Scooby Doo General

“Sever ties?”

I think they meant to say that the vocal dislike of the character makes them reluctant to reuse the character

I mean, I guess. But basically every Scooby Doo project is made by entirely different people. Even the DTV movies, despite being very similar in tone and art style, constantly shift writing and directing staff.

It’s worth noting that Scrappy hate is ulimately just due to a specific generation Running the Asylum for a while (the kids who, specifically, were growing older as the very first Scrappy shows were coming out), and doesn’t really exist for any of the generations after it (including the later Scrappy appearances), so it’s not like there’s any particular reason to assume that no one *ever* will want to include the character.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 21st 2023 at 12:26:53 PM

Considering how the Scrappy hate is dying down, is it possible that when the next generation gets to run a Scooby production, Scrappy won't be a punching bag?

I mean like I said, the creators decided to distance themselves from Scrappy Doo. So while the hate is dying down, I doubt Scrappy will be coming back anytime soon.

“The creators” of what? Who in particular are you talking about?

Like I said, every single Scooby Doo project, movie and show is made by entirely different people. It’s not one big consistent creative team, such that one person or group’s decision is relevant to the everyone else’s. There’s no such thing as “the creators of Scooby Doo.”

Hence why stuff like Velma’s hardline supernatural debunker characterization in the films stopped being a thing, for instance.

Edited by KnownUnknown on Sep 21st 2023 at 3:26:21 AM

Scrappy's also written pretty well in the Scooby Apocalypse comic, so there are writers out there who do like him and could try to reinvent him rather than make him a punching bag if they decide to acknowledge him.

Maybe by "the creators" they mean Warner Bros.

Usually beyond their adventures (whether they're all down-to-Earth criminals, actually supernatural, or no mysteries at all and just fantastic journeys), the other way the various creatives like to make their writing mark is how they portray Fred, Daphne and Velma. With the exception of Velma, Scooby and Norville/Shaggy are very consistent in their characterization. Sometimes they might be more or less sarcastic, depending on the period, but they still hover around their base characterization. But every era seems to have a different Fred, Daphne, and Velma. And it's not always the same character who is the most skeptical of the supernatural or the airhead or the straight man or the nag.

We're probably past the era of shows and movies being made by people who actively hate Scrappy Doo at this point, though honestly I do still find it hard to imagine him ever being brought back in sincerity. The past 20 years have shown that each new creative team can reinterpret the core 5 in new ways that create the dynamics that those creators want, there is no need for Scrappy Doo.

Like, "Scrappy Doo's existence is not the worst thing to ever happen to the franchise" is easy to believe (easier to believe as of this year, in fact), but "This show would benefit from the inclusion of Scrappy Doo" is a harder sell. Frankly even if there were no pre-existing baggage, the amount of successful shows and movies that have been made with the cast of just Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma would make it hard to pitch "We should give Scooby Doo a nephew, who's this cute tiny dog but is always trying to pick fights with the monsters".

I'd make him an ascended fanboy chihuahua pup who loves to hear about the gangs adventures who wishes he could be as "big, strong, and brave" as Scooby.

Really, to make a good Scrappy, you have to boil him down to basic components within the show's dynamic, keep what you want and re-interpret or change up the rest. Scrappy's dynamic is that he's meant to be a cute tag-along, brave (often to the point of foolishness), thinks highly of his uncle and his friends despite expectations, spouts off catch phrases, and if he's in a trio, usually plays the straight man (outside his bravely foolish running gag).

What people mostly dislike is that his bravery is more annoying than endearing, his catchphrases gets grating, and his foolishness counteracts his role as the straight man. Even given the most charitable interpretation, he also doesn't have much room with the other five to grow, the shows with the core 5 and Scrappy usually puts Daphne, Fred, and Velma in the background sanding down their unique characteristics.

Knowing that, you at least know what you have to work with to make a better version, though he still probably works better in a series without Fred, Daphne, and Velma just to expand his role in the dynamics.

Honestly he'd prolly work fine just being a supporting character who only appears occasionally.

Keep him in small doses and make him one of the several characters that the gang sees again every other episode. You don't have to make him an MC that appears all the time.

Edited by slimcoder on Sep 22nd 2023 at 1:41:36 AM

I'd just make him an arc character.

Basically every modern Scooby show has, like, those characters who recur occasionally as guest supporting characters when the characters are doing a mystery in X place or connected to Y story. Just have one of those characters be Scrappy.

Considering how they've integrated Vincent van Ghoul in a couple modern iterations such as Return of the 13th Ghost and Mystery Incporoted plus even Flim Flam (disliked more than Scrappy) got to have a better portrayal in Return of the 13th Ghost rather than a punching bag, I doubt it'd be impossible for the same to happen to Scrappy.

Maybe, but for some reason executives are convinced they can't bring Scrappy back, and no one wants to take the risk.

Be Cool was going to introduce its version of Scrappy and it seemed like it was going to be a sincere take on the character instead of being a joke yet again or a twist villain or antagonist.

So...what you're saying is that Scrappy missed his chance...

...to be cool.

If the issue is that he ruins the group dynamics as a main character, the solution would be to make him a guest star.

Scrappy could have easily gotten an episode on Guess Who.

I recall that the writer of Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost has said that, given the positive response he got from his iteration of Flim Flamm (another character with a lot of vocal hate historically directed at him), he'd love to tackle Scrappy.

I think either character can work fine so long as they don't replace anyone. Possibly they'd work best as recurring guest-stars.

Unrelated but it's kinda wild how velma tried to make fred into this absolute dick.

But he became the most popular member of the cast (maybe due to actually trying to improve).

I finally watched all of Mystery Incorporated, after only catching a dozen episodes of it when it was first airing. It's really good, but also kind of worse than I remembered? Like there's a period in season 1 where the B-plots are alternating between "Velma is mad at Shaggy for spending too much time with Scooby" and "Scooby is mad at Shaggy for spending too much time with Velma" each episode, and that just wasn't fun. And the one-off mysteries feel very formulaic once you notice the pattern of introducing two people in an episode and always having the less obvious one be the real culprit. But, yeah, still the show is good, and really really funny.

Well, Scooby's general plot-of-the-week mysteries have never really been all that esoteric, since after all they have to be able to be understood by kids, plus MI's overarching mystery is complex enough to make up for any of that.

Yeah actually I meant to say that the one-off mysteries feeling formulaic is probably true of every Scooby Doo show (at least in their own way, I don't know if the "less obvious out of the two suspects" thing is specific to Mystery Incorporated or not), but I forgot to add that. Making a mystery that is comprehensible to children but not completely predictable to adults is a tough line, so it's totally fine that the show carries itself (to me as an adult watching it) on the engaging metaplot and genuinely clever jokes.

So Offbeat Kiki made a video analyzing the vitriol the Velma show got.