Go away ghost ship - Fred Jones

[doobiedoobiescooby]

I was watching this episode and it just doesn't sound like Frank Welker, or at least not the normal Fred Jones. Anyone concur or am I just crazy?

[ccook]

It is Welker. The problem is that when the episode was formatted for Cartoon Network it was sped up a little bit. Listen to the background music vs. other episodes and you'll hear it going a tad faster. Since Welker's voice is deeper than Kasem's, Jaffe's and Christopherson's, the tilt is a bit jarring.

[wileyk209]

That's because in the 1980s or early 1990s, the masters for "Scooby-Doo: Where Are You?" were time-compressed, sped up a bit from original speed. They also eliminated the laugh tracks and the picture quality wasn't as good. This would explain why the music would sound strange, or Velma sounding vaguely like a chipmunk. Cartoon Network showed these versions of the episodes until 1997, when Turner "remastered" them with the prints Boomerang is currently showing (sadly, "Where Are You?" hasn't been on Cartoon Network since early 2010...) They cleaned up the picture quality a bit, restored the laugh track and had them playing at correct speed once again. Unfortunately there were still some flaws: the original instrumental opening/closing theme on the first two episodes was replaced with the standard "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" opening theme, there were a few edits to some of the episodes (I recall a brief scene being cut from their version of "What a Night for a Knight,") and the original Hanna-Barbera closing logo was replaced with the 1994 All-Stars "Action" logo (the one with animal noises and ends on Johnny Quest with a synthesized gong), which was wildly out of place with the context of the series; though, for some strange reason, "Never Ape an Ape Man" had the "Action" logo using the audio from the "Comedy" variant seen on Flintstones reruns (the one where you hear their more "funnier" sound effects ending with the "Ka-BONG!" sound.) Maybe because that episode seemed a little more comic? (In fact, Scooby himself appears in the "Comedy" variant, but the only Scooby-Doo series I know to use that logo was late-90s prints of the 1980-1981 "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" episodes.)
The 4-disc DVD set Warner Home Video released in 2004 had a much better restoration job on all the old episodes, with the laugh tracks intact, the correct speed/pitch, even the original Hanna-Barbera logo restored, along with excellent picture quality (looks like they used the original negatives or something), but for some reason they still deleted the instrumental theme on the first two episodes and replaced it with the familiar vocal opening theme...

I think around 2007, Turner damaged or misplaced their "remastered" version of "Go Away Ghost Ship," so they had to use the older time-compressed master of the episode, and it hasn't been updated since.

[scoob16]

A really nice episode, and Redbeard's Ghost started the pirare ghost tradition in Scooby-Doo!

[camerabrain]

Removing laugh tracks? That there is a sad change. Ever wonder if the people who laughed ever used to watch the episodes and laugh at themselves hearing their laughter?

[russm]

<rant> I hate laugh tracks, I don't need something to tell me 'laugh now, that was an official joke'. Just do your thing if I find it funny I'll laugh, if I don't I won't. A laugh track is only valid if it was recorded from a live audience watching the show. </rant>

[scoob16]

Sept 21, 2014 10:52:34 GMT -5 russm said:

<rant> I hate laugh tracks, I don't need something to tell me 'laugh now, that was an official joke'. Just do your thing if I find it funny I'll laugh, if I don't I won't. A laugh track is only valid if it was recorded from a live audience watching the show. </rant>

I tend to watch programmes with recorded laughter, like vintage Scooby, Victorious or other Nickelodeon teen series, and I never considered it an inhibition, like 'laugh now'. As far as Scooby is concerned, for me, it's what made the episodes classic. For Victorious etc, it did bother me after a while, especially when the laughter lasts too long, and the characters remain in awkward pauses till the laughter ends. I noticed that in an episode of Marvin Marvin. But, let's all admit it, the worst laugh track of all is the one used in "Friends". No offense to anyone here who watches it, but it's always the same. No change in tone or duration. In Scooby, there was a change, and in Nickelodeon shows as well, and also some cheering was heard once in a while or an "uh oh...".

[camerabrain]

I love laugh tracks. I honesgly think thry belong in everything including movies. I think it would lighten us all up.

[Sophia Peletier]

I love laugh tracks! They add a certain "charm" to all the retro HB cartoons.

[mattpricetime]

I enjoy laugh tracks as well. But on the other subject, the thing i learned since we've gotten dvd upgrades is that you really can't count what CN/Boom showed for much of anything. Since it appears in some cases used really old masters and in some cases just left perfectly suitable stuff sitting in the vault for who knows what reason. I would not be surprised to learn of any other similar situations of the like.

[scoobydoomaster]

I like laugh tracks, as long as they aren't used too much.

[Ark]

Interesting info.

I hate Disney/Nick laugh tracks but Scooby is okay. He's still funny without, as many of the movies and episodes don't even have laugh tracks.

[Ark]

There is a laugh track but it does seem to be played back faster. Weird.

[doobert]

Laugh tracks are okay, as long as they're laughing over scenes what people are saying. I've seen shows that are like that. It can get really annoying, really fast.