Scooby-Doo began on September 13, 1969, when CBS aired the first episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. The formula was simple and has barely needed to change: four teenagers and a talking Great Dane drive the Mystery Machine to a spooky location, a monster scares them, they split up, someone sets a trap that goes wrong, and the monster is unmasked as a local crook with a property scheme. The gang's personalities are what keep people coming back to that same story for more than fifty years.
The show was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbera, with characters designed by Iwao Takamoto. Since then the franchise has run through more than a dozen TV series, two live-action films, an animated feature and a long line of direct-to-video movies. This guide covers Mystery Inc. first, then Scooby's family, the recurring friends, the most famous villains, the voice cast and a short guide to the many versions of the show.
- Creators
- Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
- Character design
- Iwao Takamoto
- Studio
- Hanna-Barbera, later Warner Bros. Animation
- First episode
- September 13, 1969 (CBS)
- Team name
- Mystery Inc.
- Vehicle
- The Mystery Machine
Mystery Inc.: the main gang
The five members of Mystery Inc. are built as a set. Fred plans, Velma solves, Daphne talks her way in and out of trouble, and Shaggy and Scooby run away, usually straight into the clue everyone else missed. Almost every version of the show keeps that balance, even when it changes their ages, their backstories or how seriously it takes them.
Scooby-Doo
Great Dane · The gang's reluctant mascot
Scooby is a talking dog who speaks in a broken, R-heavy style ("Ruh-roh!") and is frightened of nearly everything. He will brave almost any danger if someone offers him a Scooby Snack, which is how Velma and Fred usually talk him into being bait. His bond with Shaggy is the emotional centre of the franchise: the two of them are cowards together, hungry together and, when it matters, loyal to each other. His signature line is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!"
- Voice
- Don Messick (1969–1996); Frank Welker (since 2002)
Shaggy Rogers
Scooby's best friend · Professional coward
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers is a laid-back, perpetually hungry teenager in a green shirt and brown trousers. He and Scooby share a bottomless appetite, a talent for disguises and a habit of fleeing at the first sign of a ghost. He says "Zoinks!" when scared, which is most of the time. Later series give him more courage in small doses, but his real strength is that he never pretends to be braver than he is, and he never leaves Scooby behind.
- Voice
- Casey Kasem (original); Matthew Lillard (since 2010)
Fred Jones
Leader · Trap designer
Fred is the gang's self-appointed leader, recognisable by his blond hair, white shirt and orange ascot. He's the one who says "Let's split up, gang" and who designs the elaborate traps that rarely work as planned. Early episodes play him straight; later versions, especially Mystery Incorporated, turn his trap obsession into a running joke and give him a surprisingly sweet, clueless side.
- Voice
- Frank Welker
Daphne Blake
Fashion-conscious investigator
Daphne comes from a wealthy family and dresses in purple with a green scarf. In the original series she was known as "Danger-Prone Daphne" because she kept getting kidnapped or falling through trapdoors. Later series made a point of fixing that: she becomes resourceful, handles herself in a fight and uses her family connections and confidence to get the gang into places they shouldn't be. "Jeepers!" is her exclamation.
- Voice
- Heather North (classic era); Grey DeLisle (since 2001)
Velma Dinkley
The brains · Mystery solver
Velma wears an orange turtleneck and thick glasses, which she loses at the worst possible moment in a surprising number of episodes. She's the one who works out the culprit, connects the clues and delivers the explanation at the unmasking. Her catchphrase is "Jinkies!" She's often been described as one of the first smart, unglamorous girls in a Saturday morning cartoon to be the hero of the story, and that's a big part of why she still has such a loyal following.
- Voice
- Nicole Jaffe (original); Mindy Cohn (2002–2015); Kate Micucci (from 2015)
Scooby's family
Hanna-Barbera added relatives to the cast whenever it wanted to freshen up the formula. Most of them were short-lived, but one became the most argued-about character in the franchise.
Scrappy-Doo
Scooby's nephew · Joined in 1979
Scrappy is a tiny, hot-headed puppy who wants to fight every monster he meets ("Lemme at 'em!"). He arrived when ratings were slipping, and for a few years he carried the show, eventually pushing Fred, Daphne and Velma out of most episodes. Fans later turned on him, and the 2002 live-action film made him its villain. Still, for a generation of viewers in the early 1980s he was simply part of Scooby-Doo.
- Voice
- Lennie Weinrib, then Don Messick
Scooby-Dum
Scooby's cousin
Scooby-Dum is a dim, cheerful grey Great Dane who lives in the rural South and appears in The Scooby-Doo Show in the mid-1970s. He idolises Scooby and is even less useful in a crisis, which is saying something.
Yabba-Doo
Scooby's brother
Yabba-Doo is a white Great Dane who works with a deputy sheriff in a Wild West town. He starred in his own segments alongside Scrappy in the early 1980s, and unlike his brother he's actually brave.
