Scooby-Doo Where Are You: Some things have remained a mystery

Scooby-Doo Where Are You from an adult perspective

Looking back on Scooby-Doo Where Are You from an adult perspective there were things taking place that many Baby Boomers or their parents probably never noticed or questioned. The series ran for two seasons from 1969-1971 on CBS and was canceled because of low ratings. Children today don't have the same innocence as their grandparents and great-grandparents and seem to pay attention to every detail with animated programming. Let's take a look at what may have been missed six decades ago.

Unaccompanied minors

Shaggy Rogers, Velma Dinkley, Freddie Jones, and Daphne Blake were teenagers yet they traveled together late at night and sometimes overnight without any adult supervision. They investigated mysteries, solved crimes, and turned the bad guys over to the police. These teens were often in dangerous situations yet they drove all over the place and were never questioned and did not seem to have a curfew.

Who funded their travels and kept up the Mystery Machine?

Freddie's van the Mystery Machine was always in tip-top shape and had gas to travel wherever a mystery led them. There was always gas in the vehicle and the foursome always had the money for food and to purchase Scooby snacks for Scooby-Doo so what was the source of their income?

Where were the parents and truant officers?

Scooby and the gang visited fortune tellers, haunted houses, amusement parks, and other places and never once called home to ask permission. They also were never in school.

Scooby-Doo is accepted as a talking dog

No one ever questions the fact that Scooby-Doo is a talking dog. He just goes along and even the villains accept him.

The characters were based on The Many Lives of Dobie Gillis

The teens on Scooby-Doo Where Are You were based on the main characters of the 1950s sitcom The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis. Fred is Dobie Gillis (Dwayne Hickman), a blonde athletic type. Daphne is Thalia Menninger (Tuesday Weld), the rich beautiful girl, Shaggy is Maynard G Krebs (Bob Denver) a beatnik/hippie and Velma is Zelda Gilroy (Sheila James).

Ironically it was recently announced that Velma is gay and James came out in later years as a lesbian. What is not known is whether Hanna-Barbera knew James was gay when they modeled Velma after her. Was it their original intention for the character to be lesbian or was that only picked up in recent years? I always assumed Velma was a bookworm.

Scooby-Doo Where Are You Is What It Is

Baby Boomers understood that Scooby-Doo and the gang were fictional animated characters and that they wore the same clothing in every episode. We just accepted the cartoon for what it was and continues to be. We didn't pick things apart or point out flaws and accepted children's programming for what it was. Once, however, we became parents and grandparents and enjoying Scooby-Doo Where Are You on Tubi TV and other streaming services it all seems so different.

What were Velma and Daphne's parents thinking to let their underage teenage daughters run around unsupervised with Freddie and Shaggy on late-night and overnight excursions? They were allowed to spend the night in various homes and hotels and no one questioned why they were traveling alone.

These kids hung out in abandoned towns, spooky castles, haunted houses, amusement parks and rowed canoes through dismal swaps, which no parent today would allow. We Boomers know the teens did not live on the road and had to go home and to school at some point and perhaps one or two of them had an afterschool job. Personal details like parents' names and the lifestyles they lived outside of Mystery Inc. were never expounded upon in the original series and came with later incantations.

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