The New Scooby-Doo Movies

Why did the Mystery Machine kids suddenly start teaming up with these characters? Why not Yogi Bear or Huckleberry Hound? Why was this cartoon an hour long? Scooby Doo, at this time, was only 3 years old. The transition of these kids and their dog will be one of the most intriguing journeys in cartoon history to track. The Scooby Movies are that incredible as well.

I do recall eventually watching these back when they aired, and clearly did not watch them straight through. The New Scooby Movies aired opposite the quickly-cancelled Saturday Superstar Movies on ABC, which I did watch instead back then in '72.

Later that year, I would check out the movies and was floored. The animation for many HB cartoons at this time was poor, plots are horrible too, so the celebs were pretty much on their own. Don KNotts does seem to be the winner here with his two appearances. In this limited animation program, he does manage to deliver some one-of-a-kind lines for a cartoon.

My siblings and I did rather enjoy the Jonathan Winters one as well, mainly for the Mother Frickert character, also voiced by Winters. Phyllis Diller seemed to have extensive fun too (when the gang is trying to open a heavy door, Diller quips "what a shame I'm not strong instead of just. . . gorgeous!" she says in an alluring manner).

I had no recollection of the Cass Elliott adventure in the candy factory, but Elliott seems to have fun, as she runs with the more exciting Shaggy and Scooby. It is interesting to study who runs with the exciting pair and who runs with the dull trio, Fred, Velma and Daphne. Sonny & Cher, the Stooges and ALL of Josie and the Pussycats would go with the trio, leaving Shaggy and Scooby to save the day.

Davy Jones adventure would stand as perhaps the only time that the group split differently with Davy taking Velma and Daphne and Fred going with Shaggy and Scooby. I do recall the ghostly knight and the moat monster from Jones' Hagglethorne Hall adventure, but I didn't recall Davy Jones til I saw the show later.

Stan Laurel died in '65, Oliver Hardy in '56 so no, neither of them did their voices. The same for Larry Fine of the stooges, who had a stroke in '71. Both Moe Howard and Fine would die in '75, so they were clearly too old to do decent voices perhaps.

Also, the real Harlem Globetrotters didn't do the cartoon voices, as that is Scatman Crothers doing Meadowlark Lemon's voice, in the Globetrotter cartoon as well as in the 3 Scooby movies.

Jerry Reed ("Little Mary Sunshine") and Sandy Duncan were voted the two worst movies.

I had no remembrance of the Dick Van Dyke, Don Adams or Tim Conway movies either, probably because I was too little to know who they were.

Hands down, the Josie and the Pussycats meeting has to be the most incredible with Josie-Daphne, Alan M.-Freddie, Shaggy-Alexander cancellations taking place left and right, especially to the point of Alexander's voice changing. Not surprising, Casey Kasem has no recollection of this meeting as he must have thought he was doing the same character's voice.

Still, the meetings are head-shaking as well. Don Adams is an exterminator, Jonathan Winters was working at a service station, Tim Conway was a coach, Dick Van Dyke was the owner of a carnival.

Good or bad, there must be something to the cartoons as they are being discussed and debated over thirty years later and counting.

Don't get me wrong, I love "Scooby Doo" as much as the next guy, and I do like this show. I think the concept was good overall, but the problem I have is basically the celebrities that Scooby and the gang met.

For instance, they met Laurel and Hardy both of whom were dead before "Scooby-Doo" even hit the airwaves. Another moment was when they met the "Three Stooges" which was cool, the only thing was that Curly was dead for 20 years prior to the show's airing (It would've made sense if they had Curly Joe who WAS alive at the time appear but nooo. They had Curly!), although Moe, and Larry were OK since they were still alive at that time. Plus, how many times did Scooby and the gang solve mysteries with the Globetrotters? I know I've seen two episodes where they solved mysteries with the Globetrotters, but wasn't there another one (I might be right on just 2)? That right there is "Recycling" since they had ANOTHER episode with the Globetrotters (Don't get me wrong, the Globetrotters episodes are my favorites, as well as the Mama Cass one, but it's best to have a guest on ONCE. It's not a good thing to have one person, or persons on more then once). However, this show also had crossovers too with "Josie and the Pussycats", and "Speed Buggy". This was cool since all of these cartoons had one thing in common: They all involved characters who SOLVED mysteries!! That was a good point right there. I think I've got this down pat.

As I said before, don't get me wrong, I DO like this show, the only thing is that the celebrities that Scooby and the gang met were either dead, or that they solved mysteries with one particular group of celebs once too many. Overall this show is good. 8/10.

