Scooby Doo = The Famous Five

[Katharine]

Has anyone else ever noticed a resemblence between the programme Scooby Doo and The Famous Five?

Fred = Julian - both the leaders of their group
Shaggy = Dick - full of jokes and always eating
Daphne = Anne - typical girlie type, there mainly to make up the numbers
Velma = George - more practical and down to earth, not a 'typical' girl
Scooby = Timmy - eats a lot and comes to the rescue

[Daisy]

Not until you mentioned it...seems to be a good combination of characters for an adventurous group.

[Wayne Pyer]

Yes Kathrine. I did mention it in a thread a while back.
I also recall Messers. Hannah & Barberra acknowledging that the were inspired by EB, but fell short of admitting plagarism. They did so on one the the magazine shows in the early eighties.

[lwindrush]

Katharine
Well spotted, is it just me or does Shaggy always appear to be stoned?

[Julie2owlsdene]

I've never really thought about that before, but yes, I can see a resemblance.

[dsr]

I think Timmy would be extremely offended to be compared with Scooby Doo. Or did I miss the frequent scenes where he jumped into George's arms, quivering with fear?

[Wolfgang]

I'd say that Velma doesn't have much in common with Enid Blyton's George, it's Velma with the brains; but if we take Voilier's George... maybe she was inspired by Scooby-Doo to create her figures

[Katharine]

Yes Kathrine. I did mention it in a thread a while back.
I also recall Messers. Hannah & Barberra acknowledging that the were inspired by EB, but fell short of admitting plagarism. They did so on one the the magazine shows in the early eighties.

That's interesting.

I'd say that Velma doesn't have much in common with Enid Blyton's George, it's Velma with the brains; but if we take Voilier's George... maybe she was inspired by Scooby-Doo to create her figures

I agree that the Velma/George link is probably the weakest of them all. Although I wouldn't call George stupid, I don't think of her character as being particularly brainy. To me George's main characteristics are her temper, obstinacy, loyalty, courage and obsession with Timmy.

[Paul Austin]

I think Timmy would be extremely offended to be compared with Scooby Doo. Or did I miss the frequent scenes where he jumped into George's arms, quivering with fear?

Remember the joke about how people were convinced Scooby was going to poo everywhere after jumping into Shaggy's arms?

[Stephen]

Would I be unpopular if I was to point out...

Scrappy-Doo = Jo - Fearless, looks a bit like one of the others, wasn't in it from the start

[Fiona1986]

I don't know, I don't hate Jo half as much as I do Scrappy-Doo. I have an irrational hatred of that annoying little creature.

[Roc]

Why does everyone hate Scrappy-Doo? And can i point out, I don't think Velma's dad in the new series resembles Uncle Quentin at all!
And also, all the boys fancy Daphne, nobody fancies Anne! She's just the annoying little sister!
But i agree that they are a lot alike!
Maybe there should be some book / telly special where they meet up and solve a mystery together.

[Poppy]

I have always thought this, however Scooby-Doo is more ficional.

[Dick Kirrin]

Scooby Doo and the Five, yes, there is a link - or had I better say, an highly sucessful concept copied and slightly varied.

Hannah Barbara definitely did more than adapting the Five for the US market of the 70s.
The used the basic and highly sucessful concept EB used in many of her well-liked series, be it the Five, the Adventure or Adventurous Four crews, Barney and his lot.
It's always four (if we count the FFOs in - five) children with certain characteristics which make each one resemble and/or stand for certain role models. And there is a just too good to be true pet, in the case of Loony and Scooby, well, that's to be taken tongue in cheek of course.
And just like EB herself didn't make all her foursomes exactly the same, we have the stereotypes usually ascribed to one kid. For example there usually is a strong leader: Julian, Barney and Fatty. In the Adventure series, the role is somewhat shared between Jack and Philip, each boy gets his chance to shine.
Julian is what you'd expect, in a way he's the most typical example: clearly middle-class background, protective and caring towards his little sister, though and determined where it's needed, planning and organizing matters for the others, virtually unchallenged for leadership, just the person to become an officer in the army.
Barney is quite similar, except for the fact that even though he is the poor circus boy, he quickly becomes the leader of his team. True, his real middle-class background begins to show and finally is completely developed, but he is in his way the more charming of the two.
Fatty, well Fatty. Remember Peter Ustinov starring Hercule Poirot? That's Fatty grown up.
With the Scooby mob, well, I think we could give the role to Fred, though Julian's brains are passed on to Velma.
The second usually fun-to-be-with boy which is my "alter ego" Dick, could be Snubby in the Barney crew and Philip in the Adventure series. Philip, however is different in one respect - he has that way with animals, whereas Snubby is more like Dick, but he has more of a temper towards him, so we have a touch of George in him, too.
The stereotypical girl is of course Anne. Dinah in the Barney series is slightly more grown-up, but Lucy-Ann does share more than just three letters in name with Anne. She is the youngest, weakest most feeble, but as for household chores, Dinah does her bit, too. Yet she has George's temper.

I could go on for a while, but I think these examples do to prove the point I'd like to make. The concept of having several stereotypes embedded in a group of characters with each standing for one of two, is such a success because we can always find someone we like most. We find a character and think: "Whoa, I'm like him/her, or at least I'd like to be!"
So we live through the story from our chosen characters point of view.

What that does is it makes us identify with both the character and the story or the plot. And we want to see or read more of it. Which is the main point for the people producing these series.

At last there is a very pragmatic reason. EB main characters are usually "heroes" with the suitable values, morals and attitudes. If an author combined his/her hero values and the lot in just one character, the readers/watchers would see just that: A person too good to be true and thus entirely unrealistic. Such a person is grand if it's a super-hero you want to create, but no reader could possibly identify himself or herself with such a person. So the commitment to the story and later the series is not that strong.

Just my two pennies worth of thought