The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (1983 — 1984)

The sixth installment of the popular Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, known as The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show, debuted on September 10, 1983. It featured Daphne’s return and aired for one season on ABC with two separate eleven-minute cartoons. In 1984, the show was renamed The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries (1983–1984) but maintained its original format. However, in season two, Fred and Velma rejoined the team after a four-year break. The show continued for another season on ABC. Hanna-Barbera attempted to blend elements from both formats for the first season, which brought back Daphne after a three-year hiatus. Each episode follows Daphne, Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, and Scrappy-Doo as they solve supernatural mysteries while posing as investigative reporters for a teenage magazine. Every program consisted of two 11-minute episodes or occasionally one half-hour-long story split into two parts.

In 1984, the second season of this show was known as The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. It followed the same structure and included six two-part episodes featuring original characters Fred Jones and Velma Dinkley, who had been absent for five years. Interestingly, in the episode Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo, Fred’s last name is mistakenly given as ‘Rogers’ before being corrected to ‘Jones’. This was due to Rogers being established as Shaggy’s surname in the previous season. Additionally, the theme song for The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries pays homage to Michael Jackson’s Thriller era. The opening credits also include shots of monsters dancing similarly to zombies in Jackson’s Thriller music video.