Scoobert "Scooby" Doo (often shortened to Scooby-Doo) is the eponymous character and protagonist of the animated television franchise of the same name created in 1969 by the American animation company Hanna-Barbera. Scooby-Doo is a male Great Dane and lifelong companion of amateur detective Shaggy Rogers, with whom he shares many personality traits. Named after a nonsense vocal line in Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night", he features a mix of both canine and human behaviors (reminiscent of other funny animals in the Golden age of American animation), treated by his friends more or less as an equal while speaking in a famous (and much parodied) speech impediment. His catchphrase is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!"
Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original Scooby-Doo series, Scooby-Doo, Where are You!, for Hanna-Barbera for CBS's 1969-70 Saturday morning cartoon schedule. Originally titled Mysteries Five, the dog who later became Scooby was originally more of a sidekick character - a bongo-playing dog named "Too Much" whose breed varied between Great Dane and sheepdog between treatments. By the time the series was pitched to the network as Who's S-S-Scared? in early 1969, Too Much was solidified as a cowardly Great Dane. Both the dog and the series would be renamed Scooby-Doo by Fred Silverman, CBS's head of daytime programming, between its unsuccessful first pitch and a second pitch which earned the show a green light. Silverman came up with the name from the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" in Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night".
Taking notes from a Hanna-Barbera colleague who was also a breeder of Great Danes, Production designer Iwao Takamoto designed the Scooby-Doo character with a sloping chin, spots, a long tail, a sloped back, and bow legs - all traits in direct opposition to those of a prize-winning purebred Great Dane. In defining the personality of the dog, Ruby and Spears looked for inspiration to the characters played by Bob Hope in his horror-comedies - a coward who shows traits of bravery when his friends are in danger. Veteran H-B voice artist Don Messick was the original voice of Scooby and spent decades working on the character.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered on CBS on September 13, 1969, at 10:30 a.m. EST and ran for two seasons, for a total of 25 episodes. Its final first-run episode aired on October 31, 1970.
Personality
In most incarnations of the series, Scooby is regarded as a unique Great Dane dog who is able to speak in broken English, and usually, puts the letter "R" in front of words and noises made. Other incarnations, such as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, present talking dogs as quite common in the larger fictional universe. In recent years (most notably in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated), Scooby is able to speak in complete sentences and has more dialogue, though partially retaining his speech impediment. He consistently shows about the same level of intelligence as his friends, while also being subject to the same knack for clumsiness and moments of being dimwitted as well.
Different iterations of the character have been developed and expanded in the various series featuring the characters, many of them contradicting, such as the original series and recent live-action movies where Shaggy and Scooby first meet as older teenagers for the first time. This contradicts the animated series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, where they know each other from almost infancy, though the films may be seen as having a different continuity altogether than the cartoon products. As an adult canine, Scooby is usually treated as a mix of a pet and a friend by his companions.
In all versions of the character, Scooby and Shaggy share several personality traits, mostly being cowardly and perpetually hungry. Yet their friends (Fred, Daphne, and Velma) encourage them to go after the costumed villains, usually with "Scooby Snacks". The biscuit-like dog treat or cookie snack is usually shaped like a bone or, in later versions of the cartoons, Scooby's dog tag. However, Scooby's inherent loyalty and courage do often force him to take a more heroic stance even without any prodding. Scooby is also extremely ticklish, and this is seen in many of the television series and movies.
Scooby has a speech impediment and tends to pronounce most words as if they begin with an "R"; however, most characters are able to understand him almost perfectly. In most iterations, he keeps his sentences relatively short, usually using charades for anything longer than three or four words. His catchphrase, usually howled at the end of every production, is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" or "Rooby-Rooby-Roo". Scooby was voiced by Don Messick through Arabian Nights in 1994, after which point Messick quit smoking; quitting smoking changed his voice and prevented him from achieving the same raspy vocal effect (despite Messick's efforts, he suffered a career-ending stroke in 1996 and died in 1997, before any further Scooby-Doo productions were made). Messick is also known for providing the voice of the dogs Astro on The Jetsons and Muttley (who snickered). The characteristic speech impediments of Scooby and Astro are so similar that Astro's signature phrase, "Ruh-roh!", is popularly and improperly attributed to Scooby (as in "Ruh-roh, Raggy!"); of the two voices, Scooby's had a deeper and throatier timbre than Astro's.
Appearance and anatomy
Scooby is brown from head to toe with several distinctive black spots on his upper body and does not seem to have a melanistic mask. He is generally a quadruped but displays bipedal 'human' characteristics occasionally. Scooby also has opposable thumbs and can use his front paws like hands. He has a black nose and wears an off-yellow, diamond-shaped-tagged blue collar with an "SD" (his initials) and has four toes on each foot. Unlike other dogs, Scooby only has one pad on the sole of each of his feet (so that it was easier to draw in the Scooby-Doo Annuals).
Scooby has a fully prehensile tail he can use to swing from or press buttons. Both his head and tail are malleable and useful as a communication aid or creating a distraction.
