind because she was hot, Well that
was one. She was also very rich and her dad
(18:53):
bankrolled mystery ink. I did not know that either. He
purchased the mystery machine. I assumed that he probably kept
Scooba in Scooby snacks, maybe gassed up the Mystery Machine
tires when you needed it, that kind of thing. I
don't know what else. They needed, food, money, They slept
in the Mystery Machine a lot. Yeah, well it's assumed,
so I guess you don't really see him sleeping. Yeah.
(19:14):
They didn't have a house that I know of. No,
they roamed around, yeah, solving mysteries. Daphne was voiced by
Endeira Stefania Christofferson, then later Heather North, then later Grade
de Least Lee the Leslie de Least. Where are you
getting this information? Well, I did a little digging around
and h then we got to cover the man himself.
(19:36):
And by man I mean dog, Yes, Scoob. Yeah. Don Messic,
the Great Don Messic voiced Scooby. And if you think
he sounds like Astro from the Jetsons, it's because he
voiced Astro from the Jetsons too, which one was asked,
Oh the dog, Yeah, yeah, it sounds like Scooby. Yeah,
(19:57):
that's because it was the same guy. Yeah, Okay, who
else was there? Wasn't um why iowa Iawa Takamoto. Yeah,
I think he's still the a VP at at the
Hanna Barbara. Yeh, but did he create Scooby Doo? I
thought Ruby and Spears did. What was I think the role?
(20:19):
I think he was just on the early development executive
development team and remains there Today's mistaken. I'm sure he
had a big hand into that. He also created, um,
the let's see the Great Gazoo. Oh really yeah, man?
And um, well this is the Great Gorilla mc Gilla Gorilla, No, no,
the Great Great Pape. Yeah he created those two. Yeah,
(20:42):
that's a nice track record there. Yeah. So the Gang,
it's you know, most of the shows are sort of
similar to The Gang encounters uh some mystery and they
usually uncovered at the end, these meddling kids. If it
wasn't for you, I would have made off with the loot.
It's very by the numbers, which is sort of funny
that it's this cartoon is persevered for this many years
because it was all the same and that that show
(21:06):
description you just gave, that was geared towards the children
who were raised by wolves over the last forty years, right,
who's never seen it? Yeah? Like really, Scooby and Shaggy
were always hungry. They love the Scooby snacks. They were
always scared, and usually they would tempt them with food
and to get them to act brave at the last minute.
That kind of thing. Well, let's you want to talk
(21:28):
about it now, about what you know what I'm talking
about A Chuggy and Scooby were always hungry. Yeah, that's
factor fiction here. I hear fiction, So go ahead and
spill it well substantively around the bush there. Okay. So
of course there's the the um, the rumor that Shaggy
(21:50):
and Scooby were Stoner's right, long standing rumor. Well, yeah,
and it makes a lot of sense. They're always hungry.
They talk, you know, kind of slow and sluggish. Shaggy
just look at him, yes, exactly, look at the Mystery Machine. Sure, yeah,
and it's nineteen nine when it premiered, exactly. I mean,
like got flowers on the side. They're originally a band,
(22:10):
so they they they just assumed that it was like
Ruby and Spears or some of the development guys um
in joke that they made Shaggy and Scooby a um uh.
Stoner's right, and not just assumed, but people say that like,
oh no, dude, it was this big inside joke like
this is almost the conspiracy bent to it. But um,
(22:32):
the people who were there creating these characters swear up
and down that they're they're not. And apparently you could
be like, well, of course they're not going to say that. Now,
why would you want to say that now? Can't come
out and say that. But Fred Silverman, the guy who's
the studio executive, who had his fingers all involved in this,
(22:52):
apparently he would never have gone along with that kind
of thing. He was so involved that he he was,
he just would have known. Well, And Tacamoto said the
same thing, right, he said this came out years after,
you know, the show premiered. It was not a thing
like it makes I get it. I get it, guys,
but it's not true. But the beauty of it is
(23:12):
is like it doesn't matter. Takemotos can't say that all
day long. You know, it's gonna believe him, you know,
I mean like there's still gonna be some sixteen or
old that says exactly man, did you ever notice blank?
