It's time to kick off our two week celebration of Scooby's 56th anniversary! For these next 13 days, I'll be spotlighting what I feel are the most underrated Scooby-Doo episodes in the franchise. Despite the title, there will be one film that makes my rankings.

Before starting this post, I want to acknowledge that "underrated" is a super subjective term imo. An episode that's underrated to one person might not be seen as such to someone else, or perhaps it might even be seen as overrated to another person. Because of this, I didn't want to approach this list as "these are my favorite episodes that hardly anybody else likes." While personal opinion obviously factors into the episodes I picked here, I chose to define "underrated" as episodes or films that I don't hear discussed a lot, but that I think are excellent and/or unique. I did not include "love it or hate it" episodes or films where people have strong opinions on both side (such as Goblin King, since that's more a matter it being polarizing than it not being appreciated by many.

That said, Scooby-Doo has such a big fanbase that it would be impossible to know how episodes are viewed in all corners of the fandom. I fully anticipate that a couple of the episodes I choose probably are brought up often by some, but this list is just for fun, so you're welcome to disagree with my picks!

Before starting my main list, I'm going to share three honorable mentions that were very close to being on my list, but didn't quite end up making it.

The Demon of the Dugout
Series: The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show
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​This isn't one that would have made my list a few years ago, but recently, I've grown to appreciate this one more. This episode features the gang going to a baseball game in Japan. Soon, the game is disrupted by the Dragon Beast, who is trying to steal a priceless trophy. The reason this one almost made my list is because of the strong atmosphere. This episode has become one of my favorite sports episodes of the franchise for the excellent tone, and how creepy the dugout feels as a setting. The scene where the Dragon Beast stalks the gang and follows them back to their hotel is, in my opinion, the creepiest scene of this series. The mystery is also super well-written here! This one has grown on me so much in recent years.

Up a Crazy River
Series: The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour
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I find most of the Yabba shorts to be kinda painful to sit through, so this one making the list is a ​pretty high honor. I'm not sure if the writers intended to have the writing be intentionally funny-bad, but this one falls into the "so bad it's good" category for me. The plot of the episode involves Dusty, Scrappy and Yabba stopping a store from being robbed by crooks. Despite that they are the law enforcement of this town, they're oddly hesitant to actually enforce the laws lol. As the thieves are actively stealing things out of the store, Dusty, Scrappy and Yabba just shout vague things to attempt to discourage them from robbing the store, including "Nobody messes with the law in this town!" and "You're gonna be sorry if you do that!" The funniest thing about this is that they literally just keep shouting warnings until the thieves have nearly cleared out the store, and then don't actually do anything further to stop the robbery lol. It's also clear they have a reputation for not actually enforcing the law, as at one point, the thieves are seen causally strolling out of the store with their stolen goods, not in any hurry at all haha. This is reinforced in an another episode (I forget which) where I believe Dusty calls for the sheriff to help him, then Yabba reminds him that he is the sheriff haha.
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Besides this, the thieves are also addicted to stealing. When Scrappy comments that Dusty is worth more than gold, the thieves take this literally and steal him. Shortly before that, the thieves attempt to steal Dusty's shirt and pants. Whether or not it was intentional, the writing of this short is delightfully quirky in so many ways. The rest of the Yabba shorts range from passably decent to amongst the lowest lows of the franchise, but this is the one Yabba short I'd recommend watching.

Scoo-Be or Not Scoo-Be?
Series: The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries
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"Scoo-Be or Not Scoo-Be?" is a parody of Hamlet, where the gang stays in a hotel and runs into the ghost of the titular prince. They soon discover the ghost strangely is uninterested in chasing them himself, and seems to be warning them away from something else. To make the mystery even weirder, a sea demon appears and tries to chase the gang away. Throughout this episode, the gang has to figure out how the two are connected. Besides the complexity of this mystery being super cool, I really like how the episode also feels like it has a little bit darker tone than the rest of the series.

Super Scary Movie Night
Series: Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!

