CHAPTER FOUR

We had a script for the first Scrappy episode of the Scooby Doo series. It was an adaptation I'd written, in the grand Hollywood tradition of stealing from one's self, of a story I'd done a few years earlier for the Gold Key Scooby Doo comic book…a story about a comic book artist who is "haunted" by the super-hero he draws. But before it could be recorded, they had to find a voice for Scrappy Doo. Not as simple as you might expect.

For reasons noted, everyone's first thought was to have Mel Blanc play the scrappy one. Mel was contacted. Mel was interested. Mel was too expensive. The great Mr. Blanc did not come cheap and at times, by whatever decision-making process he used to manage his career, he'd suddenly decide to up his price a few notches. One day, Joe Barbera said to me, "We should have no problem getting Mel. He just did Captain Caveman and a couple other jobs for us." The next day, Mr. B. told me, "Forget about Mel."

We forgot about Mel. Auditions were held. Actors tried out. One of the many who read for the role of Scrappy Doo was a gentleman named Frank Welker, who has done more cartoon voices than any three other people in the business combined…and yes, even if one of those three is Mel Blanc. Frank was already a member of the regular Scooby Doo cast, playing the role of Fred. He gave a pretty good audition and during it, he ad-libbed a little bit where Scrappy yelled a few fanfare notes and proclaimed, "Puppy power!"

Joe Barbera thought this was a great little catch-phrase for the character. He recalled how in the audition for the part of Fred Flintstone, actor Alan Reed had ad-libbed the immortal phrase, "Yabba dabba doo!" It didn't sound to me like the same kind of lightning strike but I was told to insert the rallying cry of "Puppy power" into the script. Then, to thank Welker for his brilliant idea, the part of Scrappy Doo was assigned to…Don Messick. Messick, who was also the voice of Scooby, had given the best audition, they decided.

Okay, fine. So Don would play Scooby and Scrappy, and my script was recorded.

Everything fine, right? Nope. A few days later, the folks over at ABC listened to the track and decided that Scrappy had the wrong voice. Talented as Don Messick was, he just wasn't the perfect Scrappy. So they listened to all the other auditions again and I think they even did some more…and they decided that the right voice for Scrappy was one that Daws Butler had done. Everyone concurred so they called in Daws, and they called back all the other actors (including Messick to play Scooby) and they re-recorded the entire script with Daws as Scrappy.

So now they were done, right? Nope again. After the track for that cartoon was edited, they decided that Scrappy still wasn't right. Again, they listened to all the past auditions. Again, they had a few more done. This time, they decided that a lady named Marilyn Schreffler had the perfect sound for Scooby's nephew. So everyone trudged back into the studio and they recorded my script for a third time. That went so well that three days later, they were back doing it again, this time with Frank Welker playing Scrappy.

And then…

Well, around here is where I lost track. I'd go to the studio, walk into the producer's office and say, "Don't tell me…let me guess. Laurence Olivier? Marcel Marceau? Jayne Mansfield?" Scrappy was well on his way to becoming the first network TV cartoon character to have more voices than fans. There was one morning when they told me Paul Winchell had been chosen as the voice of Scrappy and then later, when I came back from lunch, Dick Beals was going to be Scrappy. I don't think Paul or Dick ever recorded because then, Mr. Barbera decided it was time to bite ye olde bullet and see if they could make a deal with Mel Blanc (who hadn't even auditioned) and they spent a few days haggling with him and simultaneously auditioning more actors.

They even went so far as to ask me who I'd cast…and back then at Hanna-Barbera, they had to be pretty desperate before they'd ask a writer anything like that. I had two suggestions, the first being Howie Morris. This was before I worked with Howie on another show and we became close friends. I thought he was a brilliant actor and from what I could observe, having him play Scrappy Doo was like casting Dom DeLuise to play a fat guy. Barbera loved my idea and I still don't know why it didn't happen. True, it was during a period when Mr. Morris considered himself banned from Hanna-Barbera for telling J.B. to have an intimate relationship with himself…but Barbera wasn't the kind of guy to let a little thing like that get in the way of getting a show into production. (A few years later, Howie was back working for the studio again.)

For whatever reason, he did not become Scrappy Doo and neither did my other suggestion, which was a writer-performer named Marshall Efron. I had a tape of him auditioning for another show and when I played it for everyone who had a vote, they all agreed he was ideal for the role of Scrappy Doo. And then they gave the job to Lennie Weinrib.

I still don't know why, although Lennie was pretty good in the part. He was so good that a whole week later, when I asked the producer who was Scrappy Doo now, he said, "Amazingly, it's still Lennie Weinrib." In fact, it continued to be Lennie Weinrib for the entire season…all the way until the moment when Lennie asked for more money, at which point the world went full circle and all of a sudden, Don Messick was Scrappy again. As he would continue to be for the rest of the little guy's animated life. All it took to make a firm decision was someone asking for above scale.