The New Scooby-Doo Movies

The New Scooby-Doo Movies
On-screen title card.
Network	CBS
Production company	Hanna-Barbera
Original release	September 9, 1972—October 27, 1973
Starring	Don Messick Casey Kasem Frank Welker Nicole Jaffe Heather North
Producer(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Music composed by	Hoyt Curtin
Director(s)	William Hanna Joseph Barbera
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The New Scooby-Doo Movies, also sometimes known as The New Scooby-Doo Comedy Movies, is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera (H-B) for CBS' Saturday morning children's programming. It ran from 1972 to 1973, airing 24 episodes that spanned two seasons. It was the second Scooby-Doo series after Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

The format is essentially the same, with the title character, Scooby-Doo, solving mysteries with his four teenage friends, who are collectively known as Mystery Inc., only this time they are joined by a variety of b-level celebrities of the time who were mostly voiced by themselves, including those who are deceased such as Laurel & Hardy (voiced by imitators). In addition to real-life people being animated, they were also aided by fictional characters licensed to Hanna-Barbera, such as Batman and Robin, the Addams Family, and Josie and the Pussycats, and Speed Buggy. Some of these had already been animated for TV by Hanna-Barbera, like Josie and the Pussycats, and Speed Buggy, while the Addams Family were given their own show, while Batman and Robin were the co-stars of Super Friends, by the time The New Scooby-Doo Movies was nearing its end. While most only appeared once, others were popular enough to appear a couple of times, whereas the Harlem Globetrotters appeared in three episodes that spanned across the two seasons made.

Production

Development

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the creators of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, were not involved with this incarnation. The name seems to come from the fact that it is longer in length and inspired by the movies of Abbott & Costello going up against monsters such as Frankenstein's monster.

The first season was animated in the United States, while the second season was animated in Hanna-Barbera's then-new Australian-based studio.

Music

The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin, who was credited as musical director, with musical supervision from Paul DeKorte.

Episodes

Title	Original air date
1x01 "Ghastly Ghost Town"	September 9, 1972
1x02 "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair"	September 16, 1972
1x03 "Scooby-Doo Meets the Addams Family"	September 23, 1972
1x04 "The Frickert Fracas"	September 30, 1972
1x05 "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner"	October 7, 1972
1x06 "A Good Medium is Rare"	October 14, 1972
1x07 "Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde"	October 21, 1972
1x08 "The Secret of Shark Island"	October 28, 1972
1x09 "The Spooky Fog of Juneberry"	November 4, 1972
1x10 "The Ghost of Bigfoot"	November 11, 1972
1x11 "The Ghost of the Red Baron"	November 18, 1972
1x12 "The Ghostly Creep from the Deep"	November 25, 1972
1x13 "The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall"	December 2, 1972
1x14 "The Phantom of the Country Music Hall"	December 9, 1972
1x15 "The Caped Crusader Caper"	December 16, 1972
1x16 "The Lochness Mess"	December 23, 1972
2x01 "The Mystery of Haunted Island"	September 8, 1973
2x02 "The Haunted Showboat"	September 15, 1973
2x03 "Mystery in Persia"	September 22, 1973
2x04 "The Spirit Spooked Sports Show"	September 29, 1973
2x05 "The Exterminator"	October 6, 1973
2x06 "The Weird Winds of Winona"	October 13, 1973
2x07 "The Haunted Candy Factory"	October 20, 1973
2x08 "The Haunted Carnival"	October 27, 1973

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: September 9, 1972 at 9:00 am on ABC
• United Kingdom and Ireland: May 17, 1975 at 5:10 pm on BBC-1

Cast

• Don Messick as Scooby-Doo
• Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers
• Frank Welker as Fred Jones
• Heather North as Daphne Blake
• Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley

Celebrity guests

• Larry Storch
• Ted Knight
• John Astin
• Carolyn Jones
• Ted Cassidy
• Jackie Coogan
• Jodie Foster
• Jonathan Winters
• Don Knotts
• Phyllis Diller
• Sandy Duncan
• Sonny Bono
• Cher
• Davy Jones
• Jerry Reed
• Julie McWhirter
• Mark Hamill
• Joe Besser
• Bob Hastings
• Tim Conway
• Don Adams
• Mel Blanc
• Cass Elliot
• Dick Van Dyke

Credits

These identical credits appeared at the end of every episode.