"Mystery of the Missing Mystery Solvers" seems to be the most acclaimed Get a Clue episode mystery-solving and haunted house aspects, but this is another one that I feel mirrors the classic Scooby-Doo formula very tastefully. The episode involves Shaggy and Scooby's butler Robi building a five-dimensional television, but things go awry when Dr. Phibes delivers DVDs that unleash monsters into their home. While Get a Clue's comedy isn't everybody's cup of tea, the humor here is really solid. We get some hilariously silly moments with stuff like Robi's "five-dimensional television" allowing Shaggy and Scooby to feel, smell and taste what's on TV, as well as one of Phibes' monsters (the mummy) accidentally being programmed with the trait of being money hungry. The monsters give the episode a perfect balance that captures the feeling of a classic Scooby-Doo episode, and still stays true to the vibe of this series.

So minor spoilers, but there are a handful of series that do not make my list. Two of them have already been revealed (Puppy Hour and Get a Clue), and I do not plan to make a pick for Velma or Laff a Lympics. I thought it might be fun to make picks for the other three series that aren't represented here. That said, I wouldn't consider any of these to be amongst the most underrated episodes of Scooby. These are just "honorable mentions" for what I feel is the most underrated episode of their respective series.

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf
Series: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?
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With a series like Where Are You, it's honestly tough to make a choice. All of the episodes feel quite acclaimed, so including them on a list of most underrated episodes in the franchise didn't feel right. That said, this one stands out to me a little as being unique, but I don't see that talked about a lot. It's really interesting how for once, Shaggy and Scooby don't run into the werewolf at all for most of the episode, but Daphne, Velma, and Fred run into him everywhere. I also really like the setting of the old mill. This episode took what isn't a particularly spooky setting in theory, and made it feel very creepy. This one has gone up in my rankings for this series more and more each year for its uniqueness.

A Spooky Little Ghoul Like You
Series: The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo

​13 Ghosts is a rather interesting series, in the sense that I honestly feel all of the episodes are the right amount of acclaimed. All of what I'd consider the high points of this series seem to be the ones most other fans like best, and it seems most people agree on the low points (When You Witch Upon a Star, Coast to Ghost, etc.) as well. That said, if I had to pick, this one stands out to me as being pretty cool. I wouldn't call it a favorite, but it's one of the better episodes of the show that I don't see discussed a lot. The plot of Vincent being struck by a ghoul's love spell is really creepy. The hotel also has a great atmosphere! I really like how the stakes get progressively higher throughout the course of this episode, especially when she rises a cemetery full of ghosts from their graves. While it may not be this series' peak quality, it's a very good episode that I do not see discussed much.

Web of the Dreamweaver
Series: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
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Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated was the first Scooby series I got to experience as it was airing. There was so much hype around the series, and it continues to be seen as an iconic Scooby series to this day. In such an acclaimed series like this, it was very challenging to think of the episode that is most underrated. I remember this episode being well-liked when it aired, but in recent years, I have some some fans share that they think it's one of the less memorable episodes. Honestly, this is one of the episodes that sticks out most to me in season 2.

Having an episode that is basically a combo of Dungeons & Dragons and A Nightmare on Elm Street is so much fun. The Dreamweaver being able to make appearances in people's dreams is terrifying! The plot feels extremely high-stakes here, but is balanced out nicely with the comedy surrounding Shaggy and Sheriff Stone being closeted D&D players. This is such a great episode that stands out as a favorite from this season.

​Stay tuned for my full list of the 13 most underrated episodes! The countdown of my most underrated episodes of the franchise starts tomorrow, and I'll be revealing an episode every day through Scooby's anniversary.

This officially kicks off our "unreleased episodes" poll series! This poll series will go for the next five weeks, with the final round of the winning episodes taking place on September 28. We are starting off our journey through unreleased episodes with The Scooby-Doo Show! Bafflingly, half of season 2 has still never been released on physical media.

To keep what counts in this poll series consistent, I'm going to go by US releases only. This is because, unfortunately, international Scooby physical releases haven't been super well documented, so I think it makes most sense to just go by US releases here. This means the two episodes released on the Italian VHS Il Gran Primo will still count as "unreleased" in today's poll. 

As we start another home media poll series, it's time to reveal the results for the best VHS-released Scooby-Doo media polls! The winner of that title goes to Zombie Island, which wins in a landslide with 27 votes! With all of the usual winners not being a part of this next poll series, I'll be very curious to see which unreleased episode will win!

Here are the full results for last week's final round:

What is the best Scooby-Doo episode/film released on VHS?
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island - 27
Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats - 10
A Night of Fright Is No Delight - 9
​The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair - 8
The Nutcracker Scoob - 4
Behind the Scenes shorts - 3
The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly - 2
The Vampire Strikes Back - 2
France and Australia - 1
The Night Ghoul of Wonderworld - 1
The Scarab Lives! - 0

Besides being a Scooby fan, I am an avid book lover. Between a Hex Girls book and one of the cast members of Young Sheldon releasing a book next week, this week and next marked some pretty exciting releases for me!

I've been looking forward to this book for months, so I started reading it right away on release day. It only took me a few days to finish the book, and now that I have, I wanted to share my review on the blog! Since I'm assuming many fans haven't checked out the book yet, I'm going to make this a spoiler-free review.

I really enjoyed this book! I found Lily's writing to be very good, and I thought it stayed quite true to the tone of the franchise. For those wondering if this stays exactly in line with the tone of Witch's Ghost, I would argue no, but it also didn't need to be. This book is very much it's own thing, but it's still a great addition to the Scooby franchise.

Starting with the characters, I really liked how the Hex Girls were written here. Nobody felt like they were out-of-character. Interestingly, the six canon appearances in films/episodes haven't really told us much about Luna or Dusk's interests. I liked that Lily took a similar approach that I and other fanfiction writers have, in developing on the little bits that are shown throughout their appearances. Luna is shown to be a bit shy, but very kind and thoughtful. Dusk is characterized as having a bit more of an edge, but she also does have a sensitive side that she shows to those whom she trusts. She is also said to have sisters, which was cool because I also had similar lore in mind for her character when I wrote my Hex Girls fanfic.

I was wondering whether this would be a purely Hex Girls fanfic with just a small amount of focus on the gang. My hope was that it would be a good mix of the Hex Girls and the gang, and I'm so happy that's the direction this went. While the book is from Thorn's perspective, I thought Lily struck the perfect balance between giving the girls a good amount of focus, and also balancing it where the gang felt like central characters to the story. 

I really liked her characterizations of Velma, Fred and Daphne. Velma is the witty, smart girl with a sensitive side just as she's portrayed in the Mook era. The canon of Velma being Latina in SCOOB! is also used here, which I thought was really interesting. It isn't focused on hardly at all, but it's referenced in one line where Velma mentions her abuela.

To me, Fred's characterization reminds me of how he was in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. He is a bit socially awkward, but still quite endearing. He's also trap-obsessed, to the point where many stores have banned him from buying things because he makes everything into traps. I thought it was interesting that Fred's dad was the sheriff in this book. It reminded me a lot of his relationship with Mayor Jones, since his dad doesn't seem to want him solving mysteries in the later half of the book. It was also amusing to me that Fred's reason for wearing an ascot was to pay homage to the town founders lol.

Daphne is portrayed as a rich girl who some people see as stuck-up, but as the book goes on, it's clear she has a soft and gentle side. Her characterization reminds me a bit of Where Are You, but she also has the maturity that she had in the Mook era films.

Like in the Daphne & Velma book series, Scooby does not talk. He is still expressive through his mannerisms though, which I liked. I thought this book did as good of a job as the Daphne & Velma books with him. On the other hand, Shaggy is the one character I thought could have been written a bit better. He isn't out of character, but he's mostly reserved and doesn't really talk much. Many of his lines felt like they could have been said by any character to me, and he could have been developed in more detail than he was.

