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Did you know there's a missing member of Mystery, Inc.?
The real mystery is: who is Mike?
We all know and love Scooby-Doo; it is not only one of the best classic cartoons, but perhaps one of the greatest franchises in the history of American fiction, dominating the fields of film, television, toys, comic books, and video games. Many cartoon fans know the Scooby-Doo lore like the back of their hand, but did you know that there were originally five teens in Mystery, Inc.?
The development of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was more of an obstacle course than a race. It all started in 1968, when parents' organizations such as Action for Children's Television began protesting violence in Saturday-morning cartoons. This was bad news for Hanna-Barbera, who were producing groundbreaking action and adventure animation like Space Ghost, The Herculoids, Jonny Quest, and Birdman and the Galaxy Trio. One by one, these shows were canceled due to pressure from the parent groups.
Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and their frequent collaborator Fred Silverman, who was the head of daytime programming of CBS, had a new mission to revitalize the Saturday morning cartoon line in a way that both continued to entertain audiences while appeasing the parent groups. Inspired by The Archie Show, Silverman tasked Hanna and Barbera to create a show about a teenage rock group and, making it slightly different from The Archies, have them solve mysteries in between gigs. Silverman saw this potential cartoon as a cross between the I Love a Mystery radio show and The Archie Show, and with those marching orders, Hanna and Barbera got right to work.
Barbera recruited writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and character designer Iwao Takamoto to develop the show that Barbera would pitch to Silverman. The trio initially developed a cartoon titled Mysteries Five, and there were five teens in the group: Geoff, Linda, Kelly, Mike, and W.W. Accompanying the five teens was their bongo-playing dog named Too Much.
Unlike Scooby-Doo, who is a Great Dane, Too Much was a shaggy dog, and he also wore sunglasses and a cap. As for the teens, not much was listed about their personalities, but we do have access to the concept draft, which was included in the anthology The World of Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, which classifies W.W. as Linda's brother.
Between the three creators, Hanna and Barbera, and Silverman, the concept went through many changes, specifically around the dog who would eventually become Scooby-Doo. First, they debated making him a small, feisty dog, the character designs of which would eventually become Scrappy Doo. Then they debated dog breeds - sheepdog, Great Dane, or generic shaggy dog?
Amongst these debates about Scooby, the creators decided they had one too many teens and Mike was cut from the team. Geoff was renamed Ronnie, and then Fred, named after Fred Silverman. Kelly became Daphne, Linda became Velma, and W.W. became Shaggy.
The show was pitched again, retitled as Who's S-S-Scared? But CBS rejected it because they were worried about it being too scary for kids. Back to the drawing board, the creators dropped the rock band element and developed Mystery, Inc. to be a purely mystery-solving teen group. They also increased focus on the silly antics of Shaggy and Too Much, who was renamed to "Scooby-Doo" after Fred Silverman heard Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," where Sinatra scats "doo-be-doo-be-doo".
All the pieces came together, and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was greenlit for television. But still, we wonder how the show would have been different if Mike's character had made the cut of the original series.
