Hi everyone. I’m Andrew, and I welcome you back to Fifty-Difty-Doo!
Meet Fred.
No, not this Fred.
This Fred.
Fred Silverman is a legendary television executive and producer who, during his decades-long tenure at all of the Big 3 Networks, is directly responsible for shepherding some of the most iconic and memorable long-running hit TV series of all time. Specifically, At CBS he went from heading daytime to leading the entertainment division, and for nearly wholesale changing TV schedules and in turn helping making TV history. From sitcoms (M*A*S*H, The Bob Newhart Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show (and its spinoffs Rhoda and Phyllis, All in The Family (and its spinoffs The Jeffersons and Maude [and it's in-turn spinoff Good Times]), to dramas (The Waltons, Cannon, Barnaby Jones and Kojak) to game shows (most of the shows by Mark Goodson and Bill Todman including revivals of The Price is Right and Match Game), Silverman was a wunderkind of television and helped -- no, lead CBS to continue it’s gargantuan record at the top of the Big 3 networks during his tenure.
After leaving CBS in 1975, Silverman took his talents to ABC where he successfully turned around that network’s fortunes. Some of TV’s most iconic and memorable long-running series of all time also aired on the Alphabet network during Silverman’s reign: including Charlie’s Angels, Three’s Company, Eight is Enough, Soap, Fantasy Island, Donny & Marie, and several hit games shows like Family Feud -- whether these series were hits because of their characters, stories and classic moments or because of female characters with big boobs and butts (this was known in industry circles as “Jiggle TV”), you can thank Silverman for the changes he made to make ABC a major success on TV in the mid- to late-70s.
One of those successes is a little-known cartoon about a small group of tenacious teenagers and their dippy, daffy, ‘dorable dog with their awesome adventures capturing vile, vicious and vicarious villains who just want to ruin other people’s businesses and lives on pure greed and domination.
Oh, and let’s also throw in some family members for the titular character to lighten up the situations that don’t need lightening up. Yeah.
Welcome to The Scooby-Doo Show.
After two seasons of our favorite gang solving mysteries for an hour and with our favorite icons of entertainment, it’s back to square one. As it back to a half-hour and back to just them solving mysteries with no more or less. The gang are still at it and haven’t missed a beat despite (or even because of) their major network move. Sure, it's still the same format in and of itself, but at ABC it had much more of a sense of security, as not only new episodes air to major success, ABC made sure to actually give the show a renewal every year, no matter the title or format.
Oh and yeah, The Scooby-Doo Show isn’t the actual official title of the series. It’s actually a package name for it during its run in syndication, as during it’s three-year run on ABC, it aired as part of three(!!!) hour-long duo series along with three other shows. (Those shows: Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (76), Laff-A-Lympics (77), and Scooby’s All-Stars (78) were the second half of the hours of powers).
As mentioned earlier, this series introduces members of Scoob’s family -- which, outside of Scrappy, I had no idea was a thing. I guess watching a lot as a kid then forgetting as you grow can do a lot to surprise you when you come back to it. Appearing in The Show is Scooby-Doo's cousin Scooby-Dum. And as you can tell by the name, he's a genius. Just kidding, he's a moron. While Dummy-Dum does help his... sensible cuz and the gang with solving their mysteries, he's also an unnecessary character. His stupidity is irritating, his Southern accent is ah-noI-yin’, and he's even more of a punk than Scoob and Shaggy combined -- which is the worst of them all. And to be honest, the fact that he partially shares Scooby's name (making me think the rest of his family have names like the native Chinese) is also…well, Dum.
And then there's Scooby-Dee, sweet as can be. Lovely as a cherry blossom tree. Always brings the joy and... splee. ...I don't care for thee. (But she's better than Dum in most aspects despite appearing in less episodes.)
Now a few tidbits about the production:
- The animation is on-par with the franchise so far. Great drawings with simple, flat looks and near-flushed yet slightly-bright colors and shadings -- especially during night scenes. While most viewers didn’t assume much as they just want to watch the show, help solve the mysteries with Fred, Daph and Velm, and laugh along to Shag and Scoob’s latest antics (me included), some thought this was a case of a smaller budget. Wouldn’t put it past me. One place to spot is Velma’s hair -- which is lighter than usual.
- Speaking of, Velma has a new voice actress: Pat Stevens who succeeds Nicole Jaffe, who retired after WAY! and The New Movies (fitting as it’s the first S-D show on a new network).
- Even the background music is very scary here. This series features new incidental music that fits very well like a glove. And it’s not the same stock (used nicely) background tunes we’ve heard (and sometimes hummed to) ever so fondly from the last two series. Yes, they’re still there but sparsely (although still noticeable) here. I like the new music-- it’s well done, adds to the intensity and drama of the mystery and ghost scenes. I am happy the old stuff keeps making appearances here.