There are several different plot threads in this book, but all are serviced quite well. The book starts off with Thorn, Luna and Dusk moving to Coolsville. She is characterized as having magical powers here, but is afraid of them, because of a traumatic accident caused by her in Oakhaven. Because of this, the girls' reputations in Oakhaven have been ruined, so they are trying to get a fresh start. The book explores the girls adjusting to a new high school, and grappling with the feelings of not fitting in due to being goths.

Thorn has kept in touch with Velma after the events of the Witch's Ghost, and transfers to the same school as the gang. The girls, particularly Thorn, seem to find a kindred spirit with the gang, because they are also social outcasts due to other kids finding their mystery-solving hobby to be odd.

Thorn soon finds herself wrapped up in another mystery. While volunteering at the school's community garden, a phantom mist called "The Harvest Host" appears and attacks the students. Because the Harvest Host blames Thorn for its actions, Thorn is implicated in yet another crime. The gang, along with Luna and Dusk, vow to help Thorn clear her name. 

I really liked this plot and mystery! I was glad that the girls felt like members of the gang with an equal stake in the mystery, rather than feeling like side characters. The Harvest Host was an excellent villain, and the book kept me wondering until the end whether it was real or not. The mystery was overall really well-written and fits well with the girls being eco-goths.

One of the biggest strengths of this book is how well the mystery and subplots are bridged together. I know some fans were concerned about the romance overshadowing the mystery, but it wasn't that way at all. Overall, I thought Thorn and Velma's relationship was sweet. This feels very much like a coming-of-age story to me, and I thought their relationship was cute and innocent like the typical types of romance stories in that genre. I do wish that the book would have delved more into why Thorn specifically stayed in touch with Velma after the events of Witch's Ghost. The beginning of the book mentions that they became fast friends after the gang's time in Oakhaven, but it's not explored much deeper than that. It isn't a big issue, but I would have liked to have seen the plot explore the reason Thorn and Velma hit it off so well. I was messaging a friend in the fandom about this last night, and he brought up a great idea. In Witch's Ghost, there's a moment where Velma shows Thorn she believes in her when she's trying to cast the spell to put Sarah back in the journal. The book could have explored that Velma believing in Thorn at one of the scariest moments of her life made Thorn admire her, or something along those lines. I feel that would have made their relationship even stronger, since it would have established their relationship from a key moment in the film.

The Daphne & Velma books had a lot of references to past Scooby-Doo media, and I was happy to see that this book did too! The book mentions the Daily Babbler from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the Coolsonian from Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and the Poppenbacher Farm from "Farmed and Dangerous." There's also cute little tongue-in-cheek references like the "Where Are You? friend finder app," and one of the teachers being named Ms. Bergman. In addition, I really liked how the brief fight that the girls have sort of feels like it channels a similar tone to "The Vampire Strikes Back."

I thought the book had just the right amount of references, where it was kept at a fun amount and nothing felt obligatory. The only reference I was kinda "meh" on is at the end (not a spoiler, don't worry) where a mystery involving a "living suit of armor at the museum" was mentioned. It's a nice reference to the first episode, but I feel like so many Scooby origin stories have ended by tying back into "What a Night for a Knight" that the reference just feels tired at this point. It's similar to how I feel about the constant cameos of Where Are You villains we had in the DTVs for a while.

Having done the same in my fics, I really liked that she included references to goth bands throughout the story. Thorn's favorite bands are said to be Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, and Bauhaus. One of my favorite songs from The Cure, "Friday I'm in Love," was specifically mentioned here. In my fanfic, I had the girls feature covers "A Forest" from The Cure and "Fear (Of the Unknown)" on their album. I would definitely recommend checking out all of those songs (and "Kiss Them for Me") if you're into pop-leaning alternative music, as they remind me a lot of the Hex Girls' vibe.

Another thing I was really happy about is that this book finally gives Dusk and Luna names that are technically canon! Luna is named Kimberly Hale and Dusk is Jane Brooks, which are transposed versions of the Hex Girls' voice actresses' names. It's also revealed that Thorn's mom passed when she was little, which was ironically the same canon I'd established in my fic. 

