The FACTS on SCRAPPY

The level of ignorance and historical revision in the highly irrational and emotionally charged anti-Scrappy crusade is astounding! From the various websites and newsgroup posts over the years, I have seen the following outrageous claims:

(Huh? WB bought HB nearly ten years after the last Scrappy Cartoon!)

The gang could work and get along with Scrappy!

Michael Eisner, head of ABC's parent Disney, was then the president of ABC. Cartoon fans, already annoyed at him for ABC's severe editing of various cartoons in its Bugs Bunny shows throughout the 90's, also blamed him for the downfall of Scooby. But these "purists" aren't putting this in its proper perspective. The essence of the show was already fading at that time. If they were going to take Velma away from Shaggy and Scooby and put her permanently with Freddy and Daphne, and make the show a Shaggy-Scooby-monster chase, then they might as well give them a new partner, (and change the format, as they did the following seasons).
And all of this ignores the ratings, which remained high throughout the Scrappy period. So you wonder where such critics got their information from. If he had driven all the viewers away, the new Scooby and Scrappy shows would not have been made for almost the entire next decade. Scrappy haters bellyache about how the producers and network programmers kept Scrappy going, as if just to annoy all the viewers, but that is not their purpose; they are all about money, and if it's making money, they will produce it; and if people hate it, it will lose money, and they will quickly cancel it.
The Scrappy-haters have fabricated their own history and reality to justify their own opinions of him! It seems many of them are younger fans born around the time Scrappy appeared or later, who were not alive or were too young to remember the series when new and the changes leading up to Scrappy. They get all their information from older Scrappy haters, who themselves didn't seem to know what was going on. This would be why they could see a 1978 episode as being as good as or even apart of the original "Where Are You?", (they all played side by side in syndication, and all would be equally "original" to them) and of course, Scrappy (then dominating the network shows) ruined it all. This age difference would also explain why hatred of Scrappy is so rampant now, yet not reflected in the original ratings when it first aired. The older viewers who didn't mind Scrappy so much are less vocal than today's fans. I grew up through the whole thing, watching from the very beginning, and Scrappy was nothing more than a later cartoon fad. I consider myself a "Scooby purist", favoring the first four seasons like everyone else, but later on, when I saw all the older episodes side by side in syndication, the inferiority of later ones stood out, and it became clear that Scrappy actually helped keep the show going.

What's far worse is how this anti-Scrappy thinking had spread to producers, writers and other officials, with Cartoon Network website having a "Scrappy Stinks" game, where you throw slimy stuff at him, and Blair Witch Project style bumpers for a 1999 Scrappy Doo marathon picture the gang being more afraid of him than they are of the ghost. (His new voice, by Innes, bore some resemblance to the original Weinrib voice, which made him sound all the more annoying) Another Cartoon Network promo had him screaming like a maniac at all the Cartoon Cartoon stars, even making Dexter cry! (and scaring most of the others away, such as arch-villains Red Guy, Him and Mojo Jojo!) This was supposedly out of jealousy at all the attention they get, when he was around longer. At the slogan "Cartoon Network, best place for cartoons", he screams "Not for me, man; Not for me!" (get it?). (Innes now sounded a bit more like Messick this time, but also a bit like his Shaggy voice!) This was a significant rewriting of the character (as if deliberately preparing for the movie), to cast him as a megalomaniac who constantly tries to steal attention and prominence, which is nothing more than how people who didn't like him saw him in the series. (In actuality, all he ever tried to do was defend and honor his uncle Scooby). This would figure prominently in upcoming new "cameo's". Next, the Harvey Birdman episode on Scooby throws Scrappy in at the end as a pot shot to have him abruptly cut in and Avenger carry him away as everyone laughs. If this wasn't enough, they drove it into the ground as a frequent runnign gag, with Avenger carrying a dead Scrappy around. Then, finally, the horribly negative cameos in the live action movie was the culmination of all this. They have for all purposes ruined the integrity character in the film and forever validated the worst connotations people have of him as the worst thing to ever happen to Scooby. (Children were even perplexed by the way he was characterized!)

