How a 1970s cartoon turned mystery solving into a celebrity-studded hour-long spectacle
In short: Before Scooby-Doo became a staple of Saturday mornings, Hanna-Barbera experimented with a bold, hour-long format. The New Scooby-Doo Movies broke the mold by inviting real-world icons and animated legends to join the Mystery, Inc. gang, creating a unique crossover phenomenon that remains a curious footnote in television history.
Premiering on September 9, 1972, The New Scooby-Doo Movies served as the second entry in the franchise, following the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! Produced for CBS, the series ran for two seasons, totaling 24 episodes. It remains the only hour-long iteration of the Scooby-Doo series, a significant departure from the standard half-hour cartoons of the era. The production was split between Hanna-Barbera’s main studio in Los Angeles for the first season and their newly established Hanna-Barbera Pty, Ltd. in Australia for the second.
The show’s defining feature was its rotating guest star slot. While many celebrities like Don Knotts, Sonny & Cher, and Dick Van Dyke provided their own voices, the show also utilized imitators for deceased or retired stars, such as Laurel and Hardy. The series frequently acted as a testing ground for future projects; characters like Batman and Robin, and the Addams Family, appeared on the show a full year before they were integrated into their own dedicated Hanna-Barbera programs, such as Super Friends.
Behind the scenes, the show marked a transition point for the franchise. It was the final Scooby-Doo series to air on CBS and the last to feature Nicole Jaffe as the voice of Velma Dinkley, who retired from acting following her marriage. When the series entered syndication in 1980, the hour-long episodes were halved into thirty-minute segments, a format that persisted until the USA Network began airing the original hour-long versions again in 1990.
The series relied on a studio-created laugh track, a common feature of Hanna-Barbera productions in the 1970s. Despite its short original run ending in October 1973, the concept of celebrity crossovers proved influential, eventually being revisited in the 2019 series Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?. By blending live-action celebrity culture with the established Mystery, Inc. formula, the show created a distinct, albeit brief, chapter in the history of American animation.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: The New Scooby-Doo Movies
- Also: Wikidata — The New Scooby-Doo Movies · CC0
- Also: Wikidata — The New Scooby-Doo Movies, season 1 · CC0
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