THE NEW SCOOBY-DOO MOVIES
(CBS, September 9, 1972-October 27, 1973)
Hanna-Barbera Productions
MAIN CAST:
For the background on Scooby-Doo, check out the post here.
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| The gang gives Laurel and Hardy a lift. |
After two seasons of unmasking crooked culprits, Fred Silverman wanted to keep what was essentially his baby from becoming
too stale. When the time came to renew Scooby-Doo,
Where Are You! for a
third season, Silverman decided to punch things up a bit with some slight
tweaks to the show. Though fundamentally the same, the second incarnation of
the franchise ran for a full hour (the first cartoon to do so with a single
story and character rather than several segments with multiple characters) and
introduced the concept of the celebrity team-up to the Scooby-verse.
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| The title screens were replaced by announcing the guest-star(s) for the episode. |
The New Scooby-Doo
Movies saw Scooby (Don Messick) and the gang teaming up with an
assortment of guest stars who had managed to either be involved or entangled in
the same mysteries the Scooby gang always fell into. The title cards from the
previous series were replaced with Shaggy and Scooby looking at an image of the
featured guest(s) and Shaggy (Casey Kasem) announcing them to the viewer. These
guest stars ranged from real people to fictional characters, many of whom were
either the stars of or eventual stars of Hanna-Barbera-produced shows.
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| Don Adams, celebrity pest exterminator. |
Real-life celebrity guests included Don Adams (the final season of Get Smart aired on the network), Sonny Bono, Cher (both from The Sonny and Cher Comedy
Hour), Tim Conway (a
frequent guest on The
Carol Burnett Show), Sandy Duncan (starring in The Sandy Duncan Show), Dick Van Dyke (starring in The New Dick Van Dyke Show), Cass Elliot
(who had the special Don’t
Call Me Mama Anymore and appeared on Match Game ’73), Davy Jones (from The Monkees whose reruns were airing on the
network), Jerry Reed (starring in the
summer series The
Jerry Reed When You’re Hot You’re Hot Hour), Phyllis Diller, Don Knotts, and JonathanWinters, all of whom provided their own voices. The Three Stooges, Moe Howard (Paul
Winchell), Larry Fine (Joe
Baker) and Curly-Joe (Frank Welker), were all voiced by imitators due to the
poor health of Larry and Moe. The Stooges would later return in the
Hanna-Barbera produced The
Robonic Stooges.
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| The Scooby gang meet the cast of Speed Buggy. |
On
the fictional side were characters from Hanna-Barbera’s copies of Scooby-Doo
in an attempt to try and duplicate the show’s success, also airing on the
network. They were the cast of Speed
Buggy: Speed Buggy (Mel Blanc), Mark (Michael
Bell), Debbie (Arlene Golonka) and Tinker (Phil Luther, Jr.); the cast of Jeannie: Jeannie (Julie McWhirter), Corey Anders (Mark Hamil in his first voice-acting role) and Babu (Joe Besser); and the cast of Josie
and the Pussycats: Josie (Janet Waldo), Valerie (Barbara Pariot), Melody (Jackie Joseph), Alan M. (Jerry Dexter), Alexander Cabot III (Kasem), Alexandra Cabot (Sherry Alberoni) and Sebastian the cat (Messick).
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| Freddy and The Three Stooges. |
With the same voice actors in tow, Batman (Olan
Soule) and Robin (Kasem) appeared fresh off their stint in Filmation’s The
Adventures of Batman . Both would go on to star in Hanna-Barbera’s Super
Friends franchise. Making their first
animated appearance was The Addams Family (John
Astin, Carolyn Jones, Jackie Coogan and Ted Cassidy all reprised their roles from the earlier live-action series). The characters were drawn
to resemble the original Charles Addams cartoons, and the popularity of their appearance led to
their receiving their own
Hanna-Barbera series in 1973.
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| Mystery, Inc. meets the Harlem Globetrotters. |
Straddling the line between
real celebrities being impersonated and Hanna-Barbera characters were the Harlem Globetrotters line-up of George
“Meadowlark” Lemon (Scatman Crothers), Freddie “Curly” Neal (Stu
Gillam), Hubert “Geese” Ausbie (Johnny
Williams), Bobby Joe “B.J.”
Mason (Eddie
Anderson), J.C. “Gip” Gipson (Richard
Elkins) and Pablo “Pabs” Robertson (Robert
DoQui), all reprising their roles from the
earlier Harlem
Globe Trotters series.
The comedy team of Stan Laurel (Larry Harmon) and Oliver Hardy (Jim MacGeorge) had also previously appeared in a series of 156 shorts by Hanna-Barbera in 1966.
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| The Scooby gang helps Batman and Robin nab Joker and Penguin. |
The New Scooby-Doo Movies debuted on CBS on September 9, 1972. The show was written by Larz Bourne, Jameson Brewer, Tom Dagenais, Ruth Brooks Flippen, Fred Freiberger, Willie Gilbert, Heywood
Kling, Bill Lutz, Larry Markes, Norman Maurer, Jack Mendelsohn, Sidney Morse, Ray Parker, Gene Thompson, Paul West and Harry Winkler, with Hoyt Curtin providing the music. It ran for two seasons and was rerun
alongside Where Are You! until 1976. In the meantime, Silverman
had moved to ABC to become the
network president and revitalize their programming in much the same way he had
for CBS. When CBS chose to let their option to Scooby expire, Silverman quickly
snatched it up and brought Scooby and the gang over to ABC with him.
