September 13, 1969: "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" Premieres

September 13, 1969: Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premieres on CBS. It becomes one of the most popular "Saturday morning cartoons" of all time.

The voices of the characters:

* Don Messick as Scooby-Doo, a talking Great Dane, which is known as a cowardly breed of dog, and Scooby was a coward. And always hungry.

* Frank Welker as Fred Jones, the preppy blond leader of the gang, known as Mystery, Inc., and driver of their van, the Mystery Machine. Welker voiced several cartoon dogs, including Astro Jetson, and would take over as the voice of Scooby after Messick's death.

* Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers, a hippie who was as cowardly and as hungry as Scooby. Scooby seemed to be closer to Shaggy than to any of the others, though he would often steal Shaggy's food. Kasem was a superstar disc jockey in Los Angeles, and gave Shaggy the frightened exclamation "Zoinks!"

As a boy, I would read anything. And I noticed that Shaggy had the same voice as the Super Friends' version of Batman's crimefighting partner Robin. So I read the closing credits of both cartoons, wrote the names of the voice actors down, and looked to see if any of them matched. Sure enough, Kasem was the voice of both. As Shaggy would say, "Like, wow!" Or, as Robin would say, "Holy coincidence!" (Kasem's version did pretty much copy Burt Ward's from the 1966-68 Batman show.)

* Indira Stefanianna (Season 1, credited as Stefanianna Christopherson) and Heather North (Season 2) as Daphne Blake, the redhead who seemed to be not very bright, and also seemed to be Fred's girlfriend. This would be played up in the 2002 live-action film, in which Fred and Daphne were played by real-life husband and wife Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

* Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley, a bespectacled intellectual who was probably the best detective of the group. When surprised, she would say, "Jinkees!"

As time went by, Velma was rumored to be a lesbian. This was unconsciously deepened by the fact that the character was based on Zelda K. Gilroy of The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, played by Sheila Kuehl, who later became the 1st openly gay person elected to California's State Legislature.

As the cartoon debuted mere weeks after the Stonewall Riot, the idea that any of the characters could be gay couldn't have been said on the air. Even as late as the 2002 and 2004 live-action films, Velma was shown as being interested in male characters, including, on occasion, Shaggy. It was finally made canon that Velma was gay in a 2022 cartoon.

CBS aired 17 episodes from September 13, 1969 to January 17, 1970; then a 2nd season of 8 episodes from September 12 to October 31, 1970.

The theme song was written by David Mook and Ben Raleigh, performed by Larry Marks in Season 1 and George A. Robertson Jr. in Season 2.

What was in the Scooby Snacks? Many people have thought they were laced with marijuana. After all, Scooby and Shaggy always "had the munchies." But pot doesn't make you braver or more active. Quite the opposite: It makes you lazy.

There was an unmasking in every show, where the "ghost" or "monster" was shown to be all too human, usually trying to pull off some sort of fraud. In the public memory, their tagline is, "And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for you meddling kids!"

But that wasn't used very often. The first variation was in Episode 11, "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts," when a master of disguise, who'd impersonated a vampire, a werewolf, a Frankenstein-style monster and a gypsy fortune-teller, called them "these blasted kids and their dog!"

It wasn't until Episode 20, "Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright," in Season 2, before a professor studying ocean life, seeking to steal his partner's potentially lucrative invention, used the words "meddling kids," but he didn't use the words "And I would have gotten away with it, too." Nor did Mr. Carswell, the bank president who was embezzling from his own bank, and pretending to be the titular monstrous robber in Episode 21, "Jeepers It's the Creeper": He just yelled, "Meddling kids!"

In Episode 22, "Haunted House Hang-Up," the main "ghost" turned out to be the good guy, with an additional "ghost" admitting, "And I'd a-found it, if it wasn't for you snoopers!" Fred preceded this by saying, "Now, let's see who our phony phantom really is!" In the finale, Episode 25, "Don't Fool With a Phantom," Fred said, "Time to find out who you really are!" But Fred never, in the original run, ever said, "Now, let's see who you really are!"