I also thought it was interesting that Crystal Cove is a suburb of Coolsville. There is an off-handed comment made that the gang will likely move from Coolsville to Crystal Cove when they're older, which I thought was a cool little nod to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. One plot point that I found odd is that Mr. McKnight dressing up as the witch's ghost was reported in the newspapers as a crime. I thought this was a bit strange for a number of reasons, especially given a publicity stunt for tourism isn't against the law. Oddly, Mayor Corey also doesn't seem to have been implicated in the crime despite him also being involved. Does this mean he shifted all the blame to Mr. McKnight, and used his power as the mayor to get himself completely off the hook? If so, perhaps the "Mayor Corey political attack ad" I put in one of my fics was more necessary than I realized lol.

In seriousness, I guess this highlights the other issue I had with this book. It felt like a few plot points, like Velma staying in touch with Thorn and Mr. McKnight's crime, were underdeveloped. There was another odd plot point I haven't talked about yet along this line, where Shaggy keeps getting in trouble for sneaking Scooby into school, and hiding him in closets and such. It wasn't a big issue, but it came off as a bit odd and there was no real context provided as to why he was doing this. Maybe it's just intended to underscore that Shaggy loves his dog, but that and the other two aforementioned points were odd to me, and left some questions that went unanswered.

At its core, this is a coming of age story. I really liked how Lily worked themes of growing up into the book, in a way that felt at home with the franchise's typical vibe. Thorn being afraid of her powers seems to be a metaphor for how one's teenage years are often a time where people find their self-confidence. Amongst my favorite lines in this vein were "I didn't realize how many people could be hurt in the quest to pretend life is always perfect" and "If I'm always running from the darkness of my past, I'll never have time to enjoy the light." Stuff like this made the book feel like a really sweet coming-of-age story, and I really liked how the book explored the girls experiencing typical teenage realizations in a non-cringey way.

Minor criticisms aside, overall this was a cute book that makes an excellent addition to the Scooby franchise. Lily's writing is really strong, and I loved some of her witticisms like the girls calling their "Hex Girl" song "our namesake song," or Thorn spunkily referring to an annoying policeman as "Officer Pain in the Ass" lol. The book's tone stays true to the general vibe of the franchise, and the writing doesn't feel too lofty or intimidating for young adult readers. Her writing has some really nice poetic description sprinkled throughout, with "Hex Girl" being referred to as "a love spell cast with instruments" being one of my favorite bits of description in the book.

Does this book live up to the iconicness of Witch's Ghost? I'd argue no, but I don't think it needed to be. This story is very much its own thing, different from what's been explored with The Hex Girls in the Scooby franchise before, and that's what made this book so fun for me. It was cool to see an official story explore the girls in more depth than we'd ever seen before. The book definitely channels the story structure of Witch's Ghost, but in a topical way that feels like its paying homage to the film, rather than trying to live up to it. You can tell Lily is a passionate fan of Scooby, and she did a great job creating a unique story that feels right at home with other media in the franchise.

​With the Scooby films and series taking a break right now, it would be amazing if we could continue to get young adult Scooby novels. I think it would be really pretty neat if we had one to look forward to every year. This and the Daphne & Velma novels have been great, and I would love to see more Scooby content like this.

Don Knotts's butler disguise from "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner?" is used as the butler's design in the early 2000s Flash game Scooby-Doo and the Hollywood Horror.

This is the final round of our VHS-released episodes poll series! All of the winners from the past month and a half are now facing off against each other, to determine one winner for the best Scooby episode released on VHS! I included the Behind the Scenes shorts in this final round, since they were a piece of media released on VHS but didn't really fit in any of the other polls.

The top 2 in last week's final results should come as no surprise. However, I was pleasantly surprised to see Boo Brothers got so much love!

