Along with most of Hanna-Barbera's production staff, Ruegger departed from the studio after the first season to createTiny Toon Adventures forWarner Bros. Animation, andDon Lusk, a longtime animator for the Disney andBill Melendez animation studios, took over as director.A Pup Named Scooby-Doo is the final television series in the franchise in whichDon Messick portrayed Scooby-Doo before his death in 1997 and the first in whichFred Jones is voiced by someone other thanFrank Welker, as the character was voiced byCarl Steven, though Welker voiced other characters in the show. Messick andCasey Kasem, who voicedShaggy Rogers, were the only original voice actors from priorScooby-Doo productions to reprise their roles, and both received starring credits for their work.
Scooby-Doo (voiced byDon Messick) – The main character of the series and the mascot of the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency.
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers (voiced byCasey Kasem) – Scooby-Doo's best friend and owner. He loves to eat and disagrees with other members of the gang, considering the monster of the week.
Fred "Freddie" Jones (voiced byCarl Steven) – The leader of the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency. Unlike his previous incarnations, he is depicted in this show as scatterbrained and tends to jump to conclusions rather than use common sense. He is outspoken and has a large imagination, which always leads him to jump to the wrong conclusions. His favorite magazine is theNational Exaggerator, which his uncle gains ownership of during the course of the series. Before accusing Red Herring, he often offers a hypothesis to explain the mystery, which is exaggerated and incorrect. However, he is occasionally correct in his assumptions. In contrast to Daphne, young Fred believes in ghosts, while his adult counterpart usually does not.
Daphne Blake (voiced byKellie Martin) – A wealthy, vain girl who is haughty, skeptical and sarcastic, especially toward Fred, and does not believe in the supernatural, often accusing people of crimes based solely on her intuition. Since she was born into money and comes from a wealthy family, she often calls on her butler, Jenkins, for help, usually for trivial reasons, something she does not do when she is older.
Velma Dinkley (voiced by Christina Lange) – An intelligent, but shy and soft-spoken girl who wears thick glasses. The biggest change to her character is that she owns a mobile computer that can determine who the culprit is. Velma also owns an oversized motorized skateboard with a similar color scheme to the Mystery Machine.
Red Herring (voiced byScott Menville) – The town bully, who often torments the gang but is always thwarted. Fred often accuses him of being the villain, but is mostly incorrect. He is the villain in "Night of the Boogey Biker", but Fred does not verbally accuse him due to Daphne betting that he cannot not go a day without accusing Herring. His name is a reference to the idiom "red herring".
Gus – The janitor at Coolsville Junior High, who also works at the Coolsville Mall and possibly for the Blakes, and is also an inventor.
O'Greasy (voiced byCharlie Adler) – The owner of the O'Greasy restaurants, who once competed with Arnie Barney until his business became more popular. The gang helps him when a burger monster threatens to shut down his restaurants.
Carol Colossal – The owner of Colossal Toys and later the Coolsville Wrestling Federation (CWF), and the creator of Commander Cool. The gang helps her when her business and the Commander Cool toyline is in danger.
Barbara Simone – Colossal's secretary. In The Return of Commander Cool", she tries to destroy Colossal's business by stealing and selling blueprints for its Commander Cool toyline, but her plans are foiled by the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency. After her defeat, Colossal gives her a license to leave prison and resume her work, as seen in "Wrestle Maniacs".
Jenkins (voiced by Don Messick) – Daphne's butler, who appears to help people whenever his name is called. When he does not answer Daphne's call, a butler named Dawson appears instead, telling Daphne that Jenkins is unavailable because he is busy shopping.
The series' format follows the trend of the "babyfication" of older cartoon characters, as its depictions of the originalScooby-Doo, Where Are You! cast are elementary-aged kids. The series reintroducesFred Jones andVelma Dinkley to the show, both of whom had not appeared as regular characters since the 1970s, andScrappy-Doo was removed from the cast. The series uses the same basic formula as the original 1969 show: the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency, a forerunner of Mystery Inc., solves supernatural mysteries in the town of Coolsville, where themonsters of the week are always revealed to be bad guys in masks and costumes. However, the series has a much different tone, as producerTom Ruegger expanded on the humor he established with producerMitch Schauer inThe 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. This results in the series being a more comedic version ofScooby-Doo that satirizes the conventions of the show's previous incarnations. The characters often do wildTex Avery/Bob Clampett-esque takes when they encounter ghosts and monsters, which animation director and overseas supervisor Glen Kennedy often animated. The monsters themselves are also more comedic, such as a creature made out of molten cheese, a monster in the form of a giant hamburger, and the ghost of a dogcatcher. The introduction of the show was part of an initiative at ABC to revive older, recognizable characters thatolder children and parents of younger children would appreciate (other new series includedThe New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh andThe New Adventures of Beany and Cecil)[4] in the hopes that they could operate thepeople meter, a device introduced in 1987 that ABC blamed for the failure of its preschool-oriented programming failing in the ratings the year prior, as ABC believed young children were too young to operate the people meters.[5]
The series features songs in the style ofrock and roll during the chase scene in each episode, similar to the second-season episodes ofScooby-Doo, Where are You!. However, unlike previous versions of the show, the characters are often aware of the music being played and will dance along with the ghosts and monsters before continuing the chase; Glen Kennedy often animated these dance cycles. The show's theme song features lyrics by series creatorTom Ruegger and music by composerJohn Debney.
TheWhat's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Metallic Clown" features aflashback to Velma's fifth birthday, using the character designs fromA Pup Named Scooby-Doo, albeit with some modifications, such as Daphne wearing purple rather than pink. Fred and Velma are the only returning characters to speak in the flashback, being voiced by Welker andMindy Cohn. The continuity of thelive-action filmScooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins establishes the team meeting in their teens.
^Erickson, Hal (2005).Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 724–725.ISBN978-1476665993.
^Perlmutter, David (2018).The Encyclopedia of American Animated Television Shows. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 534–538.ISBN978-1538103739.
