The New Scooby-Doo Movies

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (sometimes called The New Scooby-Doo Comedy Movies) is the second incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hour-long Scooby-Doo series. Twenty-four episodes were ultimately produced (sixteen in 1972-73 and eight more in 1973-74).

Aside from doubling the length of each episode, The New Scooby-Doo Movies differed from its predecessor in the addition of a rotating special guest star slot; each episode featured real-life celebrities or fictitious characters joining the Mystery, Inc. gang in solving the mystery of the week. Some episodes, in particular the episodes guest-starring the characters from The Addams Family and Jeannie, deviated from the established Scooby-Doo format of presenting criminals masquerading as supernatural beings by introducing real ghosts, monsters, and other such characters into the plots. The New Scooby-Doo Movies was the last incarnation of Scooby-Doo to feature Nicole Jaffe as the regular voice of Velma Dinkley, due to her marriage and retirement from acting.

Overview

Some of these guest stars who appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, were living celebrities who provided their own voices (Don Knotts, Jerry Reed, Cass Elliot, Jonathan Winters, Sandy Duncan, Tim Conway, Dick Van Dyke, and Sonny & Cher, among others); some had dead or retired celebrities whose voicing was done by imitators (The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy); many supporting roles were done by several celebrities who were famous elsewhere (Ted Knight (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Larry Storch (F-Troop), and Jamie Farr (M*A*S*H)) and some even unknown by the time of production (Jodie Foster and Vincent Van Patten); and the rest were present or future Hanna-Barbera characters: the characters from Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie, and Speed Buggy 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 Super Friends.

After The New Scooby-Doo Movies ended its original network run 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. The USA Network Cartoon Express began running the New Movies in their original format beginning in September 1990; they were rerun on Sunday mornings until August 1992. In 1994, The New Scooby-Doo Movies began appearing on three Turner Broadcasting networks: TNT, Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained an inferior laugh track created by the studio.

Episodes

Main article: List of The New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes

Cast

• Heather North - Daphne Blake
• Nicole Jaffe - Velma Dinkley
• Casey Kasem - Shaggy Rogers, Robin, Alexander Cabot III, Ling-Poo, Policeman (Sandy Duncan's Jekyll and Hyde), Sheriff of Winona, Ghost of Injun Joe
• Don Messick - Scooby-Doo, Sebastian the Cat, Captain Moody, Matt Hildago, Swampy Pete/Pete Dugan, Magic Mansion Guard, Bridge Operator, Mr. Van Henstone, Slats, Professor Flakey, Caley Burgess, Ghost of Captain Scavenger/Captain Cannaby, Mr. Sawyer, Andrew Terra, Haunted Horseman/Duke of Strathmore, Moat Monster/Cyrus Wheatley, Clem Duncan, Ghostly Strongman/Masked Marvel, Mr. Griffith, Jesse Finster, Cackling Skeleton/Gene Haultrey, Selby, Ghost of Paul Revere, Scorpions Coach, Green Glob 1, Minuteman Ghost, Ghost of Bigfoot, Basketball Game Announcer, Abdullah, Mr. Franklin
• Frank Welker - Fred Jones, Housekeeping Man, Giant Vulture, Possessed Viking Mannequin/Ben Bing, Sheriff Dandy Griffith, Lance Goodwin, P.J. Peabody, Redcoat Ghost, Johnny Briggs

Special guest cast

• Don Adams - Himself
• John Astin - Gomez Addams
• Ted Cassidy - Lurch
• Sonny & Cher - Themselves
• Tim Conway - Himself, Mr. Griffith's twin brother
• Jackie Coogan - Uncle Fester
• Phyllis Diller - Herself
• Sandy Duncan - Herself
• Dick Van Dyke - Himself
• Cass Elliot - Herself
• Carolyn Jones - Morticia Addams
• Davy Jones - Himself
• Don Knotts - Himself
• Jerry Reed - Himself
• Jonathan Winters - Himself, Maude Frickert

Additional voices

• Eddie Anderson - Bobby Joe "B.J." Mason
• Sherry Alberoni - Alexandra Cabot
• Michael Bell - Mark, Robotic Gunslinger
• Joe Besser - Babu
• Mel Blanc - Speed Buggy, Scorpions Trainer
• Daws Butler - Curly Joe DeRita, Larry Fine
• Henry Corden - Cigar Store Indian/Rhino, Tyrone's roar
• Scatman Crothers - George "Meadowlark" Lemon
• Jerry Dexter - Alan M.Mayberry
• Robert DoQui - Pablo Robertson
• Richard Elkins - J.C. "Gip" Gipson
• Jamie Farr -
• June Foray - Mrs. Baker
• Jodie Foster - Pugsley Addams
• Joan Gerber - Madame Zokar
• Stu Gilliam - Freddie "Curly" Neal
• Arlene Golonka - Debbie
• Florence Halop -
• Mark Hamill - Corey Anders
• Larry Harmon - Stan Laurel
• Pat Harrington, Jr. - Moe Howard
• Bob Hastings - Henry Glopp
• Ann Jillian -
• Jackie Joseph - Melody Valentine
• Ted Knight - Penguin, Gunslinger/Amos Crunch
• Phil Luther, Jr. - Tinker
• Jim MacGeorge - Oliver Hardy
• Julie McWhirter - Jeannie
• Alan Oppenheimer - Otto, Windmaker #4
• Barbara Pariot - Valerie Brown
• Cindy Putman -
• Olan Soule - Batman
• Mike Road - Duke Jason
• John Stephenson - Scarecrow/Simon Shakey, Vernon Crow, Mr. Hyde/Zalia Z. Fairchild, Mr. Thayer, Duke Jason, Milo Meekly, Lucas, Alberto, The Great Mysto, Phantom 2 (Accomplice), Wilbur, Creech, Lorne Chumley, Farmer, Ghost of the Red Baron/Siegfried, Scorpions Owner, Winslow, Morgan, Mr. Teller, Spirit of Fireball McPhane, Hans Eitherwise, Green Glob 2, Detective Storm, Mr. Crink, Sterling Smith
• Larry Storch - Joker
• Vincent Van Patten -
• Janet Waldo - Josie McCoy, Grandmama, Housekeeping Woman
• John Walmsley -
• Lennie Weinrib - Earl Sedgwick Jones, Uncle Nathaniel, Redbeard's Ghost, Phantom 1 (Alberto)
• Johnny Williams - Hubert "Geese" Ausbie

Home media

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. The opening titles on this release were edited to remove the images of The Addams Family, Batman & Robin, The Harlem Globetrotters, The Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy. The two episodes featuring Batman & Robin, and the three featuring the Harlem Globetrotters, were later repackaged as separate releases, Scooby-Doo Meets Batman and Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters. It is therefore unknown whether Warner Home Video will plan on releasing a Volume 2 for the remaining episodes.

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