I think that's like a coming of age, first the
hormones and then the stoner epiphany. Yeah, yeah, Well there
was also the rumor that um, Velma was gay. And
(23:37):
that's not true either, of course, because they in the
New Incarnation they're hinting Mindy Cohen's taking in a really
sexual direction. Well, they are hinting at Shaggy and Velma
having a relationship. I don't think they've gone full blown
with it, but they're kind of poking around that area. Well,
they always like if the gang split up, it was
no Velman and Daphney went off with Fred, didn't they. Well,
(23:57):
it's usually Fred and Daphne, So that was another rumor,
Was it Fred and Daphney We're off doing their thing?
But that's not true either because Fred you know? Or
is it Isn't It up to the imagination of the
individual maybe so rather than the intention of the creators. Yeah,
we don't want to kill anything. You'd just be a sick. Oh,
as much as you want dear stuff, you should know
a listener, uh Josh In seventy two and I don't
(24:19):
know if you like these, but the full hour long
the new Scooby Doo movies started coming out, the ones
with the guest stars all of a sudden, with don
k Nots not don Knots playing someone don k Nots
just Don Notts. He was in two yea Phillis Diller.
Who else Harlem Globetrotters. Obviously they were I think Batman
(24:41):
and Robin weren't. Two and just who were actually mostly
dead at the time, but their voices done by um impersonators.
I wondered about that. Actually, Don Adams from Get Smart,
I was he on there? Um Jerry read Little Mayory
Sunshine all right with me? He's saying that's something they
found him. It was a haunted opera. I think Sunny
(25:05):
and Share Mama Cass working at a handy factory, or
she owned a cane factor. It's just mean back in
the days when obesity was funny. Well, they took the
show an hour. That was a good one. They took
the show to an hour and just in a slightly
odd direction, but it worked for me. I enjoyed those
(25:26):
shows very much, and no one seemed to, you know,
the you could suspend the disbelief that sure the Harlem
globetrot her shirt there in the cave all of a sudden,
right and they're in their uniforms with a basketball tricks. Yeah. Yeah,
it was a good press for all them, I'm sure,
although if you're really having to rethink suspending belief, disbelief
(25:47):
when it's a cartoon, it's time to check in somewhere.
Side characters, Josh gotta mention Scrappy Doo, who annoyed me
a bit. Oh yeah, there are a lot of people
out there that hate Scrappy do I mean hate him
like he's Hitler's dog. Scrappy was actually, uh, Scooby's nephew,
and as everyone knows, he was the counter to Scooby.
(26:08):
Was very brave and brash. You could even have brash,
very much brash, and then it's kind of a kind
of a jerk. He was a little bit of a Ye,
he was a troublemaker. And then my favorite, which was
Scooby Dumb. Was he your favorite? Yeah? I love Scooby Dumb.
He was the like the exploitation character. He had like
that hat and he had a pork pie hat, was
(26:29):
dumb looking, and he had a huge Southern drawl and yeah,
clearly a hillbilly. He was voiced, my friend, by the
legendary DAWs Butler. And if you're a cartoon fan, if
your cartoon aficianano, you're like, of course Dalls Butler. If
you're not. You still are a fan because he did
Yogi Bear, Quick Drama, Grawl, Snaggle plus yeah, and huckleberry Hound.
(26:52):
That's quite a range, well, huckleberry Hound, Quick Drama, Growl
and Scooby Dumb or not a range, but Snaggle Puss
thrown in there, and it was like it's a shining
moment Yogi and he has actually a really great long list.
I think he did Fred Flintstone for one year or
one episode, maybe the pilot, and then he did Barney
for a little while. Um he I mean his You
(27:12):
got to his I M D P d P page
and it's like cartoon all star. God, dude, did you
go to the Hanna Barbara's corporate page. What's it like?
