"I Love A Mystery Machine?"
ILAM and
Scooby-Doo
During the 1960s, Fred Silverman was Head of CBS's daytime programming.
In 1969 he wanted a new Saturday morning children's show. He wanted
that was different
from the usual fare, something that contained elements of comedy, horror and
adventure. Silverman's concept was a cross between two previous shows he enjoyed.
The first half of this inspiration was the early 1960s sitcom, "The
Many Loves of Dobie Gillis." The
second half was that of a favorite radio show he listened to in the 1940s, about
a trio sleuths who traveled the globe solving mysteries; "I Love A
Mystery."
Frank Hanna
and Joe Barbera, two animators on staff at CBS, were placed
on the project, and Ken Spears and Joe Ruby were recruited to create plots,
characters, and some of the initial story lines. Their ideas for the name of
this new show changed several times. They first called it "Mysteries
Five" and later changed it to "Who's Scared?"
In either case, their concept was that of a cartoon about four teenagers
who travel around in a vehicle called the Mystery Machine.
They also had a canine side-kick, a dog who wasn't one of the main
characters.
The rough pilot they came up with was eventually shown to CBS management and CBS President, Frank Stanton. Stanton nixed the show, citing that the artwork was potentially too frightening to children (and, more importantly, the sponsors!).
Silverman
immediately flew back to Los Angeles the night after Stanton's
decision to try and change his mind.
The first season of " Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" was very much in the ILAM mode, with stories concerning Egyptian mummies coming back from the dead, frozen cave-men coming alive, haunted houses, living suits of armor, and the like. And Like ILAM, there was always a perfectly rational explanation for all the supernatural goings on that Scooby and the gang faced..
Sadly, the series became little more than a "monster of the week" show after the initial seasons, and with the introduction of the irritating character of "Scrappy-Doo", the series slid into the basement of children's cartoon series.