- Then comes the theme song. Despite the darker tone this series took over the previous two, this one sounds and feels much lighter and cheery, despite the shrieks of alien noise (?) throughout, especially the beginning (which turns it up from The New Movies and even WAY!). I guess it’s a warning for the kiddies to prepare themselves for the super scary stuff to slip in soon.
There were some episodes that, while great, felt weird under the surface. And especially “The Spirits of ‘76”, which felt like a random mystery in DC disguised as a commercial for our nation’s capital and the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History (even though I won’t lie, I fell for the ad and I’m planning a trip there as we speak. It’s for late August.)
Now to what you guys wanted the most. The Scooby-Doo Show introduces some of the most memorable and even best villains and monsters of the franchise. These baddies came with the same intentions: to steal stuff, make themselves rich and scare people away to reap in the undeserved rewards. The Show takes it all to the next level. They’re not just being evil, they’re being vicious with their motives. They’re not just stealing money, jewelry and treasures; they’re also coming close to beating or even killing people to keep their plans under wraps and on track. The tension as their plans progress while Mystery Inc. are steps behind them is palpable and the scares feel more genuine than the ones in the other series combined. It’s real impressive that two series across five years and another three years plus a move to another network can really energize the staff of Scooby-Doo to put out some damn good product and quality.
Let’s meet the Rogues Gallery.
--The Spirits of ‘76: The “ghosts” of Benedict Arnold, William Demont and Captain John Andre (a British soldier), three of the most infamous traitors in mankind history. Their worst moment was charging at the gang snarling and foaming, with a car chase coming close to running them over.
--The Ghosts of “The Ghost of the Bad Humor Man”: Three ice cream color-coordinated ghosts haunt --of all things-- an ice cream factory. But they’re not making the food that makes kids happy; they’re making Mystery Inc. feel petrified.
--Mamba Wamba: a witch doctor who uses voodoo on victims.
--Doctor Coffin, a creepy mad doctor ghost with a scary evil laugh, an organ that he can play blood-curling music on and terrifying glowing eyes that can turn your blood into ice water.
--The Ghostly Gondolier, a hooded "ghost" from Venice whom terrorizes and… does terrible things to people from the shadows. Not who you want to give you a fancy boat ride on the Tuscan river.
--The ghost of Ebenezer Crabbe, with his blue hair, deep yellow eyes and one spine-tingling laugh. And you won't believe what happens in his episode "High Rise Hair Raise" when his sister arrives.
--The Headless Horseman; if you read the story of Ichabod Crane, you know where this is going. In fact his relatives are featured in his eponymous episode. And there's a reveal that'll shock the crud out of you.
All these guys are the definition of “villain” and them some. The producers and writers really had their creative juices flowing here, and I’ll forever admire and respect them for their talents on this show.
Rive Ravorite Monsters: (so many here, but I’ll stick with five)
- The Spirits of ‘76
- Ebenezer Crabbe
- The 10,000 Volt Ghost (I also find it cute for some reason)
- Doctor Coffin
- The Headless Horseman
Rive Ravorite Scares (again, so many but):
- The reveal of HH's new… friend
- The Spirits of '76 chasing the Scoobies
- Crabbe's sister
- All scenes with The 10,000 Volt Ghost
- The Salem-style torture on Shaggy and Scooby
Rive Ravorite Laughs (all of course courtesy of Shag and Scoob):
- Them pretending to work on a movie to evade the episode's monster in "A Frightened Hound Meets Demons Underground"
- Scooby bumping into a skeleton and then it gaining sentience and running like Scoob ("A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing")
- Shaggy's response to this line by Daphne
"That mean old demon stuffed me into this piano!"
"What a dirty trick. But it could have been worse: At least he didn't stuff you into a harmonica."
- Scoobys Doo and Dum's creepy weirdo crush on Scooby-Dee (again, their cousin). Plus, the kisses she gives them after saving him were NOT on the cheek. (I am not surprised with southern hick Dum, but Eww. Come on, Doo.) I don't know what dogs think about and do when it comes to family, but hopefully not that. I thought southern white people were into that.
- Shaggy impersonating a girl to bait a vampire villain.
So, the original Scooby gang were back (on ABC) and better than ever. The Scooby-Doo Show was only the third outing (or technically third, fourth and fifth outings, depending on your view) in the franchise, but it firmly (and deservedly) cemented it in the American public consciousness and became the pop-culture phenomenon still running strong for the next several decades. It was also not only the first time we’ve had family members in Scooby’s family… it won’t be the last.
Next week, we'll take a look at Series #4 and the one that pretty much saved the series and kept it going...and going...and going today.
And despite the… (unwanted… unnecessary… unnerving… unhealthy) hate towards him, you gotta admit, without him this franchise wouldn't have continued the way it has been and still does today (unless WB would've began the DTV series somewhere in the late 2000s at least). Yeah, I'm sure you know where I'm going with this.
Next Sunday, it's Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
Hope to see you then! But for now, I'm Andrew Pollard saying "Rooby-Rooby-Roo!"
No comments:
Post a Comment