Eventually, ABC bought the rights, and built a whole media franchise around Scooby and the gang, where the tropes became more common. But the 25 episodes of 1969 and '70 are generally considered to be not just the original, but the best episodes.

Don Messick died in 1997, Casey Kasem in 2014, Heather North in 2017. As of September 13, 2022, Nicole Jaffe is 82, Frank Welker is 76 and Indira Stefanianna is 75.

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September 13, 1969 was a Saturday. Actor, director and playwright Tyler Perry was born. This was also the day of the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert. I have a separate entry for that event.

These Major League Baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 5-2 at Yankee Stadium. Zoinks! Like, Gary Wagner outpitched Fritz Peterson. Rico Petrocelli hit a home run, Reggie Smith went 3-for-4 with an RBI, Tony Conigliaro went 1-for-3 with an RBI, and Carl Yastrzemski went 0-for-2, but did draw 2 walks. And they got away with it, too, because the Yankees didn't have enough meddling kids. Bobby Murcer went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI, but rookie Thurman Munson went 0-for-4.

* The New York Mets beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5-2 at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Tom Seaver went the distance for the win. Ron Swoboda hit a grand slam. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-4. Willie Stargell went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Montreal Expos beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-5 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Cleveland Indians, 10-5 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Brooks Robinson went 1-for-1 with 2 walks and an RBI. Frank Robinson did not play.

* The Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 11-6 at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium in Washington. Al Kaline entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 0-for-2.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 3-2 at Atlanta Stadium (later Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium). Phil Niekro pitched 11 shutout innings for the Braves, allowing 6 hits. Larry Dierker pitched 12 shutout innings for the Astros, allowing 4 hits. Jimmy Wynn singled home 2 runs for the Astros in the top of the 13th.

But in the bottom of the 13th, Fred Gladding allowed single, double, walk, single. Jack Billingham got an out, but was immediately replaced by Wade Blasingame, who intentionally walked Hank Aaron, and then unintentionally walked Bob Aspromonte to give the Braves the win.

This game did not make a fellow proud to be an Astro. Maybe manager Harry Walker should have brought in Jim Bouton, whom the Astros had acquired from the Seattle Pilots on August 24. He was in the process of writing his diary of the season, which became the book Ball Four.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-0 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. John "Blue Moon" Odom pitched 8 shutout innings for the A's, before being relieved by Fred Talbot, who had been liberated from the expansion Seattle Pilots 16 days earlier. Paul Edmondson pitched 9 innings of 3-hit shutout ball for the ChiSox, but Wilbur Wood gave up 4 runs in the top of the 10th, including a 3-run home run to Dave Duncan. Reggie Jackson did not enter the game for the A's.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Minnesota Twins, 1-0 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Dean Chance went the distance, allowing 4 hits -- and lost for the Twins. The expansion Royals started Roger Nelson, but he only pitched 1 inning before leaving the game with an injury. He didn't pitch again that season, and pitched only 9 major league innings in 1970, and battled injury thereafter, missing all of 1975, and last pitched in 1976, age 32.

Mike Hedlund pitched 6 innings, allowing just 2 hits. Ed Kirkpatrick singled home the only run of the game in the top of the 9th, making a winning pitcher out of Moe Drabowsky, who completed the 2-hit shutout. Shortstop Leo Cárdenas got both Twin hits. Harmon Killebrew went 0-for-3 with a walk, and Rod Carew went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat their arch-rivals, the Chicago Cubs, 7-4 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. The Cubs led 4-3 going into the bottom of the 8th, but the Cards scored 4 runs off Fergie Jenkins, Ken Johnson and Phil Regan. Lou Brock went 2-for-4 with a walk. Joe Torre went 3-for-4 with 2 RBIs.

In this 1st season of Divisional play, the Cubs led the National League Eastern Division by as much as 9 games on August 16, but went 17-26 the rest of the way, falling behind the Mets on September 10, a collapse known as the September Swoon.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the San Diego Padres, 7-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the San Francisco Giants, 6-4 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Pete Rose went 1-for-5. Johnny Bench went 2-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Willie Mays entered the game as a pinch-hitter, and went 0-for-2.

