Fred Jones

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Fred Jones
Fred Jones.png
Species Human
Gender Male
Member of Mystery Incorporated
Affiliation Scooby-Doo
Shaggy Rogers
Daphne Blake
Velma Dinkley
Scrappy-Doo
The Hex Girls
Occupation Sleuth
Goals Solving mysteries
Father Mr. Jones
Brad Chiles in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (SDMI)
Adoptive father, Mayor Fred Jones, Sr. in SDMI
Mother Mrs. Jones
Judy Reeves in SDMI
Marital status In SDMI and Scooby Apocalypse, he was engaged to Daphne Blake
First appearance WAY: "What a Night for a Knight" (1969)
Played by Frank Welker (since 1969)
Keith Scott (1981)
Carl Stevens (1988-91)
Freddie Prinze Jr. (2002, 2004)
Robbie Amell (2009, 2010)
Zac Efron (2020)
Pierce Gagnon (2020)
Scott Innes (2020)
APNSD Fred.png
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
Zombie Island Fred.png
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Prinze Fred.png
Scooby-Doo
WNSD Fred.png
What's New, Scooby-Doo?
GAC Fred.png
Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!
Amell Fred.png
Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins
Current DTV Fred.png
Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon
SDMI Fred.png
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
Mystery Map Fred.png
Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map
BCSD Fred.png
Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!
File:CGI Lego Fred.png
Lego Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood
File:SA Fred.png
Scooby Apocalypse
SDGW Fred.png
Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
SCOOB Fred.png
Scoob!
VLM Fred.png
Velma
JS Fred Jones.png
Jellystone!

Fred "Freddy/Freddie" Jones is the leader of Mystery Incorporated in the Scooby-Doo animated franchise. His voice was originated by Frank Welker.

Throughout the years, Hanna-Barbera, Cartoon Network, and Warner Bros. Animation, as well as book and video game publishers, have conceived several incarnations, which don't always fit together because new writers have come on board and disregarded what has come before or there has been a complete reboot, but the general concept has been the same, perhaps except for DC Comics' radically altered Scooby Apocalypse.

Character description

Fred is a teenager with blonde hair and a broad physique. His uniform consists of a white sweater over a blue shirt, blue pants, and brown shoes. His most famous attribute is his orange ascot. Alternatively in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, he instead wears black sneakers and has a white sweater with orange stripes on his sleeves. In What's New, Scooby-Doo?, he traded his ascot for a white sweater with blue stripes.

Throughout the years, Fred's role as the leader of Mystery Inc. has largely been the same. He usually takes the lead in solving mysteries and mostly accompanies Daphne with him; sometimes with Velma also, and other times without her. He is seen constructing various Rube Goldberg-type traps for villains, which Scooby-Doo and/or Shaggy often set off by mistake and allow the villain to be captured the other way. Although a nice guy, Fred can get pretty bossy at times, forcing Shaggy and Scooby to take part in getting the villain despite their fears and/or better judgment. Fred was originally level-headed and confident in his earlier appearances, though this has been shaken up in other incarnations of his character.

As a child in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Fred is the polar opposite of his older self, being less intelligent, more hyperactive and superstitious. He frequently gets picked on by bully Red Herring, and is always the one to accuse him on many accounts of a mystery. He is a subscriber to the National Exaggerator magazine, believing in "real" monsters and making up some wild conspiracies.

Fred's interests include traps, solving mysteries, martial arts,[1] wrestling,[2] and weightlifting;[3] a recurring joke in What's New, Scooby-Doo? is that he would boast about bench pressing 220.

Appearances

TV series

Movies

Specials

Shorts

Comics

Books

Video games

Stage performances

Biography

Those Original Mysteries

The N̶e̶w̶ Decades Old Scooby-Doo M̶o̶v̶i̶e̶s̶ 40 Minute Episodes

Back to Basics

Dynomic Duo

Scooby Goes Hollywood-Meta

The Scrappy years

Scrappy Saves the Show

Daphne, Freddy, and Velma MIA

Freddy's Break from Mystery Writing

The Coolest Pup Around

THIS TIME THE MONSTERS ARE REAL

Cartoon Network Spoofs

Harvey Birdman Represents

Fred Gets Real

Fred Goes (Pop)Punk

What's New in the Movies

Gonna Sing This Song ALL DAY LONG

Fred Gets Real (again)

Return of the Ascot (DTVs since Abracadabra-Doo)

Crystal Cove Chronicles

Fred Ain't Nobody's Puppet

Fred in the Lego world

Fred Griffin

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? the Creators Wanted to See Thirty Years Ago?