[MOVIE SPOILER]

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Scrappy has actually been made into the master villain of the movie!!! The human villain turned out to be a robot duplicate of the amusement park owner (played by Rowan Atkinson of "Mr. Bean" fame) with Scrappy inside a compartment controlling him. (He had earlier infiltrated the park by auditioning as an "evil elf" and trapped the real owner in a pit). When exposed, he turns into a huge monster called Scrappy Rex and savagely attacks and tries to KILL Scooby and the gang out of jealousy for not making him the leader. (It figures that if the rest of the gang is fighting over who is the "leader", then for Scrappy this would translate into trying to overthrow the gang in this revisionistic recasting). They defeat him and he turns back to normal, and calls Scooby a "mangy mutt" while still threatening him physically. This is the most alarming part of the whole thing, and was definitely over the top, considering the love and admiration Scrappy always had for his uncle (and was definitely the most confusing and bewildering for children). Then when he is arrested, he is the one to utter "I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling sons of... [curses cut off]". And considering that it was him disguised as the guy who owned the Amusement Park and called them to the case in the first place, the whole story, then, winds up being Scrappy's attempt to trap and destroy the gang or take over the world!!
It was a total shock, and itself was a gradually unfolding mystery, as through all the posters and trailers and reviews, there wasn't a hint that he was even thought about in the movie! (He had been totally forgotten in all the new animation until the "Scooby Doo Project", and that usage was specifically to accompany his portion of that marathon. Otherwise, you'd think they would have just 'written him off as if he never existed' as a person had suggested. That would have been better than this!). Then, a few weeks before the release, rumors began floating that he did have some sort of "gratifying cameo" (along with Pamela Anderson). Another big clue was in the soundtrack rap "Land of a Million Drums" (which could be played online before the release), which has a line that says something like "...Scrappy tried to box him, so I sic'ed a pitbull on him...". It was then evident that the anti-Scrappy sentiment was in the air. But I had no idea of the form it would take in the movie. Right before the release, the Scrappy fan-page (geocities.com/scoob_page) reported from "good inside information" that Scrappy would be kicked out of the gang and become a bad guy/villain. As I watched him urinate on Daphne and walk away in the desert ranting, I still thought that was bad enough, and might have been it. But I was totally unprepared for the end. (Once you got into the story after that, and followed the plot in the amusement park, you forgot all about him. Cleverly done, considering the info I had heard about him "becoming a villain", which could have been a potential spoiler!) A friend's boy I had brought to the movie was also surprised as were a few other kids. "Why? Why would Scrappy do that?" he asked. I then had to explain to him adults and their pet peeves and how they can distort things. Imagine them getting up in the morning and watching Scrappy attack someone for messing with his uncle Scooby, and then in the afternoon, seeing Scrappy himself attacking and trying to kill his uncle. (A much more logical use of Scrappy would have been when the gang broke up, and then Shaggy told Scooby "well, I guess it's just us now" and took off in the Mystery Machine. Scrappy could have been waiting inside, and they could have said "Oh No!", or something and then ditch him when they got called to the new case, to make the Scrappy haters happy. That would have been truer to actual Scooby history. If they wanted to bring back a character to be the villain, why couldn't they use Red Herring? That would have been hilarious, as Fred was always wrong about him being the villain, and now he finally was. It certainly would have been in character. Originally, Scrappy was not going to be the villain, but rather "Old Man Smithers" aka the Luna Ghost from the beginning of the film!) Once again, leading up to this was the CN promo where Scrappy demands prominence and seems particularly offended at Johnny Bravo calling him "Scooby". (The real Scrappy would be honored, as he always wanted to be "just like his Uncle Scooby" when he grew up. His "the name's Scrappy!" retort was probably inspired by No Thanx Masked Manx, where Scrappy is acting pretty bratty because he had go to the party disguised as a bunny rather than a fearsome character, and he gets mad at the way Daphne's mother keeps calling him "Scrimpy", "Scrumpy", "Scruffy", etc., however. But this is not the way he acted all the time). Also him being even badder than the Cartoon-Cartoon bad guys. The Scrappy haters have succeeded in rewriting the entire Scooby experience and turning it into a pogrom against this one character!
But all of this had nothing to do with the real Scrappy who always helped the gang and defended his uncle Scooby, and is only those who hate him projecting their own personal feelings onto him. (The younger kids seemed to be unpolluted by these biases and apparently liked Scrappy, as is reflected by Kids WB's frequent airing of Scooby and Scrappy during this period, as some have pointed out. In one of the popups in the bumpers on that network, a kid says "my brother acts just like Scrappy") There have been some dark creepy cartoon characters, and megalomaniacal losers, but Scrappy was the total opposite of this. He was valiant, fighting on the side of good, and this made him a positive figure. It is amazing that people would now turn him into such a negative figure.

