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"...as the opening credits of the original Scooby & Scrappy Doo Show explain: Scrappy-Doo was mailed to Scooby, in a plain cardboard box! Imagine how loved this obnoxious pooch must've been, to have him sent to Scooby via fourth class mail. The train that delivered him barely stopped!"

---from the article

 

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A note to Scrappy's fans: Sure, Scrappy Doo has fans. Lots of them. He's a puppy, and everyone loves puppies. He's brave, and everyone loves brave puppies. Yes, there are even some people who love obnoxiousness. That last part is most important, because Scrappy-Doo is just plain obnoxious...and that's on a good day. On a bad day, he's a big, fat, pain in the...

Okay, enough jokes. I can see how people can like Scrappy. However, there's no way I can see someone who loved vintage, classic Scooby-Doo, liking Scrappy Doo as well. The episodes were just too contradictory ...and I'm not the only one who feels this way. Ask any "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" fan. They'll tell you.

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The Top Ten WORST Characters That Ever Happened to Great Cartoons

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Scrappy-Doo

(Scooby and Scrappy Doo, 1979-1985, ABC)

Worse than The Great Gazoo...? Worse than Apache Chief? Worse than this whole list...?  Yes, Yes, and Yes. However, the core problem with Scrappy-Doo wasn't the fact that he was so cute he was annoying: this pooch inevitably replaced three of the series' original characters! It's saying something, when the first live-action movie has Scrappy-Doo as a villain(!). It's saying something more, when I make that film's DVD the order link added to Scrappy's own image. Ouch.

Could Scrappy have been a good concept? Sure. Consider a character  who was Scooby's own puppy. Awwww! Imagine if Scooby found out he was a dad, and among all the puppies there was one little pooch with his father's sense of adventure in him. They go off to fight monsters & the forces of evil, together, as father and son!

Now, forget all that, because that wasn't what Scrappy-Doo was. First of all, Scrappy is Scooby's nephew. Second, as the opening credits of the original Scooby & Scrappy Doo Show explain: Scrappy-Doo was mailed to Scooby, in a plain cardboard box! Imagine how loved this obnoxious pooch must've been, to have him sent to Scooby via fourth class mail. The train that delivered him barely stopped! This should've been the first warning sign that it was all going to be downhill from there.

I think what really defines an annoying new character is when he/she acts so high and mightier than the original characters. Whenever a monster would appear, the Scooby gang would run. Why? Because they have brains. Then there's Scrappy-Doo, saying either "Let me at 'im!" or even more annoyingly, "Puppy Power!" as if he could defeat the monster all by himself. Trouble is, whenever he did this it seemed like he felt he was "better" than the Scooby gang somehow; they ran, he was willing to stand and fight. What insult to original Scooby fans was this...?

Unfortunately, Scrappy had low friends in high places. Every time Hanna-Barbera retooled the show, Scrappy was there. First there was Scooby and Scrappy Doo, on September 22, 1979. Then poor Scooby was re-tooled the very next year, as The Richie Rich/Scooby Doo Hour, where poor Scoob was reduced to mere seven minute snippets, in an hour-long show. In 1982, they had to share a similar cartoon format with "Pete the Puppy" and an old west ancestor of Scooby's called --get this-- Yabba-Doo. To say all these shows failed because of Scrappy Doo would be jumping to conclusions. However, the very reason Scooby was only good for seven minute snippets anymore was because that's the maximum that anyone can tolerate of Scrappy in one sitting.

The worst part of Scrappy Doo's character was how he actually replaced the original Scooby Gang. Fred and Velma were gone permanently, with Daphne returning only briefly, when fans demanded her return. Why did they write off the series' most classic characters at all...? This wasn't like a live-action sitcom, where Ron Howard leaves to direct movies and they replace him with Ted McGinley. These were animated characters who should've been a part of Scooby-Doo forever and ever. Yet after roughly 10 years on the cartoon,  Scrappy Doo was suddenly in their place, with no explanation for why. Who thought this was a good idea? Probably the same guy who thought Flintstones needed "The Shmoo." Forget I asked.

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