Scooby's parents and siblings
Occasional relatives
Various series and specials introduce Scooby's mother, father and sister Ruby-Doo, mostly in reunion or holiday episodes. None of them stuck around, and different versions of the show don't always agree on the details.
Recurring friends and rivals
Scooby-Doo rarely kept supporting characters for long, since the gang usually travels to a new town every episode. The exceptions below are the ones fans remember.
Flim-Flam
Young con artist · The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
Flim-Flam is a fast-talking kid who joins Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne and Scrappy in the 1985 series. He's always running a scheme, but he's loyal when the gang is in real danger.
Vincent Van Ghoul
Warlock mentor · The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
Van Ghoul is a theatrical sorcerer who guides the gang by crystal ball while they recapture thirteen escaped ghosts. He was voiced by horror star Vincent Price, and the character is modelled on him.
- Voice
- Vincent Price
Red Herring
Neighbourhood bully · A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
Red is the kid Fred always accuses of being the culprit in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. He almost never is, which is exactly the joke his name sets up.
The Hex Girls
Eco-goth rock band
Thorn, Dusk and Luna are a three-piece band first seen in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost (1999). They became fan favourites and returned in several later films and series.
Sheriff Bronson Stone
Crystal Cove's sheriff
In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated the gang lives in Crystal Cove, a town that profits from its haunted reputation. The sheriff sees the kids as meddlers who are bad for business.
Professor Pericles
Scheming parrot · Mystery Incorporated
Pericles is a brilliant, malevolent parrot who once belonged to an earlier group of teenage sleuths. He's the most clever long-term villain the franchise has produced, and one of the reasons that series is so well regarded.
Famous villains and monsters
The unmasking is the most recognisable part of the show. In the classic era the culprit is almost always an ordinary adult with a money motive: a caretaker scaring buyers away from a property, a smuggler protecting a hideout, or a rival trying to ruin a business. Their parting complaint about "meddling kids" became one of the best-known lines in American animation. Here are the monsters people remember most. For more on how cartoon villains are built, see our guide to villain types.
The Black Knight
The very first monster (1969)
A suit of armour that comes alive in a museum, it opens the first episode of the original series and set the template: a haunted building, a creepy chase and a thief behind the visor.
Ghost of Captain Cutler
Glowing deep-sea diver
A drowned sea captain whose ghost haunts a marina in an old diving suit, glowing green. It's one of the most-referenced costumes in the franchise.
The Miner Forty-Niner
Gold-rush ghost
A grizzled prospector's ghost haunting a ghost town, he's a classic example of the show's love of old-West settings.
The Space Kook
Laughing alien
A skull-faced spaceman with an eerie echoing laugh who haunts an airfield. Many viewers name him as the monster that scared them most as children.
The Creeper
Shambling green-faced fiend
A hunched creature stalking a small town, known for its slow, relentless pursuit. It's one of the franchise's go-to examples of genuinely spooky design.
Charlie the Funland Robot
The one that was real
An amusement-park robot that goes on a rampage. Unusually for the original series, Charlie really is a robot rather than a person in a costume, though there's still a human villain controlling him.
The 10,000 Volt Ghost
Electric spectre
A crackling, glowing ghost from The Scooby-Doo Show, it's remembered for its striking look and for being one of the more memorable 1970s designs.
The zombies of Moonscar Island
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)
The first big film to break the "it's always a man in a mask" rule. The zombies are real, and they turn out to be victims rather than villains, which gave the franchise a darker, more grown-up tone for its film line.
Voice cast at a glance
Scooby-Doo has had remarkable continuity in its voice cast. Frank Welker has played Fred since 1969, and Casey Kasem voiced Shaggy for most of the franchise's first forty years. The table lists the actors most associated with each role; many others have stepped in for individual projects. For more on the people behind cartoon voices, see our voice actors guide.
| Character | Original voice | Modern voice |
|---|---|---|
| Scooby-Doo | Don Messick | Frank Welker |
| Shaggy Rogers | Casey Kasem | Matthew Lillard |
| Fred Jones | Frank Welker | Frank Welker |
| Daphne Blake | Stefanianna Christopherson, then Heather North | Grey DeLisle |
| Velma Dinkley | Nicole Jaffe | Mindy Cohn, then Kate Micucci |
| Scrappy-Doo | Lennie Weinrib | Don Messick (from 1980) |
In the live-action films Scooby-Doo (2002) and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004), the gang was played by Freddie Prinze Jr. (Fred), Sarah Michelle Gellar (Daphne), Linda Cardellini (Velma) and Matthew Lillard (Shaggy), with a computer-animated Scooby. Lillard's performance went over so well that he became Shaggy's regular animated voice when Kasem retired.
The many series and films
Scooby-Doo has been rebooted so often that the same characters look and behave quite differently from one series to the next. You don't need to watch them in order; each is designed to stand alone. If you like keeping track of long franchises, our watch order guide and sequels and spinoffs pages cover the general approach.
