Fun Fact of the Week #150

Happy Monday everyone and welcome to another Fun Fact of the Week! In the same vein as the 100th fun fact which featured Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! writer Jon Colton Barry, I've got a little something special for the 150th fun fact this week. Tom Ruegger, who is the developer, story editor, and writer of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" and creator and producer of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" joins us to give this week's fun fact.

"The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" is quite a different direction for Scooby-Doo, as it featured Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy, Daphne and newcomers Vincent Van Ghoul and Flim Flam chasing real demons which emerged from a chest so evil that it housed "13 of the most terrifying ghosts upon the face of the Earth." So, how exactly was the concept of this interesting new show thought up? Tom Ruegger gives us some insight into this.

"The concept for this show was conceived by Mitch Schauer who sold it to the powers that be at Hanna-Barbera and ABC. Mitch is a genius artist and producer who boarded and directed many of the episodes. The Zomba episode included many elements from some of Mitch's favorite horror films. I worked with Mitch later in the first season of Freakazoid which Mitch and I produced."

Besides Scrappy, Flim Flam is possibly the most controversial character in the Scooby-Doo franchise to date, as many fans feel he was not essential for the show to succeed. If this is the case, why exactly was Flim Flam added in the first place?

"I love Sue Blu, who did the voice for Flim Flam. The network requested that we add a kid to the mix, to help draw in the kid audience. We may not have needed an extra character. I have always loved "Sgt. Bilko"/Phil Silvers, so we fashioned Flim-Flam's personality after that sort of Phil Silvers con-man. Didn't quite work."

Besides "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo," Tom also wrote several episodes for the 11 minute Scrappy shorts which aired in 1983 and 1984. He also came up with the concept for "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and created the town name Coolsville, which has been used ever since, in both the DTVs and some of the other subsequent series. His favorite episode to write was the very first episode of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which was entitled "A Bicycle Built For Boo!"

I want to thank Tom for his time and his wonderful contributions and work with the Scooby-Doo franchise! Check back next Monday for another interesting Fun Fact of the Week, a little thing that's been happening on ScoobySnax.com every Monday since January 5, 2015!