Creator Iwao Takamoto later explained that before he designed the character, he first spoke to a Great Dane breeder, who described to him the desirable characteristics of a pedigree dog. Takamoto then drew Scooby as the opposite of this. He said "I decided to go the opposite [way] and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, small chin and such. Even his color is wrong."
According to the official magazine that accompanied the 2002 movie, Scooby is seven years old.
Voice actors
Don Messick originated the character's voice patterns and provided Scooby-Doo's voice in every Scooby-Doo production from 1969 until 1994's Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights. Voice actor Hadley Kay voiced the character for a brief period in 1997, for two episodes of Johnny Bravo, and a few television commercials. Scott Innes (also the then-voice of Shaggy) voiced Scooby-Doo in four late 1990s/early 2000s direct-to-video films and continued to voice the character regularly for toys and video games (such as Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights) until 2008. Neil Fanning provided the voice of the computer-generated Scooby-Doo in the 2002 live-action film and its 2004 sequel. The legendary Frank Welker (also the voice of Fred since 1969) has voiced Scooby since 2002, taking over beginning with What's New, Scooby-Doo? and other spin-offs including the live-action prequels Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster. Dave Coulier and Seth Green have both voiced the character in Robot Chicken.
Voiced By:
Don Messick (1969–1996; All Scooby-Doo media from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969 until Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights in 1994, 1995 video game: Scooby-Doo Mystery, 1996 Burger King commercial)
Hadley Kay (1997; Johnny Bravo and some commercials)
In Brazil, the actor Orlando Drummond has been the voice of Scooby-Doo for 35 years, getting into Guinness World Records as the longest serving voice actor for one character. As of 2012, Drummond still is the only voice for Scooby-Doo in the country.
In Bulgaria, Scooby-Doo has been voiced by many different actors but mostly by Radoslav Rachev and Georgi Spasov.
In Poland, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Ryszard Olesiński in most movies and by Wiktor Zborowski, Jacek Jarosz and Jan Kulczycki in '89 version of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
In Russia, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Nikita Semenov-Prozorovskiy in cartoons and by Boris Bystrov in films.
In Netherlands, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Huub Dikstaal.
Relatives
Over the course of Scooby-Doo's various spin-offs, various relatives of Scooby were introduced:
Scrappy-Doo: Scooby's young nephew (and son of Scooby's sister Ruby-Doo), Scrappy is the bravest of Scooby's relatives. Scrappy became a recurring character in the Scooby-Doo series beginning in 1979 and was noted for being quite headstrong and always wanting to face off in a fight with the various villains (unlike his uncle). He has one or two catch phrases, the one he uses the most is "Puppy Power!" Scooby and Shaggy were present at Scrappy's birth.
Yabba-Doo: According to Scrappy and Yabba-Doo, Yabba is Scooby's brother, a white dog owned by Deputy Dusty in the American Southwest. Unlike Scooby, Yabba is brave. Unlike Scooby's and Scrappy's, his typical custom catchphrase at the end is "Yippity-Yabbity-Doooo!!!" (and not "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!", presumably due to Fred Flintstone's usage of that phrase).
Scooby-Dum: Scooby's cousin (according to Shaggy in "Headless Horseman of Halloween), a blue-grey dog. A Mortimer Snerd-esque dog who longed to be a detective. Was rather dimwitted (he would keep looking for clues even after the mystery was solved). His catchphrase was also different than Scooby's and Scrappy's. Instead of "Scooby-Dooby-Dum" his typical custom catchphrase is "Dum dum Dum DUM!", an intoning the opening four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he would do after someone said the word "clue".
Scooby-Dee: Scooby's distant cousin, a white dog. Spoke with a Southern accent, and was an actress.
Dooby-Doo: Scooby's cousin, a singer. He is one of Scooby's few relatives to have hair on his head. Only appeared in "The 'Dooby Dooby Doo' Ado".
Momsy and Dada Doo: Scooby's parents. His mother is the only one who calls him by his full name, "Scoobert".
Whoopsy-Doo: Scooby's cousin, a clown. Owned by Shaggy (Norville)'s uncle, Gaggy Rogers.
Ruby-Doo: Scooby's sister, and mother of Scrappy-Doo.
Skippy-Doo: Scooby's brother. Highly intelligent; he wears glasses.
Howdy-Doo: Scooby's brother. Enjoyed reading supermarket tabloid newspapers. He appears to become a redhead.
Horton-Doo: Scooby's uncle. Interested in monsters and science.
Dixie-Doo: Scooby's cousin and the pet of Betty Lou, Shaggy's Southern cousin.
Grandad Scooby: Scooby's grandfather.
Great-Grandpa Scooby: Scooby's great-grandfather.
Yankee-Doodle-Doo: Scooby's ancestor. He was owned by McBaggy Rogers. He also appears to be a pilgrim. Little is known about him.
Spooky-Doo: Scooby's uncle. He was the former owner of Doo Manor.