If all of this wasn't enough, the potshots in other productions continued, with other studios even getting involved! (Comedy Central's "Drawn Together", and Adult Swim's "Robot Chicken"). Then, after 11 years of completely ignoring him, a reference would finally surface in a new WB Animation produced Scooby Doo DTV. In Scooby Doo and the Goblin King, a monstrous Mystery Machine (changed by an evil magician) crashes into a stand containing dolls of Scrappy, and even runs over one of them. This is precisely the kind of "wish" you used to hear on early Usenet and jumptheshark.com (next paragraph) comments. I wonder if they must have grown up and become the writers of all these new shows!

It's funny how these people despise this character so much, but in doing so, are actually making him into something more than he ever was! Look at it; from their reasoning, the entire show revolved around him! His absence or presence makes or breaks the show. He is also the only cartoon character ever to make decisions in the real world (eliminate gang, change format etc.). This is serious, as jumptheshark.com has literally hundreds of misinformed people spewing a whole lot of vitriol at Scrappy as what caused Scooby to "jump shark"* (go downhill), by eliminating the gang and mystery format. Some have gone as far as claiming they stopped watching TV because of him, or he ruined their childhood! You would think he had become real and killed these peoples' mothers or something! No wonder he would be so portrayed in the movie! (I commented on that site how if they were so "affected" by him like that, their problem was not Scrappy!)

As was stated before, 1980 was a bad year in the industry, with the voice actors strike, and many cartoons being forced to have a limited voice cast and Hanna Barbera making mostly short cartoons for the next few seasons. They could have had problems with the voices or something where they could only get Don Messick and Casey Kasem to do the series. Scrappy was a fictional character, but Hanna Barbera was a real corporation in the real world. You have to look at labor disputes, budgeting, lack of creative story talent, and a host of other possible internal problems as probable causes for the changes. These all could affect the decisions that change a show. Plus, as was mentioned, pressure from the network which "kept threatening to cancel it every year or two, so every season they had to add a new element to the show to keep it fresh." How much longer could they keep producing half-hour mysteries with the same characters? (Scooby critics already saw the show as monotonous). Once they gave it a break, it could then begin to circle back around to the original format as elements of mystery were gradually restored. I myself had quickly turned away when I first saw the " episodes later repackaged as the Scary Scooby Funnies" in the Richie Rich/Scooby Doo hour. But later, I came to see the value in them. But people insist on blaming a cartoon character, who was a product of all this, not the cause.
(And you wonder how can all these web sites truly call themselves "Scrappy-free", "as if he never existed" when they made a point to trash him and flash a silly ribbon of him?). But once again they fail to understand that formats grow old and change, and are rejuvenated by being given rests for awhile.

