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.
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.
