The New Scooby-Doo Movies is the second incarnation of Hanna-Barbera's Saturday morning Scooby-Doo cartoon series. It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hour-long timeslot Scooby-Doo series. Twenty-four episodes were ultimately produced (sixteen episodes in 1972 and eight more episodes in 1973).
Overview[]
Each of the episodes of this series featured a special guest star, who would help the gang solve the mystery of the week. Some of these guest stars were living celebrities who provided their own voices (Don Knotts, Jonathan Winters, Sandy Duncan, Tim Conway, and Sonny and Cher, among others); some were dead celebrities whose voicing was done by imitators (the Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy), and the rest were present or future Hanna-Barbera characters: the characters from Harlem Globetrotters (1970), Josie and the Pussycats (also 1970), Jeannie (1973), and Speed Buggy (also 1973) all appeared on the show during or after their own shows' original runs; The Addams Family and Batman and Robin both appeared on the show a year before they were incorporated into Hanna-Barbera shows of their own -- The Addams Family and SuperFriends (both 1973).
The New Scooby-Doo Movies also was the first Scooby-Doo series to utilize Hanna-Barbera's controversial custom laugh track since it abandoned using a full one after 1970. They would continue to use this limited laugh track for all subsequent Scooby-Doo reincarnations through the first series of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
The New Scooby-Doo Movies was one of the last Hanna-Barbera productions to directly involve composer Ted Nichols. While Hanna-Barbera would continue to reuse Nichols' background music for The Scooby-Doo Show, most subsequent Hanna-Barbera shows in the 1970s would include new music composed by its other main music director, Hoyt Curtin.
After the cancellation of The New Scooby-Doo Movies in August 1974, repeats of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! aired on CBS for the next two years. No new Scooby-Doo cartoons would be produced until the show defected to ABC in September 1976 on the highly publicized The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. When the various Scooby-Doo series entered syndication in 1980, each New Movies episode was halved and run as two half-hour parts. Beginning in September 1990, on the USA Network, the New Movies returned to their original broadcast format, they were rerun on Sunday mornings until August 1992. In 1994, Turner restored the episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies from the original negatives for broadcasts on TNT, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.
In 2013, DC Comics began publishing on ongoing series called Scooby-Doo! Team-Up, a revival of sorts, which is referenced in the first story. In 2018, however, Warner Bros. Animation and DC Comics released the direct-to-video film Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold, crossing over Scooby with the Batman from Batman: The Brave and the Bold, effectively making the comic non-canon, as well as Hanna-Barbera's Batman of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
Episodes[]
- Main article(s): List of The New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes
Cast[]
- Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, Sebastian
- Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers, Robin, Alexander Cabot III
- Frank Welker as Fred Jones
- Heather North as Daphne Blake
- Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley
Guest stars[]
- Pat Harrington as Moe
- Daws Butler as Larry and Curly Joe
- Olan Soulé as Batman
- Larry Storch as Joker
- Ted Knight as Penguin, Amos Crunch, Gunslinger (Ghastly Ghost Town), Troll, & Ghost of Paul Revere
- Jonathan Winters as himself and Maude Frickert
- John Astin as Gomez Addams
- Carolyn Jones as Morticia Addams
- Jodie Foster as Pugsley Addams
- Cindy Henderson as Wednesday Addams
- Ted Cassidy as Lurch
- Jackie Coogan as Uncle Fester
- Don Knotts as himself
- Phyllis Diller as herself
- Sandy Duncan as herself
- Sonny Bono as himself
- Cher as herself
- Larry Harmon as Stan Laurel & Ghost of Bigfoot
- Jim MacGeorge as Oliver Hardy
- Eddie Anderson as B.J. Mason
- Stu Gilliam as Curly Neal
- Scatman Crothers as Meadowlark Lemon
- Johnny Williams as Geese Ausbie
- Richard Elkins as Gip Gipson
- Robert DoQui as Pablo Robertson
- Don Adams as himself
- Davy Jones as himself
- Jerry Reed as himself
- Cass Elliot as herself
- Janet Waldo as Josie & Grandmama
