What's New, Scooby-Doo

Site: whatsnewscoobydoo.com

What's New Scooby-Doo?is the ninth incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, It was revived from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! over a decade.

Production
With Don Messick's retirement in 1996 (he died the following year), Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, took over as Scooby's voice. Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy, Grey DeLisle took over Daphne's role (having previously voiced the character in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase after Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide), while former Facts of Life actress Mindy Cohn took over Velma's as B.J. Ward was unavailable.

The new show follows the same format as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, updated for the 21st century and more realistic than the previous series, with music from contemporary genres and all-new, original sound effects to replace the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects. Even a distinctive thunderclap sound that was used frequently on older Scooby-Doo TV series was very rarely used on the show. A laugh track was only used for the Halloween special. The classic formula was also frequently parodied throughout (in a manner similar to A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), including the line "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the studio famous for bringing Looney Tunes to life, which had by this time absorbed Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. (It should be noted, however, that the copyright notice at the end of each episode credits "Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc." as the author. Also, Joseph Barbera was one of the Executive Producers).

The band Simple Plan is strongly connected to What's New, Scooby-Doo? They perform the theme song, and appeared as themselves in the episode "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman." Two of their songs appeared in chase scenes: "I'd Do Anything" in the episode "It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine", and "You Don't Mean Anything" in "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman." Also, they contributed to the theatrical movie Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

This is the first Scooby Doo series to have a strong internal continuity, as characters and places would recur from time to time. Some examples include Gibby Norton, a geek who has a crush on Velma and most of the time as a villain in each episode; and the Secret Six, six prize winning puppies that would help out the gang on their cases. The Hex Girls, who first appeared in "The Witch's Ghost" movie and again in "Legend of the Vampire", were also featured in one episode. The gang also mentions places they've been in previous episodes (e.g. if they were in Paris one episode, they mention their visit at the beginning of the next episode). The episode titled "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing, Metallic Clown" established this show in continuity with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, in which a flashback uses their kid forms from that show.

What's New, Scooby-Doo? aired for three seasons on The WB Television Network's "Kids' WB" programming block as a half-hour program, before being put on an indefinite hiatus in 2005. Reruns are shown on the Cartoon Network. Forty-two episodes have been produced so far (fourteen in 2002-2003, fourteen in 2003-2004, and thirteen in 2004-2005, and one in 2005).

What`s New, Scooby Doo? has begun airing on the UK CBBC Channel at 4:00PM all week (Mon-Sun). It also debuted on Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

Episodes
What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode list