Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is the first incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series, Scooby-Doo. It premiered on September 13, 1969 at 10:30 a.m. EST and ran for three seasons on CBS as a half-hour long show.
Chuck Jones and other great studio animators sneered at the cheap look and lazy craftsmanship of Hanna Barbera's television cartoons in the 1960s, but there's no question HB's original, 35-year-old Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is enduringly beloved. The Complete First and Second Seasons includes all 25 stories first broadcast from September '69 to October '71, a growth period in which canine hero Scooby's voice (by Don Messick, who also voiced The Jetsons's pup, Astro) was gradually refined from murky garble to Scoob's more familiar, "Rrroowwrr"-inflected, human-like speech. This set also represents the pre-frills Scooby-Doo: no guest appearances by Don Knotts or Batman, no Scrappy-Doo--just adventure and occasional bubblegum pop tunes by Danny Janssen and sundry co-writers (e.g., "Pretty Mary Sunlite" in the episode "Don't Fool with a Phantom").
Watching all the shows back-to-back reveals evolving complexity in the scripts. Over time, Scooby-Doo's creators added multiple bad guys in cahoots with major villains, and developed sub-plots, backstories, and even appealing allies and friends of Mystery, Inc., a traveling band of young debunkers of supernatural phenomena. Riding around in their psychedelic Mystery Van, preppie leader Fred and his friends--haughty Daphne, brainy Velma, quasi-hippie Shaggy, and Shaggy's best pal, Scooby, an excitable Great Dane--chase down and are chased by alleged ghouls who generally turn out to be venal humans running various scams.
Cast and Characters Voices
Don Messick as Scooby-Doo
Casey Kasem as Shaggy
Frank Welker as Fred
Nicole Jaffe as Velma
Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne (1969)
Heather North as Daphne (1970-1971)
Mystery, Inc.
Scooby-Doo
Shaggy Rogers
Fred Jones
Daphne Blake
Velma Dinkley
Scrappy Doo
Scooby-Dum
Yabba-Doo
Broadcast History First Telecast:September 13, 1969 Last Telecast: September 2, 1972 Number of Episodes: 25
Number of Seasons: 3
Original Network: CBS
Theme Song and Opening Credits
Theme by David Mook and Ben Raleigh
Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You?
We got some work to do now.
Scooby-Dooby-Doo, Where Are You?
We need some help from you now.
Come on Scooby-Doo, I see you... pretending you got a sliver
But you're not fooling me, cause I can see, the way you shake and shiver.
You know we got a mystery to solve,
So Scooby Doo be ready for your act. [Scooby Doo] Uh-uh Uh-uh
Don't hold back!
And Scooby Doo if you come through
you're going to have yourself a scooby snack!
That's a fact!
Scooby-Dooby-Doo, here Are You.
You're ready and you're willing.
If we can count on you Scooby Doo,
I know you'll catch that villian.