Scrappy-Doo

Scrappy Cornelius (Dappy) Doo-Rogers
Scooby-Doo character
First appearance	The Scarab Lives! (1978)
Last appearance	Siren's from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010)
Voiced by	Lennie Weinrib (1978-1980) Don Messick (1980-85) Scott Innes (2000-2002)
Information
Species	Dog
Gender	Male
Breed	Great Dane

Scrappy Doo-Rogers is a fictional Great Dane puppy created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1978, with the famous catchphrase Let Me At 'Em and is the nephew of Hanna-Barbera cartoon star Scooby-Doo. Scrappy has appeared in a number of the various incarnations of the Scooby-Doo cartoon series. Lennie Weinrib provided his voice for one season in 1979 and from 1980 on, it was performed by Don Messick (who voiced Scooby). In the first live action theatrical movie he was voiced by Scott Innes. Scrappy initially became a breakout character for the series, but later was credited for the show's decline.

Character biography

Scrappy has a contradicted origin. Originally as shown in the introduction of the series episodes, Scrappy only met his Uncle Scooby after becoming a young pup. But in the December 1980 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo ("Scrappy's Birthday") depicts Scrappy-Doo's birth at which both Scooby and Shaggy attend. Born at St. Bernard's Hospital to Scooby-Doo's sister Ruby-Doo on December 20, 1979, Scrappy idolizes his uncle Scooby and would often assist Scooby and his friends in solving mysteries (Scrappy saves Scooby several times from monsters when they were looking for the rest of the gang shown). With a highly energetic and brave personality, despite his small size, Scrappy was the exact opposite of his uncle; Scrappy would usually insist on trying to directly fight the various monsters Scooby and his associates encountered and generally have to be dragged away by Scooby. Related to this, one of Scrappy's catchphrases was, "Lemme at 'em! I'll splat 'em!" Another of Scrappy-Doo's catchphrases is, "Ta dadada ta daaa! (imitating a bugle playing "Charge!") Puppy power!", he is also quite strong, capable of smashing down solid rock walls. The character was developed by writer Mark Evanier, who has acknowledged basing his personality largely on that of the Looney Tunes character Henery Hawk.

In Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School and Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Scrappy is more toned down, as he is less feisty and a little more cowardly, but still much braver than Scooby and Shaggy. In all three movies he sometimes serves as the brains of the trio, figuring out the clues and where to go next. Also, the idea of Scrappy actually may not have been all that new to the series, as he "...bore a resemblance to Spears’ and Ruby’s initial idea for a feisty little dog", which was one of the early ideas for the Scooby Doo character himself along with the "big cowardly dog" ultimately chosen.

Voices

• Lennie Weinrib (1979–1980)
• Don Messick (1980–1988)
• Scott Innes (Live Action 2002 and other current media)

Others considered for the voice:

Mel Blanc was apparently the first choice, according to Evanier. This would have been interesting, considering Scrappy's connection to Henery Hawk, who was voiced by Blanc. Blanc was reportedly interested, but eventually ruled out by Joe Barbera, possibly because of concerns about his price.^{[citation needed]} The second consideration was actor Frank Welker, who coined the catchphrase "Puppy Power." He would later change this to "Monkey Muscle" for the similar Donkey Kong Jr. character he would voice for TV's Saturday Supercade. The next choice was Messick, who was seen as giving the best audition, but still deemed "the wrong voice". Afterwards, other well-known cartoon voices were considered or suggested: Paul Winchell, Howard Morris, Dick Beals, and even Marilyn Schreffler. Ultimately, Lennie Weinrib was chosen, and after the first season, Messick became the final voice for the rest of the series' run.^{[citation needed]}

History and criticism

Scrappy-Doo was added to the cast of Scooby-Doo to save the show's ratings, which by 1979 had begun to sink to the point of cancellation threats from ABC. After his addition to the show proved to be a ratings success, Hanna-Barbera restructured the show around Scrappy in 1980. The original format of four teenagers and their dog(s) solving supernatural mysteries for a half-hour was eschewed for simpler, more comedic adventures which involved real supernatural villains (the villains in previous Scooby episodes were almost always regular humans in disguise).

