The New Scooby-Doo Movies is an American animated mystery comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. It is the second animated television series in the studio's Scooby-Doo franchise, and follows the first incarnation, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It premiered on September 9, 1972 and ran for two seasons on CBS as the only hour-long Scooby-Doo series. Twenty-four episodes were produced, sixteen for the 1972–73season and eight more for the 1973–74 season.
Aside from doubling the length of each episode, The New Scooby-Doo Moviesdiffered from its predecessor in the addition of a rotating special guest starslot; each episode featured real world celebrities or well known animated characters joining the Mystery, Inc. gang in solving mysteries. Some episodes, in particular the episodes guest-starring the characters from The Addams Family, Batman, and Jeannie, deviated from the established Scooby-Doo format of presenting criminals masquerading as supernatural beings by introducing real ghosts, witches, monsters, and other such characters into the plots.
Some of these guest stars who appeared in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, were living celebrities who provided their own voices (Don Knotts, Jerry Reed, Cass Elliot, Jonathan Winters, Sandy Duncan, Tim Conway, Dick Van Dyke, and Sonny & Cher, among others); some had died or retired celebrities whose voicing was done by imitators (The Three Stooges and Laurel and Hardy); and the rest were crossovers with present or future Hanna-Barbera characters.
The characters from Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie, and Speed Buggy all appeared on the show during or after their own shows' original runs; The Addams Family and Batman and Robin both appeared on the show a year before they were incorporated into Hanna-Barbera shows of their own, The Addams Family and Super Friends, respectively.[1] Many of the supporting voice roles were done by several celebrities who were famous elsewhere (Ted Knight [The Mary Tyler Moore Show], Larry Storch [F-Troop], Don Adams [Get Smart], and Jamie Farr [M*A*S*H]) or were unknown by the time of production (Jodie Foster and Vincent Van Patten).
After The New Scooby-Doo Movies ended its original network run in August 1974, repeats of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! aired on CBS for the next two years. No new Scooby-Doo cartoons would be produced until the show defected to ABC in September 1976 on the highly publicized The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. When the various Scooby-Doo series entered syndication in 1980, each New Movies episode was halved and run as two half-hour parts. The USA NetworkCartoon Express began running the New Movies in their original format beginning in September 1990; they were rerun on Sunday mornings until August 1992.
In 1994, The New Scooby-Doo Movies began appearing on three Turner Broadcasting networks: TNT, Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track created by the studio. The first season of the series was animated at Hanna-Barbera's main studio in Los Angeles, while the second season was animated at their newly formed studio in Australia.
Upon attempting to release a complete series set of the entire "24-episode" show on DVD in 2005, Warner Home Video was unable to negotiate agreements with several of the episodes' guest stars to have those episodes included in the DVD set. As a result, the DVD was released under the title The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies, and features only 15 episodes culled from both seasons. The opening titles on this release were edited to remove the images of The Addams Family, Batman & Robin, The Harlem Globetrotters, The Three Stooges, and Laurel & Hardy. It is still unknown if Warner Home Video will ever release a complete set or a second compilation for the remaining episodes.
Seasons Sets
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date
Featurettes
The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies
15
March 22, 2005
The Hanna-Barbera Kennel Club Roasts Scooby-Doo
Uptown With Scooby-Doo and The Harlem Globetrotters
The Girls Rock!
Other releases
The two episodes featuring Batman & Robin and two of the three featuring the Harlem Globetrotters were also included in separate releases: Scooby-Doo Meets Batman and Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters.
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date
Episodes
Scooby-Doo Meets Batman
2
August 20, 2002
"The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair"
"The Caped Crusader Caper"
Scooby-Doo Meets The Harlem Globetrotters
2
May 6, 2003
"The Mystery of Haunted Island"
"The Loch Ness Mess"
British season setEdit
DVD Name
Ep #
Release Date
Episodes
The Best of The New Scooby-Doo MoviesVolume 1
4
2005
"Ghastly Ghost Town"
"The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair"
"The Frickert Fracas"
"Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner?"
Note: This is currently the only DVD released from the Best Of collection in the United Kingdom.
