If you've seen the 2002 "Scooby-Doo" live-action feature, you know that Scrappy-Doo was cast as the villain for no other reason than to play to the internet's hatred of Scooby's feisty, proactive nephew. Said hatred, as we've discussed, was misplaced, since a format change to Scooby & Scrappy-Doo in season 2 was blamed on Scrappy, but in reality, it wasn't his fault.
More than 20 years later, Cartoon Network decided to capitalize on the haters, and had Scrappy ranting, jealous of the Cartoon Cartoon line. Who else could make Dexter cry?
To reiterate the real reason why the format was changed in 1980: ABC ran a Scooby-Doo primetime special, sans Scrappy, which would be Scooby's only primetime opus for the network. The ratings must've left a good enough impression such that the format change went into effect nine months later. The haters have never seen Scooby Goes Hollywood, else they'd know the truth, and even though it's there, they'll ignore it. Their loss.
7 comments:
Yeah, Scrappy doesn't deserve the hate heaped upon by the internet; ABC felt at the time that the original Scooby formula had become tired, hence the "Scooby Goes Hollywood" prime time special, which was in actuality a testing ground for new formulas and changes to potentially spice things up. It was due to the reception that special received that we got Scrappy as well as variations on the old formula such as "13 Ghosts" and "Scrappy and Yabba Doo". The only truly bad Scrappy series, I felt, were the ones where Fred, Daphne and Velma got the boot and Scoob, Shag and Scrap were reduced to random slapstick situations wherein they'd get chased around by some bullying antagonist figure.
Some fans have called for Scrappy's return; while I don't think such a move would be impossible, it seems unlikely at this stage. Granted, the studio calmed Scrappy down from the way he was originally, over time he became more useful to the team and even devised "Scrappy Traps" to catch the baddies, but the problem there is that this iteration of Scrappy was basically a composite stand-in for the still absent Freddy and Velma. Now that Mystery, Inc. is back to being to being a Five Man Band, Scrappy seems like kind a of a 6th wheel, if ya will. It'd be hard to squeeze another character into the group without said character seeming superfluous.
Scrappy predated "Scooby Goes Hollywood" by three months, and wasn't included in the special likely because it might've been in production first.
Internet haters are like President Trump. Misinformed.
Contrarian.
What is that supposed to mean?
You think they are right to treat Scrappy like this? I'd say that's contrary to popular opinion.
Let me be clear on this: I don't hate Scrappy Doo.
I know. The ad is meant to make him look bad.
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