Fifty-Difty-Doo!: Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (V2 3-shorts / 80-82)

Literally the same show...

but fifteen minutes less...

times three...

plus yet another Doo.

Hi, folks. Welcome back to Fifty-Difty-Doo!

After the first season (well, version) of a new version (uhh, season?) of Scooby-Doo debuted on ABC in 1979, in which his nephew Scrappy-Doo comes to join Mystery Inc. with a new attitude, new excitement and new catchphrases, this version of the series was a major success for the Alphabet. So much so, that when Scooby and Scrappy returned on November 8, 1980 (this date because of a strike and boycott involving actors [including voice actors]) for a new season to start a decade, we got a new format for new episodes; instead of one 22-minute episode involving Mystery Incorporated -- and Scrappy -- solving mysteries and catching and unmasking a villain, and Scooby & Shaggy -- and Scrappy -- doing something funny throughout and to end the episode. For this second version… Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy do something funny for 21 minutes across three shorts per episode. And unfortunately, the rest of Mystery Inc. -- Fred, Velma and Daphne -- sit out this time.  The globe trekking is still there, but Shag, Scoob and Scrapps have even less of a rhyme or reason to do so, outside of course bumping into ghosts and monsters like not a damn thing has changed, what’cha know about it.

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo V2 also first aired as part of package programs with other shows,
The Richie Rich Show (seasons one and two, 80 & 81) as part as The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show (and Scrappy too!)

and
The Puppy’s (New/Further/Great) Adventures (season three, 82) as part of The Scooby-S
.
This is the franchise’s second time a series shared its timeslot with another show, after The Scooby-Doo Show. Difference here is that S-D and S-D is also sharing its timeslot with yet another member of Scooby’s family, Scrappy’s other uncle Yabba-Doo.

We don’t know where they’d get the money to even go to the movies, but somehow they’ve gone to Europe, Asia, the Middle East, etc. (I can only assume they wrote a book on their misadventures and it became a #1 New York Times bestseller, and they’re splurging from the royalties.) It makes so much logical sense that after two seasons of world travelling, the S-Men finally slowed down and moved to a fixed location in the final season, The Fearless Detective Agency, where random one-shot people go to the Agency to send in missions for the main group to solve. It’s a logical great idea for the series and takes the three back to the (super)tried-and-(still)true method of catching the bad guys, which... is okay. It’s not as memorable or interesting as what we saw throughout all of the franchise so far, but it still works nonetheless.

I’m generally not a fan of the format. Since the franchise up till this point was usually full half-hour outings with one mystery at a time (with all the trimmings mentioned The Scooby-Doo Show and in TL:DR form above). Now here, the comic reliefs star in essentially a cartoon version of the series of The Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy (funnily enough, The New Scooby-Doo Movies featured both). Plus (and more shockingly), unlike the guys in costumes we’ve known and loved all these years, the gleesome threesome bump into and face off against REAL monsters (vampires, mummies, werewolf men, witches, et al, etc.) and get out of it their circumstances thanks to their heightened smarts and/or sheer dumb luck. Plus seeing the Mystery Machine now being driven by Shaggy instead of Fred is very weird and eerily baffling.

Now, back to Scrappy. As mentioned during V1, Scrappy was introduced as Scooby’s tough, cocky, energetic nephew from New York (and to bump up the ratings).
Between V1 and 2, there were some changes to him.
He wasn’t as hyperactive and obnoxious as before, his impulse of beating up supernatural beings has toned down a bit since then, and his voice changed from a low-register Brooklyn accent to a scratchy, high-pitched normal one -- thanks to original VA Lennie Weinrib leaving thanks to wanting more money and being replaced by Don Messick (also original VA of Scooby). While I didn’t notice much or cared as a kid, I... wasn’t into Scrappy's second voice at the start; it was too scratchy to tolerate, but I did like the child-like innocence of it (as Scrappy is a puppy), so I wasn’t all the way turned off by it. Fortunately, the scratchiness drifted away as the first season went away, and so was my intolerance. His beliefs that his unc is strong and brave and any danger is just a silly game to play remain, and now it’s just weird. Even weirder, is the fact that Scrappy actually can still take care of himself by actually kicking baddie ass and taking names. Which is awesome...but very surreal; like a short, furry, Fonzie. Too bad; I guess, if their cowardice didn't get in the way and realized it can work, Scooby and Shaggy can let Scrappy actually get at 'em and bring his "P...UPPYYYY P...OWEEERRRR!!!" to good use. It would've been ultra cool to see Scrapps beat up the monsters and save the day at least half the time.