SCOOB! on the Big Screen

Scoobyless Riverdale

Fred is portrayed as a shallow, spoiled jerk with misogynist tendencies, claiming he can't remember Velma's name because he blatantly thinks that she's unattractive.

Fred Sells Out

Fred is in the first State Farm commercial.

In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Cartoon Feud," Fred and her friends are forced by Control Freak to compete against the Teen Titans in Family Feud.

In the Warner Bros. Serververse in Space Jam: A New Legacy, the gang (based on their Scoob! designs), arrive at the basketball game between the Tune Squad and the Goon Squad in the Mystery Machine, then watch from outside the van. Mystery Inc., like all the other IPs, has no particular preference and just reacts to whatever is happening.

Fred takes a step back in Scholastic's Daphne and Velma

Fred in the Funny Books

Marvel's Laff-a-Lympics

Fred Simps Out and Still Survives the Apocalypse

Fred in the Cyber Realm

Fred is a playable character in Scooby-Doo! Mystery of the Fun Park Phantom, Scooby-Doo! First Frights, and Scooby-Doo! and the Spooky Swamp.

Development

Fred's template was the title character of the radio show Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy,[4] with a bit of Dobie Gillis from the 1960s sitcom The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis.[5][6]

Fred went through three different names before Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! aired. He began as Geoff, then Harvey, then Ronnie in storyboards, until Fred Silverman, then head of CBS' children's programming, recommended his own name.

When developing Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, co-creator Jon Colton Barry patterned Fred on Gene Wilder's character Frederick Frankenstein from the 1974 film Young Frankenstein.

Gallery

Main article: Fred Jones/Gallery

Toys and merchandise

Main article: Fred Jones/Toys

Behind the scenes

  • Despite popular belief that Fred has no catchphrase, it is suggested in most appearances that his catchphrases are something similar to "Another mystery solved", "Let's split up" and "Looks like we have a(nother) mystery on our hands". Despite this, he does not have a catchphrase when suprised like with the other Mystery Inc. members (e.g. "Zoinks!", "Jinkies!", and "Jeepers!").
    • Fred shamefully admits not having it at one point in Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword, when the rest of the gang say their unique phrases.
    • More recently, Fred would occasionally say "Hold the phone!" when he finds an important discovery.