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| The (almost) complete series Blu-ray. |
Because of the nature of the series, agreements had
to be reached with the various guest stars and their estates in order to
reproduce the episodes for home video. Unable to do so for some of them, in
2006 Turner
Home Entertainment released The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies in the United States which contained 15
of the 24 episodes. The British
version only had four episodes and was labeled as “Volume 1,” although no
further volumes were released. The included episodes had an edited introduction
that removed The Addams Family, Batman & Robin, The Harlem Globetrotters,
The Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy. However, in 2009, the supplemental
DVDs Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters and Scooby-Doo Meets Batman were released, each containing two
episodes featuring the titular characters. The Batman & Robin episodes were
later included as extras on the 2018 direct-to-video movie Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the
Bold. For Scooby’s 50th
anniversary in 2019, WB was able to secure the rights to 8 of the missing 9
episodes and released them as a supplemental Best Of the New Scooby-Doo Movies Volume 2 and in an (Almost) Complete Collection on Blu-ray. To date, “Wednesday is Missing” was only made available on VHS by
Worldvision
Home Video in the United Kingdom as Scooby-Doo
Meets the Addams Family. From 2014-19, DC Comics, who
had been publishing Scooby comics since 1997, ran a series revisiting the
concept of the show called Scooby-Doo! Team-Up. The series featured Scooby and the gang teaming-up with
various DC superheroes and other Hanna-Barbera characters.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“Ghastly Ghostly Town” (9/8/72) – The gang helps the Three Stooges
stop a giant bat from ruining their theme park: a real ghost town with real
ghosts.
“The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair” (9/15/72) – The gang teams-up with
Batman and Robin to uncover a counterfeiting ring supplying the Joker and
Penguin.
“Wednesday is Missing” (9/22/72) – The gang ends up becoming the
housekeepers for the Addams family when a giant vulture terrorizes the house
and kidnaps Wednesday.
“The Frickert Fracas” (9/29/72) – Jonathan Winters invites the gang to
Maude Frickert’s chicken farm to help her find a secret formula before a
scarecrow gets it first.
“Guess Who’s Knott Coming to Dinner?” (10/6/72) – The gang takes
shelter in a mansion where everyone believes them to be relatives of the late
Captain Moody, including Don Knotts.
“A Good Medium is Rare” (10/13/72) – Phyllis Diller’s fortune is
sought after by a gargoyle, and she recruits the gang to help her after they
return her dog to her.
“Sandy Duncan’s Jekyll and Hyde” (10/20/72) – Sandy Duncan’s movie is
disrupted by various monsters, prompting the gang and a lovestruck Scooby to
help her.
“The Secret of Shark Island” (10/27/72) – The gang runs into Sonny and
Cher at a hotel that’s under siege by the Shark God Pescado Diabolico and his
Shark Men.
“The Spooky Fog of Juneberry” (11/4/72) – Don Knotts and a mysterious
fog lead to mayhem in the western town of Juneberry.
“The Ghost of Bigfoot” (11/11/72) – The gang helps Laurel and Hardy
solve the mystery of the ghost of Bigfoot terrorizing a popular ski resort.
“The Ghost of the Red Baron” (11/18/72) – The ghost of Manfred von
Richthofen terrorizes the Three Stooges when Curly-Joe takes a crop-dusting
job.
“The Ghostly Creep from the Deep” (11/25/72) – The gang and the Harlem
Globetrotters encounter a ship populated by ghost pirates.
“The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall” (12/1/72) – A phantom
knight seeks to keep Davy Jones from taking over Hagglethorn Hall, a fortress
he’s inherited.
“The Phantom of the Country Music Hall” (12/8/72) – The gang goes to a
Jerry Reed concert only to discover the singer is missing.
“The Caped Crusader Caper” (12/15/72) – The Joker and Penguin kidnap
Professor Flaky, reuniting the gang with Batman and Robin.
“The Lochness Mess” (12/22/72) – The Harlem Globetrotters visit
Shaggy’s uncle’s house only to encounter colonial ghosts and a sea monster.
Season 2:
“The Mystery of the Haunted Island” (9/8/73) – The gang and the Harlem
Globetrotters end up on a haunted island where they meet three hooded ghosts.
“The Haunted Showboat” (9/15/73) – Ghosts seek to sink the showboat The Dixie Queen, where the gang has
ended up with Josie and the Pussycats.
“Mystery in Persia” (9/22/73) – Jeannie recruits the gang to stop
Jadal the Evil Djinn from preventing a young prince from becoming sultan.
“The Spirit Spooked Sports Show” (9/29/73) – The ghost of an athlete
haunts Velma’s alma mater where Tim Conway is a coach.
“The Exterminator” (10/6/73) – Don Adams is hired to exterminate the
house of horror actor Lorne Chumley, but he and the gang end up encountering
monsters at every turn.
“The Weird Winds of Winona” (10/13/73) – A town’s population is
mysteriously declining, and it’s up to the gang and the Speed Buggy crew to
figure out why.
“The Haunted Candy Factory” (10/20/73) – The gang helps Cass Elliot
try to find out why her candy factory is haunted.
“The Haunted Carnival” (10/27/73) – A ghostly strongman haunts the
carnival run by Dick Van Dyke.
Originally posted in 2014. Updated in 2020.
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