July 3, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, Scooby-Doo, where are you? Americans have been asking themselves this question for over half a century. Our own Greg Hengler shares the story of one of the most iconic cartoons of all time.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
And we continue with our American stories.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Scooby Doo, Where are you?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is a question Americans have been asking ourselves for
over a half century. This is the story of one
of the most iconic cartoons of all time. Here's Greg
Hangler with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Nineteen sixty nine, America was approaching its fourteenth year fighting
in Vietnam. A serial killer calling himself the Zodiac, terrorized
the San Francisco Bay area with cryptic letters. Actress Sharon
Tate and four others were brutally murdered at the hands
of Charles Manson and his counterculture family of so called
(00:55):
flower Children. All this happening, the song topping the charts
was this Sugar. Sugar was originally recorded by the fictional
garage band The Archies, spawned from the cartoon series The Archies,
(01:17):
which itself was based on the long running comic book series.
This version reached number one in the US on the
Billboard Hot one hundred chart in nineteen sixty nine and
remained there for four weeks. It was the tail end
of animation's golden age in the early years of television animation.
In particular, parent advocacy groups like the now defunct Action
(01:42):
for children's television were pressuring television networks to drop violent
action adventures Saturday morning cartoons like the Herculoids. Fred Silverman,
the head executive in charge of children's animation at CBS,
sought new programming that would keep his Saturday morning lock
afloat while simultaneously keeping parental watchdogs off his back. The
(02:06):
solution was to hopefully expand upon the massive success CBS
found with The Archie Show, So Silverman contacted William Hannah
and Joseph Barbera to develop a show in the Archie mold.
Hannah Barbera Productions were early pioneers in TV animation, having
created shows like Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, The Smurfs,
(02:27):
The Jetsons in America's first primetime animated series, The Flintstones.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Just Keep Your Rye on the Ball, Bonnie Boy.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The new Archie style show was initially called House of Mystery,
that would feature a teenage rock band and would solve
mysteries in between gigs. Ul Takamoto, an animations vet who
got his start at Disney in the forties, was assigned
as designer of the project. From here, the series took
shape as Mysteries Five, much Like the Archies, the band
(03:04):
was also joined by a dog named too Much, who
played the bongos. Designer Takamoto, who had previously designed Astro
from the Jetsons, took particular care in crafting Too Much
by consulting one of his workmates, a breeder of Great Danes,
But after studying these prize winning Great Danes, Takamoto ignored
(03:26):
their signature characteristics, making too Much bow legged with a
sloped back and a double chin. When the show was
finally pitched to CBS, the band was phased out. The
name of the leader of the group, Ronnie, was changed
to Fred after a subtle suggestion from Fred Silverman, and
easily frightened and always hungry talking dog too Much was
(03:47):
renamed Scooby Doo. Inspiration for his new name came while
Fred Silverman listened to Sinatra's Strangers in the Night on
a cross country flight.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
DoD Douvi Doo.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
CBS ordered seventeen episodes, and the show was introduced to
generations of children on September thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine as
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, just a few weeks before
Sesame Street premiered. What's Remarkable About Scoob's first episode is
that it established everything that the franchise would be known for,
(04:24):
from the plot structure to the visuals, making each episode
feel unique yet familiar by inserting different monsters, settings, gags, etc.
Let's take a deep dive into this mystery, getting some
help from the gang who created the show. Here's animation
historian Mark evaner.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Don mesic to the voice of Scooby Doo originated, and
Don was just brilliant breathing life to that character.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Here's the voice of the snack loving beat Nick Shaggy,
legendary disc jockey Casey kasem Well.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
I think Done got into the psyche of an animal.
It was very much like Scooby Doo. That dog was
alive and it was it was a being, a human being.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And he's old.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
He just invested that character with so much personality and
made him so funny that it's impossible not to love him.
Do I get a Scooby start.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
We'll look for one after we're off the camera.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Here, okay, Scooby Doobe do.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I just got the idea for a trap that will
solve this mystery.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Listen, here's the voice of the confident all American ascot
wearing Fred Frank Welker.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Hang On Gang.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
The way that I got a part for Freddie, I
was doing a stand up routine and within this routine
I did like a dog and cat fight a lot
of you know. And this executive said, you know, we're
doing a show called Scooby Doo and there's a I
want you to come in and I'll just for Scooby Doo.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And I said great.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So I went over there and I got the script
and I saw Shaggy. This is me funny character, you know,
and I'm always playing the straight guys. And so I
sit down and meet Casey and he's just fantastic. I said, well,
what part are you reading for? And he says, I'm
reading for Shaggy and I want to read for Freddy.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Character I wanted to do was fred and so they said, no,
we'd like you to read the other character, Shaggy. I said, oh, okay,
Well what is it you want and he said, come
up with something. And what I came up with was
Goobo Buddy, old friend, old Bell, It's me your friend.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Shaggy, Like wow, my favorite lit double triple decker, sardine
and marshmallow fudge. Sandwich opened the mill between the gums.
