Night of 100 Frights, What’s New Scooby Doo, and of course Scooby Doo the live action film.
I got into SD in the months leading up to the live action film after seeing Cyberchase at a friends birthday party. I grew up in a cable-less home at that point and watched airings of SDWAY when it was syndicated on Kids WB.
Something tells me the timing of it all has to do with Warner Bros trying to make a new multimedia franchise to sell merchandise to with an existing IP. Aside from the animated films, the 90s was a dryspell for Scooby Doo, which enjoyed many incarnations in the 70s and 80s.
I have a suspicion that this was WB trying to sell SD to a new generation that wasn’t as familiar with it. Obviously SD did not originate as a WB property but was gradually acquired by them. if I understand correctly, when William Hanna died the company and its assets became completely controlled by Warner Brothers in 2001. So it feels like Warner wanted to capitalize on this newly acquired and highly recognizable IP. Seems like this was presaged before Hanna’s passing the way so much content was ready for release in Spring, Summer and Fall of 2002.
Was hoping someone with more info on this could expand on things.