*This comes from the TV series Happy Days' apparent downfall after Fonz water-ski jumped over a shark which was seen as a silly stunt for him, being a "cool" character. This simply marks the time when story ideas have run dry for a show.
Top: One way to turn the tables and fictionally explain the evil Scrappy of the Movie. Bottom: One way to represent the real world decision behind the movie

If he's so annoying, just remember, annoyance is apart of human relationships, and the person-to-person relationships is one thing that made the realistic Scooby format strong:

So should all of them be eliminated and treated like they never existed? Why then, we'd have no gang, no star, and no show! So we see that this "annoyance" issue is ridiculous. Fred and the girls are portrayed as showing aversion towards him in both the Scooby Doo Project and the movie, but have you ever seen them annoyed at him in the series? No; he was annoying to Shaggy and Scooby for the very reason that he was another person, who like Freddy and Velma, tried to keep them involved in the case, so why would Freddy and the girls be annoyed by him? In the movie, he wants to go and splat ghosts, and they tell him there are no such things as ghosts. In the actual series, Fred and Velma may believe that for a while, but eventually, when they see the ghosts for themselves, they do believe, until they are unmasked; but regardless of whether ghosts are real or not, still, there would be no conflict between Scrappy and Freddy and the girls, in trying to capture the spooky characters. In the Scooby Doo project, when the voice in the forest everyone is frightened of turns out to be Scrappy and Fred points this out, it is Daphne who says "Yes, I know!" But why would she do this? She and him got along perfectly in the mid-80's episodes, where he was her partner in most split-ups. (Like Fred was in the original series, and now, where pairings are assumed to be based on people liking one another).
Considering the fact that a "feisty little dog" was one of the choices for the original Scooby concept (besides the "big cowardly dog" that was chosen instead, see Ruby and Spears "The History of a Classic"), something like Scrappy could have well have become the original Scooby! He may very well have been that original idea dusted off after 10 years! Elsewhere in the cartoon world, other Characters like space monkey Gleek and Bat Mite, messed things up far more stupidly or mischeivously, far worse and far more often for Justice League members.

Many people also seem to have against him the fact that he speaks perfect English unlike Scooby; but then all new Scooby relatives spoke good, or at least better English. (showing that the realism of the original series was no longer being followed). So Scooby was obviously one of a kind, so what difference does it make that his relatives did not share his dog drawl?
People claim "everybody hates him" to prove it is some universal fact that he is bad, yet nobody can give any sound reason why he should he hated other than the matter-of-opinion "he's annoying" or the fabricated "he ruined the show". It seems that this started from a few people who didn't like him becoming very vocal, and others jumping on the bandwagon. It then became "cool" to hate Scrappy, but otherwise, there is no good reason to hate him so much more than any other little sidekick added to a show.
More good defenses of Scrappy

More interesting facts on Scrappy

Several foreshadows of Scrappy could also be found in 1974's "Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch". The theme (three pairs of "da da da"s; one high and one low, followed by "da—dada da da", is like the Scrappy theme (which is blended with the Scooby theme in the show), plus Wheelie uses the same battle cry ("tadada da dada— charge!"). The most striking forerunner in this show is the character Scrambles, a little scooter (every character in this show is a vehicle; this is Speed Buggy carried to the extreme!) who tags along with the Chopper Bunch, and is voiced by Messick with nearly the same identical voice he would use on Scrappy. This character, however, truly is an annoying brat. He contributes nothing positive, and not only is he looking up to the bad guys, but whenever something bad happens to their leader Chopper, he repeatedly taunts "I told you I told you! I told you I told you!" If Scrappy did something like this, I could understand and even agree with the hosility people have towards him, but he is nothing at all like this.

The animated version of Donkey Kong Jr. from the series Saturday Supercade (voiced by Frank Welker) was very similar to Scrappy and perhaps inspired by him, with the battle cry of "monkey muscles", and always talking about "my Papa Donkey Kong", much like Scrappy's "puppy power" and "my Uncle Scooby".

DID YOU KNOW, in the late 80's, there were a pair of dancers for the rapper Big Daddy Kane, known as Scoob and Scrap? (This reflects a more innocent period when the average person did not question Scrappy as being apart of Scooby). Do a search under "scrappy" and you'd be surprised how many people name their dogs Scrappy (A couple even add "Doo"!)

Annoyance was a regular part of the gang's interaction

A TALE OF TWO CANONS!

