Fantomatiquement vôtre, signé Scoubidou

"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 wasn't born when this cartoon aired Saturday mornings,but I caught the sydications in the 80s. I enjoy how Scooby teamed up with other Hanna-Barbera toon stars to solve mysteries. Along with Scooby and the gang there were celebrities like Don Knotts,the Addams Family,and the Harlem Globetrotters. These guest made it easier for Scooby and gang to solve mysteries because they're always strength in numbers.

Contains 23 out of the 24 episodes (absent is S1's Wednesday is Missing, featuring the Addams Family, apparently due to licencing issues). For this series (which followed Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!), each episode featured a guest star or stars (some real-life, some Hanna-Barbera fictional characters). I hadn't seen most of these since first broadcast.

Season one; Ghastly Ghost Town (The Three Stooges) ~ 5/10; The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair (Batman and Robin)~ 6/10; The Frickert Fracas (Jonathan Winters) ~ 5/10; Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner? (Don Knotts) ~ 7/10; A Good Medium Is Rare (Phyllis Diller)~ 7/10; Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde (Sandy Duncan) ~ 6/10; The Secret of Shark Island (Sonny and Cher) ~ 8/10; The Spooky Fog of Juneberry (Don Knotts) ~ 7/10; The Ghost of Bigfoot (Laurel and Hardy) ~ 7/10; The Ghost of the Red Baron (The Three Stooges) ~ 5/10; The Ghostly Creep from the Deep (The Harlem Globetrotters) ~ 7/10; The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall (Davy Jones) ~ 7/10; The Phantom of the Country Music Hall (Jerry Reed) ~ 5/10; The Caped Crusader Caper (Batman and Robin) ~ 4/10; The Loch Ness Mess (The Harlem Globetrotters) ~ 8/10

Edit (7 February 2022): Found the 'missing episode' Wednesday is Missing online ~ 8/10

Season two; The Mystery of Haunted Island (The Harlem Globetrotters) ~ 7/10; The Haunted Showboat (Josie and the Pussycats) ~ 8/10; Mystery in Persia (Jeannie) ~ 6/10; The Spirited Spooked Sports Show (Tim Conway) ~ 5/10; The Exterminator (Don Adams) ~ 7/10; The Weird Winds on Winona (Speed Buggy) ~ 7/10; The Haunted Candy Factory ('Mama' Cass Elliot) ~ 7/10; The Haunted Carnival (Dick Van Dyke) ~ 6/10

A few very good episodes, several okay episodes - and far too many poor ones. When this series is bad, it's BAD. Instead of making the most of its longer-than-usual 43 minute format, many of the episodes feel they're just over-extended reworkings of standard 22 minute scripts. The result is they feel drawn-out, repetitive (especially in the chase scenes), and at times boring.

Nevertheless, Frank Welker (Fred), Casey Kasem (Shaggy), Heather North (Daphne), Nicole Jaffe (Velma), and Don Messick (Scooby) all bring their A-game. And despite the stretched-out feel, there is some very funny writing, and some great atmospheric settings.

Overall, 6.5/10.

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.

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.