Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Never have a group of teens run across so many random mysteries as Scooby-Doo and the gang. The unlikely group of friends had a knack for finding themselves in the creepiest of places, haunted by an unwelcoming, otherworldly creature. Being the mystery-solving sleuths that they were, the five friends wouldn’t rest until they uncovered the secrets of the haunted place, which inevitably turned out to be the work of some criminal posing as a monster in order to scare away others.

Traveling from place to place in their van, The Mystery Machine, the group was led by blond haired, all-American boy, Fred. Red haired, danger prone Daphne looked good in a skirt and was odds-on favorite among the teens to fall into a trap or get kidnapped. Brainy Velma was good at discovering clues and working out the details of a crime. Beatnik Shaggy acted mainly as comic relief and was best friends with the group’s canine companion, the Great Dane Scooby-Doo.

Shaggy and Scooby shared the common bond of having a healthy appetite and an acute sense of self-preservation. In questionable fashion, whenever the teens split up to search for clues, Shaggy and Scooby were almost always paired. Under especially dire circumstances, the only way to persuade Scooby to carry out a mission involved bribing him with a Scooby snack. The teens always had a few handy, and if a single Scooby snack wasn’t enough, the teens could up the ante until Scooby’s greedy stomach overcame his fear. To a lesser degree, the same trick sometimes worked on Shaggy.

The popularity of the series started the trend of cartoons starring mystery solving teens that became popular in the 70s. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! ran for two seasons of original episodes beginning in 1969. For decades afterwards, Scooby and the teens continued their mystery solving ways in numerous series, following a wide range of formats.