Why Did the Musical Chase Scenes Exist in SDWAY Season 2?

[Retro Kartoonz]

Hello everyone! I was just wondering if anyone knew why the musical chase scenes existed in Scooby Doo Where Are You season 2. If anyone could give me some information about this I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

[jonathanmuddlemore]

Apr 15, 2020 12:17:07 GMT -5 Retro Kartoonz said:

Hello everyone! I was just wondering if anyone knew why the musical chase scenes existed in Scooby Doo Where Are You season 2. If anyone could give me some information about this I would greatly appreciate it! Thanks!

I'm guessing it was inspired by The Monkees

[wileyk209]

Apr 15, 2020 14:07:19 GMT -5 jonathanmuddlemore said:

I'm guessing it was inspired by The Monkees

And the Monkees got it from "The Beatles," largely in the "A Hard Day's Night" movie.
I assume one reason they did that for the second season was because they already had La-La Productions on hand writing songs for "Josie and the Pussycats" airing around the same era on the same network as SDWAY, and either Bill Hanna or Joe Barbera or someone else thought it was a good idea to incorporate similar musical chase scenes, since the show was already such a hit at the time and I guess they wanted to try and make it better. The sole exception is "A Tiki Scare is No Fair," which had no musical chase scene. They even got Austin Roberts (listed in the voice cast as George A. Robertson Jr.) to sing the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" theme song for the second season, making it sound somewhat more like a Beatles song compared to the 1969 version (but Austin Roberts's take is still my favorite version of the theme song, nonetheless.)

[Old School Scooby Fan]

I wonder why the chase music was never used for the entire series, let alone just Season 2.

I think the use of psychedelic music was commonplace during the transition into the 1970s. "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids" did have a musical number every episode when it originally aired. "The Jackson 5ive" cartoon series involved usage of the boy band's big hits in all of its episodes. And don't forget "The Archie Show". I wouldn't be shocked if "Josie and the Pussycats" had a musical number in many of their episodes.

Of course, that trend would fizzle out - once disco took over.

All in all, I think the use of a song as chase music in Season 2 of "Scooby Doo Where Are You!" was likely a ploy to reboost the show's ratings.  It worked, and the outcome was the hour-long series "The New Scooby-Doo Movies", extending Scooby's run on CBS by two years.

[Doo]

Apr 17, 2020 18:46:21 GMT -5 Old School Scooby Fan said:

I wouldn't be shocked if "Josie and the Pussycats" had a musical number in many of their episodes.

I believe there was a chase song in every episode.

[Ark]

My mother always said it seemed like a Beatles copycat band.

[Dyland]

Jan 9, 2021 16:59:40 GMT -5 Ark said:

My mother always said it seemed like a Beatles copycat band.

My brother always dubs Austin Roberts the "fake John Lennon." LOL

Yeah, really Beatles-y Monkees-y those Season 2 chase songs. And I love every single note of 'em!

[Ark]

I don't know exactly why they chose to, but the season is very short. I wonder if a significant part of the budget went into the songs? They've aged okay and Scooby-Doo wouldn't be the same without that season! It's important to remember that the series was originally going to have them all in a band together, so perhaps this music had already been planned? Who knows.

[Dyland]

Jan 11, 2021 3:40:51 GMT -5 Ark said:

The series was originally going to have them all in a band together, so perhaps this music had already been planned? Who knows.

Potentially, but I doubt it. Larry Marks (who sang the Season 1 theme) isn't on any of the recordings. All songs, and the intro, were sung by Austin Roberts in Season 2. Sure, maybe they re-recorded, but I highly doubt the songs were written during pre-production and/or Season 1. I think it was just a Season 2 invention.

A point in your favor: they're all unrelated love songs. They have absolutely nothing to do with the chases they play over. Could just be A Hard Days Night and/or The Monkees clone with sound-alike/idea-alike bubblegum pop songs (Seven Days a Week vs Eight Days a Week for instance), but it is an odd choice, I'll admit.

Kinda funny how these songs really only appeared in Season 2 (and obviously WNSD used 'chase songs' too) yet it's one of the most iconic things about the Scooby franchise. Almost always parodied. I think most people just accept it (like the fact that a cartoon has a laugh track) and, through repeated viewings, just get used to it. I know I have.