Scooby Doo Where Are You! aired its first episode on the 13th of September, 1969, making yesterday its fifty year anniversary. Scooby Doo has been on our screen in some iteration since that date, and there are very few people who can claim not to have watched it; my parents watched it as children and it was one of the more prominent shows of my childhood. I had a huge love for it from a young age and, as an eighteen year old, will still happily watch and enjoy Scooby Doo, especially the movies. Naturally, the anniversary got me thinking about the evolution of Scooby Doo—it’s gone through some changes!—and its significance to my life, throughout the years. So here’s Scooby Doo and me.
I struggle with memory when it comes to my younger years, there are huge gaps and many of the things I do remember are unhappy but Scooby Doo is different; throughout years of negative experiences and sad days, Scooby Doo was something to look forward to, something to make me smile.
What’s New Scooby-Doo? which aired between 2002 and 2006 was a return to the more traditional Scooby Doo style from the original Scooby Doo Where Are You! series. What’s New Scooby-Doo? was the show that I grew up watching and even to this day I still know the entire theme tune by heart, I was actually quite surprised to learn it only ran for four years.
Aside from the show, I had several of the feature length Scooby Doo movies as a child; Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) and Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999) on VHS, and Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001) recorded on a disc from the TV—piracy was rife, welcome to the 2000’s, you wouldn’t download a car! Those three movies were my all-time favourites—aside from the live actions, but we’ll get to that!—The Witches Ghost was definitely my top one, let’s just say that Thorne from the Hex Girls put a spell on me. I’ve watched all three more times than I can count and when my VHS player broke I was so devastated that I had to buy myself a new one.
Now, the live actions: Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). These movies were, in my opinion, brilliance. As I child I watched them countless times but over the years I lost my copies. Last year I was given Scooby-Doo as a birthday gift, it was almost like watching it over for the first time and I loved it! I bought myself a Mystery Machine boxset around that time because I knew that I would be attending a convention with Matthew Lillard—insert excited screaming. Matthew Lillard played Shaggy in the live action movies and voiced the character from Casey Kasem’s step down. He wasn’t the first celebrity I had met at a convention but definitely the one who meant the most to me since he is Shaggy to me, a character who means a great deal. Matthew gave me the biggest prolonged hug and did the Shaggy voice for me, it was the best day of my life—no exaggeration—and I hope I get the chance to meet him again.
Shaggy and Scooby are my favourite characters now, but when I was a child Daphne was my girl—I even named my pet gerbil after her. The Scooby Gang is not the most diverse bunch but I see a bit of myself in every character, as if they have shaped who I have grown up to be. I’m clumsy like Daphne, a leader like Fred, brainy like Velma, and, like Shaggy and Scooby, I’m scared but I’ll do it for a Scooby Snack!
I might not be a kid anymore but Scooby Doo means as much to me now as it did then, possibly even more, and I know that, even when I’m old and grey, I’ll still be able to laugh along to the antics of the Scooby Gang. Also I want a Mystery Machine.