I've been seeing posts about Scooby Doo popping up, so I thought I'd share this:
(Source: The Scots Magazine, Feb 2023) Full text below.
This actually happened. I am obsessed!
A brilliant effort all round! The children of Scotland saved a pop culture powerhouse the world would be poorer without. I can't believe this. I love this so much.
Strange tales from the archives. This month – How furious fans of cancelled cartoon rose up in protest.
By CHRIS Ferguson, Jan 12, 2023 (The Scots Magazine)
THROUGHOUT the ages, principled protest has been a hallmark of youth – a rite of passage for many. Today it is Greta Thunberg and her army of teen climate activists, or Extinction Rebellion protesters, who make headlines.
In the 1960s it was the Vietnam War objectors and Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament believers who set out their political agendas.
In later decades young people swelled the ranks of those demanding an end to apartheid in South Africa.
They were at the barricades as then-pm Margaret Thatcher introduced the poll tax and back out again to try to stop the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Another generation, too, had the courage of its convictions. In 1971, youngsters rose in anger at a threat to remove cowardly canine Scooby-doo from their television screens.
This was in February after the cartoon had been running for two years. Although the decision not to commission another series had been taken in the US, the BBC was the target of fans’ fury because it had to pass on the bad news to young viewers.
Within days of the announcement, an army of parka-wearing children sporting knitted jumpers and questionable hairstyles was formed.
Across Scotland children grouped together with placards, just like so many other worthy protesters before them. In Glasgow, the massed kids marched on the BBC Scotland headquarters and, in Dundee, they gathered in outrage in City Square.
Petitions were raised and demonstrations took place across the country and, by April, the BBC announced a further series had been commissioned in the US.
Legend has it these Scots Scooby fans had persuaded the American television executives to reconsider.
Hanna-barbera, the animation company behind Scooby-doo, never forgot the Scottish reaction.
A spokesman for the company said, “We’d never had a response like that before, it was very exciting.”
Beneath the main text of the article is an illustration of Scooby Doo and the gang accompanied by the pull quote: “An army of parka-wearing children was formed”
The title and byline of the article are also accompanied by a black and white photo of a boy in school uniform sitting with a little black dog in his lap, grinning and holding a sign reading "We've saved Scooby Doo" with an illustration of Scooby. The caption reads: Jimmy Brown fought to save the cartoon."]
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