Where are the Parents?

Did you watch Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoons on Saturday morning when you were a kid? The series ran from 1969 to 1976, so some of you might have missed out on the original.

Now, my little children, that was before Cartoon Network, video tapes, satellite TV and that obnoxious Scrappy. That was back in the wonderful days of television when we got three channels--one of which was usually snow. That was back when there were good cartoons--Sylvester and Tweety, Bugs Bunny, Tarzan (This is my domain and I protect those who come here). And Scooby Doo.

Back in those days, on Saturday mornings, all (three) networks showed cartoons on Saturday morning. All morning, right up till American Bandstand time about noon-ish. (I'm not sure if I can write this post, I'm starting to feel elderly). I loved cartoons. I loved comic books. I still love to read the comics in the paper and sneak a peak at the Archies if they are displayed at the checkout stand.

And I loved Scooby Doo. I loved the Mystery Machine. I loved the delicious thrill of fright I got when Scooby and the Gang went into yet another dilapidated and apparently haunted mansion. I loved it when Scooby 'talked' to Shaggy. I loved it when Scooby and Shaggy were always in search of food. I loved Velma in her strange clothing and unstylish hair and glasses. I loved how Shaggy and Scooby were always so scared and how Velma and Fred always were able to wrap up the mystery by explaining how the ghosts and hauntings were performed by crooks dressed up in latex masks. I was never quite sure about Daphne. I just thought she and Fred disappeared together alone too often......

This is my niece, Bookworm, modeling as Velma. She's not typically unstylish, and doesn't wear glasses but I thought, since I had the picture I might as well use it to embellish my post!

Back to Scooby Doo. And Daphne. And that van.

...and I always wondered where were their parents. What kind of parents let their kids just wander off on their own for days at a time? With someone with a goatee? And in a VAN? What's in that van, anyway? That's just asking for trouble. So you can imagine my relief today--just 10 minutes ago, in fact, when I discovered that they were NOT just kids but real adults with jobs and a company--Mystery, Inc.

I looked up Scooby Doo on Wikipedia and found out the true facts about the show. (Well, as true as they can be on Wikipedia). Apparently, the Gang was a group of 25-year-olds who traveled around solving mysteries. But I thought that they were a bunch of teenagers out looking for haunted houses.

Why did I have this obsession as a child with the missing parents? As a fact, there were lots of cartoons and kid shows where the parents are conspicuously absent. Where were the parents on Charlie Brown? The Blah, Blah, Blah didn't reassure me that there were real (cartoon!) adults in the background. If there were adults around, surely Lucy wouldn't have been so mean. And couldn't she see that Schroeder didn't think she was all that? A mother surely would tell her daughter that lieing on someone's piano is not appropriate behavior.

That kid on Flipper. What kind of parent lets his kid go out in a boat all alone near the ocean? I barely remember watching Lassie, but why was Timmy always getting lost? Didn't his parents watch out for him? Fat Albert and the gang--What business do a bunch of kids have hanging out at the local garbage dump...

Give me The Jetsons, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Hudson Brothers Comedy Show....The Jetson parents were always around, animated animals didn't need parents and the Hudson brothers obviously were old enough to be out alone.

I was a neurotic kid. With abandonment issues. And a suspicious mind.

Well that's enough about me and my childhood weirdness! Now I'm gonna go get myself a Scooby Snack and head to bed.