Season one

• Produced and Directed: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
• Associate Producer: Alex Lovy
• Story: Jameson Brewer, Tom Dagenais, Ruth Flippen, Fred Freiberger, Willie Gilbert, Bill Lutz, Larry Markes, Norman Maurer, Jack Mendelsohn, Ray Parker, Gene Thompson, Paul West, Harry Winkler
• Story Direction: Steve Clark, Mike Kawaguchi, Paul Sommer, Carl Fallberg, George Singer, Irv Spector, Howard Swift
• Voices: Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Frank Welker, Daws Butler, Joan Gerber, Larry Harmon, Ann Jillian, Jim MacGeorge, Mike Road, Vincent VanPatten, Casey Kasem, Heather North, John Stephenson, Henry Cordon, Florence Halop, Pat Harrington, Ted Knight, Cindy Putman, Olan Soulé, Len Weinrib
• Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
• Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
• Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
• Layout: Bob Singer, John Ahern, Mike Arens, Ric Gonzalez, Alex Ignatiev, Ray Jacobs, Bill Lignate, Alvaro Arce, Mo Gollub, Paul Gruwett, Zygamond Jablecki, Herb Johnson, Lew Ott
• Animation: Bill Keil, Ed Aardal, Lefty Callahan, Goerge Cannata, Izzy Ellis, John Garling, Fred Grable, Joan Orbison, Jay Sarbry, Irv Spence, Carlo Vinci, Ed Barge, Lars Calonius, Rudy Cataldi, Hugh Fraser, Bob Goe, Dick Lundy, Ed Parks, Ken Southworth, Dave Tendlar, Xenia
• Backgrounds: F. Montealegre, Gary Niblett, Dave High
• Titles: Iraj Paran
• Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
• Musical Supervision: Paul DeKorte
• Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
• Ink and Paint Supervisor: Jayne Barbera
• Xerography: Robert ‘Tiger’ West
• Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
• Supervising Film Editor: Larry Cowan
• Film Editors: Earl Bennet, Ron Sawade, Pat Foley
• Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
• Post Production: Joed Eaton
• Camera: George Epperson, John Aardal, Dennis Weaver, Ralph Migliori

Season two

• Produced and Directed: [[William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
• Story: Jack Mendelsohn, Tom Dagenais, Norman Maurer, Larz Bourne, Woody Kling, Sid Morse
• Story direction: Jean Blanchard, Bob Dranko, Jay Sarbry, Ron Campbell, Vev Risto, Howard Swift, Ernie Terrazas
• Associate Producers: Alex Lovy, Zoran Janjic
• Voices: Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Casey Kasem, Heather North, Franklin Welker, Sherry Alberoni, Mike Bell, Joe Besser, Benjamin Crothers, Jerry Dexter, Robert Do Qui, Richard Elkins, Jamie Farr, Stu Gilliam, Arlene Golon, Mark Hamill, Bob Hastings, Jackie Joseph, Phil Luther, Julia McWhirter, Alan Oppenheimer, Barbara Pariot, John Stephenson, Janet Waldo, Jonathan Walmsley, Johnny Williams
• Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
• Musical Supervisor: Paul DeKorte
• Animation director: Peter Luschwitz
• Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
• Production Coordinator: Kirsten Hansen
• Animation Checking: Narelle Nixon, Louise Luschwitz, Carmel Lennon, Jolanta Pillich, Kay Self
• Layout: Milton Fredlund, Chebby Badham, Andrea Bresciani, Sebastian Hurpia, Stephen Lumley, David Skinner
• Animation: Stuart Barry, Susan Bleak, John Boersema, Andrea Bresciani, John Burge, Gairden Cooke, Chris Cuddington, Warwick Gilbert, Don MacKinnon, Paul McAdam, Gus McLaren, Romek Pachucki, Yvonne Pearsall, Kevin Roper, Laurie Sharpe, Robbert Smit, Gerald Wylie
• Backgrounds: Richard Zaloudek, Milan Zahorsky, Sue Speer
• Technical Supervisor: Jerry Smith
• Ink & Paint Supervisor: Zora Bubica
• Xerography: Olga Zahorsky
• Supervising Film Editor: Peter Addison
• Film Editors: Peter Jennings, Graham Whelan, Catherine MacKenzie, Ian Spruce
• Negative Cutting: Adina Film Services
• Camera: Jerry Smith, John Cumming, Carol Laird, Peter Huiswaard, Kieran Mulgrew

