Warren Scott sent me this question…
There was an article floating around social media for a while that suggested the Scooby Doo series resulted from the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy and an effort to reduce violence on television. It seemed to be oversimplifying things to me, but what is your take on it? And what do you think of the show using real ghosts versus fake ones? There seems to be some debate over that among fans.
From the dawn of TV for kids, there were always groups that wanted those shows to be more uplifting and educational and which mistook slapstick for violence. There probably still are such groups, though I would imagine they're pretty ineffectual these days. A lot of my career in animation involved dealing with network folks who were trying to appease those groups…while at the same time, putting on shows that kids wanted to watch. At times, it seemed hard to achieve both at the same time, especially at ABC.
My understanding is that Scooby Doo came about because Fred Silverman (then at CBS) thought there might be an audience for a whodunnit and they did it in the style they chose, rather than a more adventure style, because the Archie cartoon show was a recent hit. Also, in the early development, the focus of the show was almost wholly on the kids and the dog was kind of an add-on tagalong. As the show took shape, mostly in the hands of Joe Ruby and Ken Spears with Silverman and Joe Barbera participating, the dog seemed to be stealing the show. Joe Ruby told me once about a day when he and Ken decided to make the dog more of the star and even to name the show after him.
And with that decision — with the show now more about a scared, almost-talking pooch — that further cemented the lighter style. They may have said that it was part of an effort to reduce violence because of the R.F.K. killing but I think that was just good public relations. I heard about the show from both Joes, Ken and even a little from Silverman. I don't think they really had that in mind at the time though the network may have decided there was some value in saying they did.
As for the switch from fake ghosts to real ghosts: I think the show quickly got into a rut with the ghosts always turning out to be fake. At some point, even the most open-minded kid had to be asking why Scooby and Shaggy were so terrified about this week's alleged ghost when the last eighty alleged ghosts all turned out to be someone they'd met who had put on a mask and maybe rigged up some cheapo special effects.
Plus, the writers had come up with every conceivable fake ghost and it was necessary to be open to real monsters and goblins and such just to get a story that they hadn't done eleven times before. So I was fine with it.
And before anyone asks me what I think about the announcement that Velma is now officially gay…I don't care. I don't even care whether actual people I know or work with are gay or straight. Either way, they're still human beings who deserve to be treated with respect — whether they're gay or straight, "out" or not. I guess it matters if you might find yourself in a dating or mating situation with someone…but it's been my experience that when that's an issue, you find out soon enough.
