This weekend I spent a good number of hours watching the original Scooby-Doo cartoons with my daughter.  Of all the shows that I loved as a kid, this is the one that has had the most universal appeal throughout my lifetime.  Our children range from five-year-old Katie to eighteen-year-old Stephanie, and all of them have loved, and still love, that big goofy mutt and his mystery solving crew.

It amazes me even more that despite revisions, and the reworking of the series over the years, it is the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You” series that brings the biggest smiles.  There is something iconic in the very essence of that show that has withstood the ravages of time and the assault of multi-media branded action-adventure attacks from all sides.

This fall there will be a new live-action movie showing how Shaggy and Scooby-Doo first met, and we’ll all gather around the TV to watch it, but I think – in the end – it’s greatest gift to us will be the endless marathons of the original series being used to market it.  There’s nothing like those meddling kids to bring the generations together.