My first idea on how to erase the whole live action mess, was for the third movie to reveal how the evil Scrappy was some sort of fake, controlled by some disgruntled Scrappy haters; perhaps some villain he splatted once. But then, the project began to wane, but then was resurrected as a prequel; perhaps "Pup named Scooby Doo"-themed; making it hard to fix things with Scrappy. But now I realize that that is not necessary. Being that it is said that both Pup Named Scooby Doo and the live action movie are "not considered canonical" because of many of the glaring inconsistencies in the character personalities, I realized that both of those productions can be tied to each other as a separate canon; a NEGATIVE one.

Here is the essay I wrote for the different boards I post on:
It is totally unreasonable to think that the original gang of "Where Are You" could have possibly grown from the kids in "Pup". (save, Shaggy and Scooby). Yet it is easy to imagine them growing into the troubled teens of the live action movie, or Harvey Birdman and a number of other spoofs. This whole parallel negative Scooby canon brings to mind the old "Nega-Scooby" page.

http://www.ccs00.com/cdc/scooby/darkside/

The first spoof page, and the first to slam Scrappy I had seen, way back in my early days on the internet; it presents a negative, "dark" version of the gang, and casts Scrappy as coming from this Negative gang to infiltrate the real one. It's this thinking that spread everywhere, on the net, and eventually to the storyboard and studio. Shortly after this page appeared, those stupid ribbons began spreading everywhere online, and it became "cool" to bash Scrappy. A whole new real world history of Scooby was written, where this Scrappy from the Negaworld character actually made decisions in the real world, such as eliminating the rest of the gang, and killing off the show. The ribbon became the mandala that would eventually hypnotize writers into expanding the Nega Scooby universe with more spoofs, including a live action feature-length spoof.

However, with new productions influenced by Nega-thinking yet yet to come, this reasoning would become contradictory as time went on.
All of the Nega-Scooby productions would characterize Scrappy negatively. In fact, negative portrayals of Scrappy always accompany the features of the negative gang:

Fred being an complete idiot and jerk;
an obnoxious Daphne,
the two of them nevertheless being lovers,
Shaggy and Scooby being potheads,
and a sorry Velma whose sexual identity is often called into question.

You can see all these same patterns together, across the web, and in some productions. Where one is, there is the other. This is clearly the Nega-Scooby universe we are observing!
Just think; Why would a Scrappy come from the nega-world and portray himself as evil? The live action movie showed us one and for all that there were two Scrappy's along with copies of the rest of the gang.
It is not Scrappy who is trying to infiltrate the real canon --and also the real world with the Nega Scooby; but rather it is all the dreams of the Nega-fans: those poor real world souls whose childhoods were ruined by the addition of one little character to the Scooby universe (Think this is a joke? Just go and read early jumptheshark.com entries, plus other internet posts from years ago! You also see people who HATE Scooby spit the same vitriol at Scrappy! Now, what is THAT all about?) Their fragile minds gone awry, they could never again view the gang as just a group of innocent kids and a dog. They instead created the Nega-Scooby universe, with real world negative controversial issues of sex, drugs and shlock & droll infused, and try to replace the real Scooby canon with it. The reason: to get revenge on Scrappy for the damage he did to their early TV watching.

From the Nega-Scooby page:

One other thing that can be tied to the Nega- Scooby Doo Gang are the errors that pop up in episodes from time to time. These are pranks pulled off by the gang in order to make their counterparts look bad.

Isn't this a perfect explanation of A Pup Named Scooby, the first live action movie, the Harvey Birdman appearances, and several other spoofs and even some Cartoon Network bumpers and promos? Some of it has even crept into modern genuine true canon productions, such as the WNSD/DTV movie Fred still being a bit dopey at times, and romantically jealous of Daphne.

Here, we separate the two worlds by their totally different timelines and character interactions.

The TRUE canon:

•Four "meddling kids" with a dog stumble on crimes being covered up with "ghost" mystery themes.

•They begin traveling (and often hoping to be getting away from mysteries), meet famous stars, and soon a couple of Scooby's relatives get involved. Scrappy may have been annoying, especially in the beginning, but the gang all annoyed each other at times, yet still loved each other.

