Our look at television continues with horror cartoons!
Welcome to A Bloody Good Time. Last week I began my television terror series by going over anthology shows. I focused on such classics as Twilight Zone and Tales From the Crypt, and even some of the lesser known ones. As I figured I would, I missed some. With so many television shows it's hard to expect to name them all.
This week I'm going into horror cartoons. Now this selection obviously doesn't mean cartoons that were scary, because I doubt any of the cartoons or animated programs being mentioned have scared anyone. Mainly to have been considered they had to feature some element of horror, like monsters or people pretending to be monsters. Which leads me to the first show…
Some may not consider Scooby-Doo to be a horror cartoon, but think about it. They're solving mysteries about ghosts or monsters (and in some versions actually had encounters with monsters or ghosts). Regardless of the fact the monsters may not always be real, the fact remains that Scooby-Doo contains horror elements. It doesn't try to scare anyone (except Scooby and Shaggy) and provides some laughs, but otherwise contains monsters.
Scooby-Doo, in one incarnation or another, has been around since 1969 until the present. It's nearly forty years old. It's the oldest and longest running show on this week's column. It was created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears for Hanna-Barbara Productions in it's original version, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. It premiered on September 13th, 1969, received high ratings and the rest is history.
It's an obvious statement to say that Scooby-Doo is popular. Scooby and the gang are a global phenomenon, and are some of the most popular cartoon characters in history. Scooby has had ten television series of his own, appeared in six other shows as well as five television specials, eleven direct-to-video films and two live-action theatrical features. Scooby's had a slew of merchandise and is loved around the world by multiple generations.
All of this and you wouldn't expect that it's based on elements from a genre that is generally looked down upon.
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