Scooby Doo had become a dismal show during my early childhood. Shifting the focus away from Freddy, Velma, and Daphne, that wretched Scrappy Doo took over star billing. Which was why it was so refreshing when this series came along. Although Scrappy was still part of the cast for this series, he was no longer the star, so he got pushed into the background as the new characters took stage. And Daphne, who was gradually worked back into the cast a year or two prior, finally returned full time with a new hairdo and outfit. Even Shaggy got new threads, turning in his patented green T-shirt for a red one.
The inspired casting of Vincent Price as Vincent Van Ghoul was enough to get me back on the bandwagon for new episodes. I had already become a fan of Price's films and the albums that he appeared on with Alice Cooper and Michael Jackson. In animated form, Vincent was as dignified as ever, and he added some charisma that had been missing from the previous series of the last few years. Among other new characters was Flim-Flam, the conniving kid with the Lots-of-Luck-Joy-Juice ("a lucky charm in a bottle"). Flim-Flam added the comic relief that Scrappy was supposed to have brought to the previous series. Which makes one wonder why Scrappy was still there. And the other new characters, ghosts Bogel and Weerd, were just hammy enough to blend with this great cast of characters.
Throughout the first few series, the ghosts and monsters were always a bad guy in a rubber mask. When they had exhausted those storylines, the ghosts became real, but many of us had tuned out (or stuck to reruns) by that time because of the annoying Scrappy Doo. This time around they were still real and Scooby and Shaggy, who were tricked into opening The Chest of Demons in the pilot, had to return all 13 ghosts back to the chest. Though more cartoonish than the monsters (masks) had been in the original series, all of the ghosts were well-designed and the storylines were more inventive than they had been in years. Episodes had the gang thrust into comic strips and mirrors; Vincent was under the spell of a beautiful demon in one episode and nearly turned to stone in another -- and in one episode Scooby even quit the show (and was replaced by another puppy) but was urged to come back by then-President Ronald Reagan in a spoof of "It's a Wonderful Life."
Out of all the incarnations of Scooby Doo, this one remains my favorite, which is probably why only 13 episodes were produced and they rarely get played. Hopefully they'll get a video release someday. If only they had dropped Scrappy and brought back Fred and Velma, it would have been perfect.. .