* And a doubleheader was split at Sick's Stadium in Seattle. The Seattle Pilots won the opener, 6-4. Steve Hovley, Danny Walton and Don Mincher each got 2 hits, to make a winning pitcher of Diego Seguí, in relief of Marty Pattin. The California Angels won the nightcap, 4-2. Eddie Fisher (not the singer) outpitched Miguel Fuentes, the Dooley Womack and John Gelnar.

This was also the opening weekend of the college football season. But only 1 team ranked in the Top 20 played that day: Number 17 UCLA beat Oregon State, 37-0 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

And in English soccer, North London team Arsenal traveled to Lancashire, and beat Burnley, 1-0 at Turf Moor. George Graham, later to manage them to success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, scored the game's only goal.

September 12, 1983: "G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero" & "Inspector Gadget" Premiere

September 12, 1983: The animated TV series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero premieres in syndication. It totally changes the image of the G.I. Joe franchise.

"Joe" was originally just one guy, originating in comic books in 1967. Seventies Joe was Indiana Jones with a beard, represented by a 12-inch-tall doll made by Hasbro, with a Kung Fu Grip and a gun. It was a doll for boys, the 1st to be called an "action figure," predating the ones made of superheroes and the characters from Star Trek. He was straight out of Mission: Impossible, an American James Bond.

You knew he was a real American hero. Nobody had to tell you that he was. He was such an American hero, he didn't need to prove it by posing with a flag.

Eighties Joe was a bunch of guys blowing stuff up, represented by 4-inch action figures. They had to advertise themselves as "a real American hero." The suave coolness of the Sixties and the sillier coolness of the Seventies had given way to the Reagan Years, where the solution to everything was, "Blow stuff up, because it's cool and loud and, as a bonus, it hurts the enemy."

And how many guys did it take to make the Eighties Joe team? Seventies Joe was the head of "the G.I. Joe Adventure Team," in radio contact with backup, but, essentially, he was one man. He was MacGyver before Richard Dean Anderson was and Indiana Jones before Harrison Ford took that role.

They were commanded by General Clayton Abernathy, a.k.a. Hawk. The more prominent members -- or, at least, the ones that seemed to catch the public's imagination the most -- were First Sergeant Conrad Hauser, a.k.a. Duke, whose multiple skills, including multiple languages, make him the usual field commander; Chief Warrant Officer Dashiell Faireborn, a.k.a. Flint, a Rhodes Scholar and a master tactician; Staff Sergeant Marvin Hinton, a.k.a. Roadblock, a black machine-gun expert; Staff Sergeant Allison Hart-Burnett, a.k.a. Lady Jaye, a covert operations specialist who eventually marries Flint; Gunnery Sergeant Ettienne LaFitte, a.k.a. Gung-Ho, a Cajun Marine; Sergeant David Katzenbogen, a.k.a. Bazooka, a missile specialist; and a pair of martial arts experts whose real name were never revealed: A man codenamed Snake Eyes and a woman codenamed Jinx.

The enemy was a terrorist organization called Cobra, a name ripped off of DC Comics' KOBRA and Marvel's HYDRA. At least they were a more believable challenge than Get Smart's KAOS. They are led by Cobra Commander, whose face was always hidden under a helmet and mask, giving him an appearance similar to Star Wars' Darth Vader, and a character Vader is often considered to be a ripoff of, Marvel's Doctor Doom, though his armor was all blue. The cover story is that his face is hidden because it has been disfigured, as with Vader and Doom. It is later revealed that he is an alien, from a planet of snake-people -- hence, "Cobra."

Dr. Mindbender is Cobra's "mad scientist." He took DNA from several military leaders known for their success and ruthlessness: Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, Genghis Khan, Vlad Tepes (a.k.a. Vlad Drakula, the basis for Count Dracula) and Napoleon Bonaparte. (I guess, in 1983, America still wasn't ready for Adolf Hitler to be included.) The result was Serpentor, but all that inbred ambition led to constant conflict with Cobra Commander, each one blaming the other for Cobra's defeats.

