What If: Scooby Doo edition Part 1

Well, it's the end of the football season(Congratulations Auburn and the Green Bay Packers) and Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. reruns are still on the air(although the 14th episode was on I Tunes, Amazon.com and a few other places; I've seen it BTW and it's very good), so I will wait until Cartoon Network airs that episode to do a blog on it.

However, the topic of this blog is indeed Scooby Doo, but it's not what you think it's about; actually this blog is about what could have been in Scooby's history, kind of a what if, if you will.

For hundreds of years people have been debating What if this and What if that as far as history, politics, music and sports goes, like if the South won the Civil War, or if there never was a British Invasion, or if John Elway played for the Baltimore(Indianapolis) Colts; but those are aren't for this conversation and blog, this blog is for what if topics on a certain cartoon dog we all know and love: Scooby Doo.

For our first what if, let's start at the beginning of Scooby's history; in 1968, parental watch groups such as the Parents Television Council and others began protesting the violence in children's television and the super hero shows on the air such as Superman, Space Ghost and others, so with that the networks decided to get rid of all except a few of those shows.

Meanwhile at CBS, the Tiffany Network was looking for a new show for their 1968-69 Saturday Morning season; eventually they decided on a Television adaptation of Bob Montana's Archie comic strips and comic books and The Archie Show debuted in September of that year, but this is also the beginning of Scooby's creation as well.

The following year CBS was looking for a new show as a centerpiece for their 1969-1970 saturday morning schedule, and for starters they looked towards the past; Fred Silverman(head of CBS's daytime and Saturday morning programming at the time) decided on a comedy/mystery show for the schedule and decided on a cross between the old detective shows of the old time radio days in the 30s and 40s such as I Love A Mystery, and the teen TV comedies of the 50s such as The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

So with ideas in hand, he, two animators named William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and two of Hanna Barbera's staff members named Joe Ruby and Ken Spears went about trying to create a show that would work for 1969 and would work for kids; after much thought and much creativity, the group came up with a series called Mystery Five, which centered on five teenagers, who comprised a rock band and a dog.

In between the musical gigs though, the group would solve mysteries at various scary or haunted locations; originally the show was to have been composed of two cliff hangar segments that would fill the half hour, however CBS brass was not impressed saying the show might be too frightening for kids because of the artwork and Hanna, Barbera, Silverman and Ruby and Spears went back to the drawing board.

Even a retitling of the show to Who's S-S-Scared didn't help, and the project was on thin ice, and almost went to animation history as a flop, that is until Fred Silverman heard the phrase "Scooby-Dooby-Doo" in the Frank Sinatra song Strangers in the Night and the rest was history; he repitched the show as Scooby Doo, Where Are You? with new renamed characters and new animation, not to mention dropping the rock group angle.

Needless to say with that name, the show was on CBS in 1969 and became a hit, and still runs worldwide to this day; but this leads us to a what if, what if Hanna Barbera stuck with their original idea? Would it have been aired on another network? Would it still have aired for so long?

Well, to answer that first question, remember the climate of TV back then, people wanted comedy mixed with mystery, not full out horror, so after about 10 or 15 years or so, maybe the show would have aired as Mystery Five, but with a few changes and such.

As for the second question: who knows? With Mystery Five maybe Hanna Barbera could have competed with some of the shows that were on in the late 80s, or 1990s; although a few shows wouldn't have existed without Scooby Doo's help, like the Super Friends(a Hanna Barbera creation, and which was created from Batman and Robin's appearances on Scooby Doo in 1972) and some of the Scooby knockoffs.

Sure, Mystery Five might have aired, but not in the 60s, and it might not have been as big a hit as Scooby was; who knows? maybe it would have toiled in obscurity like many other shows of the day, only running on Boomerang every so often.

For the next What if Scooby style, we move to the late 70's; at that time, Fred Silverman left ABC to go to NBC and become programming head for that network, but what if Fred did like he did with Scooby after he left CBS for ABC, and took Scooby to NBC with him?

First, ABC's Saturday lineup other then American Bandstand and Super Friends and Scooby Doo was not really anything to write home about in the late 70's; sure there were a few hits and those are what made ABC number one on Saturdays, but that lead would vanish when the Smurfs debuted on NBC.

But with Scooby and the Smurfs on NBC, the network at Rockefeller Center might have had a lead that no one could beat them in as far as Saturdays went; but the problem with this becomes another what if, would NBC have dumped Scooby and the smurfs for live action and a Saturday version of the Today show in the early 90s?

The answer to that would be Yes, because it was where Saturday morning television was headed then, and FOX and cable channels were already making inroads; it also brings up a great question though: would Scrappy have still come about? Or would NBC have gone the Prime Time route, maybe airing a few Scooby specials, based around holiday themed mysteries? It's a great question for sure.

Now, for the next What If, well it's not really one What if, it's several; but we'll explain each one at a time: first, what if Velma was around instead of Scrappy, and Velma, Shaggy and Scooby had the mysteries in the 1980 Scooby and Scrappy episodes?

The short answer for this is because Velma was probably concentrating on her career and might have gone to NASA at this point, so we can't really guess if this would have happened or not, but it's fun to think about huh?

The next what if is what if Madelyn(Velma's sister from Abracadabra Doo) was introduced earlier and she was around for the Scooby and Scrappy mysteries instead of Scrappy; or if she was there with the guys and Scrappy for the 1980-82 shows and the three Hanna Barbera movies(Ghoul School/Reluctant Werewolf/Boo Brothers).

First, Madelyn was voiced by Danica McKeller(Winnie Cooper from the series The Wonder Years), so availability might have been an issue back then; but could B.J. Ward have stepped in? Or someone else? I say yes; because B.J. Ward voiced Googie in Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf and was Velma i the 1998-2001 DTV movies, so she could have without a doubt been in those movies and I think would have done a great job as Madelyn.

As for Madelyn's personality in the movies if she was around then, I would say she would have been the same as she was in Scooby Doo Abracadabra Doo, complete with her crush on Shaggy(which would have made for an interesting plot development in Reluctant Werewolf and Boo Brothers; the former though she would have replaced Googie and the latter, that Southern girl Sadie Mae would have made for an interesting competition).

For the next What if, how about if Daphne was in those three movies, dating Shaggy like she probably was in 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo; this one might have been tricky, as Heather North might not have been available for those movies, but maybe Hanna Barbera could have gotten Kellie Martin or B.J. Ward for that role, so who knows?

Next we come to a great what if: what if Scrappy wasn't in the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, but Fred and Velma were; I think the show would have been fine and might have made for a great send off for the gang after being on the air since 1969, heck maybe we would have had an actual resolution for that show instead of the cliff hangar that we got.

And who knows, maybe the ending would have been colossal and stupendous, and amazing, or not.

Which leads to another what if: what if Fred, Daphne and Velma were all around for the Hanna Barbera Superstars 10 movies, which were already listed above; the key issue here is casting, Frank Welker would have been easy to get because of his voice work for Hanna Barbera and other roles, while Daphne and Velma might have been tricky casting, but maybe Kellie Martin or B.J. Ward might come to voice the two roles, or maybe someone else, some undiscovered talent possibly.

There's too many more what ifs to llist them all in one blog, so i'll return at a later time and date with more what ifs; although I would like to get some comments on this one, like what your opinions are of what I came up with.

Don't forget to comment and i'll be back again with more what ifs soon.