Over the years, many Scooby fans have become frustrated with the fact that there are still so many unreleased episodes. As of writing this article, if you include each short individually and some of the more off-brand specials (i.e. Night of the Living Doo, The Scooby-Doo Project, etc.) there are 167 unreleased episodes in the franchise. For such a popular franchise such as Scooby, that's pretty shocking.

To briefly go over what exactly it is we're still missing, we are missing the Addams Family episode from The New Scooby-Doo Movies. This one makes a lot of sense, because there are some suspected rights issues with Charles Addams or some aspect of The Addams Family show. Moving into the "how has this not been released?" territory, we're still missing four episodes of The Scooby-Doo Show from season 2: "The Curse of the Viking Lake," "The Creepy Heap from the Deep, "The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race" (I can't believe this one hasn't been released yet, given there's even an action figure of the Phantom Racer), and "Creepy Cruise." We're also missing the entirety of Laff-a-Lympics season 2 (which is 8 episodes), 46 seven-minute Scrappy-Doo shorts and 24 11-minute Scrappy and Daphne shorts (this is going by US DVD releases). 3 seven-minute Scrappy shorts and 2 Scrappy and Daphne episodes have been released only on rare VHS tapes, but never on DVD.  14 Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue! episodes remain unreleased. The entirety of Be Cool Season 2 has not been released, with the exception of "Halloween" (to make up 26 missing episodes from that series, including the two shorts as their own episodes). No episodes from season 2 of Guess Who have been released (currently, 15 have aired in English). We're also missing ten specials (7 have been released on VHS) and 18 LEGO and Playmobil shorts.

My opinion of why these episodes have not been released is because Warner Brothers very much focuses all their efforts on releasing episodes from a marketing standpoint rather than a collector-focused standpoint. They want to sell as many DVDs as possible, while arguably also making as much profit off of already-released content they can. Arguably, I think the other aspect of this is that WB Marketing knows that they can release anything with Scooby's name on it, and there will be a group of more casual fans who will likely buy it. WB could make "Scooby-Doo Makes Some Stew!" and you'd totally have people buying it simply because Scooby's name is on it. I absolutely do not mean for this to come off as a scathing diss of Warner Brothers' marketing strategies, and honestly, I think it's a very good thing that Warner Brothers can do this, because it means Scooby-Doo is so popular that it's become a household name. You can casually reference Scooby-Doo in conversation to someone on the street, and they would almost positively at least have some knowledge of what you're talking about. Nearly everyone knows about Scooby, and that's created some brand loyalty where WB feels that they can keep releasing new DTV films and compilation sets for us fans.

The bummer side of this, though, is that this means much of their marketing strategies are very conservative in terms of releasing new content. Besides The Scooby-Doo Show season 2, which I have no idea why those four episodes haven't been released, all of the remaining episodes are from sort of controversial series. Many people, from a general audience perspective (meaning both Scooby fans and people and/or children who casually watch Scooby), did not like Get A Clue or the Scrappy-Doo shorts, so WB is afraid to release them out of fear it won't be a great seller. The same with Be Cool. Unfortunately,  as most of us know, the animation got a lot of hate, so much so that apparently according to head writer Jon Colton Barry, he was getting death threats (yes, actual death threats, some apparently very elaborate and oddly specific) mailed to his house from angry people saying that he "ruined their childhood." While WB is probably less worried about getting death threats, it goes to show how hated the animation was and that they don't want to take too much of a risk releasing a bunch of Be Cool sets beyond the first season. I think Laff-a-Lympics is just odd and un-Scooby-ish enough that WB doesn't seem to want to take that extra step of releasing the second season.

While it's very cool that WB is able to come up with all these compilation sets that they feel would appeal to the target audience (which is most prominently children), in turn, it means that they don't think of releasing stuff from a collector lens. Personally, I desperately want them to release more season and series sets so we can have all the episodes. I miss those late 2000s-ish days where we were getting a new series set every year (sometimes multiple). We have seen inklings of WB taking a collector approach, like releasing some of the off Scrappy-Doo episodes on those 13 Spooky Tales sets from 2012-2015, or including those two unreleased Get A Clue episodes on the 50 Cartoon Collection set from 2019, but for the most part they really have avoided structuring their releases in a way that would allow collectors to get all the episodes. I really go back and forth on if I like the 13 Spooky Tales method, and I'll absolutely take that if that's what WB is willing to give us, but at the same time, I think a lot of us can agree that we don't want to have to purchase a huge set just to get one or two Scrappy shorts. It's unnecessary costly and it can waste shelf space. If you're like me, I have all my Scooby DVDs in order of series on a shelf, and it feels kind of sloppy sticking a billion 13 Spooky Tales or compilation DVDs in between series sets (which I realize likely sounds super nerdy lol). I will say I feel like it is kind of a waste for them not to release unreleased episodes whenever they can though, especially on the DTV releases. Like, with The Sword and the Scoob, did they really need to release "Hassle in the Castle" for the zillionth time? They missed a gigantic opportunity with "Wizards and Warlocks" or "Renn Scare" here. DTV sets are a great way to burn off some of these missing episodes if they're not willing to do season sets, because collectors will be buying these movies anyway.

