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Hilarious thread documents all the ridiculous Scooby-Doo ripoffs
https://mashable.com/article/scooby-doo-hanna-barbera-clones/
Marvel movies? Passé. Don’t even think about the DCU. Today, we’re going deep into the only cinematic universe that matters — the SDCU (Scooby-Doo Cinematic Universe.)
In the age of studios frantically scrambling to make a quick buck on rebooting something old, it’s hard not to be cynical thinking about if we’ll ever see the end of this Sequel Era. But if you can believe it, there was a time when it was much, much worse. Especially in animation.
There’s no doubt that we’re now in a golden era of animated programming for kids. In the realm of television, you’re only a stones throw away (not literally, please don’t throw rocks at your TV) from unique premises, mind-blowing art, and deep, emotional storylines.
But it’s taken the industry a while to get it right. Or, in the case of these animation studios, it seemingly took 20 years to stop recreating the one thing they did get right.
And now (because no one asked)…
A complete (?) listing of every Hanna-Barbera/Ruby-Spears Scooby-Doo clone: a thread pic.twitter.com/VPGMfkPgfa
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Jon Gray, an artist and writer who’s worked for Disney and Sonic the Hedgehog comics, recently dropped an intricate Twitter thread detailing the dark ages of Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears, the animation giants behind The Flintstones, Tom & Jerry, and of course, Scooby-Doo.
For the entirety of the late ’60s and ’70s, it seemed like they were either bafflingly incapable (or unwilling) of coming up with one singular good idea for a show that wasn’t an exact carbon copy of Scooby-Doo.
Gray describes it best, saying “H-B was notorious for cloning every successful idea they had eighty fold. Scooby was the most ridiculous example. My criteria for a clone is as simple as their shows: mystery solving and/or monsters with a pet. Sometimes one, the other, or both.”
Gray’s current count for Scooby-Doo clones is at 22, although he acknowledges he might’ve missed some just because of the sheer breadth of its content library. Here are our personal favorites:
Scooby Doo Except the Sidekicks are Also Ghosts
*The Funky Phantom*
Scooby-Doo with a non-talking bulldog Scooby-Doo and ghosts who are the sidekicks (an effeminate revolutionary war ghost and his snickering ghost cat)One of several HB series animated in Australia which is why it looks so different than everything else. pic.twitter.com/ToRg62AFIU
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Scooby-Doo But With a Different Car
*Speed Buggy*
Scooby-Doo but Scooby is the Mystery Machine is & Shaggy is his mechanic.NOTE: Mark, Fred’s expy, is supposed to be Native American (revealed in an interview?) but you’d never know it b/c it’s never mentioned in the show & his skin is only darker in a crossover. pic.twitter.com/BGBtGexrtj
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Scooby-Doo Except it’s Shark Tale
*Jabberjaw*
Scooby-Doo but the setting is “Underwater Jetsons”, the kids are all in a band, the girls are transplants from Josie (minus Valerie) but w/ Fred & Shaggy expies & Scooby-Doo is now a shark that’s also Curly from the Three StoogesI mean, Damn
Jabberjaw is a *LOT* 🤣 pic.twitter.com/QOt01ME0WS
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
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Scooby-Doo: Old Town Road (Remix)
*The Buford Files*
Scooby-Doo in the Deep South with bumbling small town cops. Also Scooby-Doo is a lethargic confederate bloodhound with an occasional girlfriend.15 min shorts that were always paired with The Galloping Ghost. Show description on the second picture. A mess lol pic.twitter.com/LBslMJPn7x
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Scooby-Doo and Uhh…Whatever the Hell This Is
*Casper and the Angels*
Scooby-Doo but it’s Casper the Friendly Ghost EXCEPT the Ghostly Trio is now Hairy Scary (a hairy ghost who likes Casper), the cast is all girls (who are space cops) & the setting is The JetsonsThis and the next might be the biggest “wtf?!?” on the list. pic.twitter.com/IxYWtDwBUO
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Scooby-Doo Except it’s Oh My God What Is That Thing
*The New Shmoo*
Scooby-Doo but the kids work for a comic book company & Scooby-Doo is now the Shmoo.For whatever ungodly reason the Shmoo from Li’l Abner became STUPID popular so H-B shoved him into everything from a blatant Scooby clone to having it meet the Flintstones TWICE. pic.twitter.com/We16hqY2rJ
— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
Scooby-Doo And We Are Clearly Running Out Of Ideas I Guess He’s [spins wheel] A Werewolf This Time?
*Fangface/Fangface & Fangpuss* [RS]
Scooby-Doo but now Shaggy turns into Scooby-Doo who is also a werewolf.It’s highly ironic that when Ruby-Spears split from Hanna-Barbera to form their own studio their first cartoon was a Scooby clone. Fangface
Is so blatant a clone that… pic.twitter.com/4WHlxPIlJ9— Jonathan H. Gray @ TCAF 🤪 (@jongraywb) April 28, 2019
By the early ’80s, Gray writes, the Saturday morning Scooby-Doo clones had fallen out of favor, with the last one officially being A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in 1988. We can’t possibly imagine why. The viewing public’s appetite for H-B’s main cash cow wouldn’t arise again until the next Scooby-Doo movie, 10 years later.
It’s mind-boggling to think about how one behemoth could dominate an entire industry by just flooding it with knock-offs of its main property. OK, maybe it’s not that unbelievable. All you really need is one profitable idea and the belief that kids will watch damn near anything that’s put in front of them. Alex Hirsch, creator of a little show called Gravity Falls, described this era best.
The 70’s were the animation dark ages, a coked-out whirlwind of talking dune buggies, dogs with neck ties, and teens in groovy bands. Every shark had a tambourine and every sherif was a ghost. And we haven’t even mentioned these bastards yet: pic.twitter.com/iekwpPMeLx
— Alex Hirsch (@_AlexHirsch) April 28, 2019
But even the shows that were blatant cash grabs with awful concepts that took one collective corporate brain cell to produce are still nostalgic for someone. The only redeemable quality of these shows may lie in the fact that they were the best part of some kid’s Saturday morning.
It’s no mystery that the animation industry is clearly much better off now without these ripoffs, though. We may be stuck in an endless loop of reboots (both good and bad), but creativity abounds in the shows recognizing that kids are more intelligent than previous animation studios gave them credit for.
So let’s send off the gangs of meddling kids (and their dogs, or ghosts, or shark) that came before. They’ve solved enough mysteries to entertain a generation.
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