Scooby Doo is Hanna-Barbera's most succesfull creation, and one of the most popular cartoons ever. Scooby first appeared in 1969 when the series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? anchored CBS's Saturday morning lineup. Since then there have been countless spin-off series which, when tallied up, have led Scooby and his friends on over 200 mysteries.

The show concerned Scooby Doo, a cowardly and hungry great dane who could talk. He and his four teenage friends would cruise around in their van (also known as The Mystery Machine) looking for mysteries to solve. Every episode followed pretty much the same format: group finds mystery involving some monster or ghost, group meets friendly old people, chase scene, group solves mystery. The ghost or mosnter was invariably the friendly old people from the begining of the episode, usually trying to scare people away from something valuble.

Scooby Doo is still shown on the Cartoon Network at least four times a day. Scooby was recently elected president of the Cartoon Network by the viewers. Direct to video Scooby Doo movies are still produced. A live action version starring Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini as Velma is coming to theaters in 2002. Scooby is going to be computer generated.