Scooby Doo Where Are You: The name origin is not what most people believe

Scooby Doo Where Are You: The First and the best

Scooby Doo, Where Are You! is the first animated series of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoons featuring Scooby-Doo and his four human friends. Many fans say this was the best and stands out among the incantations that followed.

Scooby and the gang were the result of an attempt to appease parent watch groups that were protesting certain children's programming during the mid-1960s. The concern was that superhero-based shows were too violent. Hanna-Barbera and CBS came up with the non-violent Saturday morning Scooby Doo program that was initially titled Mysteries Five and later changed to Who's Scared? It premiered on CBS on September 13, 1969, at 10:30 AM EST and ran for two seasons. There were twenty-five episodes produced with seventeen in 1969-1970 and eight more later in 1970.

These first episodes are classic gold for Baby Boomers and nostalgia lovers. The series was canceled because of declining ratings but today is more popular than ever. If you are feeling nostalgic and desire some wholesome entertainment to binge-watch you can view all 25 episodes of Scooby Doo Where Are You on the Tubi streaming service. You can also find episodes online or purchase the complete series via Amazon.

What's in a name?

Over the past five decades, since the cartoon first premiered, there have been lingering rumblings related to the source of the Great Dane's name. There have been rumors over the 53 years since Scooby debuted that suggest the pooch's name is a reference to the wacky weed but here is the real story. Television producer Fred Silverman has said that he came up with the name Scooby Doo from the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" from Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night".

The word skooby-doo" had actually been in use for a long time as Cockney rhyming slang for the word "clue" which fits right in with the mystery theme of the animated series. The term is of Scottish origin, and the colloquial phrase not to have a scooby, or not to have a scoobie, means to have no idea at all, not to have a clue, not to have the foggiest idea, or to be clueless. Scooby, Freddy Jones, Shaggy Rogers, Velma Dinkey, and Daphne Blake were always searching for clues in every episode.

In old black and white television shows and movies, teens and college students would say "Skooby doo" the same way later generations would say "Cool" "Right on" or Outta sight. "A character in the 1953 TV film Swingin' Together is named Skooby-doo, and The Archies from the CBS cartoon The Archie Show released a 1968 single titled "Feelin' So Good (S.K.O.O.B.Y.-D.O.O.)."

Origin of the Scooby Doo myth

The urban myth about Scooby Doo's name was probably assisted by what has been said about the rock band The Dooby Brothers. The group was formed in 1970, one year after the mystery cartoon debuted. According to an interview by Cleveland.com with Pat Simmons, a fellow musician named Keith “Dyno” Rosen suggested the band call themselves “The Doobie Brothers” during their formative days.

The reason was that the band members smoked a lot of cannabis AKA marijuana joints. There have even been people who have attempted to validate their theory about Scooby's name by saying Shaggy was always hungry because he had the munchies from smoking weed. The voice actors for Scooby Doo Where Are You are as follows:

Don Messick as Scooby-Doo

Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers

Frank Welker as Fred Jones

Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne Blake (season 1)

Heather North as Daphne Blake (seasons 2 and 3)

Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley (seasons 1 and 2)