James McCullen Destro is a major Cobra operative, a Scottish arms dealer whose clan has "played both sides" in countless wars throughout history. In spite of such double-dealing, he has, however twisted, a code of honor, never targeting the innocent, or the families of his opponents to try to coerce them into surrender or defection. He has frequently voiced his respect for the Joe Team, and for individual Joes.

And then there's Baroness Anastasia Cisarovna, the daughter of European aristocrats. Her brother had been in a political hot spot, aiding refugees, when he was taken hostage alongside the group of relief workers he had volunteered for. U.S. Army Rangers had attempted to free the hostages, but the mission was botched, and resulted in the brother's death. She joins Cobra in revenge, takes the name Baroness DeCobray, wears glasses and a skintight black catsuit, and serves as Cobra's director of intelligence.

She and Destro become romantically involved, and, in some versions of the story, even defect to the Joes together, especially after their marriage and the coming of their child. Destro and the Baroness are also the only people known to have seen the Commander ummasked.

The cartoon ran 95 episodes over 3 years; then, like most TV cartoons, the producers decided they had enough episodes to rerun them for years, making a profit without having to spend money on new content. As is usually the case when a cartoon gets that far, they turned out to be right. The comic book series continues to expand the stories.

In 1987, the animated G.I. Joe: The Movie was released direct-to-video, for fear of losing a competition with a similar cartoon-turned-movie, Transformers. A live-action film franchise was launched in 2009 with G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, followed in 2013 by G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Neither film did well at the box office, and the only good thing about it was seeing Sienna Miller wearing the catsuit as the Baroness. (Despite being a natural blonde, she dyed her hair black for the role.)

Trying to copy both the DC and Marvel comic-film "universes," the franchise's owners decided to try again by doing standalone films about the origins of the various heroes, before teaming them up. This idea was abandoned after 2021's Snake Eyes bombed.

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On the same day, another cartoon premieres, also in syndication: Inspector Gadget. It came 10 years after The Six Million Dollar Man, and 4 years before RoboCop.

It also came 18 years after Get Smart, which starred Don Adams. On this show, Adams voiced the title character, a robotic detective with all kinds of gadgets built in. Meaning (read this in Maxwell Smart's voice), "That's the second-biggest pop-culture phenomenon he's ever seen!"

Cree Summer, best known as Freddie Brooks on A Different World, voiced Penny, his niece, who often had to get him out of trouble. Frank Welker once again voices a dog, Brain.

Gadget's boss, Chief Quimby, is voiced by Dan Hennessey in Season 1 and Maurice LaMarche (best known for voicing another Brain, of Pinky and… ) in Season 2. Of course, "Chief" had to be the title of Gadget's boss, so Don Adams could once again say, "Sorry about that, Chief!" Even the show's opening is reminiscent of that of Get Smart.

Welker also voices the villain, Doctor Claw. (Not to be confused with Paul Lynde's Hooded Claw on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop.) Like Ernst Stavro Blofeld from the James Bond films, Claw's face is never seen, only his hands and a cat on his lap.

A live-action film based on the show was released in 1999. Matthew Broderick played the Inspector.

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September 12, 1983 was a Monday. There were 5 games played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 1-0 at Yankee Stadium. It took the Yankees 3 pitchers -- Ray Fontenot with 3 hits over 6 innings, George Frazier with 1 over 2, and Goose Gossage with a perfect 9th -- to pitch a 4-hit shutout, while Chuck Porter went the distance for the Brewers. The only run came in the 5th, when Willie Randolph singled Butch Wynegar home. Dave Winfield did not play. Rookie Don Mattingly went 1-for-3 with a walk.

* The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. John Denny, in a season that would see him win the National League's Cy Young Award, outpitched Ron Darling. Mike Schmidt went 1-for-2 with a walk. Pete Rose went 0-for-2 with a walk. The Mets' run came on a home run by the eventual Rookie of the Year, Darryl Strawberry.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-3 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 5-1 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit.

* And the Chicago Cubs beat the Montreal Expos, 8-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Dick Ruthven pitched an 8-hit shutout. Jody Davis went 3-for-4 with an RBI.

And on ABC Monday Night Football, the San Diego Chargers beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 17-14 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.