- 1969 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! The original series and the source of nearly every classic monster.
- 1972 The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Hour-long episodes where the gang teams up with celebrity guests and other cartoon stars.
- 1976 The Scooby-Doo Show. More mysteries in the original style, plus Scooby-Dum.
- 1979 Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. Scrappy arrives; later seasons drop Fred, Daphne and Velma for shorter comedy segments.
- 1985 The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. A rare serialized run with real ghosts, Flim-Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul.
- 1988 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. The gang as children, with a self-aware, joke-heavy tone.
- 1998 Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. The first of the direct-to-video films, with real monsters and a darker edge.
- 2002 Scooby-Doo, the live-action film, followed by a sequel in 2004. What's New, Scooby-Doo? brings back the classic formula on TV the same year.
- 2010 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. A serialized series with an overarching mystery, romance subplots and a darker mythology; often called the best of the reboots.
- 2015 Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! A comedy-first take with a distinctive flat art style.
- 2019 Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? A return to the guest-star format of the 1970s.
- 2020 Scoob!, a computer-animated feature that tells the gang's origin story.
- 2023 Velma, an adult spin-off focused on Velma, with Mindy Kaling in the title role. It's a separate continuity and not aimed at kids.
Where to start
- For the classic experience: the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It's short and every episode is self-contained.
- For a story with real stakes: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which suits fans of serialized mysteries like Gravity Falls.
- For a single movie night: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, or the 2002 live-action film if you want something sillier.
Why the characters work
Scooby-Doo's central idea is that monsters aren't real and greedy adults are. Whatever the costume, the threat usually turns out to be someone trying to cheat a neighbour out of land or money, and the people who expose them are a group of kids nobody takes seriously. That's a reassuring message for children, and the reason the unmasking scene feels so satisfying.
The characters also give every viewer someone to identify with. You can be the planner, the clever one, the confident one, or one of the two who would rather eat a sandwich than investigate the basement. Shaggy and Scooby in particular make fear funny instead of shameful: they're always scared, and they still show up. That mix of comedy and mild scares is a big part of the franchise's appeal, and it's the same balance later shows like Gravity Falls built on. Scooby belongs alongside Looney Tunes and The Simpsons as one of the most recognisable casts in American animation, and you'll find more classic and modern casts in our cartoon character guides.
All Scooby-Doo character names A–Z
B–C
- Black Knight — Classic monster
- Captain Cutler's ghost — Classic monster
- Charlie the Funland Robot — Classic monster
- The Creeper — Classic monster
D–F
- Daphne Blake — Mystery Inc.
- Flim-Flam — 13 Ghosts
- Fred Jones — Mystery Inc.
H–M
- Hex Girls — Band
- Miner Forty-Niner — Classic monster
P–R
- Professor Pericles — Mystery Incorporated
- Red Herring — A Pup Named Scooby-Doo
- Ruby-Doo — Scooby's sister
S
- Scooby-Doo — Mystery Inc.
- Scooby-Dum — Cousin
- Scrappy-Doo — Nephew
- Shaggy Rogers — Mystery Inc.
- Sheriff Bronson Stone — Mystery Incorporated
- Space Kook — Classic monster
T–Y
- 10,000 Volt Ghost — Classic monster
- Velma Dinkley — Mystery Inc.
- Vincent Van Ghoul — 13 Ghosts
- Yabba-Doo — Brother
Frequently asked questions
What are the names of the Scooby-Doo characters?
The core gang, Mystery Inc., is Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley. The most famous addition is Scrappy-Doo, Scooby's nephew, who joined in 1979. Other recurring names include Scooby-Dum, Yabba-Doo, Flim-Flam, Vincent Van Ghoul and Red Herring.
What is Shaggy's real name?
Shaggy's real first name is Norville. His full name is Norville Rogers, though almost nobody in the shows calls him that, and "Shaggy" comes from his messy hair and scruffy beard.
What kind of dog is Scooby-Doo?
Scooby is a Great Dane. Designer Iwao Takamoto based him on the breed but deliberately exaggerated the features a show judge would mark down, such as the sloping back and bowed legs, to make him look goofier and more lovable.
Who voices Scooby-Doo now?
Frank Welker has voiced Scooby since 2002. He took over from Don Messick, who created the voice in 1969. Welker has also voiced Fred Jones in every era since the original series, so he has been part of the cast for more than fifty years.
Why do people dislike Scrappy-Doo?
Scrappy was added in 1979 to boost ratings, and it worked at the time. Later audiences found that he pushed the rest of the gang aside and replaced the mystery formula with his own bravado. The 2002 live-action film turned him into the villain, which became the best-known joke about him.
Are the monsters in Scooby-Doo ever real?
In the original 1969 series, every monster turns out to be a person in a costume. Later films and series changed that rule. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) is the best-known example of a story where the supernatural threat is genuine, and many direct-to-video films since have mixed real monsters with fake ones.