- Jackie Joseph as Melody
- Barbara Pariot as Valerie
- Jerry Dexter as Alan
- Sherry Alberoni as Alexandra Cabot
Other Cast Members[]
Season 1
- Henry Corden as Rhino (Ghastly Ghost Town), Geronimo (Ghastly Ghost Town), Tyronosaurus Rex, Johnathan Crabtree’s chauffeur, & Redcoat Ghost
- Joan Gerber as Madame Zokar
- Florence Halop
- Ann Jillian
- Cindy Putnam
- Mike Road as Minuteman Ghost & Ghost Pirate #3
- Vincent Van Patten as Bertha & Possessed Davy Crockett Mannequin
- Len Weinrib as Sedgwick Jones, Hotel Desk Clerk, & Uncle Nathaniel
Season 2[]
- Mike Bell as Robot Gunslinger, Gene Haultrey, Red Beard, Scorpions coach, Jesse Finster, & Mark
- Joe Besser as Babu, & Windmaker #1,
- Scatman Crothers as Meadowlark Lemon
- Jamie Farr
- Arlene Golon as Debbie
- Mark Hamill (actor) as Announcer (The Mystery of Haunted Island), Corey Anders, & Windmaker #2
- Bob Hastings as Henry Glopp, & Sheriff
- Phil Luther as Tinker
- Julie McWhirter as Jeannie
- Alan Oppenheimer as P.J. Peabody
- Jonathan Walmsley
Season 1 & 2[]
- John Stephenson as Cousin Itt, Simon Shakey,Vernon Crow,Scarecrow (The Frickert Fracas), Mysto (A Good Medium is Rare), Lucas (A Good Medium is Rare), Alberto (A Good Medium is Rare), Mr. Thayer,Zalia Z. Fairchild, Duke Jason, Mr. Hyde, Milo Meekly, Hans Edelweiss, Mr. Siegfried, Creech, The Ghost of the Red Baron (character), Farmer (The Ghost of the Red Baron), Winslow (The Lochness Mess), Selby, Morgan (The Lochness Mess), Scorpions owner, Johnny Briggs, Spirit of Fireball McPhan, Jay Teller, Lorne Chumley, Otto (The Exterminator), Mr. Crink, Sterling Smith, Green Globs, & Detective Storm
DVD releases[]
Upon attempting to release a complete series set of The New Scooby-Doo Movies on DVD in 2005, Warner Home Video was unable to negotiate agreements with several of the episodes' guest stars to have those episodes included in the DVD set. As a result, the DVD was released under the title The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies, and features only 15 episodes culled from both seasons.
Furthermore, the images of The Addams Family, Batman & Robin, The Globetrotters, The Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy were voluntarily removed from The New Scooby-Doo Movies opening titles, as their rights were controlled by their copyright owners. In Batman and Robin's case, this is despite the fact that they and their comics publisher, DC Comics, are part of the same Warner Bros. family as are Scooby-Doo and the rest of the Hanna-Barbera library.
In spite of this, the original, uncensored version of the intro sequence was used for the releases of Ghastly Ghost Town and The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair as bonus episodes on the DVD releases of Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown and Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold, respectively.
On April 4, 2019, Warner Bros. announced plans to release eight more episodes, as both part of a package with the 15 previous episodes and as a standalone release.[1][2][3] This release was planned for the 50th anniversary of Scooby-Doo. No explanation for the previous appearance rights issues was provided.
The only episode that has not been released or announced for release on DVD is "Wednesday Is Missing", which features the Addams Family.
Volume set[]
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
---|---|---|---|
The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies | 15 | March 22, 2005 |
|
The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies: The Lost Episodes | 8 | June 4, 2019 | |
The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies: Volume 1 | 15 | March 22, 2005 |
Episodes:
|
Season Set[]
DVD Name | Ep # | Release Date | Additional Information |
---|---|---|---|
The New Scooby Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection | 23 | June 4, 2019 |
|
Other releases[]
The two episodes featuring Batman & Robin and two of the three featuring the Harlem Globetrotters were also included in separate releases: Scooby-Doo Meets Batman and Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters.
The "Wednesday Is Missing" episode was released to VHS in Australia and the UK under the title "Scooby-Doo Meets The Addams Family". "The Secret of Shark Island" (featuring Sonny & Cher) episode was released in the US and the UK on VHS on a video called "Hanna-Barbera Presents: The Best of Scooby-Doo".
References[]
External links[]
- Cartoon Network: Dept. of Cartoons: The New Scooby-Doo Movies - cached copy from Internet Archives