Legacy

From 2013 to 2019, DC Comics published Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, with the first issue making direct ties, therefore acting as an homage in the beginning. From 2019 to 2021, Warner Bros. Animation began airing an unrelated sequel called Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? (featuring contemporary real-life celebrities and other WB-owned fictional characters) on Boomerang SVOD and later HBO Max. Sandy Duncan and Cher also reprise their roles.

The series may have inspired the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman," and the direct-to-video films, Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery, Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery, Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon, and Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold, although the latter featured a different Batman from the unrelated TV series Batman: The Brave and the Bold.

In popular culture

• In the Spaced episode "Beginnings," Daisy wanders into Tim's bedroom after hearing a noise and is spooked by his alien mask. Tim finds her and she keeps on saying she heard a noise, so Tim says she was playing Scooby-Doo. She says she used to play as Daphne when she was little, as did Tim play as Freddie when he was younger, but now Tim and Daisy look more like Shaggy and Velma. When the scene transitions and the outside of their flat is shown, the music to the beginning of The New Scooby-Doo Movies plays, instead of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
• In the Saturday Night Live episode "Rob Lowe/Eminem," there is a skit about a fictional Crime TV program called Pros & Cons, wherein Scooby and Shaggy are interviewed about sending Mr. Montgomery to jail because it is their American right to send "dirtbags" to jail with the occasional help from the likes of Phyllis Diller and the Harlem Globetrotters.
• In the Robot Chicken episode "Operation Rich in Spirit," there is a skit called "A Scooby Friday," in which Mystery Inc. goes sleuthing at Camp Crystal Lake, where they all (except for Velma, the virgin) eventually get killed by Jason Voorhies. During the case, Phyllis Diller and Don Knotts (played by themselves) pop up as the camp counselors.
• In the Family Guy episode "Excellence in Broadcasting," John McCain and Rush Limbaugh, joined by a Scooby-like dog called Hot Dog, are tipped off by the groundskeeper of a mummy burning the American flag at the swamp, but after investigating they don't find what they're looking for. They set some crazy trap involving a pig, which catches the mummy, who they unmask to be "Old Man" Barney Frank, who yells, "And I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling Republicans!" McCain then suddenly turns to celebrity guests, the Harlem Globetrotters, for the help. One of them tries to give McCain a high five, but McCain being the racist he is, turns him down.
• In the Futurama episode "Saturday Morning Fun Pit," the head of Richard Nixon and the headless body of Spiro Agnew watch Bendee-Boo and the Mystery Crew on a Saturday morning, with an intro that ends the same way as the intro to The New Scooby-Doo Movies, along with a title card that introduces the guest, although in this case the monster, even though random, non sequitur celebrity guests show up such as George Takei (voiced by himself) and the Harlem Globetrotters.
• In the Regular Show episode "The Dream Warrior," Mordecai and Rigby introduce a cartoon to Pops called Funkie Wunky and the Groovy Gang, which is like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, but turns into The New Scooby-Doo Movies by the end, when the Oklahoma Mud Pigeons randomly pop up out of nowhere on the pirate ship that the Groovy Gang is on.

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