“The creators of the canine detective Scooby-Doo had considered making him a LARGE SHAGGY SHEEPDOG instead of a GREAT DANE.

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“Strangers in the night…..doo-be-doo-be-do”, Frank Sinatra’s song was the inspiration by Fred Silverman to name the now known Great Dane, Scooby-Doo. His full name is Scoobert Doo, aka; Scoob, Scooby, and Scooby Scooby Doo.

Scooby-Doo was created in 1969 by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Made for Hannah Barber, it was a media franchise owned by Warner Bros. Entertainment in which 4 teenagers, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley and Shaggy Rogers and their Great Dane, Scooby-Doo, would solve mysteries. The mysteries would be solved after a bunch of mishaps and involved supposed super natural creatures. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo_(character)) They would travel around in their painted van called the “Mystery Machine.”

The original design for Scooby-Doo was a sheepdog named “Too Much”. Avoiding potential copyright issues was the main reason for not initially going with the Great Dane. The comic strip, “Marmaduke”, features a character who is a Great Dane. But due to feedback by the producers they decided to shear the sheepdog and go with the Dane.

Iwao Takamoto, a Japanese-American animator, producer and director, did the drawing of Scooby Doo. He talked to a Great Dane breeder. He learned the characteristics of a Great Dane: straight back, straight legs, and small chin. He decided to draw the total opposite. Scooby Doo has a humped back, bowed legs and a big chin.

Scooby-Doo was written with a speech impediment. He tends to pronounce most words as if they start with an “R”. Instead of “Scooby-Scooby-Do” it turns into a Rooby-Rooby-Roo. It is said that he speaks in a rhotic manner. It refers to a dialect or variety of English. In this variety, “r” is pronounced before a consonant and at the ends of words.” They wanted the “R” sound to be in cahoots with “ruff”, a sound a dog uses.

His impediment is a phonological one as opposed to a phonetic one. Phonological is where speech sound disorder that affects the use of sounds in words. Phonetic is where it is an articulation disorder; speech sound disorder that affects the production of an individual sound.

Either way, Scooby-Doo is known for his “R” integrated into his speech.

Many other off shoots happened after the Scooby-Doo show. The original show lasted from 1969-1970 with 41 episodes. It was followed up by The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973). Then came The Scooby-Doo Show (1976-1978) and The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo show from 1979-1980. In 1988 A Pup Named Scooby-Doo came out and lasted until 1991. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Scooby-Doo_media)

Other variations of Scooby-Doo came out, along with appearances in other series. A new one, to be announced, called Go-Go Mystery Machine will air on Cartoon Network.

Scooby-Doo seems to endure throughout the ages. It looks like there is no sense of him slowing down anytime soon. He is known as a beloved Great Dane and not as a Sheep Dog. Rooby-Rooby Roo!