In popular culture

  • In the Red Razors arc of the comic 2000AD, a group of Sov-Block mercenary enforcers called themselves the Spooky Doo Gang, due to owning a dog called Spooky who resembled a green Scooby-Doo. Fred's doppelganger is also called Freddy.
  • In Disney's Doug episode "Doug's Bloody Buddy," the teaser depicts a fantasy in which Doug and his friends are like Mystery Inc. searching for the Bluffington Vampire; Chalky is the counterpart to Fred.
  • In the Animaniacs segment "Back in Style," the Warner siblings are loaned to a Hanna-Barbera-type studio that lets the Warner siblings "play themselves" in its cartoon Uhuru, Where Are You? In this parody, Ted acts as a stand-in for Fred, and is also voiced by Frank Welker.
  • In the Arthur segment "The Rat Who Came to Dinner," Fred is anthropomorphized as an animal with the rest of the gang in Mr. Ratburn's favourite old show Spooky-Poo.
  • 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.
  • In the Timon and Pumbaa episode "Werehog of London," a fortune teller warns Timon and Pumbaa that no one is safe from the curse of the werehog, not even "those meddling teens and their pesky dog." Then the camera reveals an orange and blue van resembling the Mystery Machine that has been abandoned after it was knocked into a lampost.
  • On the first page of Archie's Weird Mysteries #6, Archie is dressed up like Fred as he becomes a parody of Fred for the comic's story (sans outfit). He makes out with Veronica who has taken on the role of Daphne.
  • In the film Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the title characters hitchhike in a green van owned by a bunch of odd adults vaguely resembling Mystery Incorporated. The Fred doppelganger, referred to in the credits as "The Guy," is made fun of by Shaggy by wearing a neckerchief. He then gets high from a "doobie snack." But this is all just a dream of Jay's.
  • In the film Freddy vs. Jason, Gibb, Kia, and Lori play a verbal game of "Marry, Fuck, Kill," with the former proposing Fred, Scooby, and Shaggy. Kia and Lori rightly refuse to answer her question.
  • In the Veronica Mars episode "You Think You Know Somebody," Wallace calls Veronica Velma when she talks about how easy it was to find out about someone's details online, but Veronica prefers to think of herself as Daphne. Veronica then asks Wallace if he is supposed to be Fred, but he dismisses this as his "white boy" of choice, as he prefers Shaggy because of his "flavor," which Veronica finds ironic after she finds he is still subscribed to Mad magazine.
  • In the Johnny Test episode "Johnny Dukey Doo," Gil joins Johnny and the gang in investigating a haunted mansion, with his ghost gear, which consists of a white shirt and orange neckerchief.
  • In the Torchwood book Trace Memory, Owen thought of himself as Fred, but Toshi thought he was more like Shaggy.
  • In the New Teen Titans short "Turn Back the Clock," Mad Mod turns back time altering the appearances of the Teen Titans with each passing decade, with the 70s making them look like Mystery Inc.; Robin is Fred.
  • Chad is a parody of Fred in the independent horror film Saturday Morning Massacre (later retitled Saturday Morning Mystery). Gwen is in a relationship with Gwen, which is a reference to the perceived hidden romance between Fred and Daphne from the original series.
  • In the Ben 10: Omniverse episode "Mystery, Incorporeal," Kevin says, "Looks like we've got a mystery on our hands," which is a near-verbatim of Fred's reaction to starting a new mystery.
  • The series is parodied in the Austin & Ally episode "Mysteries & Meddling Kids," when while at a disco party, Dez and his friends dress up as his favorite characters from a 70s cartoon called Groovy Goat and the Mystery Bunch, with Austin filling in the Fred role as Chaz.
  • In the Regular Show episode "The Dream Warrior," Rigby and Mordecai introduce Pops to a cartoon called Funkie Wunky and the Groovy Gang which features a Fred type called Chad. After the cartoon, Pops has a dream of what he had just watched with himself in the role of Chad.
  • In "Wanderers v Pedagogues," an episode of the BBC Two quiz show Only Connect, host Victoria Coren Mitchell begins by saying, "Good evening. Much of the key work debunking supernatural myths was carried out in the 1970s by American paranormalogists Norville Rogers, Frederick Jones, Daphne Blake, and Velma Dinkley. And if you didn't get that reference, then shame on you, Only Connect fans. You probably preferred the ones with Scooby-Dum and Scrappy-Doo."
  • In AOK's parody called "Scooby-Doo, Who Are You?," Fred discovers that not everybody wears a mask, when he accidentally tears off a bad guy's face, a cop's face, and then Shaggy's face. Velma grows rapidly suspicious of Fred's actions, and believes he is wearing a mask, only to tear off his actual face. Daphne is devastated over what Velma did to Fred's "beautiful face," and tears off her face in retaliation.
  • In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Costume Contest," Robin does a drawing of Teen Titans as Mystery Inc., with himself as Fred.
  • In "The Spooky Badge," an episode of the preschool series Hey Duggee, the Squirrels play dress up as Mystery Inc., with Tag as Fred.
  • In Simpsons Comics #242, there is a story entitled "Scooby-Don't," with the kids dressed up as Mystery Inc., including Bart Simpson wearing similar clothing to Fred. Jessica Lovejoy is Daphne's doppelganger, referencing Bart and Jessica's romance in the cartoon.
  • In the Superstore episode "Trick-or-Treat," Mateo is dressed as Fred.
  • In the Talking Tom and Friends episode "The Mystery of the Pyramid," Tom says "Let's split up, gang," in order to find and spy on Victoria Payne.
  • In the Young Justice episode "First Impression," Fred is parodied as Tommi Tompkins, who also has short blond hair and wears white and blue, and shares a troubled relationship with her father who is her namesake, the Mayor Thomas Tompkins, alluding to Fred's relationship with Mayor Jones in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. She is also joined by Gaby and Antonia, who are parodies of Daphne and Velma, respectively.

