First, let’s call out the elephant, or, in this case, the puppy in the room, when it comes to Scrappy-Doo.
Authors Timothy and Kevin Burke seemed to sum up how many feel about the character when they wrote in their book Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up with Cartoon Culture, “In all of our research and discussions, we have yet to discover a more universally loathed character than Scrappy-Doo.”
As a seeming agreement to this consensus (and an “in-joke”) when the live-action Scooby-Doo movie debuted in 2002, Scrappy was revealed – spoiler alert – as the villain at the end of the film.
Many, however, would disagree. A generation of fans and Hanna-Barbera aficionados have nothing but the fondest, most nostalgic memories of a comfortable living room rug, a cold bowl of overly-sweetened cereal, and Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
“Scrappy, while arguably an irritation, by and large, the success of his appearance sustained Scooby for several more years on ABC when CBS was vacillating on renewing the Scooby franchise,” said Greg Ehrbar, author of Hanna-Barbera: The Recorded History and host of The Funtastic World of Hanna and Barbera podcast. “The shows with Scrappy were highly rated and helped launch new series when combined within the program blocks. Sure, it may have been Scooby alone that would have done just as well, but the reality of TV is that a refreshed concept can be promoted, something new, and draw attention away from competition. They used to laugh about Joe Barbera always adding a dog, but even the original concept of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You did not include a dog.”
When the series debuted forty-five years ago on September 22, 1979, Scooby-Doo had been a fixture on Saturday mornings and joined Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, and others as one of Hanna-Barbera’s most popular stars.
“Animation was still more expensive than live-action, and CBS was doing well with both at the time,” so they let Scooby literally walk across the street, with Barbera holding his leash, to ABC,” added Greg. “It is taken for granted now that Scooby-Doo is such a mammoth property, but every few years, it took ingenuity to reintroduce him in new ways. The same thing happened with the direct-to-video movies. Scooby was given a huge boost with Zombie Island and the new publicity it generated.”
Since debuting in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? on CBS in 1969, the animated Great Dane had seen some format changes (and that shift to ABC, n 1976). There were The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, and Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics.
“While we’re used to getting new Scooby-Doo media every year these days, back in the seventies, the franchise seemed to be on its last legs,” said Noah Bell, writer, animation historian, and creator of the Hanna-Barbera blog, The Exposure Sheet. “By 1979, the series had been around for a decade, and its formula was starting to wear thin. ABC considered canceling the series amid declining ratings, forcing Hanna-Barbera to try something drastic for it to survive. The heads at HB decided introducing a new character would do the trick. Joe Barbera put it bluntly, as recalled by writer Mark Evanier in a post about Scrappy’s conception on his website (News From ME): ‘If this doesn’t work, Scooby’s dead.’”
The new version would simply be entitled Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and would be half an hour (as opposed to the two-hour block of Laff-A-Lympics).
Scrappy, Scooby-Doo’s nephew, would join the mystery gang on the adventures, which ranged from a shadowy superhero who comes to life to haunt the artist who created him, a ghoul who terrorizes a London theme park at night, and even close encounters with a flying saucer.
Although smaller than his Uncle, Scrappy-Doo displayed more bravery, jumping into any scary situation and declaring his catchphrase, “Puppy Power!”
The voice cast included returning members: Don Messick as Scooby, Casey Kasem as Shaggy, Heather North as Daphne, and Frank Welker as Fred. Pat Stevens and Marla Frumkin voiced Velma in various episodes.
Comedian and writer Lennie Weinrib joined the cast as Scrappy. At this point in his career, Weinrib had guest starred on a number of prime-time shows, such as The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Munsters and Happy Days.
Weinrib was also no stranger to Saturday morning television, providing voices on such Hanna-Barbera shows as Inch Eye, Private Eye (as the main character), and Hong Kong Phooey, Filmation’s The New Adventures of Superman and Tarzan and the Super 7 as well as DePatie-Freleng’s Timer, in the “Time for Timer” series of public service announcements.
Weinrib also worked with Sid and Marty Krofft, not only voicing the title character in H.R. Pufnstuf but also writing every episode of the series. Additionally, he played Magic Mongo in that segment of The Krofft Supershow.
Scooby Doo and Scrappy-Doo was a success, allowing Scooby-Doo to continue in different later formats that included The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo and A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
“That fact is that it was not cool to admit you liked Scrappy even if you did,” said Greg. “In some circles, the same is true for the Smurfs and Chipmunks. And if you think that today offers a more tolerant cartoon-loving environment, hey, I enjoy Walter Lantz’s “Bearies” cartoons, but I am careful about where I mention it, especially on Facebook. Who needs the eye-rolling snark?”
“Scrappy-Doo mixed up the Scooby dynamic just enough to keep things fresh while staying true to the formula that so many had grown to love,” said Noah. “He provided Scooby and Shaggy with a foil, and there was undeniably no other character like him in the series. Scrappy had done his job in rejuvenating the series and allowing it to continue.”
