EDITORIAL: Scooby Doo Defined a Generation of Young Americans
Actor Kiefer Sutherland was quoted recently on CNN's "Larry King Live,"
saying that he still felt that what we see in movies and TV has the
power to
shaping and reshaping the consciousness of the viewers. Sutherland
was referring specifically to his hit TV show, "24," having an
African-American
President of the United States as one of its main characters.
"If people see that having an African-American president is possible, then it helps them to accept the idea in real life, too," Sutherland said. In short, art still has the power to shape our views.
In terms of such influence, one would be hard pressed to find a more fertile weekly time slot than Saturday morning. Cartoons playing during that time each week have long been an influential staple in the imagination of young Americans. Parents of young children are well-advised to take a look at the characters and themes of such cartoons. What are they teaching our children?
Happily, the 70s parents had little to worry about and much to applaud in cartoons like "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" whose creator, Joseph Barbera, and cartoonist, Iwao Takamoto, have both died in just the past few days. The world press has noted their passing, even in places like Uganda.
Scooby or "Scoob" as his hippie master, Shaggy, liked to call him was a quirky, fun-loving Great Dane, perhaps the first approachable Great Dane in human history. Scooby and Shaggy (whose voice was played by American Top 40 host Kasey Kasem) teamed up with their other friends including the brainy Velma, the lovely Daphne, and the handsome Fred to solve crime in their "Mystery Machine" van.
While the whole ensemble came right out of California, that was part of the fun for American youngsters who had never been there. Along with the fun the crew had, each episode ended with a new villain getting caught by the gang who racked up victory after victory over mischief and mayhem.
In short, people like us were doing good -- not some superhuman Batman or Spiderman. Just a young group of kids who weren't perfect but who, as a team, foiled the nasties on a regular basis.
This approach to the ancient "good vs.evil" theme may not seem to compare at first to epics like J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy or Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. But it paved the way for that kind of literature in our young, visually-stimulated minds.
Joseph Barbera and Iwao Takamoto, as well as Fred Silverman at CBS, deserve our thanks for creating a non-violent yet adventuresome pastime for millions of children nationwide and worldwide. The show taught us courage, teamwork, and the role of each individual to do good-- as long as we have handy a Scooby snack for our efforts.
Zoinks!