As for Shaggy, he’s a bit different since the last time. Since he’s the leader this time (what with being the master of Scooby and now Scrappy), he’s now taken in a lot of smarts like Fred and Velma, a lot of damsel-ing like Daphne and a lot of snark like Velma. Taking care of a repeating, food-stealing great dane and talkative, excitable, air-knucking puppy will do that to you.

Despite my dislike of the three shorts format, I still enjoy it for the wacky, hilarious adventures (and MISadventures) of our S-Club 3. Seeing Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy somehow strangely slide into more crazy crap and later skeevy skirmishes with monstrous malefactors of the mainlands than the next guy (literally anyone else… outside of the other shows that also have groups of teenagers that find clues and solves). Plus, despite what I said about real monsters above, I’ll give the show and its staff this: the show was capable of actually having actual monsters crossing paths with our favorite gang -- cause it makes more sense going this route instead of them bumping into guys in costumes when there’s no criminal actions or a mystery involving them. It may look super silly and pretty funny at first to see them stop a dude dressed as a vampire scaring people into leaving a lore museum and reaping in the benefits of stealing the money they blew to go to it, but after a few episodes, it gets not only even more redundant and repetitive, but also questionable at best and stupidly created and drawn at worst to the fault of the writing and producing staff (they’re already on probation with me by dropping Daphne,Velma and Fred).

Now let’s babba about Yabba:
Yabba-Doo is Scappy’s other uncle. (Please don’t ask about the former’s lineage in the Doo family tree). Yabba (also voiced Scrappy and Scooby’s VA Don Messick [wow, he’s getting that pay]) and his master Deputy Dusty (voiced by Fred’s VA Frank Welker) work at the local Sheriff’s office in the western town of Tumbleweed. They have their own shorts here, with Scrappy (for one reason or another) joining them on their own adventures. These are the third shorts in each episode and honestly, Scrappy has no reason being here, as Yabba and Dusty are the real stars of their show. The work together, get into some crazy hokum, snipe one another like they’re married, but got each other’s backs. Their escapades into wrangling rustlers of the west is both hilarious and pretty awesome, even with Scrappy there for the ride.

This version of S-D and S-D is fun and all, but this is one incarnation I wouldn’t remember even a quarter of an hour later. Some hilarious moments, some LOL lines and charming frames of our threesome palling around while indulging in their strange tastes in food, running away from supernatural beings they keep bumping into (and almost facing the “wrath” of Scrappy) and just being themselves in a world where they only thing they can do is all of it in the same order.

Rive Ravorite Moments/Episodes:
-- The dogs tries to escape with a alien-napped Shaggy, leading to Scooby managing to land the spaceship from 196.9 million square miles far from Earth ("A Close Encounter of a Strange Kind")
-- All the times Scrappy hands the monsters their sorry asses (various)
-- Scoob refusing to fight Shag and Scrapps, against the words of a hot genie that brainwashed him ("Scooby Doo and Genie Poo")
-- Shaggy apologizing to Scooby for accusing the latter of stealing their food supply ("Tenderbigfoot")
-- Scooby saving the world ("Scooby Saves the World")

Rive Ravorite Laughs:
-- Scrappy's knowledge (zip) about UFOs ("A Close Encounter of a Strange Kind")
-- Scooby's Grandpa (also named Scooby) messing with him and Shaggy, then the ghost hugging a startled Scrappy ("Scooby's Roots")
-- Scoob and Shag turning into babies, and Scrappy having to take care of him ("Scooby Goo") (now Scrappy knows what they put up with when dealing with him)
-- Scoob being falling into a fortune cookie assembly line (with the resulting fortune reading "RELP!") ("The Fortune Cookie Factory")
-- Scrappy wanting to fight a lion, with the lion looking at him funny ("Scooby's Three Dingaling Circus")

Rive Ravorite Yabba Doo Moments/Episodes/Laughs:
-- Yabba and Dusty Capturing Rustlers by...Disguising as a Female Steer ("Yabba's Rustle Hustle")

-- The trio facing off with a vampire ("Vild Vest Vampire")
-- Saving Zylon the aliens from circus castoffs, with Zylon's "introduction" to Yabba and Dusty ("Alien Schmalien") (Pretty much any time Dusty ends up out of his clothes and in his underwear (various episodes))

-- When Scrappy runs away ("Runaway Scrappy")
--Their "magic" tricks to save a safe diamonds ("Tragic Magic")

Okay, now that this era is finally over, time to get to the next, more exciting era; back to the mysteries and masked men that made it memorable, with Daphne returning for the ride, in the next installment... The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show. See you next week!

Until then, I'm Andrew Pollard, saying "Rooby Rooby Roo!!"