Scrappy remained an integral part of the Scooby-Doo franchise, on both TV and in Scooby-related licensed products and merchandising, through the end of the 1980s. He was also briefly the star of his own seven-minute shorts — the Scrappy and Yabba Doo segments of The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. Teamed with his uncle Yabba-Doo and Deputy Dusty, he helped maintain law and order in a small town in the American west. In later years, the presence of Scrappy-Doo has been criticized as having had a negative effect on the various Scooby-Doo series of the 1980s. Scrappy-Doo has become the symbol of an irritatingly overexuberant or cute character added to a series in an attempt to maintain ratings, a phenomenon also known as Cousin Oliver Syndrome. Due to the general perception of the character by audiences, Scrappy-Doo has not appeared in any Scooby-related spinoffs since the made-for-television movie Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf in 1988, with three exceptions:

• The first live-action Scooby-Doo theatrical film — where Scrappy played a decidedly negative and darker role as the main antagonist, wanting revenge on Mystery Inc., for abandoning him years ago (he was kicked out for continuously urinating on Daphne, being obnoxious, and the final straw was when he tried to vote himself as the leader of Mystery Inc.). When Velma is talking to a guy at the bar who likes her, she tells him that Scrappy was not a puppy, but had a glandular disorder. Although he nearly succeeds in performing the 'Darkopolypse Ritual', which would give a group of demons the power to rule Earth for the next ten thousand years, his plan is foiled and he and his minions are arrested because he underestimated the Mystery Inc. team, inviting them all to the theme park where he was conducting the ritual after they broke up years before simply to make them witness his triumph when he only needed Scooby present, intending to use Scooby's 'pure' soul to complete his ritual. At the conclusion of the film, Velma says that Scrappy's full name is Scrappy Cornelius Doo.

• Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King (2008) has a scene, clearly meant to be an ironic reference to the eventual unpopularity of the character, where a monstrous Mystery Machine crashes through a carnival stand containing dolls of Scrappy, and running over them. Like all the previous direct-to-video movies, Scrappy never made an appearance.

• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010), in the episode "The Siren's Song", Fred and Daphne come across a statue of Scrappy in the Crystal Cove Haunted Museum among the statues of their defeated foes. Daphne remarks it's been a while since she's seen him before Fred pulls her away, reminding her they all promised never to speak of him again, again an ironic reference to his unpopularity. Also appearing is a statue of Flim Flam.

He is also the "trope namer" on TV Tropes for the page "The Scrappy", a page dedicated to unpopular characters, be they considered annoying or otherwise.

Scooby-Doo series and films featuring Scrappy-Doo

Series

• Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (half-hour version) (1979–1980)
• Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (seven-minute version) (1980–1983)
• Scrappy and Yabba-Doo (1982)
• The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (1983–1984)
• The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (1984–1985)
• The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985)
• Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010) (cameo)

Telefilms

• Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)
• Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
• Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

Feature films

• Scooby-Doo (2002)

Appearances in other media

Scrappy-Doo appeared in a few Cartoon Network commercial bumpers, reflecting on the negative criticism of the character. One such has him hanging outside Cartoon Network's office, ranting about how the other CN cartoons are getting better treatment than him, despite his creation being 20 years older than theirs. Ending with Scrappy remarking to the tagline (the best place for cartoons) with "Not for me! Not for me, man!"

Scrappy-Doo is a recurring gag in Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law. He first appears at the end of "Shaggy Busted" to utter his catchphrase, only to be cut-off halfway when Avenger grabs Scrappy in his talons. From then on, Scrappy's corpse appears in various episodes, usually being carried around by Avenger. He also appears in the Drawn Together episode "Lost in Parking Space, Part Two", wherein he and several other cartoon characters are brutally tortured. He appears in the "Laff-a-Munich" skit in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun". In the skit, Scrappy is kicked into a lake by Blue Falcon. And in January of the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, he was made the King of Boomer-royalty in which each weekend, the channel "Boomerang" showed 2-hour installments of "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" all month.

On the soundtrack album, Family Guy: Live in Vegas, Jason Alexander reports that Scrappy is the product of a drunken encounter between Scooby-Doo and Daphne.

In the series finale of Batman: The Brave and the Bold "Mitefall!", Bat-Mite attempts to get the show cancelled and introduces a thinly-veiled analogy to Scrappy in Punchichi, the nephew of Ace the Bat-Hound.

See also

• Jumping the shark
• Scooby-Doo
• Cousin Oliver
• Younger and junior versions of cartoon characters

External links

• "Scrappy Days", Mark Evanier's recollections of the creation of Scrappy-Doo
• The Scooby Story: The Facts on Scrappy