What is your favorite Scooby-Doo movie to be released on VHS?
Zombie Island - 16
Witch's Ghost - 10
Boo Brothers - 9
Cyber Chase - 6
Alien Invaders - 5
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed - 5
Where's My Mummy? - 3
​Scooby Goes Hollywood - 2
Ghoul School - 1
Legend of the Vampire - 1
Monster of Mexico - 1
Loch Ness Monster - 1
Reluctant Werewolf - 0
Arabian Nights - 0
Scooby-Doo (2002) - 0
Aloha - 0

Universal Orlando has just announced the return of their famed water theme park, Volcano Bay Nights. To celebrate, the theme park will be hosting an exclusive Scooby-Doo themed event every Friday in September and October! On Friday nights from 7-11pm, in the classic Scooby-Doo style, a beach party will be hosted on Waturi Beach featuring a live DJ. The event will also feature photo ops with actors dressed like the gang, the Mystery Machine, and classic villains such as the Ghost Clown from "Bedlam in the Big Top." Tickets are now available for $99, which includes the cost of parking. Any passholders will be able to get into the event for 10% off.

It's been a pretty quiet year for Scooby. Not only have we gotten no new series or films, we've also only gotten a single comic, and there's been no announcements of any new content to come. It was recently announced that Warner Brothers CEO David Zaslav will be removing all Scooby series (except Velma) from HBO Max on September 1. Even though it's a tumultuous time for the franchise right now, that doesn't mean we still can't celebrate!

September 13 will mark 56 years that Scooby has been on the air. As per usual, I've got quite a bit of fun stuff planned to celebrate the anniversary, but I've decided to mix it up a bit this year! In past years, I've done daily polls leading up to the anniversary, as well as fan spotlights. This year, I don't plan to do daily polls, but I have a fun poll series planned instead. With the recent physical media polls we've been doing, I was thinking it might be fun to do a short poll series about the episodes that have not been released on physical media.

For those who don't know, the missing episodes are from The New Scooby-Doo Movies, The Scooby-Doo Show, Laff a Lympics, the 1980-1984 Scrappy series, Get a Clue, Be Cool, and Velma. We also have four specials that haven't been released. Because The New Scooby-Doo Movies just has "Wednesday Is Missing," that episode will automatically advance to the final round.

From past polls, it seems a few of these series are ones that many fans don't really care enough about to choose an episode. The way we'll handle this is that we'll be doing two polls per week. The main poll will be each of the series that are most liked, and the four that are less liked (Laff a Lympics, Scrappy shorts, Get a Clue, and Velma) will be a "bonus" poll that's done on Wednesdays (similarly to how we handled Laff-a-Lympics in the VHS poll series). So that all the series fit into a five week poll series, there will also be a third poll on Saturdays for the first two weeks. The first week's bonus polls will be both of the Scrappy short series. On the second week, there will be a specials poll on the day of the anniversary in addition to the bonus round on Wednesday.

On a similar theme, the current lull in new content seems like a great to focus on the underrated content that isn't talked about much. With the Scooby-Doo franchise having 600+ episodes and films, a few pieces of media are bound to be less appreciated than others. When writing out my rankings for our weekly polls, there have been a number times where I've mentioned I feel an episode is underrated. I was thinking recently that it might be fun to compile a list of the episodes and movies that I feel to be the most underrated. Beginning September 1, I'll going to post a countdown-style list about what I feel are the franchise's 13 most underappeciated episodes. (Spoiler: there will be one film that makes my list as well!) Each day's post will spotlight an underrated episode with brief (paragraph or two) review of the episode or film, and why I feel it's underrated. My choice for the most underrated episode will be posted on the franchise's anniversary, September 13. I'll also post a list of a few honorable mentions that didn't quite make my list on August 31.

While I love doing the fan spotlights, I'm going to take a little break from doing them this year. This was mainly because I wanted to experiment with doing something different, and don't want to overload people with content when there's already going to be two or three posts on most days. 

In addition to these two things, we'll still be doing a fun fact every Monday, and I'll be posting a special article ranking the franchise's re-imaginings of blockbuster films on Friday, September 5. The celebration will kick off on August 31 with the start of the unreleased episodes poll series. On that day, I'll also share my list of honorable mentions for the most underrated Scooby episodes. After my underrated episodes list finishes on the day of the anniversary, the anniversary celebration will continue all month long with the unreleased episodes poll series. I'm really looking forward to sharing everything I have planned for the anniversary, and celebrating it with you all!