•The gang separates on GOOD terms, as Freddy and the girls embark on careers. Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy go off on their own and encounter mostly real ghosts and monsters, and some other foes.

•Shaggy gets a job at an uncle's detective agency, moving them back into crimesolving. When off duty, they hang out at a teen center, and get into situations with other teens. Scrappy also visits another uncle out west in Yucca Flats.

•Daphne, in her career as a reporter, begins bringing Shaggy and the dogs on her cases. Scrappy has matured a lot, and is able to fill in for Fred.

•Soon, Scooby finally opens his own firm; the Scooby Doo Detective Agency. Fred and Velma visit, from their careers. They even accompany her on an assignment.

•Then, they hit big time, with their own private plane, a new Mystery Machine, and new outfits; but get caught up in one single assignment: capturing 13 real ghosts they had been tricked into releasing from a chest.

•Shaggy and the dogs go out alone again, to deal with a monster race, a Ghoul School, and the Boo Brothers. Shaggy and Scooby then get a job as food tasters for an Arabian prince. The gang then gets back together again for new animated movies and series.

•Shaggy and Scooby finally mature enough to handle an evil scientist on their own; and defeat him with the aid of another Shaggy uncle. (Fred and the Girls would still make visits).

The NEGA-canon:

•Some 20 years after the original gang begins, there are these young kids in a time warped Nega-universe where it is somehow both the 60's and the 80's at the same time. They begin trying to copy the real gang. They first copy the real SDDA name. It is led by an idiot Fred, a loudmouthed, obnoxious Daphne, and an almost completely silent Velma. Shaggy and Scooby are the only ones who can perfectly imitate themselves. They then grow up and become the Nega-gang, and soon copy the real gang's outfits and then rename themselves "Mysteries Inc" a name ripped off of a real world Cartoon Network programming block, and soon modified to "Mystery Inc". They begin fighting and bickering with each other over who is the leader of the gang. An evil Scrappy joins in this, but is for some reason kicked out in Yucca Flats, even though the rest of the gang is on just as much of a power trip; all behaving just as badly. Fred and Daphne also are by now quarreling lovers. Yet Fred is still unrespectable; at one point being horribly dissed by a female member of Jabberjaw's gang at a dance because of his "neckerchief".

•They soon break up, on BAD terms, and Shaggy and Scooby go off alone, where they just hang out in the Mystery Machine getting high.
•The gang soon rejoins, (still bickering all the way) and defeats the evil Scrappy, who had turned against them. He was trying to take over the world, and had earlier screamed at the rest of the Cartoon Network universe in a promo. The Nega-gang had already been afraid of him when they had the "project" in the forest.

•In a kangaroo court filled with Nega-HB characters (such as the "sexually charged" Peter Potamus, an unfaithful Galaxy Girl, etc.) Shaggy and Scooby stand trial for their supposed drug use, and somehow are cleared despite an overwhelming amount of evidence.
•Scrappy (perhaps also in the courtroom for his own trial; hey; why didn't they make a show about this?) is killed by Avenger, and paraded around by him, to the joy of the entire Nega-universe.

It is clear here that we have two totally separate canons; different universes that have emerged, side by side! People need to be able to tell the real one from the dark counterfeit. They need to take their stand as TRUE fans, or NEGA-fans!

This Nega universe even has its own account of the real world history of Scooby! All was going well in the "original" series.
A "lost" Third Season of the original season was even being released (Now actually released as such on DVD!) But then they added Scrappy, and all was suddenly ruined! The series quickly died off as all the viewers were driven away! So then a few years later, the producers realized their mistake and then came up with "Pup" and the new canon to "start from scratch", specifically to "write off" Scrappy, as one Negafan recounted years ago. (Notice how this is cast to make the "Pup" revision look good. This is the tactic of the Negaworld!)

So it is a separate world that does not really need to be reconciled. But it would be nice if it was. So perhaps the third movie, since it goes back in time, could address the two canons, and from there explain the first movie (as well as the disparity of the Pup series). I don't know what's going on with that project; if it is too late to suggest this; if they're still even going on with it.

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