Why do people hate Scrappy?

Personally, I liked Scrappy. Of course, that's probably because I've never really cared for the show's original "dynamic".

I guess I'm not much of a Scooby Doo fan.
 
I always liked crappy. I think he's mostly used as a scapegoat for people that grew up and stopped liking Scooby Doo and they just blame it on him. It also didn't help that the first series he was on was terribly written, it wasn't Scrappy's fault but the writers. The series after that were written much better and Scrappy is a much better character.

People just overreact and its cool to hate on scrappy so people with little or vague memories just "hate" him. I'm hoping to see Scrappy's eventual return sooner rather than later.
 
Eh, there's no real need for Scrappy now that all 5 members of Mystery, Inc. are contributing to the stories and comedy. When the Scrapster was first introduced, Fred, Daphne and Velma had become bland ciphers and were being pushed further and further into the background in favor of the comic relief characters, Scooby and Shaggy. But now that the other 3 teens have more developed personalities and are now allowed to be funny, what would Scrappy do? In Scrappy's original "Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em!" persona, he was just irritating, not to mention that he changed the entire dynamic of the show (Scrappy's desire to chase the ghost or menace of the week begged the question of why the entire gang didn't just pound the guy in the ghost suit the second they first saw it), and in his later, calmer form when he actually contributed to the mystery solving, kept Shaggy and Scooby in line and concocted his 'Scrappy traps', he was just a surrogate Fred and Velma. If Scrappy were to be re-introduced now, he'd just be an unnecessary appendage, like a 3rd arm.
 
Seriously. Freddy is a jock who, as he often says, can bench press 220. Are we supposed to believe he can't knock out Old Man Jenkins because Old Man Jenkins is wearing a sheet? Of course, five minute cartoons where ghosts show up and get fungoed by Freddie and then arrested wouldn't be that much fun.
 
Because in the late sixties not only there was a big fuss over violence in Saturday morning cartoons, ratings were falling. Companies were forced to make less "intense" shows. Since Scooby's show had action/adventure without extreme violence, his show was perfect for the time. And the formula pretty much stuck ever since.
 
Yep, Scooby Doo was created specifically to be an exciting show without violence. And it's living proof that it's not necessary to be successful.
 
I wouldn't say that I hate Scrappy more so than I dislike him to a certain extent, but it definately is not a hatefull feeling. Growing up in the 80's and 90's and watching some Scooby-Doo here and there I grew to like Scrappy a little bit, but now that I'm older I can hardly watch Scooby-Doo at all so adding Scrappy to the mix makes the show damn near unwatchable. I have never been a fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise so a big part of it may be that I just don't like the show, but on top of it all I hate additions and changes, I view the Scooby-Doo franchise getting Scrappy similar to Garfield getting a mini version of himself or something to that effect.
 
I've never really hated Scrappy, but he's not among my favorite characters. That said he was a little more tolerable than Scooby's cousin, Scooby Dum (Anyone remember HIM?). However, back to the original question, the reason I was never enamored with him was he was supposed to be "cute" and I guess a "dog version" of Will Robinson from Lost in Space. However, he was anything BUT cute (with that rather creepy adult sized head on a puppy's body) and he was nowhere near as smart as Will Robinson.
 
I'm gonna say the same thing I said when this exact same topic was brought up in the Retro Forum....

People can say what they want about Scrappy, but he was the savior of the Scooby-Doo franchise. ABC threatened to cancel Scooby in 1979 if the ratings didn't improve, so when Scrappy was added to the cast the ratings skyrocketed and Scooby ended up lasting another 6 years on Saturday Mornings. Had that not happened, the show wouldn't have been revived nearly as many times as it has, We certainly wouldn't have gotten this awesome Mystery Incorperated show. At best, we would have gotten some DTV's (probably not a new one each year though), the two live action movies, and maybe a Pup Named Scooby-Doo but that's about it. It would have been treated like every other Hanna-Barbera classic not named The Flintstones. So Scooby fans should be thankful for Scrappy even if it's only for that reason.