Doctor Who

  • In the book The Crooked World, there was a parody of Shaggy called Mike Leader.
  • In Doctor Who Magazine #489, the thirteenth segment of the ongoing The Daft Dimension, depicted parallel universe counterparts of the Doctor and his companions who loosely resembled each member of Mystery Inc. by wearing their outfits, with Jenny Flint wearing Fred's outfit.

The Fairly OddParents

Main article: The Fairly OddParents
  • Channel Chasers (part 2): There is a TV show called Snooper Dawg and the Clue Crew. Fred dresses like Fred, as does Cosmo, but then turns into Scooby (or Snooper Dawg), when the Clue Crew arrives.
  • "The Wand That Got Away:" When Timmy and his fairy companions go on the search for Cosmo's wand, they take on the roles of Mystery Inc., with Timmy becoming Fred.
  • "Let Sleeper Dogs Lie:" Sparky kept a DVD of his previous owners, which included a group of kids resembling Mystery Incorporated who solved mysteries. Thanks to the Mystery Mobile, they escaped from a castle haunted by a cloaked ghost.

Family Guy

Main article: Family Guy
  • "Chitty Chitty Death Bang:" With the television transmitter cut, Peter wonders what the Scooby gang is up to, with the scene then cutting to an adult spin-off spoof called The Scooby-Doo Murder Files, where Mystery Incorporated investigates and describes in detail how someone was killed, as well being able to curse, as Fred demonstrates by saying, "Son of a bitch." Frank Welker reprises his role as Fred.
  • "Family Guy Viewer Mail:" A segment parodies the Little Rascals with the adults as kids, which includes a portion of time at a spooky mansion, where the regressed boys also copy the hallway chase gag, featuring Mystery Incorporated in a cameo also running out of one door and into another.
  • "Deep Throats:" In a DVD-exclusive scene, when Brian and Stewie sneak into the town hall, they run into Mystery Incorporated, but Stewie gets rid of them by humming their own walk music against them. Fred is voiced by Welker again.

Futurama

Main article: Futurama
  • "Bendless Love:" When the crew question who could've straitened the L-unit, when it was obviously Bender, who was bending and straitening it right in front of them, Zoidberg declares, "Well, gang, it looks like we have another mystery on our hands."
  • "Saturday Morning Fun Pit:" The 31st century incarnations of Richard Nixon and Spiro Agnew watched a cartoon called Bendee-Boo and the Mystery Crew, in which the Planet Express crew were reimagined as members of Mystery Inc., with Hermes taking on the role of Fred. Jokes are made about his ascot.

Harley Quinn (comic)

  • Issue #1: In the background of one panel, an alternately colored Daphne (now with brown hair and dressed in orange, brown, and yellow) and the rest of the gang chase a crook.
  • Issue #64: Justice League Dark is a parody of Mystery Inc., with Man-Bat substituting Fred, who wears a blue collar and ascot like Fred.

Jeopardy!

Main article: Jeopardy!
  • January 10, 1997: In the "Hanna-Barbera Dogs" category for $200, the question was, "In 1969 he began traveling around in The Mystery Machine with Freddy, Daphne, Velma & Shaggy," with the answer being, "Who is Scooby-Doo?"
  • June 12, 1998: In the "Animation" category for $500, the question was, "Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Freddy, Daphne & Velma traveled around in a van with this name," with the answer being, "What is The Mystery Machine?"
  • September 18, 2002: In the "Recent Movies" category for $600, the question was, "Those darn meddling kids Shaggy, Velma, Daphne & Fred made it to the big screen in this 2002 live-action film, "What is Scooby-Doo?"
  • May 4, 2004: In the "Actors & Actresses" category for $1600, the question was, "Jinkies! It wasn't too much of a stretch for him to play Fred in the Scooby-Doo movies," with the answer being, "Who is Freddie Prinze Jr.?"
  • July 24, 2014: In the "The Voice" category for $400, the question was, "Frank Welker has voiced both Fred & this mystery-solving mutt," with the answer being, "Who is Scooby-Doo?"
  • March 31, 2016: In the "Pup Quiz" category for $400, the question was, "Despite being a total chicken, this animated Great Dane stumbles on clues to help Fred & the gang solve mysteries," with the answer being, "Who is Scooby-Doo?"
  • October 3, 2017: In the "TV" category for $200, the question was, "He's the Loveable Great Dane Who Hangs Out With Daphne, Freddy, Shaggy & Velma," with the answer being, "Who is Scooby-Doo?" (with Austin giving a bit of a voice).