Look out stomach here at gums.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
They called me back three times, and the third time
apparently they they saw what they liked, and so they
hired me.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Well game, I guess that wraps up another mystery.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Here's the voice of the bespectacled, bookish Velma, Nicole Jaffy.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
My glasses. I can't see without my glasses. It was
not my real voice, but it wasn't that far away.
Velma lisps i lisp. Velma has kind of a slightly
kooky voice. I guess my voice is slightly kooky.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Here's the voice of the attractive, accident prone Daphne Heather North.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
That's your cue, daf Right.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Oh no, my finger stuck in the keys. I can't
work the trick.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Danger prone Daphne.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
Did it again?
Speaker 8 (07:44):
Danger prone Daphne? Yeah eight, help make The girl that
had played Daphne for a short period of time had
left and gone to New York to get married, Nicole Jaffy.
David was my roommate and said, get in here looking
for Daphne. You can do Daphney cheapers, I'm doing Velman.
(08:04):
We could do this together. This would be great fun
and I audit shouldn't have got the part together.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
These characters formed Mystery Ink and embarked on countless mysteries
to seek out the truth in their van, dubbed the
Mystery Machine. Predictably, the monsters always turned out to be
humans in disguise, and I'd have done it too if
you kidch hadn't to come along. In contrary to popular belief,
the phrase meddling kids is never mentioned until episode twenty
(08:34):
during season two, and it.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Would have been mine if it hadn't been to those
meddling kits.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But even then it was not muttered with much consistency,
only being said twice in the original series. After season
one of Scooby Doo, the series was a rating smash hit.
Up to sixty five percent of the Saturday morning audience
was tuning in to Scooby Doo, and its popularity hasn't
slowed down to this day. Been many spinoffs, blockbuster movies,
(09:02):
and merchandising, but the heart of the characters has remained,
and thanks to reruns, a new generation of kids get
to enjoy Scoob in the Gang as they solve their mysteries.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
An a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and my goodness out of
nineteen sixty nine's mayhem and chaos. That year there was
the Zodiac Killer, the Tate Murders, but there it was
Scooby Doo, debuting in September of nineteen sixty nine and
(09:35):
pulling sixty five percent of the Saturday morning audience. There
were spinoffs, yes, there were blockbusters, but there are the
reruns for generation after generation to enjoy a classic American
cartoon and in a sense, classic American art, the story
of Scooby Doo. Here on our American Stories
And we continue with our American stories.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
Scooby Doo, Where are you?
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is a question Americans have been asking ourselves for
over a half century. This is the story of one
of the most iconic cartoons of all time. Here's Greg
Hangler with the story.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Nineteen sixty nine, America was approaching its fourteenth year fighting
in Vietnam. A serial killer calling himself the Zodiac, terrorized
the San Francisco Bay area with cryptic letters. Actress Sharon
Tate and four others were brutally murdered at the hands
of Charles Manson and his counterculture family of so called
(00:55):
flower Children. All this happening, the song topping the charts
was this Sugar. Sugar was originally recorded by the fictional
garage band The Archies, spawned from the cartoon series The Archies,
(01:17):
which itself was based on the long running comic book series.
This version reached number one in the US on the
Billboard Hot one hundred chart in nineteen sixty nine and
remained there for four weeks. It was the tail end
of animation's golden age in the early years of television animation.
In particular, parent advocacy groups like the now defunct Action
(01:42):
for children's television were pressuring television networks to drop violent
action adventures Saturday morning cartoons like the Herculoids. Fred Silverman,
the head executive in charge of children's animation at CBS,
sought new programming that would keep his Saturday morning lock
afloat while simultaneously keeping parental watchdogs off his back. The
(02:06):
solution was to hopefully expand upon the massive success CBS
found with The Archie Show, So Silverman contacted William Hannah
and Joseph Barbera to develop a show in the Archie mold.
Hannah Barbera Productions were early pioneers in TV animation, having
created shows like Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, The Smurfs,
(02:27):
The Jetsons in America's first primetime animated series, The Flintstones.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Just Keep Your Rye on the Ball, Bonnie Boy.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
The new Archie style show was initially called House of Mystery,
that would feature a teenage rock band and would solve
mysteries in between gigs. Ul Takamoto, an animations vet who
got his start at Disney in the forties, was assigned
as designer of the project. From here, the series took
shape as Mysteries Five, much Like the Archies, the band
(03:04):
was also joined by a dog named too Much, who
played the bongos. Designer Takamoto, who had previously designed Astro
from the Jetsons, took particular care in crafting Too Much
by consulting one of his workmates, a breeder of Great Danes,
But after studying these prize winning Great Danes, Takamoto ignored
(03:26):
their signature characteristics, making too Much bow legged with a
sloped back and a double chin. When the show was
finally pitched to CBS, the band was phased out. The
name of the leader of the group, Ronnie, was changed
to Fred after a subtle suggestion from Fred Silverman, and
easily frightened and always hungry talking dog too Much was
(03:47):
renamed Scooby Doo. Inspiration for his new name came while
Fred Silverman listened to Sinatra's Strangers in the Night on
a cross country flight.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
DoD Douvi Doo.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
CBS ordered seventeen episodes, and the show was introduced to
generations of children on September thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine as
Scooby Doo, Where Are You, just a few weeks before
Sesame Street premiered. What's Remarkable About Scoob's first episode is
that it established everything that the franchise would be known for,
(04:24):
from the plot structure to the visuals, making each episode
feel unique yet familiar by inserting different monsters, settings, gags, etc.