Now one option that some obscure Hanna-Barbera series have done is to release these "unwanted" episodes through Warner Archive, which is a manufacture-on-demand DVD service that is available only online and are generally only purchased by collectors. My theory though on why this hasn't happened is that WB wants to have their cake and eat it too. I think they're generally conflicted on what to do with these remaining missing episodes. Manufacture-on-demand sets generally aren't very expensive, which means the manufacturers don't get much profit from it either (at least not as much as a DVD you'd buy from the store). I don't think WB wants to give these episodes up quite yet, in case they ever decide the time is right to release them. Scooby is a quite profitable franchise for them, so they don't want to just throw away the episodes completely, but at the same time, they're a bit skittish to release it out of fear of it not selling well.

I really hope someday they do release these episodes, preferably in season set form, but I guess all we can do is wait and see. I hope this article didn't come off as a cold diss of WB or that I'm saying Warner Brothers is screwing us all. Generally speaking, WB is doing an excellent job of keeping the franchise alive. Sometimes, not all their decisions make sense (i.e. recent lack of promotion for Scooby series, lengthy gaps with lack of marketing between new episodes, etc.), but in the end they're doing decent IMO. I really do wish they'd take a collector-oriented lens or challenge themselves to find creative ways to please the adult Scooby fans as well as kids. I'm definitely critical of WB's method of re-releasing the same episodes over and over again, but that's just because I love Scooby so much and always want the best for the franchise. Recent years haven't been the best for releasing missing episodes, but hey, we got Guess Who season 1 earlier this year, so fingers crossed we'll get some other fun new content this year. :)

In recent years, lengthy mid-season hiatuses have become common for Scooby. The first ever-mid season hiatus was only two weeks long from October 15, 1983 - October 29, 1983. The hiatus was between the episodes "No Thanks, Masked Manx" and "The Fall Dog" from The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show.

Amazon has just posted the covers to the Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries novel series releasing on August 1, 2021. Here are each of the covers:

Here are the results from last week's question:
What is your favorite original video game villain?
Mastermind - 11
Dragon - 10
Phantom of the High School Musical - 5
Headless Stuntman - 4
Cotton Candy Glob - 4
Bug Man - 2
Ghost Pirates - 2
Ghoul King - 2
Guitar Ghoul - 2
Stone Dragon - 2
Yeti - 2
Evil Clown - 1
El Scaryachi - 1
Faceless Rider - 1
Fire-Breathing Groupie - 1
Kung Fu Maiden - 1
Ninja - 1
Red Knight - 1
Count Bagosi - 0
Circus Strongman - 0
Ghost of Hambridge - 0
Ghost Hunter Haunter - 0
Ghost Shark - 0
Lobster MKIV - 0
Toy Robotus - 0
Zombies - 0

I really liked this episode! It felt very The New Scooby-Doo Movies like to me with it just being Shaggy, Scooby and the guest star for most of the episode. I thought the Mud Men were amazing villains, and Axl Rose was a great guest star. The real star of the episode for me was the settings, however. Both of them had such a creepy vibe to it and really made the episode for me.

Note that I have labeled this episode #49 because that's what the Boomerang streaming service URL lists it as. I can rearrange the episodes if need be once the rest gets released.

For the first time in a long time, let's update the rankings! This one ranked very highly for me, at #6/42.

