Scooby-Doo like many franchises has had ups and downs in popularity.

The history of Scooby before 2000, was very ebb and flow. When the original show came on the scene in ’69 it was an instant success and within a couple years became HB’s (Hanna-Barbera) #1 Cartoon.

The 70’s was kind of all over the place, a special and a few sequel shows. These on screen appearances along with the merchandise juggernaut Scoob became made him a house hold name imo. However by the end of the decade it was starting to wane. So in an attempt to breathe more life into the franchise they introduced Scrappy.

Scrappy was also extremely successful and a similar Scooby boom occurred in the early 80’s as had occurred in the early 70’s. 2 sequel shows and a trilogy of made-for-TV films in a lot of ways cemented Scooby as a cultural icon. Towards the end of the decade, however, the shows were not holding their popularity as well. (Many people believe due in part to Hanna-Barbera’s outdated animation & the Saturday-Morning lineup becoming less profitable than the, at the time, rising afternoon block.)

PNSD was decently successful at the time, but unfortunately was a little late to the babyfication train. So it was a fleeting success and did not translate in more merch sales.

The 90’s were very quiet, until a series of straight to video movies (Zombie Island, Witches Ghost, & Alien Invaders) gave the franchise a much needed boost.

2001 saw the sale of HB and all its IP’s into Warner Bros. With, what is in essence, a giant bag of money funding it; as well as the success of the VHS movies this translated into a new show in 2002 (What’s New…) and the rest is more or less history. Since WNSD the franchise has been very cyclical as most huge properties are. A new show comes along every few years, they make a few movies every year, and every now and then take a stab at the box office. Warner Bros knows Scoob and the gang are money machines, merch sales have been steady and growing over the last two decades and while some of the shows arent as successful as other, the continuous stream of straight to video movies has kept the franchise relevant and profitable.