Let's take a deep dive into this mystery, getting some
help from the gang who created the show. Here's animation
historian Mark evaner.
Speaker 5 (04:43):
Don mesic to the voice of Scooby Doo originated, and
Don was just brilliant breathing life to that character.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Here's the voice of the snack loving beat Nick Shaggy,
legendary disc jockey Casey kasem Well.
Speaker 6 (04:56):
I think Done got into the psyche of an animal.
It was very much like Scooby Doo. That dog was
alive and it was it was a being, a human being.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
And he's old.
Speaker 5 (05:13):
He just invested that character with so much personality and
made him so funny that it's impossible not to love him.
Do I get a Scooby start.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
We'll look for one after we're off the camera.
Speaker 5 (05:24):
Here, okay, Scooby Doobe do.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
I just got the idea for a trap that will
solve this mystery.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Listen, here's the voice of the confident all American ascot
wearing Fred Frank Welker.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Hang On Gang.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
The way that I got a part for Freddie, I
was doing a stand up routine and within this routine
I did like a dog and cat fight a lot
of you know. And this executive said, you know, we're
doing a show called Scooby Doo and there's a I
want you to come in and I'll just for Scooby Doo.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
And I said great.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
So I went over there and I got the script
and I saw Shaggy. This is me funny character, you know,
and I'm always playing the straight guys. And so I
sit down and meet Casey and he's just fantastic. I said, well,
what part are you reading for? And he says, I'm
reading for Shaggy and I want to read for Freddy.
Speaker 6 (06:23):
Character I wanted to do was fred and so they said, no,
we'd like you to read the other character, Shaggy. I said, oh, okay,
Well what is it you want and he said, come
up with something. And what I came up with was
Goobo Buddy, old friend, old Bell, It's me your friend.
Speaker 3 (06:40):
Shaggy, Like wow, my favorite lit double triple decker, sardine
and marshmallow fudge. Sandwich opened the mill between the gums.
Look out stomach here at gums.
Speaker 6 (06:56):
They called me back three times, and the third time
apparently they they saw what they liked, and so they
hired me.
Speaker 5 (07:04):
Well game, I guess that wraps up another mystery.
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Here's the voice of the bespectacled, bookish Velma, Nicole Jaffy.
Speaker 7 (07:12):
My glasses. I can't see without my glasses. It was
not my real voice, but it wasn't that far away.
Velma lisps i lisp. Velma has kind of a slightly
kooky voice. I guess my voice is slightly kooky.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Here's the voice of the attractive, accident prone Daphne Heather North.
Speaker 5 (07:32):
That's your cue, daf Right.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
Oh no, my finger stuck in the keys. I can't
work the trick.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Danger prone Daphne.
Speaker 7 (07:42):
Did it again?
Speaker 8 (07:44):
Danger prone Daphne? Yeah eight, help make The girl that
had played Daphne for a short period of time had
left and gone to New York to get married, Nicole Jaffy.
David was my roommate and said, get in here looking
for Daphne. You can do Daphney cheapers, I'm doing Velman.
(08:04):
We could do this together. This would be great fun
and I audit shouldn't have got the part together.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
These characters formed Mystery Ink and embarked on countless mysteries
to seek out the truth in their van, dubbed the
Mystery Machine. Predictably, the monsters always turned out to be
humans in disguise, and I'd have done it too if
you kidch hadn't to come along. In contrary to popular belief,
the phrase meddling kids is never mentioned until episode twenty
(08:34):
during season two, and it.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
Would have been mine if it hadn't been to those
meddling kits.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
But even then it was not muttered with much consistency,
only being said twice in the original series. After season
one of Scooby Doo, the series was a rating smash hit.
Up to sixty five percent of the Saturday morning audience
was tuning in to Scooby Doo, and its popularity hasn't
slowed down to this day. Been many spinoffs, blockbuster movies,
(09:02):
and merchandising, but the heart of the characters has remained,
and thanks to reruns, a new generation of kids get
to enjoy Scoob in the Gang as they solve their mysteries.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
An a terrific job on the production editing and storytelling
by our own Greg Hengler, and my goodness out of
nineteen sixty nine's mayhem and chaos. That year there was
the Zodiac Killer, the Tate Murders, but there it was
Scooby Doo, debuting in September of nineteen sixty nine and
(09:35):
pulling sixty five percent of the Saturday morning audience. There
were spinoffs, yes, there were blockbusters, but there are the
reruns for generation after generation to enjoy a classic American
cartoon and in a sense, classic American art, the story
of Scooby Doo. Here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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