As for my personal opinion of Scrappy, I dug him for the most part and I liked the fact that he was the ying to Scooby and Shaggy's yang. The only thing I didn't like was that they got rid of Fred, Daphne, and Velma. I didn't see why they needed to do that. The first few Scrappy episodes had him and the entire gang together and those episodes were good. The ones with just Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy were the worst of the entire Scooby series save for Get A Clue. He eventually mellowed out and became the dog version of Fred during The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

Scrappy did not kill the Scooby franchise, he extended it. The show eventually ran it's course, but it's so popular even today that we've got a new series. Even though Scrappy isn't featured in it, I doubt that Mystery Incorperated would be on the air today if not for him. Scrappy was cool in my book.
 
I've always lumped Scrappy into the same category as Brussels sprouts:

Don't like 'em. Didn't like them as a kid or as an adult and if I'm around them for too long I'll start to gag. At the same time though, I don't sit around hating on the sprouts when they're not around. Just no point to it.

And I know there are folks out there that enjoy their Scrappy sprouts and even though it befuddles me to no end as to why, I see no reason to argue with them about it or try to convince them to think otherwise. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and all that.

As for why I don't like Scrappy, well, when I was little I didn't care for the fact that he was fully bipedal and that, despite being a "puppy", he spoke more coherently than either Scooby or Shaggy. Plus he'd steal Scooby's food from time to time and that always just rubbed me the wrong way. Now that I'm older there're lots more reasons for me to not like the misproportioned little scrapper, but I've pretty much decided that the ones that I had from when I was little are plenty enough.
 
I'm not going to deny that Scrappy helped the franchise last longer. But really, at what cost? I thought that the first series with Scrappy was great, but was it really worth it for the show to continue at the expense of nixing Fred, Daphne and Velma? It seems the writers were trying new thing for the sake of trying new things, but never truly thought things through. "Hey, let's get rid of half the cast and make all monsters real! Let's see how THAT works!"

I don't dislike Scrappy as a character, but the sole fact he was responsible for nearly every Scooby series I'm not a fan of DOES give a sour taste for the little guy. The only things I like from the Scooby/Scrappy/Shaggy era are the TV Movies (Boo Brothers, Ghoul School and Reluctant Werewolf), those were great, mainly since they're so ridiculously funny. Everything else is mediocre at best.

I would also like a source on this ratings thing. I can take your word if it's rather vague (such as "ratings got better") but "skyrocket" is a pretty specific term to use.

Also, I think you need to rewatch the live-action movies. The first one at least. That one definitely wouldn't have happened had Scrappy never existed.

And you're right. Had it not been for Scrappy several late-year revivals wouldn't have happened. Although I firmly believe the franchise would have been revived with Zombie Island regardless of Scrappy, as that DTV has nothing to do with Scrappy whatsoever, specially if you consider the true origins of Zombie Island. After that, anything could have possibly happened.

No, Scrappy didn't kill the franchise, but he didn't save it either. If anything, he unnecessarely extended it and put it on life support.
 
ShadowBlinky said:
ahem said:
I always prefered the line up of Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy and Daphne. That was a good balance and I think it kept the rational exposition down to only one person (Daphne) rather than three of them. I think it also indirectly made Daphne the leader, a much more appealing alternative to uninteresting Fred. It also goes against gender stereotypes, with the three male characters (two animal of course) lead by a female.

Absolutely, which is why I preferred her that way. I think Freddie, Velma and Daphne together were three personality absent, one dimensional cut outs and not characters. I can't remember Fred, Velma or Daphne having character lead conversations the same way Scoob, Shaggy and Scrappy did.
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This analogy is confusing. It's 'yin', not 'ying', and you've got the principles backwards. Yin is passive, while yang is aggressive. So if anything, Scrappy's the yang and Scooby and Shaggy are the yin.
 
I've always been rather indifferent to Scrappy-Doo, even though I grew up during the time when he was a part of the Saturday Morning Scooby-Doo show and the original airing weekday afternoons in syndication.

When he was revealed as the big bad in the first live-action Scooby-Doo movie, it was rather :rolleyes: to me.
 
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