Monday, January 24, 2022

Dog-gone: The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour (1982)

 With Hanna-Barbera having almost a monopoly on Saturday morning programming in the early 80's, with help in part from sister studio Ruby-Spears, ABC insisted on some bad programming choices in 1982.

We've previously discussed how an animated "prequel" to Mork & Mindy was paired with season 2 of Laverne & Shirley in The Army. Similarly, ABC decided that The Puppy's New Adventures, spun off from Weekend Special, would be coupled in another hour long block with Scooby & Scrappy Doo.

This was the season that introduced Scooby's other brother, Yabba-Doo, who shared adventures with Scrappy and Deputy Dusty out West. Unfortunately, Dusty & Yabba were gone after 1 season. Petey (Billy Jacoby) and friends got 2 seasons. Nancy McKeon (The Facts of Life) lent her voice to Petey's girlfriend, Dolly. 

Where ABC messed up, of course, was not having Scooby team with Yabba & Dusty on a case, especially since Shaggy (Casey Kasem) had the rights to the Mystery Machine at the time. Poor Scrappy. All those frequent flier miles, and no respect.

Edit, 9/7/22: The video has been deleted. In its place is a title card:

Tufeld (ex-Lost in Space, Hollywood Palace) had been the studio announcer for Ruby-Spears the previous 2 seasons, and transitioned to Hanna-Barbera with this series.

Rating: B.

2 comments:

Goldstar said...

Interestingly, later on "A Pup Named Scooby Doo", it was revealed that Scooby had a brother named Howdy Doo. I wonder why H-B didn't give Yabba Doo that name instead?

hobbyfan said...

Ret-cons.