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. Total Jeopardy!
3. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
4. The Last Inmate!
5. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
6. Dark Diner of Route 66!
7. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
8. One Minute Mysteries!
9. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
10. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
11. Too Many Dummies!
12. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
13. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
14. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
15. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
16. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
17. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
18. A Run Cycle Through Time!
19. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
20. A Fashion Nightmare!
21. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
22. The 7th Inning Scare!
23. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
24. Scooby On Ice!
25. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
26. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
27. A Moveable Mystery!
28. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
29. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
30. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
31. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
32. The New York Underground!
33. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
34. Hollywood Knights!
35. Fear of the Fire Beast!
36. The Hot Dog Dog!
37. Quit Clowning!
38. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
39. Space Station Scooby
40. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
41. The Fastest Food Fiend!
42. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

The Axl Rose episode, "Dark Diner of Route 66!" is now available on the Boomerang streaming service and app in the United States! This makes me think that we will likely get a new episode every week. In addition to this, an interview with Chris Bailey revealed that our final missing guest star will be Terry Bradshaw. By process of elimination, this means Terry's episode will be "Falling Star Man!" and KISS's will be "The Legend of the Gold Microphone!" (as having Terry be in the musical episode wouldn't make sense when we know there's going to be a football episode.

Note that this review contains spoilers so I would not recommend reading it if you haven't seen the film yet.

I really liked this film a lot! The setting of both the town of Norville and the kingdom of Camelot was really cool and genuinely felt mysterious. I didn't even really mind that the time travel was all fake, to be honest. The explanation for why it was fake made total sense and didn't feel like a cop-out like the two sequel movies from 2019. I did kind of like the twist at the end (both of them, actually), especially the one where no one knew where Merlin came from or who he was. I didn't really like how ridiculous they made Merlin (or the fact that King Arthur has "posh king" jewelry like a rapper would have lol)

The villain was excellent! I loved how creepy she was and how she could shape-shift into a dragon. That Black Knight was genuinely pretty spooky too once he had his helmet off, and I would have liked to see more him!

I liked how they dove into Shaggy's ancestry for this one. It's cool to know a bit more about his family, even if we didn't get to meet any additional members. I assume the Camelot ancestry was on his mom's side though since she gave him the amulet. His dad's side must be the one with the werewolf curse we saw in "Moonlight Madness" (The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show) haha.

Velma was a lot more likeable in this film, IMO. Even though she was still skeptical, it wasn't over-the-top like it has been in the past three films. I didn't really like the characterization of Daphne though. Her quirkiness felt incredibly forced to me, especially how she thinks reality is a simulation. The writers of Be Cool and Maxwell Atoms did a good job, but the writer for this film really just didn't capture the quirky Daphne I like.

Lastly, I felt like all the references were super cool. The ones I caught were the airport guy's name being HB, the gang being from Crystal Cove again (interesting they seem to have switched the location in the main canon), Barney Rubble, and then all the flashback scenes we see when the gang is time traveling. I caught scenes from the following episodes: Moon Monster Madness, Happy Halloween, Where's My Mummy?, Zombie Island, Beach Beastie, the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! intros, the first episodes of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated and The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "A Night Louse at the White House" from The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. A scene from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels is also shown. I thought it was super interesting how much they made Thundarr the Barbarian a part of it! For those who haven't seen the show though, it's actually pretty dark and is nothing like how silly it's portrayed in the film.

Overall, I found this to be a really good movie and as good as Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! 

According to Rolling Stone, at the very least, we will be getting the Axl Rose episode of Guess Who on Thursday on the Boomerang Streaming Service. Here's the description: When Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby take a road trip down historic Route 66, they encounter a mysterious group of mud men who steal the Mystery Machine. While stranded in the desert, they check out an abandoned diner “to see if they have Wi-Fi inside” — Daphne’s priorities — where they discover Axl, who turns out to already be buddies with Shaggy and Scooby. As the gang dives deeper into the case, each member begins to disappear, and it’s eventually up to Shaggy, Scooby, and Axl to find their friends and solve the mystery. 

A clip of the episode can also be watched on the Rolling Stone site linked above. Given the announcement for Kacey Musgraves last time we got the first 13 episodes around Happy Halloween, I think it is very likely we will be getting the remainder of the Guess Who episodes on the Boomerang streaming service on Thursday!

Thanks Peralaan for sharing this article!

Between 1990-1994, a lesser known comic series featuring only Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby was released in the Look-In magazine in Britain. A total of 136 short two-page comic strips were released.

Thanks Peter for coming up with this week's fun fact!

Boomerang Africa has posted a brand new video featuring two clips from "The Tao of Scoob!" and "Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!" in English. Note that the first two minutes or so of the video is of a clip we've already gotten, Morgan Freeman.

Thanks Peralaan and Deandre for sharing this link with me!