| |
|
|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
|
|
|
Aired: 1988 - 1991
Show Type: Animated
Country of Origin: US
A short-lived fad in the '80s was taking classic cartoons and reinventing the shows by depicting the characters as children ("The Flintstone Kids," "The New Archie Show"). Following suit was "Scooby-Doo."
"A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" found the pint-sized pre-teens solving mysteries in their hometown, Coolsville. The Scooby-Doo Detective Agency (known as Mystery, Inc. in other Scooby incarnations) unmasked a variety of villains over the three seasons, ranging from standards like evil clowns and menacing ghosts to some outlandish characters like Chickenstein and a walking, talking hamburger.
This series was the first to lampoon the beloved characters. Freddy was depicted as a clueless doof, generally claiming every villain had to either be the dreaded Mole Men or resident town mischief-maker Red Herring (who would enter the scene, proclaim his innocence, and call Fred a wiener). Daphne was depicted as a self-involved, spoiled rich kid, frequently calling upon her butler, Jenkins, for whatever she fancied at the moment. Velma was a quiet computer nerd, who cried "Jinkies!" any time she discovered a clue, and she was always the one to solve the mystery. Scooby and Shaggy remained generally the same as they were in other series: food junkies who were petrified of villains. A TV newsman frequently broke into the show to point out the obvious ("Velma said 'Jinkies!'"), and frequently seen were Shaggy's family (his policeman father and baby sister Sugey) and Scooby's parents (Mumsy and Daddy Doo). The show featured more slapstick, silliness, sight gags and inside jokes than any other incarnation of Scooby-Doo, and the bulk of the episodes featured a '50s-styled chase-scene song which the heroes were aware of -- they'd frequently stop to dance.
In the mid-90s the show began airing on Cartoon Network, and it's aired frequently on the station ever since, generally during the early morning. The entire series is available on DVD from Warner Bros. Home Video.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