"The New Scooby Doo Movies",made its premiere on CBS-TV in September of 1972 and it lasted well on until the fall of 1974. I saw this when I was a kid on Saturday Mornings and I got to see this episodes again when the show aired again in syndication during the 1980's. During its first season,the show had the kids solving mysteries with special guests and this was when the series was good,and then the show took a nose-dived during its final season and from there it said it all. Don't get me wrong here,I am a HUGE fan of the original show by the way,but when this format came about you tell that some of the stars who lend their voices here should have never committed to coming on and playing second fiddle with the kids in catching the creepy ghost or phantom who were still trying to scare them away,but still they got the suspecct at the end of each episode. Also,these were the best from the first season and here were some that were huge problems especially when the gang stumbles onto them during the first twenty minutes of the show.

For instance, they met Laurel and Hardy whom both were dead 30 years prior to when "Scooby Doo" even hit the airwaves(this was back in 1972) and also one was with the "Three Stooges" which way totally far out and cool. The only thing was that Curly was dead for 20 years prior to the show's airing although Moe and Larry were still alive at the time,but in opinion it would have made sense if they could have gotten Curly Joe who was also alive at the time this episode was made,but the producers at Hanna-Barbera(which produced the series)wanted the original Curly,who was deceased! Also,there were three episodes where the kids solve mysteries with the Harlem Globetrotters,and two which featured the dynamic duo Batman and Robin as they tangle with two of the meanest villains ever devised:Penguin and The Joker....it would have been even great if the producers gotten the voices of Burgess Meredith and Cesar Romero,who were still living at the time this show aired,but nooooooo! Adam West or Burt Ward? The producers didn't even think of that,but we have radio personality Casey Kasem who does double duty with this as the voices of the Boy Wonder Robin and also Shaggy and a host of other characters.

The Globetrotters episodes are my favorites,as well as the ones which featured Phyllis Diller,Dick Van Dyke,Sandy Duncan,Davy Jones(of the Monkees),Tim Conway,Don Knotts,Don Adams,and The Addams Family(in which the producers got this right by getting the original stars of the show as voiceovers with the talents of John Astin,Carolyn Jones,Jackie Coogan,and Ted Cassidy-the weirdest and also the best of the first season)not to mention getting Sonny and Cher as guest stars with some of the best dialogue ever for a Saturday Morning cartoon show.

The worst of the bunch.....first off who would have thought that the group would work well with the gang. Jerry Reed? Josie and the Pussycats? Speed Buggy? Jeannie?(stupid idea and way out of place) Cass Elliott? Jonathan Winters? The Partridge Kids? and the worst of the bunch from the second season where the producers took the Redbeard characters from a 1969 episode and from there stripped them of their color....didn't they solve this mystery in the original? Why was it brought back from the original series? Now,that's a mystery that the producers couldn't solve nor save this show in its second season. CBS cancelled this entirely in 1974. It's replacement consisted of repeated episodes of the original "Scooby Doo,Where Are You?" series that aired on CBS from 1969-1972.

The second season was the worst of the bunch,and from there Scooby and the gang moved from CBS to ABC in 1975,and with the addition to one of the worst characters in history which destroy the franchise SCRAPPY, the series went into a flame of dog crap. Stick to the original series which ran from 1969-1972,and they were way better than this.

I have loved Scooby Doo since I was a little kid. I looked forward to seeing him everyday after school. The station that showed it (I think TBS, mid-80's) would show the 1969-1971 episodes on Monday, half a `New Scooby Movie' on Tuesday, its second part on Wednesday, and 1976 episodes on Thursday and Friday. Without a doubt, Mondays were my favorite. Looking at Scooby as a whole, you just can't get any better than those wonderful episodes. I also liked most of the 1976 shows. But I always hated Tuesdays and Wednesdays because I hated sitting through a `New Scooby Doo Movie.' Not really knowing why, I carried the memory of them throughout the years with resentment, and over the years I would hear people praising the 1972 run whenever the topic of Scooby Doo came up. A few months ago, I decided to see if my feelings have been wrong all these years. I sat down and watched every single `Movie.' And you know what? My memory was almost exactly right. I remembered every episode and my old feelings for nearly every one of those episodes was unmoving. To me, this set of episodes is about as detrimental to the Scooby franchise as the first few miserable years of Scrappy Doo were before they mercifully scrapped his tough-pup personality for something more mellow (Although whoever it was that decided to KEEP Scrappy around for another decade will have a nice warm seat in Hades someday; right next to the seat of Scrappy's creator).