They have a page that has like a listing of
all their cartoons and it's alphabetical. Um, they have everything.
They did everything. The only one that I watched that
(27:33):
I loved that was not a part of my late youth.
Um that they didn't do was Thunder of the Barbarian. Yeah,
I didn't watch that one. That was good. I was
speaking of Hong Kong Foo though. I think that was
everything was they did. Um, the super Friends they did
Yogi Bear, they did um adam Ant, like all those
(27:57):
cats that hung out with Yogi Bear, Justine, the Pussycats,
probably the Yeah, the hair Bear bunch, what's the Bears?
Teen Wolf? Did you watch the Team Wolf cartoon? There's
like four or five episodes? Pretty cool? Was this after
the movie? Yeah? Yeah, I see, I was beyond the
movie was based on the four episode run cartoons like
you know what this needs needs, Michael J. Fox, that'll
(28:17):
bring it back to life. They did everything that was
pretty cool. It's like this nice trip down memory lane
to go on. Hannah Barbara's like page of cartoons that
they've done well. And that's why Fred Silverman went with
them because they were at the time. I think they
said they did at least more than half of the
cartoons on the air, Like I believe it. Yeah, it's
probably more like it's my guest. Hong Kong Foo was
(28:39):
great number one super guy. Um. Let's talk about the
animation a little bit, getting to the tech. Yeah, because
Hannah Barbara was responsible for about fifty of the cartoons
in existence when Scooby Doo came out, because they figured
out how to make cartoons cheap enough for TV budget, Right,
it's pretty brilliant. Yeah, just called limited or planned animation,
(29:02):
and uh full ten years before so I guess in
the fifties, late fifties is when they devise this. And
it's very simple concept. But if a body part doesn't
have to move, then you don't have to draw it
over and over for each frame, for each cell. So
that's why when you look at Scooby Doo now sort
(29:23):
of clear, you'll be like, why did Shaggy walk? He
looked like the upper half of his body never moved
and he just had those low pie legs. Because they
didn't want to draw it over and over again. They
just drew one leg when leg when like, And they
did that using cells, like clear sheets of cellular remember
the overhead projector in high school? Yea, like those sheets cellular, right,
and the bottom sheet would have Shaggy's upper body, and
(29:43):
then there'd be another sheet with his right leg, another
sheet with his left leg, and they just they only
had to animate the two upper sheets rather than the
whole sheet, and that just changed everything. You can buy
the cells that this great place in Hollywood. It sells
like framed original cells cartoons. You should get a Simpsons.
I should maybe I should get you one day. Okay,
(30:04):
that cannon generic beer from Los Angeles, Empty cannon generic beer.
It's the best gift. Um what else? Chok uh Oh?
The the cravat you were making fun of about wearing, Um,
it was actually kind of an old animator's trick. Well,
(30:25):
I thought they did not do that. They did with Fred,
like that's the reason why he was wearing a cravat,
I think. But um, you can. You can change facial
expressions very easily. You can animate the whole rest of
the body and just change the head in the face,
right if you have separation right, So you can't have
separation that there's not supposed to be a line between
(30:45):
the neck and the stern um, but there can be
if there's a cravat there. Yeah, And they say, if
you pay attention to these older cartoons, you see a
lot of neck ties and collars, Like uh, I think
Hulcle berry Hound had a necktie of collar, remember that.
And I don't snaggle Puss. He dressed like a Chippendale,
didn't He had like the cuffs and like the tuxedo.
(31:06):
That's the second time we've mentioned that on the show
the Chippendale thing. But they did not have and this
was apparently a Takamoto um decision. They did not have
what are called muzzle lines. Right, do you remember that
that uh animated show that's in pulp fiction that Bruce
(31:27):
Willis when he was a kid, he was, okay, yeah,
where it's like an animated face and then just like
the lips are movie. Well, they used to animate just
the lips moving and the rest of the face wouldn't.
