Scooby-Doo four like a normal dog as he did previously. Fred, Daphne, and Velma were dropped from the series, and the new "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" format now consisted of three seven-minute comedic adventures starring Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy instead of one half-hour mystery. Most of the supernatural villains in the seven-minute "Scooby and Scrappy" cartoons, who in previous "Scooby" series had been revealed to be human criminals in costume, were now real within the context of the series. This version of "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" first aired from 1980 to 1982 as part of "The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show", an hour-long program also
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! plans to create a non-violent Saturday morning program that would appease the parent watch groups that had protested the superhero-based programs of the mid-1960s. Originally titled "Mysteries Five", and later "Who's S-S-Scared?", "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!" underwent a number of changes from script to screen (the most significant being the downplaying of the musical group angle borrowed from "The Archie Show"). However, the basic concept—four teenagers (Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy) and a cowardly, clumsy Great Dane (Scooby-Doo) solving supernatural-related mysteries—was always in place. "Scooby-Doo" creators Joe Ruby and Ken Spears served as the story supervisors on the series.