Love interests
Amber: In Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Shaggy and Scooby are abducted by the "aliens" and abandoned in the desert. There they meet a wildlife photographer, Crystal and her dog Amber. Scooby was heartbroken when it is revealed that Amber and Crystal are actually aliens from another planet and must go home, though he and Shaggy quickly forget about them at the film's ending when they found out there was one more Scooby snack box left. Amber and Crystal did seem to have actual feelings for Shaggy and Scooby but do not pursue them due to "long distance relationships never working out". Amber's disguised form is that of a Golden Retriever wearing a red bandana while her true form is a large, blue reptilian creature with a beak-like mouth. Like Scooby, she is capable of speech but only shows so at the film's ending and unlike Scooby, she speaks like a normal human.
Scooby-Dee: In The Scooby-Doo Show episode "The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller", Scooby and his cousin Scooby-Dum compete for the affections of canine movie star Scooby-Dee, who is also their cousin.
Chiquita: In Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico, Scooby meets up with Chiquita, Alejo's son's pet Chihuahua, when the gang arrives at Alejo's family hotel.
Sandy Duncan: In The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode: "Sandy Duncan's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", Scooby fell for Sandy Duncan at a studio.
Sled dog: In The Scooby-Doo Show episode A Scary Night With a Snow Beast Fright, Scooby falls in love with a sled dog. In the ending, she kisses him.
Chrissie: Mr. B's prize dog and mother of the Secret Six (Maize, Flax, Jingle, Knox, 14-Carat, and Bling-Bling) appeared in the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "Homeward Hound".
Roxanne: An old girlfriend that Scooby meets again in the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode, "A Scooby-Doo Valentine". In the ending, she leaves Scooby for singer JC Chasez's pet bulldog Reecho.
Nova: In the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "The Hodag of Horror", Scooby falls in love with Fred's parents' female dog Nova, a cocker spaniel. In the second season, she falls from a plane and goes into a coma, where she is then possessed by the Anunnaki, who warns Scooby of Nibiru and advises him on what to do.
Lady Annabelle: In the Be Cool Scooby-Doo! episode, "Poodle Justice", Scooby falls for the star of his favorite television series "Poodle Justice".
Appearances in other media
Scooby-Doo and Shaggy made a non-speaking cameo in Teen Titans Go! episode, "I See You" when Cyborg and Beast Boy were rapping.
Scooby-Doo appeared twice in Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy as a character who is described as being on the "wrong show" along with the other principal members of Mystery Inc.
Scooby-Doo has appeared in Johnny Bravo in the episodes "Bravo Dooby-Doo" and "'Twas the Night" during the first season voiced both times by Hadley Kay.
In an episode of Yin Yang Yo! called "Slumber Party of Doom", Scooby and Shaggy make two cameos. The first being Shaggy complaining about Yin and Yang stealing their montages and Scooby saying, "It sucks!"
Scooby-Doo and Shaggy made a cameo appearance in Looney Tunes: Back in Action complaining to Matthew Lillard (who played Shaggy) about his performance in the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie. They both threaten to come after Lillard if he ruins the sequel. Scooby-Doo states that he will give him a "Scooby snack" and begins growling viciously.
Scooby-Doo appears as a guest in a 1996 video called Kids for Character.
Scooby-Doo also appears in an episode of Drawn Together.
Scooby-Doo was once impersonated by David Beckham in an animated Scooby-Doo promo from the United Kingdom.
Scooby-Doo appears in the Robot Chicken episode "Operation: Rich in Spirit" voiced by Dave Coulier (who previously imitated Scooby's voice in Full House). He is amongst Mystery Inc. members who end up killed by Jason Voorhees except Velma. Seth Green voices him in the episode "Ban on the Fun" when in the segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre. This time, Scooby did not get killed.
In an episode of Robotboy, when Robotboy and his 'mother' escape from police with a big speaker, a dog which looks like Scooby hangs on to the speaker and follows them home.
In an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, this alludes to The New Scooby-Doo Movies where Batman originally starred in. However, with some meddling from Bat-Mite, not only were the dynamic duo able to fight unlike in the original appearance, but he also removed Shaggy and Scooby's cowardice allowing them to, for the first time, fight the villains toe to toe.
Scooby-Doo is a playable character alongside Shaggy in the crossover video game Lego Dimensions. His character includes a large sandwich called the "Scooby Snack". Frank Welker reprises the role.
Scooby-Doo makes a cameo in the 1988 Disney film Oliver & Company. During the song "Perfect Isn't Easy", he appears on a black-and-white photo at the right front of Georgette's portrait collection.
Reception
Casey Kasem, the previous voice actor for Shaggy Rogers, said that Scooby is "the star of the show—the Shaquille O'Neal of the show." Kasem explained "People love animals more than they love people. Am I right or wrong? They give more love to their pets than they give to people. Scooby is vulnerable and lovable and not brave, and very much like the kids who watch. But like kids, he likes to think that he's brave."
