When it comes to cartoon characters, dogs are really adorable. There is an abundance of popular cartoon dog characters like Snoopy, Goofy, The Tramp, Blue, Droopy and Dripple, Huckleberry Hound, Pluto, and of course, Scooby Doo.
Scooby Doo was popularized in the animated TV series "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" which was produced by Hanna-Barbera. He made his first appearance on 1969 with the pilot episode of the original series.
Scooby Doo's whole name is Scoobert "Scooby" Doo. He is also often called as Scooby and Scoob by his friends, especially Shaggy. Scooby Doo is a fictional Great Dane who can speak English, three to four words in a row, but his words start with the letter "R". If he has to say something longer than three to four words, he acts it out like in a charade. His popular catchword is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo" which he says at the end of every episode as "Rooby-Rooby-Roo". He was voiced by Don Messick until 1997 when the voice actor passed away.
In the original story, Scooby's life-long companion is Shaggy Rogers whom he has been with since they were very young. However, in another version of the story, it was shown that they only met each other when they were already teenagers. Nonetheless, in all versions of the story, Scooby Doo and Shaggy share many similar characteristics such is being hungry all of the time and being cowardly.
The creator of Scooby Doo, Iwao Takamoto, said he talked to a Great Dane breeder and learned about the attractive characteristics of a pure-bred dog. He decided to intentionally go against those characteristics and give Scooby Doo a hump back, a small chin, bow legs, and a brown color with black spots which cannot be found in a real Great Dane.
Scooby's parents are Momsy and Dada Doo. He has a brother named Yabba-Doo who is ironically a brave white dog owned by a deputy. His young nephew Scrappy Doo- who is the son of his sister Ruby Doo- is the bravest of all his relatives. Scrappy is present in several episodes of the TV series and is shown as always eager to bring down the enemy monsters. Scooby's other relatives include Dooby-Doo, Whoopsy-Doo, Scooby-Dum, Dixie-Doo, Yankee-Doodle-Doo, Great Grandpa Scooby, and Grandpa Scooby.
With the numerous episodes and films produced based on the original TV series, Scooby Doo has been shown to have different and several love interests. Scooby's love interests usually range from a cute lady dog- like Amber, Chiquita, Chrissie, and Roxanne- to a beautiful human female like Miyumi, Sandy Duncan, and Fred's Mom.
Aside from his cowardice, which he can often overcome when his friends are in danger, Scooby Doo has another weakness which is being ticklish. This is shown in both the TV series and movies. Scooby often loses his focus when tickled.
Because of the character's popularity, many movies, TV series, products, and Scooby Doo games were made. There are many Scooby Doo games available as online flash games but there are also Scooby Doo games for different gaming platforms like Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem, and Scooby-Doo! Unmasked.