Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! is an American animated comedy television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation, as the tenth incarnation of Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo franchise. The show debuted on September 23, 2006, and ran for two 13-episode seasons during the Kids' WB Saturday morning block of The CW Television Network, ending on March 15, 2008 with a total of 26 episodes. It was the final animated series to involve Hanna-Barbera's co-founder Joseph Barbera before his death in 2006. This is the first Scooby-Doo series where Shaggy is not voiced by Casey Kasem, although he was included in the show in a different role.

Plot

The premise of the show revolves around the fact that Shaggy Rogers' incredibly rich Uncle Albert Shaggleford disappears and names Shaggy as his sole heir for an inheritance. With the help of the inheritance, Shaggy has upgraded the Mystery Machine, giving it the ability to transform itself into a number of other different vehicles, like the "Hotdog Making Machine". Dr. Albert Shaggleford had made some enemies before disappearing. Among the most dangerous is the archetypal evil genius and technology pirate out to take over the world and or become immortal—Dr. Phineas Phibes (who gets his name from the Vincent Price villain The Abominable Dr. Phibes). Dr. Phibes recruits other sidekicks and minions to help him with his plans, among them Dr. Trebla. It appears that the supposedly late Dr. Shaggleford was, beyond being rich, an inventor in his own right, and his clueless young heir is now in possession of some very interesting nano technology. The top secret nanotech formula has been mixed in with Scooby Snacks, which, when eaten, cause a variety of day-saving side effects. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo have a mission: armed with an updated Mystery Machine, a loyal robot servant named Robi, their new riches, and the new and improved Scooby Snacks, they must stop the evil plans of Phineas Phibes and save the world. In episode 2, Shaggy upgrades the Mystery Machine from its original form, to a high-tech transforming vehicle. However, it usually transforms into machines inappropriate for the tasks at hand (however, in episode 11, it does transform into vehicles appropriate to finish the Polar Bear 3000). In their spare time, Shaggy and Scooby are fans of the show Chefs of Steel, and the famous mystery solver Chad Chaddington.

Characters

Main

Supporting

Episodes

Series overview

Season 1 (2006–07)

Season 2 (2007–08)

Production

Ray DeLaurentis was asked by Warner Bros. Animation to develop a new show for the Kids' WB programming block. Due to internal struggles at Time Warner, DeLaurentis was only allowed to use characters associated with the Hanna-Barbera library and was offered Scooby-Doo as the previous series, What's New Scooby-Doo, was considered too similar to the original series and wanted something more broad. DeLaurentis developed the concept in "three and half days" when he decided to do a show that solely focused on the titular characters and, with the help of veteran Matt Danner, began to add the elements that would eventually make up the series. The character of Dr. Phibes was created because DeLaurentis was a fan of over-the-top villains and specifically chose Jeff Bennett to voice him during development. The characters have also been redesigned to look like animated versions of how they appeared in the live-action Scooby-Doo film. For instance, Scooby is drawn with dot eyes and Shaggy's hair is noticeably longer. Thus, it is the second show in the Scooby-Doo series that is not animated or drawn in the usual Hanna-Barbera style, after A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. DeLaurentis commented on this; admitting that he was not a fan of the look of the final series, calling it "dark" compared to previous incarnations, "they just assigned those people to me… the unit production managers are literally the only people in the production that have no skill set [sic] are given this sort of leeway to drive people crazy." Eric Radomski was in charge of the design of the series. This is also the first series in which Casey Kasem does not voice Shaggy, but is instead done by Scott Menville, although Scott Innes or Billy West portrayed the character in many of the Scooby-Doo animated movies made for television or home video. However, in this series, Kasem does voice Shaggy's rich and on-the-run Uncle Albert. Another noticeable difference is that Shaggy now wears a white short-sleeved shirt with a green strip across the middle and green sleeves instead of his trademark green T-shirt. Frank Welker still does Scooby's voice. In addition, Shaggy and Scooby's cowardice tendencies have been considerably toned down and are shown to be quite skilled. Much like The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo on ABC in 1985 (which had actual ghosts and monsters) and the Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo shorts in 1980, this show is different from the usual "crooks masquerading as ghosts and monsters" series. The roles of Fred Jones, Daphne Blake and Velma Dinkley are downgraded, but they are not completely absent as they were in the Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo shorts. They cameo in the first episode and have full guest appearances in another season one episode. Fred and Daphne appear as silent cameos in one season two episode when they were not allowed to Dr. Phibes's "attractive people" party. Their silhouettes run across the screen in the opening credits in amongst the silhouettes of all the show's regular cast. DeLaurentis revealed that the limited appearances were intentional as he wanted Shaggy and Scooby-Doo to develop as individuals and to provide a contrast as to how they have matured. However, he admitted that if given more time he would have made them appear more frequently. The final episode "Uncle Albert Alert", was written entirely by DeLaurentis during a rather hectic time at Warner Bros. Animation. The building he was working in had already been sold to DeVry University and Amazon and he only had the weekend to write the whole episode, "[DeVry and Amazon] were literally jackhammering my wall… so I put in big wax earplugs… with some noise cancelling headphones over them… and I just wrote the episode." DeLaurentis had no ideas for a season three, but predicted that Dr. Phibes had implanted chips into all of his former henchmen that could turn them evil with a flip of a switch.

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