Scooby Doobie Doo

By David Bright

Staff Writer

cooby Doo is one of Hanna-Barbera's most popular cartoon characters, and with its run starting in the late sixties as "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" and continuing for eighteen years through "A Pup Named Scooby Doo", it has had original episodes in production for longer than any other show. Ostensibly, the show is about a group of teenagers and a dog who fight crime. Of course, the most rampant form of crime in their universe is men pretending to be monsters as a cover for a smuggling or counterfeiting ring. This is also a world where movie projector technology is advanced enough to project 3-D images onto the air that look exactly like ghosts. But what is this show really about?

The answer, of course, is drugs. One must not forget that this show came from a time period when attitudes toward marijuana use were even more relaxed than they are now. Mainstream advertisements often contained references and terms to target themselves to the stoner demographic. It is not unreasonable to suggest that subtexts of drug use could have made their way into a children's cartoon show.

Look at the facts. Four teenagers and a dog driving around the country in a colorfully painted van with no obvious means of support. All they appear to do with their time on the show is solve mysteries, but that is just pro bono work that they receive no compensation for. Unlike the criminals they catch, they know that you don't have to pretend to be a ghost to run a successful smuggling operation.

All you need to do is to keep moving from town to town and every now and then help the local police investigate the strange happenings at the abandoned warehouse, and nobody will suspect a thing. There is also plenty of direct evidence, that the gang uses drugs. First of all, Shaggy and Scooby would always imagine any little noise they heard to be a ghost. Paranoia is one of Shaggy's defining characteristics. Second, Shaggy and Scooby always have quite an appetite. Whenever they go looking for clues, they invariably will end up making a stop at the fridge to make a five foot tall Dagwood sandwich. Other Scooby scholars have interpreted the "Scooby Snacks" that Scooby eats to be further evidence that they always have the munchies. I, however, argue that the Scooby Snacks themselves are a drug. Scooby would do anything to get one, suggesting a dependency, and once who would get one he would get a euphoric feeling that made him feel invincible and gave him a rush of energy. My guess is that Scooby Snacks were doggy biscuits with speed, or some other amphetamines, mixed in. As further support, I would like to point out that episodes produced during the Reagan era, played down those elements that I mentioned. Shaggy's munchies, when he got them, seemed to be from genuine hunger, and Scooby snacks all but faded away. There was even a period when Shaggy's shirt changed from that drab green, to a bright red.

What does the future hold for Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby? There has been talk of a new show coming sometime soon. This summer, Burger King gave out Scooby Doo toys with their kids meals to help reintroduce the characters to younger kids. I look forward to seeing new episodes and wonder if they will as accurately reflect the times now as they did before. I imagine Shaggy returning with a more Cobain-esque appearance and I bet if you look carefully, you'll be able to see needle marks in his arms. Here are some more Scooby Doo facts:

Ever wonder why Shaggy wears that same marijuana-green shirt all the time? The answer is that he doesn't! In one episode I saw, Shaggy was unpacking his suitcase. When he opened it up he had a neatly folded set of six green shirts, all exactly the same. I guess he just likes that color.

There are two guys and two girls on the show. Travelling around in the Mystery Machine so close to each other, something must have happened, right? Well, Daphne was Fred's girlfriend. As far as I could tell, that was her main reason to be there. In early episodes, the nature of their relationship was more obvious. Shaggy would make jokes about the two of them, and in a few episodes, I've seen Fred put his arm on her shoulder. They also sat next to each other in the Mystery Machine. I think they broke up sometime in the early eighties, when "The Thirteen Ghosts Of Scooby Doo" mini series started. In that show, Fred and Velma did not appear. In the beginning Velma seemed jealous that Daphne had Fred and she didn't, but gradually I could see her warming up to Shaggy. Unfortunately, Shaggy was more interested in smoking pot and hanging around Scooby, his platonic friend, and Velma was too shy to show Shaggy how she really feels.

Like many cartoon characters, Scooby Doo is sterile. When he wants to reproduce, all he can do is hope for an unknown sibling to leave his or her children for him to take care of. Scooby was lucky, because he finally got to fulfill his dreams of fatherhood when his nephew Scrappy showed up. It is unknown who Scrappy's father is. The only sibling of Scooby's that I know of is Scooby Dum, but he seems an unlikely candidate, since his coat is gray, and, as his name suggests, he is quite dumb. Other sterile cartoon characters include Donald Duck (uncle of Huey, Duey, and Looey) and Donald's uncle, Uncle Scrooge.

The man who did the voice of Scooby Doo also did the voices of Scrappy, Booboo from Yogi Bear, Elroy and Astro from the Jetsons, and Papa Smurf. The voice of Shaggy was provided by America's Top Forty host Casey Kasem.