Scooby-Doo Has a Goony Time with the Harlem Globetrotters

A couple of weeks ago, I went to see the Harlem Globetrotters for the first time. They're regular visitors to the area, showing up about once a year to entertain crowds of kids in the middle of winter. I decided it was time to get in on the action. Then, as a way of extending my basketball wizardry experience, I hopped onto Netflix, hoping to rent The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island. Alas, I had no luck in that department but stumbled upon something else potentially promising: Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters.

There was a time when I watched Scooby-Doo fairly regularly with my brother. We watched it largely because it was so corny, and we got a kick out of making fun of it. This collection of two 40-minute-long Scooby-Doo cartoons is every bit as ridiculous as I expected. Both involve a chance encounter between Scooby's gang and the Globetrotters that lands them in a haunted mansion. Of course, neither house is actually haunted; there's always a perfectly logical explanation for everything that initially appears to be supernatural activity. But a spooky old house is a Scooby standard, so it's not surprising to find one in both episodes.

Other recurring elements: Shaggy (Casey Kasem) and Scooby (Don Messick) stuffing themselves, Fred (Frank Welker) making pointless observations, Velma (Nicole Jaffe) scolding Shaggy and Scooby for their silliness and Daphne (Heather North) not doing much of anything. And, because of the special guests, both episodes feature the Harlem Globetrotters doing fancy tricks with their ever-present basketballs. There are half a dozen team members that meet up with the gang, the most striking of whom are the effeminate-sounding Bobby Joe (Eddie Anderson) and the bald Curly (Stu Gilliam), whose abrasive voice reminds me of Gilbert Gottfried. Meadowlark (Scatman Crothers) seems to be the most level-headed of the bunch and tends to assume the leadership role among them.

The Mystery of Haunted Island is the more outlandish of the two tales. In this episode, Team Scooby and the Globetrotters bump into each other at an abandoned shack (where Fred is convinced they will find a can of gas for their car and a working telephone). The Globetrotters have a big game tomorrow but accept the gang's invitation to join the for lunch on Picnic Island. Except the boat they board doesn't take them to Picnic Island. No, instead they wind up on Haunted Island, after a long trip with only themselves as crew. It's already dark, so the picnic idea is out the window and all anybody is interested in is finding a place to sleep. Cue creepy mansion.

This episode is one of the more ridiculous Scooby-Doo episodes I can remember seeing, particularly once we find out who is causing all the strange happenings on Haunted Island and why. It's completely convoluted, an elaborate series of circumstances orchestrated as a very complicated solution to a simple problem. Unlike in most Scooby episodes, there's a fair bit of story left after the unmasking of the villains, and this part is probably the most entertaining aspect of the episode, as it allows the Globetrotters to really show off all their fancy tricks in some creative ways. The good-natured guys are fun to watch throughout, whether they're all huddled together under the covers hiding from spooks or ransacking a library looking for a secret exit, but they're most in their element in the last few minutes.

Loch Ness Mess is a much more typical episode. Shaggy and his friends are off to see his uncle in rural Massachusetts. On their way there, they stumble upon the Globetrotters, who are having a roadside barbecue. The sleuths load up on hot dogs and burgers and invite the guys to join them for some R&R at Shaggy's uncle's expansive farmhouse. Before they get there, they encounter ghosts in Revolutionary garb who warn them to stay away. Later, a trip to the lake brings them face to face with a Loch Ness-style sea serpent. Who are this mysterious beings, and what do they want? The solution this time around makes more sense; the downside is that the opportunities for the Globetrotters to do their tricks are more limited.

Included on this disc are a couple of uninspiring extras. One is a music video about Scooby taking on Hollywood, and it's sung by Shaggy, whose voice seems even creakier when he's attempting (poorly) to carry a tune. Less grating but barely worth accessing is a game promising some fancy Globetrotters antics if you follow a series of hints about the direction in which the featured player should toss his ball next. There are only a few panels, and they're completely two-dimensional, so it's hard to get too excited about a freeze frame that doesn't so much resemble fancy basketball-playing as one of those Family Circus strips in which Billy wanders all around the neighborhood, with dotted lines indicating the path he has taken.

Renting Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters was a fun addendum to my evening, but it really is woefully silly. If you're a Scooby fan, it's pretty typical stuff, but if you haven't acquired a taste for his show, you might just find this collection a bit too much to take.

"And I Would've Gotten Away with it, Too..."

Scooby Doo is a classic. Everybody knows that. And I have no great objection to the show or its title character. Scooby has earned his place with Yogi Bear, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and others. But recently, I have been home to watch the Kids' WB after school lineup with my brother, and I've had the opportunity to watch episode after episode of the furry coward's sleuthing. (Don't ask me why they stuck a vintage show like Scooby Doo in with Pokemon and Jackie Chan Adventures. The much more pressing question for me is, why is this lineup immediately proceeded by Elimidate??? But that's another issue.)

I never really watched Scooby Doo that much before, certainly not back to back. So it's only now that I've come to realize just how formulaic the show really is. The following is a list of some of the many things that you can count on happening in just about every episode:

* Shaggy fixing himself a ludicrously complicated snack, only to have it swiped by Scooby at the last minute
* Fred ordering the protesting Shaggy and Scooby to branch off by themselves while he looks for clues with Daphne and Velma
* Shaggy tricking Scooby into taking the more dangerous part of their mission
* The five being reunited, then separated again, then reunited again
* Velma shouting "Jinkies!"
* Daphne disappearing
* Scooby being bribed with a Scooby Snack
* Chase scenes
* Instantaneous costume changes
* Really corny music
* Fred saying something obvious like, "Look! Footprints! It might be a clue!"
* Cops showing up at the end
* Unmasking, in which the villain(s) is revealed to be the only other character(s) in the episode
* "I would've gotten away with it, too, if it hadn't been for those kids and that dog!"

Had enough? Me too. The basic thing I have discovered is that if you've seen one episode of Scooby Doo, you've seen 'em all. That said, it's still funny, even if some of the laughs come from the corniness. Shaggy and Scooby's antics are always entertaining, and it's rather
interesting to listen to the audience laughter in the background. Sometimes I scratch my head and wonder what was so funny; some of the comedy is a little dated.

Velma has always been my favorite, the bespectacled nerd who gets to play second fiddle to Daphne. If Daphne's more visible, though, she's certainly not more important. She's pretty clueless, rarely contributing anything to the case and usually vanishing or getting herself kidnapped. Fred is Mr. Know-It-All, always ready to take charge and figure out what's going on. And usually he?s right, too, unlike in the later series when, as a 10-year-old, he was always ready to waggle the finger at Red Herring. Then there are always the extras, who are cookie-cutter copies of one another. They've got one ghost, one zombie, one witch, one old man, one cop... you get the idea. Same voices, too. I guess you could say that one thing Scooby Doo provides is stability. Don't expect too many surprises.

Certainly, Scooby Doo is not the only show whose plots so closely resemble one another. In Magic Schoolbus, for instance, the subject is always different but you always know who is going to say what and when. And the Scooby Doo theme song is hard to beat. As far as TV theme songs go, it's almost right up there with Gilligan's Island. So Scooby may be a little corny, and a little predictable, but he's still popular after all these years, so he must be doing something right.