The first incarnation of what has become a franchise-of-sorts. Scooby-Doo was a large, loveable but cowardly Great Dane who hung around four California high school students (Fred, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy). The four teen-agers were in constant search of mysteries and adventures, driving around in a bright green van known as the Mystery Machine. Many of the group's adventures involved villians who took on supernatural disguises (ghosts and monsters); the villians' activities usually involved blackmail, theft, fraud and other forms of corruption. At the first hint of trouble, Scooby-Doo (and usually, Shaggy as well) running for cover; they usually found themselves in even deeper trouble. It usually took the promise of a Scooby snack to get Scooby (and Shaggy) to come out of hiding. The mysteries were always solved by the end of each show (the villian proclaiming, "And I would have gotten away with it if it hadn't have been for you kids!" or some similar line).
AMAZON.COM REVIEWS FOR "SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU!" (1969): "Well, gang, it looks like we're up to our armor plates in anothermystery." Oddly enough, this line comes from the very first episode ofScooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the part-mystery, part-haunted houseanimated series that premiered in 1969. The first five episodes are featured on Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries, in which Freddy, Daphne,Velma, Shaggy, and of course the practical-joking Great Dane Scooby-Doodrive around the country in their lime-green van "The Mystery Machine"investigating haunted castles, ghost towns, and a host of allegedotherworldly beings. Ventriloquist, gymnast, and resident hippie Shaggy andfraidy-cat canine Scooby provide the comic relief between clues, and canusually be bribed into anything with a yummy Scooby snack (the ingredientsof which remain the show's real mystery). Sure, the animation is flat, themusic receptive, and the jokes not nearly as funny as the laugh track wouldhave you think, but that's par for Saturday morning animation. If you grewup with Scooby and the gang, these original episodes are like a nostalgiatrain to Saturday morning yesteryear, yet after 30 years the shows havehardly aged (even beatnik Shaggy could pass for modern grunge). The DVDalsofeatures an abbreviated music video (not as good as Matthew Sweet'srendition of the theme song on Saturday Morning Cartoons) and atrivia quiz.The episodes: "What a Night for a Knight,""Hassle in the Castle,""A Clue for Scooby Doo,""Mine Your Own Business," and "Decoy from a Dognapper." --Sean AxmakerScooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries (vhs):
Amazon.com video review:They're four kids who have next to nothing in common; they have no visible means ofsupport, parents, or responsibilities; they travel as much as they want,wherever they want; they have a dog whom they've addicted to a treat--andthey use the dog to do anything they deem too dangerous to do themselves.Oh, and they regularly take the law into their own hands, trespassing andbreaking and entering whenever it suits them. This is a kids show?
Looking back, it's sometimes tough to figure out what really madeScooby-Doo so popular, and the four episodes included here--chosenbya Warner Bros. Online poll--don't really go that far in explaining thephenomenon. Hassle in the Castle, the first episode, has virtuallyno plot(the gang is out boating in the fog when they run aground on a hauntedisland); in A Clue for Scooby Doo, the fivesome sinks a husband-and-wifepirating scam; The Backstage Rage is a step up, and involves thegang'sfoiling a puppeteer's counterfeit operation. The last episode, Jeepers,It's the Creeper, asks more questions than it answers--it opens withthegang headed out to their school dance, and no other students ever showup.
It's hard to believe that any collection of fan favorites wouldn't includeany of Scooby and the crew's classic team-ups (with Batman and Robin, Laurel andHardy, etc.). With all the other Scooby compilations available, this onehas dubious claim to the title Greatest Mysteries.--Randy Silver
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