The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Scooby-doo, they loved you
How Dundee’s pesky kids marched to save their cartoon canine
Fifty years ago, the BBC tried to axe Scooby-doo and they would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for those pesky Dundee kids.
The threat to the beloved cowardly canine and his Mystery Inc gang set off a storm of protest across Scotland, spearheaded by 11-year-old Dundonian, Jimmy Brown.
The drama started when the BBC showed the first 24 episodes of Scooby-doo, Where Are You? starring Scooby and his pals but American TV channel CBS had refused to commission another series of the Hanna-barbera cartoon and the Beeb tried to quietly drop the shows in February 1971.
Jimmy, who lived on Carnegie Street, organised a march through the city to demand its return.
His children’s army gathered in the City Square, then marched over the Tay Road Bridge, waving banners and noisily shouting for Scooby’s return.
They also protested outside the offices of DC Thomson in Meadowside.
Jimmy organised a petition, collecting 700 signatures himself, which inspired others to start similar protests and campaigns, gaining 3,000 signatories across the country.
There was even a sit-in protest at the BBC’S Glasgow headquarters and retired police superintendent John Duncan was in the thick of the action as an 11-year-old schoolboy.
“We decided to march to the BBC studios,” said John, brought up in Glasgow after his Aberdonian parents moved there when his dad got a job in a paper mill.
“I got a sheet from my mum and made a banner – ‘Save Scooby-doo, that ever-hungry hound’ – and put it on sticks.
“I remember getting into the car park at the BBC and we all sat down so no traffic could move.”
John said the BBC sent someone out to speak to the mob and managed to get the youngsters to disperse.
“He told us Scooby-doo was on in 30 minutes, so we all got up and left to go home and watch it,” said John.
“That night we were the lead story on Nationwide and the following day there was a big double page spread in the Daily Record.”
John, who is now the emergency response and security manager for Total, said: “It was a very popular cartoon in its day. We didn’t have CBBC or anything like that, it was BBC or ITV – that was your whack.
“There wasn’t a lot on for kids in those days. But Scooby-doo was good because it had a bit of horror about it, there was always a ghost that was unmasked at the end and it was some old bloke.
“They also had current people in it. I remember one had the Harlem Globetrotters in it.
“It felt more real than normal cartoons. All the kids loved Scooby-doo, it was exciting, it was funny, it was scary, all those elements for a kid.”
The howls of protest actually worked. In April that year, young Jimmy received a letter at his Carnegie Street home from the BBC saying Scooby-doo would be returning “at an unspecified date”.
The Beeb repeated the whole of the first series and CBS commissioned a second from Hannabarbera, the animated studio behind other classics including The Flintstones and Wacky Races.
John said: “I do believe we made them think twice,
so they didn’t take it off. I’m absolutely delighted all the kids who liked Scoobydoo helped keep it on TV. To lose something like Scooby would have been a major hit for the kids.”
To this day, John still has a memento of his days as a Scooby protester – the banner he made from his mum’s old sheet.
“I have no idea why my parents never threw it out when they moved house and I had left home and was in the Navy,” he said.
“When I saw it all those years ago, I thought I would keep it as a memento of my childhood.
“I kept it in a case up in my loft and don’t think I have ever taken it out since.
“Being photographed with it did bring back good memories of making the banner and taking the march.
“Not sure what my kids would think about it being an heirloom.” Scooby hasn’t looked back since and is still running on TV to this day, having also racked up two major live action films with another animated feature, Scoob! released last year. It’s even been turned into a stage musical.
One Scooby mystery remains to be solved... Jimmy Brown, where are you?
If you were the schoolboy who saved Scooby half a century ago, please get in touch and tell us your side of the story.
“To lose Scooby would have been a major hit for the kids