You know it’s a pretty popular belief that when the Simpsons and family guy started to primarily have guest stars just play themselves was when the shows really lost whatever quality they had. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about it with scooby doo, right now I’m watching an episode with Jonathan winters and despite him pretty much playing every character since he was a gifted improviser, it’s astonishingly bad in general. I dunno, I’m just rambling scooby doo thread I guess
>>152811482How so
>>152812722It was like any of those episodes of the Simpsons with guest stars like this, the characters literally just run into the guest star playing themselves and write a story about them with the guest star rather than write a character for the guest star to play. I guess it was already something Scooby doo made fun of themselves for, the live action movie literally started with the gang teaming up with Pamela Anderson.
>>152811482>shows really lost whatever quality they had. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone talk about it with scooby dooBecause scooby doo was low quality to begin with. It wasnt until Scrappy and its revival with Zombie Island did it get any relevance.
>>152812783Then how did Scooby doo become such a long running franchise? I wouldn’t say ever watched an outright BAD episode of it until this, but god damn if this really showed me how paper thin the whole thing was. Was it just having a laugh track that tricked people into thinking this was good?
>>152811482You know what, OP? You're right. It's a huge double standard to judge Family Guy and The Simpsons so harshly for having guest stars in later seasons when Scooby-Doo gets a pass for doing the same thing. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that we should not only do away with the double standard, but outright celebrate Family Guy and The Simpsons the same way we celebrate Scooby-Doo. So you know what? I'm going to say it: modern episodes of Family Guy and The Simpsons, especially those with celebrity guest stars, are actually really great and deserve to be praised more. Thanks for bringing this up, OP. Keep up the good work!
>>152813006Thank you anon, that’s all I ask
>>152812865they ran it so hard in syndication that it basically forced it's way into pop culture. It's cartoon Stockholm Syndrome
>>152811482You could think of it as a reverse of all those shows where Famous Person gets into all sort of wacky hijinks.
>>152811482PART 1Ok OP, lets talk about the New Scooby-Doo Movies and it's place in the franchise. The pacing is the real issue with the New Scooby-Doo Movies, which is due to the celebrities. If you look at the standard Scooby-Doo Show run time it's about 15 to 17 minutes without commercials. 5 minutes for the introductions (includes characters, location, and monster of the week), 5 minutes of the gang in action against the monster, 5 minutes for the resolution. It's a really quick, lite viewing, adventure mystery show with soft horror elements. It relies on it's cool designs, atmosphere, and pacing to express a compelling story. The New Scooby-Doo Movies discard all these things for celebrity power and it doesn't work. The pacing is extended so celebrities have time to do their shtick. It's supposed to add more entertainment value to the show but it just fills the episodes with repetitive crap and stretches them out to the point that the credits are a welcome sight. Also, because most of the guest have a comedy background the script has to add constant jokes undercutting the creep mood of the show, completely destroying the "vibe" (to quote younger generations). So the celebrity influences basically takes away two of the main tools that shows featuring Scooby-Doo use to carry a story. The reason for this change is because parents groups complained that Scooby-Doo was to scary for kids. so to add to the issue already mentioned the production had to tone down the monster and location designs. They still managed to sneak some good monster designs in their but it's fewer than other Scooby-Doo series. Most of the monster designs are generic or reused designs from the previous series that are "safe monsters", like Red Beared. There's a reason why people hold up The Harlem Globetrotter's and Don Knotts' episodes as the best. They tend to have the more interesting location and monster designs.
>>152814312PART 2The Batman episodes are okay, but they over due some shtick as well (the rotating house and bridge gags to be specific) and Batman seems dumber than he should be. So the New Scooby-Doo Movies is what Scooby-Doo becomes when you let busybody parents groups dictate creative direction. Now why it doesn't it get as much crap for going the celebrity route? 2 reasons. 1, they did listen to fans and course correct. The Scooby-Doo Show is proof of that. Most of the shows you mentioned are on auto pilot. It's apparent that the creative staff are using it to get their foot in the door to network or make a name for themselves to push their brand and that upper heads of the production staff are cashing in a pay check. If you look at the history of Hanna-barbera it was more of a blue collar worker mentality were they had to balance quality with quantity. This leads to a different set of problems, but it is ultimately to serve a audience which means they do listen. Infact the Third season of the Scooby-Doo Show was renamed to Scooby-Doo Where Are You because they were desperate to convince the audience that the show went back to normal. 2, We didn't group up with Scooby-Doo the same way we did with the other shows you mentioned. With the modern shows you listed you have two options, watch older content or put up with current crap. Because Scooby-Doo has been around for so long there's so much content you can pick and choose. It sets the precedent that their are different types of Scooby-Doo. Some of it you'll like and some of it you'll hate. So instead of saying Scooby-Doo is bad you say this Scooby-Doo series or movie is bad. It adds a buffer to the overall franchise.
>>152814417>>152814312Thanks for the breakdown, I was pretty hung over and the episode I was watching was pretty bad and I do find myself to be a fan of Jonathan winters. But you’re right it’s unfair to take a look at a small part of a broader franchise like this and dismiss it as problems with the whole thing. I’ve been watching more of Hanna barbera recently thanks to me tv toons and outside of the flintstones and some of Scooby I’ve been finding myself unimpressed with the lot of it. Now part of that could just be the forced comparisons with the other shows on the network, it’s unfair to watch prime looney tunes, tom and Jerry and Popeye and compare those to any tv cartoons. But I think that Hanna barberas constant use of laugh tracks and the stilted animation hurt the overall quality of so many of the shows they were able to pump out en-mass