Looney Tunes

Main article: Looney Tunes
  • Looney Tunes #71: The story, "Tazzy-Doo, Where Are You?," depicts several Looney Tunes characters as members of Mystery Inc., with Foghorn Leghorn leading the Condundrum Co. as Fredhorn. There's a romantic implication between Fredhorn and Daphne-Bunny (Lola), just as there is between Fred and Daphne.
  • For Warner Bros.' 100th anniversary, they celebrated by licensing a range of Looney Tunes Funko Pops with a Scooby-Doo motif, which included Bugs Bunny wearing Fred's clothes. This became the basis for a special mashup animated short for Looney Tunes Acme Fools.

Saturday Night Live

  • "Rob Lowe/Eminem:" In a skit about a fictional Crime TV program called Pros & Cons, it reports on Mr. Montgomery, a jailed felon, who allegedly dressed up as a ghost to scare people away from a run-down amusement park that had pirate treasure underneath. He was stopped by a group of "amateur detectives," who according to Warren "Shaggy" Shagowski, decided while in a malt shop that the law had gone soft and it was time to do something about it, especially after "dirtbags who get their jollies dressing as ape men or glowing deep sea divers." Mr. Montgomery's lawyer argues that their prior criminal activities for "meddling" on several occasions meant that they were looking for trouble and implicated that Mr. Montgomery was innocent. Shaggy simply counters with his patriotic American right to have the freedom to stop bad guys. The lawyer admires Shaggy's ethics, then bribes him to think differently with a box of Scooby Snacks.
  • In the Saturday Night Live episode "Margot Robbie/The Weeknd," there is a skit called "The Hunch Bunch," wherein Fred is represented by two different characters; the first is Josh, the blond leader, and then the second is Ted, who is handsome and wears an ascot.

Supernatural

  • "Playthings:" Dean is excited because he and his brother, Sam, get to investigate a haunted inn, which he describes as something akin to Scooby-Doo. He jokes that they might even find Fred and Daphne inside, before revealing his romantic interest in her.
  • "Hunter Heroici:" An incredibly powerful psychic shares the same name as Fred Jones, which is connected to his love of cartoons.
  • "Scoobynatural:" After coming back to the real world, Dean adopts an ascot like Fred when he, Sam, and Castiel catch Jay.
  • "Peace of Mind:" In Charming Acres, there is a matinee showing the first live-action with a poster on the wall, the one with Scooby in Shaggy's arms.

The Venture Bros.

Main article: The Venture Bros.
  • Hank Venture, one of the main characters in the series, somewhat resembles Fred, which is referenced in "Assassinanny 911" and "Victor. Echo. November."
  • "¡Viva los Muertos!:" Ted is a composite of Fred and infamous 1970s serial killer Ted Bundy. His charisma and handsome visage have allowed him to entice weak-minded radicals into his own cause. Ted's religious comments were also a reference to his baptism under the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

References

  1. ^ What's New, Scooby-Doo?: "Block-Long Hong Kong Terror," season 3, episode 10 (2005).
  2. ^ What's New, Scooby-Doo?: "Wrestle Maniacs," season 3, episode 4 (2005).
  3. ^ What's New, Scooby-Doo?: "Uncle Scooby and Antarctica," season 2, episode 14 (2004).
  4. ^ Ryan, Patrick (September 3, 2019). "'Scooby-Doo' at 50: Cast, creative team reflect on celebrity guests, origins of 'Jinkies!'". USA Today. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  5. ^ Evanier, Mark (June 10, 2002). "Shaggy Dog Story". News From Me. Retrieved January 19, 2023.
  6. ^ Evanier, Mark (October 22, 2022). "From the E-Mailbag". News From Me. Retrieved January 19, 2023.