So, even though there are certain “feelings” about Scrappy-Doo, the character had enough “Puppy Power” to allow Scooby-Doo to remain one of Hanna-Barbera’s popular mainstays of Saturday Morning.
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
I was seven years old when Scrappy-Doo was introduced, and even then I felt he was hurting the series. I wouldn’t say that I hated the character, but I did find him more annoying than entertaining.
Looking back on the Scooby franchise as an adult, I’m still not a fan of Scrappy or the changes he wrought, but I think his hatedom is far out of proportion to his actual sins. it’s not like he single-pawedly wrecked a classic series; at worst he accelerated the decline of a pretty good SatAM cartoon that was already stumbling towards mediocrity. And as noted above, he kept the franchise active for a few more years; without that, who knows if the later “Zombie Island” movie would have been made or if the franchise would have achieved the level of longevity and cultural ubiquity it currently enjoys? One could argue that Scrappy, regardless of his faults, ought to be cut some slack and shown some respect for his contributions to keeping Scooby in the spotlight a few more years.
Just don’t, you know, ask people to actually watch his cartoons. He’s still annoying.
P.S., Mark Evanier’s essays on the creation of Scrappy are a must-read for anyone interested in Scooby-Doo or in SatAM cartoons in general. There’s links to the other five parts at the bottom of part one, here: https://www.newsfromme.com/articles-such/scrappy-days/
I suppose there are those who love the “universally loathed” Scrappy-Doo, just as there may be people who think Orbitty breathed new life into the Jetsons, or that Jar Jar Binks elevated the Star Wars franchise to new pinnacles of greatness.
Perhaps we ought to say a few words in praise of Scrappy’s predecessor, Scooby-Doo’s dimwitted cousin Scooby-Dum, who not only reinvigorated a declining franchise but also, through his “Dum-dum-dum-DUM!” catchphrase, introduced more children to the music of Beethoven than any other cartoon character since Schroeder.
Why, pray tell, didn’t Filmation see fit to bring Cousin Oliver into “The Brady Kids”? The show might have run for another ten years if they had.
And are we going to get a 60th anniversary Cel-ebration of the Beary Family in “Roof Top Razzle-Dazzle”?
“And are we going to get a 60th anniversary Cel-ebration of the Beary Family in “Roof Top Razzle-Dazzle”?”
That wasn’t even the Bearys’ first cartoon.
Paul’s point still stands.
His comment is full of sarcasm though.
His point still stands.
Paul, you REALLY don’t like Scrappy eh?
Scrappy served some important functions in the stories that featured him. Scooby’s dog-speak was a bit limited, whereas Scrappy could better articulate some of the needed exposition. He also ushered in a more “cartoony” element that may have added a layer of kid appeal, particularly perhaps for younger siblings who might not be as ready to relate to the adventures of mystery solving teens.
That said, anyone for Scooby Dum?
I’m sure the patch of Scrappy appearances where they simply plop him into the “Where Arr You” scenarios are fine. My beef with this era of the show comes with the season or two of 7-minute shorts that get rid of everything besides Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy. The trio now go on wacky adventures where there is always an adversary and always a chase towards the end. “Slop” is a common term for modern media that has no artistic merit and only exists for mass audience appeal, but I would argue that every generation has that same mind-numbing drivel, and those Scooby and Scrappy shorts are certainly it. You really haven’t seen crap until you’ve seen Scooby-Doo on his hind legs fly around with his strangely human arms and get the whole trio to spin around on a clock so fast that they go to the future.
In a reversal, it seems that there’s something of a corporate mandate against Scrappy-Doo. When they went back to give 13 Ghosts a finale movie, they brought back Flim Flam, now an adult, but not Scrappy! Not even in the opening recap does he appear. I feel like there has to be a healthy way to bring back the character once in a while. It’s really not the strangest thing the franchise has pulled at this point.
And yet, I don’t recall people hating the character’s inspiration, Henry Hawk (who predated his more well-known adversary, Foghorn Leghorn by a few years).
Sometime right before Scrappy was added, I had already been imagining a character or guest who essentially spent the whole episode trying to confront the ghost. It started with imagining what I would do if I could be in a Scooby mystery. I would be like “You guys have been solving these mysteries for years, and it’s always a guy in a disguise. Let’s just unmask him right away!” So as soon as the ghost appears, I would be like “Let’s just cut to the chase and get this mask off of him now”. Others would be running, and perhaps pull me away too, but I would keep trying.
This is basically what Scrappy did (though not trying to unmask the ghost, but assuming along with everyone else that he was real). They even sort did a brief idea like this a bit, IIRC on Zombie Island (and maybe a couple other places), when the gang came back together, and then figured at first sight, the zombies must be phony, and tried to umask them, and speculated on projectors and other getups.
So when Scrappy was added, I knew this was kind of what I imagined, but I was at that point so out of the new series, I was totally uninterested. That early Scrappy was too naive, and the second/third season version is more like what I imagined, but then it wasn’t a mystery anymore. (I did come to like those seasons later).
