Scooby-Doo
The first episode of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" "What a Night for a Knight" debuted on the CBS network Saturday, September 13, 1969. The original voice cast featured veteran voice actor Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, radio DJ Casey Kasem (later host of radio's syndicated "American Top 40") as Shaggy, actor Frank Welker (later a veteran voice actor in his own right) as Fred, actress Nicole Jaffe as Velma, and musician Indira Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne. Scooby's speech patterns closely resembled an earlier cartoon dog, Astro from "The Jetsons" (1962–63), also voiced by Messick. Seventeen episodes of "Scooby-Doo Where are You!" were produced in 1969–70. The series theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, and performed by Larry Marks.
Scooby-Doo (character)
Writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears created the original "Scooby-Doo" series, "Scooby-Doo, Where are You!", for Hanna-Barbera for CBS's 1969–70 Saturday morning cartoon schedule. Originally titled "Mysteries Five", the dog who later became Scooby was originally more of a sidekick character – a bongo-playing dog named "Too Much" whose breed varied between Great Dane and sheepdog between treatments.
By the time the series was pitched to the network as "Who's S-S-Scared?" in early 1969, Too Much was solidified as a cowardly Great Dane. Both the dog and the series would be renamed "Scooby-Doo" by Fred Silverman, CBS's head of daytime programming, between its unsuccessful first pitch and a second pitch which earned the show a green light. Silverman came up with the name from the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" in Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night".