There's been a lot of talk about Scooby physical media recently, due to the news of HBO Max removing all Scooby series on September 1. While it may not be the exciting set many of us were hoping for, we have our first DVD announcement in quite a while! On October 14, 2025, WB will be releasing a quadruple feature DVD titled Scooby-Doo! 4 Film Collection. The two-disc set will include Return to Zombie Island, Sword and the Scoob, Straight Outta Nowhere, and Krypto Too for $15. The set is now available for pre-order at Walmart.

​Thanks to Scooby Snacks for letting me know about this news! Here is the back cover for the DVD:

For the past several months, it's been rumored that HBO Max's gradual removal of Scooby content has been a part of a larger initiative to purge all Scooby series from their service. This rumor came from a Reddit thread, which accurately predicted every removal date for each series. Unfortunately, we now have official confirmation that removing all the Scooby series has been HBO Max's plan all along. On September 1, the two remaining Scooby series (Where Are You and The Scooby-Doo Show) will be pulled from HBO Max according to their Amazon pages (linked above).

Velma will be the only Scooby series left up on the service. This is because it is a HBO Max Original Series, so the licensure agreement is likely different and does not require HBO Max to have to pay as much as they would have to for the other series. The fate of the two remaining Scooby movies on HBO Max (SCOOB! and Trick or Treat) is also unknown.

It's worth noting that even though What's New was removed from HBO Max on August 1, the series is still available on Tubi. Where Are You and The Scooby-Doo Show are also currently available on Tubi, so fans may still be able to watch those two shows there.

On a personal note, it is frustrating to think that the only way most of the series are available now are through owning the DVDs or digitally purchasing them on Amazon, Apple TV or Fandango. In the age of streaming, there's no reason for such a popular franchise to be completely unavailable on streaming. I hope in the coming years that WB rethinks their strategy regarding animated content, or sells the franchise off to another company who will treat it better. As much as I hate to think about Scooby leaving WB, which has been its home for five decades, it's also silly for them to own a franchise that they refuse to release anything for. I'm really hoping the franchise's unavailability on streaming is just a temporary thing.

In Fun Fact #448, it was discovered that the Scooby PC game Horror on the High Seas had an unused prologue that wasn't included in the game. In my post where I revisited the Scooby Flash games, Becker shared that one of the other PC games has another lost opening scene!

Mayan Monster Mayhem had an unused prologue featuring an additional scene giving more context to the game. The scene shows Shaggy and Scooby making chili at home, and discover they're missing a hot pepper as one of the ingredients. Despite the game featuring other cutscenes, this prologue was never available with the game on the WB website for an unknown reason. When it was available on WB's site, the game started with Shaggy and Scooby speaking to the head of the Culpepper Hot Sauce Factory.

Speaking of revisiting things, this is off-topic, but I have a recommendation of something I've been enjoying to go with this week's fun fact! I used to listen to podcasts quite frequently during the pandemic, but I haven't had as much time to in the past few years. A couple weeks ago, I rediscovered the short-lived Scooby podcast Scooby-Doo and Sister Too. I believe I'd listened to a couple episodes when it first was released, but never checked out the full 18 episode series until now.

The podcast features two sisters (Liz and Lydia), who have little in common outside of liking Scooby, reviewing Scooby episodes and films together. I've been absolutely loving the podcast these past couple weeks! It's really interesting to hear reviews from fans who haven't seen as much of the franchise. Since a lot of the review podcasts are from fans who have watched the episodes and movies frequently, it's interesting to hear their thoughts from only having seen the episodes/films once or twice before, or in some cases, getting their very first impression. I love the overall relaxed vibe of the podcast, and the humor and silliness is right up my alley lol. You can tell they both had a blast recording all of these episodes! If you haven't checked out their podcast already, I would highly recommend giving them a listen!