But the fact that I was imagining something like that BEFORE he was even added, showed he was a natural progression in the series; in addition to the fact that they occasionally had predecessors who behaved similarly, such as the little chick on the Creeper, the frog on Mamba Wamba, and of course, the semi-regular Scooby Dum.
I’m among the group who grew up entirely on jokes about Scrappy being an awful character, but any time I saw the episodes or the movies with him on VHS, I didn’t really see what made him so hated (even in 1996, Cartoon Network had a self-promo where the little dog ranted about how unpopular he was as well as an Adobe Flash game called “Scrappy Stinks”). To a younger child removed from the ’80s pop vernacular, he was just another character who happened to be a talking dog.
Mark Evanier’s postmortem did a lot to help humanize the little dog, showcasing him as more than just some idjit thrown in to appeal to the lowest audience. Even recently one of the Scooby Doo comics had him cameo in a “multiverse” crossover gag, so it’s possible he could appear in a new non-ironic role some day.
By the time Scrappy Doo appeared I was finishing college, merely checking out the new Saturday morning shows each year as a ritual. As a kid, I loved the idea of mysteries but really hated the frequent cheats (translucent ghosts revealed as guys wearing sheets, for example). But real ghosts and ghouls for pure gag toons just felt wrong. Likewise the original gang shrinking to Shaggy and Scoob, while introducing more Scooby relatives. Incidentally, Scooby was always officially a dog like Pluto, but his relations tended to be quasi-dogs like Goofy.
The puzzler was “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo”. The format was oddly reminiscent of Filmation’s live-action “Ghostbusters”; it mixed realistic characters with cartoony ones, and Shaggy and Daphne were as much a couple as Daphne and Fred. Didn’t know there was any kind of finale; will have to look it up.
Scrappy-Doo fans unite!
Both of ’em!
I kid, I kid.
My dad, who grew up in the 70s and 80s, despised (and despises) Scrappy. I guess all of Gen X-on does.
I’ve always found Scrappy annoying, but I will say he was much easier to take (to ignore, basically) after Lennie Weinrib stopped voicing him. So after the first 16 episodes or whatever. However, some of those 16 had some great 70’s wonderfulness to them, so on the whole I think we should be thankful Scrappy was around.
What’s funny about this article and the comments is that Scooby-Doo was universally loathed by animation historians up until very recently. I believe Mystery Incorporated was the turnaround. Sometimes I see Scooby bashing from veteran cartoon bloggers and it’s like seeing one of those Japanese soldiers still fighting the war
“Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated” is still the only Scooby-Doo series I’ve really liked. That show was fantastic. I would watch episodes of the older versions occasionally, but the characters and stories never grabbed me.
I had an cartoon film and art collector who couldn’t stand the then current SCOOBY-DOO cartoons. He bought a cel from one the early cartoons from about 15 bucks or so for one – or both of his kids. Years later, he got Joe Barbera, Bill Hanna and Don Messick to sign it – and suddenly, it was worth a fortune. In Heaven, I betcha he’s still scratching his head. Hanna and Barbera’s TOM AND JERRY cartoons, Disney, Warner Bros,, Fleischer, etc. he could relate to, but NOT the SCOOBY-DOO series. Me? I was a little over ten years old when the first series came out and I thought they were funny, for what they were. I loved (generally speaking) the original THE FLINTSTONES series and of course, JONNY QUEST!
I went to a show at an animation art gallery where vocie artist Don Messick was a guest. (I think that’s where my friend got his animation cel signed by Meissick) and Don M. let loose with an ad-libbed voice marathon of his most famous voices. Some young kid looked like he was going to lose his mind seeing all these voices come out of an old man’s mouth. When he did his “Dr. Quest” voice and said, “Get down, Jonny!” – I must admit, I got chills of pleasure hearing that!
Len Weinrib was one of the great comics/impressionists/voice actors. I’ve seen him in several character roles in old movies and TV shows.
Don Messick also voiced Scrappy.
It turns out that about the same time Lennie Weinrib voiced Scrappy-Doo, he also voiced the titular character for another Hanna-Barbera byproduct, Heyyy, It’s The King! (itself influenced by Happy Days in general tone and theme).
On the same series, Don Messick voiced Clyde, the clueless class jock gorilla.
I know I’m more of the unpopular opinion, but honestly I quite liked the contrast between Scooby and Scrappy. I admit, at times it felt that Scrappy didn’t always serve much of a purpose to the plot (if at all), yet I rarely found Scrappy annoying, but that’s just me.
Do understand why you would somewhat be confused.
In retrospect, I don’t think the problem was with Scrappy Doo. Like you said Michael, he was created to shake up the gradually wearing out Scooby Doo formula and he succeeded. The problem was that the show ended up putting TOO much focus on Scrappy. The Mystery Gang was eventually reduced to only Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy and the plots were changed to be shorter and less mystery-ish.
Simply put, Scrappy wasn’t really the reason the show slid down, a lot of the writers helped cause the show to fall in quality too.