13 Scooby Doo Facts You Might Not Know

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Scooby-Doo Where Are You turns 50 today, as does the show’s titular character. Scooby-Doo is one of the most beloved and iconic Hannah-Barbera cartoons. The show has sparked movies, board games, video games, merchandise, and so much more. After half a century with this lovable goofy dog, we thought we’d bring you so much Scooby Snacks- I mean facts.



1. Neither Hannah nor Barbera designed Scooby Doo

Despite their name being on the company, neither William Hannah or Joseph Barbera designed the characters in the original series, Scooby Doo, Where Are You? The character designer for the icionic characters was Iwao Takamoto. Takamoto also worked as a character designer for several Disney films including Cinderella and Lady and the Tramp.



2. Scooby Doo is a Great Dane

Some might say the best Dane. Not many folks know, unless they looked it up, that Scooby Doo is a Great Dane. That’s because Scooby looks nothing like a typical Great Dane, and that’s on purpose.




3. A Bad (ly designed) Dog (intentionally)

Takamoto asked a fellow employee of Hannah-Barbera productions, and breeder of Great Danes, what the “perfect” Great Dane looks like. He then drew a dog that looked completely the opposite.



4. Fred Jones is Nibbler from Futurama

Frank Welker is an accomplished voice actor. The iconic voice of Fred Jones, as well as Scooby Doo in recent adaptations, is also the voice of Nibbler in Futurama. Though this is just a small sliver of the roles Welker has portrayed. They also include roles on Batman The Animated Series, The Magic School Bus, ChalkZone, Codename: Kids Next Door, The Transformers, and so many more.



5. So many hours of Scooby Doo

There have been 14 television Scooby shows since the character debuted in 1969. The total number of all shows combined: 413.



6. No Down Time

There has never been more than three consecutive years from 1969 to 2018 where there has not been a Scooby Doo show on the air, producing new episodes.



7. A(nother) New Scooby Doo

There’s another new Scooby Doo show airing right now. Scooby Doo and Guess Who? Is currently airing on Cartoon Network. The show features the gan meeting new celebrities each week including Wanda Sykes, Ricky Gervais, and Penn & Teller. It can be easy to fall out of the loop on new cartoons, so it’s ok if you didn’t know this one.




8. Scooby Doo and The Animated Movie!

Combined there have been 37 animated films featuring Scooby Doo that were either made for television or went right to video. These include Scooby Doo and The Ghoul School, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, and Scooby Doo and The Witch’s Ghost.



9. A New Animated Movie is in production

There is currently a new Scooby-Doo movie titled Scoob set for release in May 2020. The movie features the voices of Frank Welker (the original Fred) as Scooby, Zac Efron as Fred Jones, Gina Rodriguez as Velma Dinkley ,Will Forte as Shaggy Rogers, and Amanda Seyfried as Daphne Blake.



10. There was a post apocalyptic Scooby comic

There was a very well received comic reboot of Scooby Doo that came to an end recently. Scooby Apocalypse takes place in a post-apocalyptic world in which a grittily revamped Scooby gang. Scooby is a cyborg, Shaggy is a cyborg dog trainer, Daphne is a journalist with a TV show, Fred is her cameraman, and Velma is a scientist. The series ended in April of 2019.



11. Not one, not two, but five live action films

This might come as a surprise for most folks that don’t religiously read the Scooby Doo wiki. Not only were there the two live action Scooby Doo films from 2002 and 2004 respectively, there have been three others. Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009) and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010) both aired on Cartoon Network. The movies drew a combined 11 million viewers. A spin-off film of the Cartoon Network films called Daphne & Velma (2018) feature the titular characters but no Shaggy, Fred, or Scooby.




12. There are four Scooby Doo plays

Much like Shrek and Spongebob Squarepants, beloved children's movies and television shows are being adapted for the stage. Currently, there have been four Scooby-Doo plays, with a fifth one slated for production in 2020.



13. Scooby Dooby Do you know where I can put all this money?

Scooby-Doo raked in $1.3 Billion in merchandise sales for the years 2015-2017 combined. Zoinks, that’s a lot of Scooby Snacks.


It’s obvious that one of the world’s most beloved cartoon dogs has a lot of staying power. Because Scooby-Doo was so iconic with so much staying power, he was able to be a part of several generations’ childhoods. As Scooby Doo turns 50 today, celebrate. Rewatch some old Scooby on youtube, break out an old DVD, heck, maybe even order on of the old movies from Amazon. No matter how you do it, take a little bit of time to bask in some nostalgia.