But Tacamoto apparently wanted more expression than that. We made
it so the animators couldn't just draw the mouth and
leave anything else. He drew too many extra lines that
(31:49):
gave expression to the face, and the result was they
forwarded the whole animation process forwarded fast forwarded, Josh. The
rest of the show is a little bit like a
regular show. They scripted like a regular show. They storyboard it,
They did the voice recording just like you you know,
would imagine. Uh. They lay it out and break it
(32:11):
down on paper, and then it is sent to animation
at that point where they lip sync it all to
the mouths. And that largely has been done in Korea
and other places overseas for many years, Like the Have
you've seen the Banks the intro to that Simpsons. Yeah, man,
that's awesome, Man, that is so awesome. Did you hear
(32:32):
that there was some guy on um eBay auctioning off banks?
He's identity that really he had come up with it
over the past few years. He was researching um the
sale price of some of banks these pieces and tax
records that showed the same amounts, and he put it
together and was auctioning off for a million dollars and
(32:52):
was about to get it and apparently got paid off
by banks. That's what they think, or knowing Banksy. The
whole thing was Banks. The good point, what a guy.
So when they animated back in the day, Josh, they
traced with ink and then painted onto the back of
the acetate. And today, of course, with computers, the drawings
(33:13):
are generally scanned, although they do say that there's still
a lot of drawing done and most of the coloring
and details and things like that are added with computers,
so there's still some purity to that. Most cartoons are
not live because it's a terrible strain on the animator's
risk exactly. And here's the other thing too, there is
(33:35):
some editing that goes on in post production. But because
this animation, you want to plan it out such that
it's sort of just runs in a line or fashion
and you don't have to worry about it. So a
lot of the editing is um sound effects editing, other
sound editing, adding props and just things to enhance it,
stuff like that. So that's the deal there. That is
(33:56):
quite a deal. It's a free deal. It takes about
six months for one half hour show. They say, yeah,
it's a long time. Yeah, I mean think about that.
Imagine if they hadn't come up with limited animation, how
much that would take? How much longer it would take? Yeah,
six months for a show? Is that possible? Well, I
don't know if that was. No, I think it's now.
(34:16):
That's how long it takes. What. I don't know if
that's then or now? You know what, We've had some
animators and stuff right in so somebody that we need
to find out in the industry. Yeah, how long does
it take to make a half hour cartoon? Yeah? Minutes shows?
Oh that's kind of true. We had some myths and
(34:37):
facts that we've already busted, but one of them we
didn't get to was, um, there was a myth that
the show's characters were based on the five Boston colleges. Yeah,
I've not heard this one. I had neither. Fred was Amherst,
Daphne was Holyoake, Mount Holyoake, Velma was Smith College, Shaggy
was obviously Hampshire, and the party animal Scooby was clearly
(34:59):
you Mask. And they said that that's not true either.
In fact, Hampshire College came about a year after Scooby
Doo premiered, So they said that one kind of kills that,
and they I think Takamoto said this, these are Bostonians
trying to kind of get a little regional pride going.
But I didn't get if they were from Boston. There
(35:21):
they were supposed to be from Boston. I heard that.
I don't know where. Yeah, if Boston people just made
it up, or if there was some sort of reference
to Boston. And here's the other thing I couldn't find that.
Hopefully someone will know is I seem to remember as
a child learning something about then being on a track
team at some point, like Shaggy was on the track team.
(35:43):
I think I remember some episode where they referenced that.
So I couldn't find that and hopefully there's like some
Scooby efficionados that will say, oh yeah, of course, of
course he's a poll vaulter because he poll vaulted in
episode number twenty four to get away from the wax
Fanom exactly, you got anything else I do? Actually? Um,
(36:04):
remember we talked about Fred Silverman. If you look at
the list of Scooby Doo incarnations in uh in nineteen
seventies six, it goes from CBS, which in originally ran
Scooby Doo to ABC. Yeah, yeah, and he did that
because Fred Silverman went to ABC. This guy loved this
show this much, he just took it wherever he went. Yeah,
I got one more little factory too. I saw that
(36:24):
Casey Caysum agreed to come back, and uh, not the
latest one because Matthew Lillard does it, but I think
it was the previous. If he could make Shaggy a
vegetarian because he's a big vegetarian, and yeah, sure, who cares,
do whatever you want? What if you wanted, it doesn't matter.