So what exactly is it that I hate about these episodes? We can start with the guest stars. I had an advantage on others my age when I was young in that I knew who most of the stars were. The problem is that the scripts are forced to haul a lot of attention to the guests and their antics, especially if the guest was a comedian or there was a large group of guests. With another big chunk of attention going to Shaggy and Scooby, there was little time for anything else. The fundamental thing that is a Scooby Doo episode---the mystery---was pushed aside and forgotten or mishandled in favor of showcasing the guests. It also caused most mysteries to be simplified, the plot either being recycled or sloppily executed. Suspects? No time! Just throw in some ghosts, a so-called crime, and call it a mystery!

Worse yet, the animation took a huge nose-dive. It's as if all the money went to paying the real guests to do their own voices that there was nothing left for a good animation crew. Sure, there were plenty of glitches in the 1969 shows, but the `Movies' went overboard on them. Direction also seemed poorer, like Hanna & Barbera just stopped caring. Even a staple of the show, the ghosts, usually looked incredibly cheap. Many episodes give us a conglomeration of poorly conceived ghosts that continuously pop up and befuddle the gang. It's not very clever and robs interest from the plot if there isn't one specific ghost to catch. Other times, they just take a crudely drawn ghost and give them no color. How boring it is to watch a colorless figure running after the gang. The worst of these (and the rock-bottom, worst episode for that matter) is the one where they merely took the Redbeard characters from 1969 and stripped them of their color. Really, if you had solved a mystery of Redbeard three years before and were suddenly hounded by his ghost again, wouldn't you immediately know it was a hoax?

Perhaps these elements wouldn't be so bad if the writing was good, but that is the most criminal aspect of them all. The humor is usually really terrible, with much of it relying on the charm of the guest star to provide its yuks, but much of the humor is so poor that it wipes away the charm of the guest. The most hideous examples of comedy are the episodes with Don Adams and Don Knotts. And you would think that these comedians would be a perfect fit with Scooby's atmosphere! There are also characters which should never, ever have been paired with Scoob: Batman & Robin, Jeannie, and the Addams Family. And there is something sad about the Cass Elliot episode, where Elliot made a bunch of cracks about her weight, an issue she was sensitive about and that would help take her life one year later. The thing that really gets to me is the flagrant time wasting. Characters will step out of the plot and do a long, drawn-out, unfunny activity. It happens all the time, but the worst is in a Globetrotters episode where we are forced to sit through the basketball playing, watching the same animated shots over and over again. Keep in mind there are THREE Globetrotter episodes, all with flagrant time wasting! Now, not all episodes are poorly written. The Davy Jones episode is the best, with good ghosts, good use of Jones, and a good plot. Same with the Three Stooges/Red Baron and Tim Conway episodes. The big shock for me was the Dick Van Dyke episode. The ghosts and story were nothing special, but the funny writing and humor with Van Dyke was so good that it made the episode exceptional.

For what it is worth, here are the episodes followed by a rating for each one, in descending order: Davy Jones--10; Three Stooges (Red Baron)--9; Dick Van Dyke--9; Tim Conway--8; Laurel & Hardy--7; Batman & Robin (Counterfeit Case)--7; Sonny & Cher--6; Phyllis Diller--6; Speed Buggy--6; Jerry Reed--5; Jonathan Winters--5; Batman & Robin (Flying Suit)--5; Cass Elliot--5; Three Stooges (Ghost Town)--5; Sandy Duncan--4 Addams Family--3; Globetrotters (Revolutionary Ghosts)--2; Josie & the Pussycats--2; Globetrotters (Haunted Island)--1; Jeannie--1; Don Adams--1; Don Knotts (Captain Moody)--1; Don Knotts (Spooky Fog)--1; Globetrotters (Redbeard)--1.

Thanks to the 1976 series, Scooby survived this blast against his credibility, only to be doused with gasoline and lit aflame a few years later with the coming of Scrappy. Still, at least it only took you thirty minutes to label a Scrappy episode as junk, not a full hour. Scrappy was bad, but for my money, `The New Scooby Movies' rank as the worst Scooby series.

The second installment in the Scooby-Doo franchise is a bit weaker then it's predecessor but being that this is an hour show with hilarious guest stars like Don Knotts and the Harlem Globetrotters it makes up for a lot of fun.

The only let down this show had was that the hidden jokes were toned down to accommodate for the guest stars.