User blog:Srebak/Why Make Fred the way he is now?

I have to say, i don't really understand why the franchise has decided to make Fred Jones a clueless idiot. "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" did it, some of the early movies did it, the live action movies did it, "What's New Scooby Doo" did it, the most recent movies did it and Mystery Incorporated certainly did it. And the fact of the matter is, it's gotten kind of distracting for me: for example; WNSD and SD:MI all had very interesting premises, yet some of Fred's antics are hard to just overlook. Also, some of the most recent movies, like "Camp Scare", "Big Top Scooby Doo (or whatever it's called)" and "Wrestlemania" have ideas and concepts that I should really be into (more or less), but the way Fred is handled is kind of distracting.

All i'm saying is, in the original Scooby Doo shows, Fred, Daphne and Velma were portrayed as the only competent members of the crew while Shaggy and Scooby were the goofballs. Why change Fred?