So Matthew Lillard is to Casey Casum what Ryan Sea
(36:46):
Chris is Dick Clark. Huh uh yeah sure in a way. Well,
although Dick Clark still does the rock and if he
just has helped, Yeah, he's a co host now. So
the sort of the scene, all right, No, I've got
a little more. If just trolling the internet you get bored,
search Scooby Doo among some of the other stuff, you'll
(37:07):
find some gems. Mental Floss actually has a um quiz
where you have to guess whether it's an actual real
life event or Scooby Doo plot. Are it's kind of
some of them. It's pretty neat awesome. Just the concept
alone means you should take that quiz. Well, that means
that they found a few things that were so close
(37:28):
that they decided to base an article. Yeah, people do
crazy stuff, real estate developers, they do nuts stuff. Um there.
List Verse has a very cool top ten of odd villains,
including the wax fantom uh and then Google did you
notice last Halloween had five different logos for Halloween and
all the more Scooby Doo themed. Yah. So true. So
(37:50):
after all these years, man, all these shows have come
and gone that were huge, and Scooby Doo has persevered
and continues too. That's right, that's pretty awesome. Hats off
to you, Scooby Doo. Do you got anything else? I
think that's the limits of my bad impressions. If you
want to learn more about Scooby Doo, and I mean
like everything, especially if you're interested in television show development,
(38:14):
you should read this very unique article on the site.
Just type in Scooby Doo and the search part how
stuff works dot com, which means now it's time for
listener mail Josh. A while ago we talked about um acupuncture.
Acupuncture is that we did when yes, I know we're calling,
(38:35):
Oh you were fall We got hammered by people because
a lot of people don't like acupuncture. But at the
end of that show, we called for surgery horror stories
and we got quite a few, actually, and this is
one of them. Okay, and here it is, all right, guys,
and Jerry hope all as well. A friend of a
friend went in to have a cancerous testicle removed and
(38:59):
they took out the wrong one. No, it was a
basic mistake when you go in for it's not a
basic mistake, that's what he Frank in l A describes
it as a basic mistake. It wasn't Frank's testicle either.
It was a basic mistake when you go in for
that operation. A nurse puts an X on the inside
of the thigh that corresponds with the testicle that is
(39:21):
to be removed, and she marked the wrong leg pretty easy.
Someone caught it after it was too late, and they
ended up taking both of them out. When they told him,
he started crying. I'll vet with laughter, but his wife
was the one that was furious. I know they received
a settlement, but I don't know those details. So this
(39:41):
is a true story, and I'm more than happy to
have my buddy verify it. Really enjoyed the podcast. Frank
in l A. Well, Frank's uh friend of a friend. Sorry, Bud,
it sounds like you got a good sense of humor
about it. Well his friend knows at least, well a
friend of a friend. Yeah, so yeah, nurses watch out
(40:03):
with that sharpie. Yeah, you want to be like fully
awake and aware and paying attention when they come into marrow.
It doesn't matter what it is. She's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Wow,
that's all I got. That's quite enough, Chuck. Thank you
for that, and thank you for joining us with us
talking about Scooby doo Um. We'll see you next time
(40:25):
in the meantime, go check us out on Facebook, follow
us on Twitter. We're on fire and uh We're s
Y s K podcast on Twitter. By the way, uh
and you can email us the old fashioned way at
stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com For more
(40:48):
on this and thousands of other topics. Is it how
stuff works dot com. The
Stuff You Should Know News
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Chuck Bryant
Josh Clark
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