Scooby-Doo has evolved so much over the years, it has been quite a mystery to see early works be so weird.

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

• The first two episodes had a different opening, with an extended version of the title card music playing while Shaggy yells the title.
• The show originally opened for the first two episodes with an instrumental theme by Ted Nichols, who composed the incidental music for the rest of the show. This theme was only heard in the first two episodes before being replaced with the much more well known David Mook vocal theme song. Those episodes were appended with the Mook theme on DVD and new airings of the show.
• The show's first few episodes didn't yet have the episode titles displayed with the now-familiar image of the gang running in front of the sinister Wraparound Background. The early episodes had an Episode Title Card on which the Ghost of the Week is displayed. Since these revealed the villains too early, the production soon settled on using the image of the gang running.
• "What a Night For a Knight" (1969):
  • As the series' first episode, the only character expressing any interest in food is Scooby. Shaggy and everybody else eat nothing (although Shaggy does ask "When do we eat?" when the gang is in the van having left the museum). Shaggy is later depicted as a Big Eater. Also in the same episode, while Fred does appear, he isn't namedropped whatsoever and does not interact much with the other protagonists
  • Daphne describes Shaggy as "the swingingest gymnast in high school"; a rare allusion (at least in the 60s-80s series) to the gang's age or education.
  • Daphne is the first one to say the phrase "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", which would become one of Shaggy's catchphrases.
  • Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Velma are called by name in "What a Night for a Knight". Despite the fact that Fred is hanging with them for most of the episode, his name is not mentioned at all. He also does not interact much with the other protagonists.
  • Once the Gang solves the mystery they don’t try to capture the Black Knight themselves like they normally do. Instead, they try to take what they found to the sheriff, but the Black Knight forces them to scatter.
• In "A Clue for Scooby-Doo" (1969), the second episode, the team has unmasked the villain of the episode, but still do not know who he is, because they have never seen his face before. The man is clean-shaven, but Shaggy has the idea to place seaweed on his face. Shaggy realizes that the guy is Captain Cutler, who faked his death years ago. Shaggy recognizes him from a bearded portrait of a younger Cutler, which he had seen earlier that day. Shaggy acts as the smart guy of the team, while Velma is mostly irrelevant here. In most later episodes, unmasking and recognizing the villain is Velma's main task.
• "Hassle in the Castle", had these moments whether or not it was the second episode:
  • When Daphne is separated from the gang, she’s shown to be quite independent: she successfully navigates the castle and later arms herself with a vase to attack someone she hears coming toward her. Later episodes of the show would have her as a straight-up Damsel in Distress who ended up Bound and Gagged more often than not. This later tendency however is a case of how this trope can backfire as it lead to her grabbing the Distress Ball and it seemingly lead to at least some later works dialing that role back.
  • There's also the fact that the villain isn't a suspect seen earlier, but instead a random criminal with no connection to any local mystery.
• "Decoy for a Dognapper" (1969), the fifth episode had a bunch of weirdness as well:
  • It begins on a completely ordinary day, with Scooby walking down a sidewalk. The Mystery Machine is shown to be equipped with (what looked like, at the time) state-of-the-art surveillance equipment. When the "Witch Doctor" makes his appearance, Velma scoffs at it, asking how an American Indian in the 1800's could learn perfect English. Shaggy's response, "Maybe he's been taking night courses," sounds more like a sarcastic joke. While he's scared of "Geronimo's ghost" and is rightly concerned whoever is putting on the hoax might be dangerous, Shaggy isn't fooled by this ghost disguise.
  • It is also the first episode which sees Shaggy eat a Scooby Snack, knowing that he will be walking Scooby into danger. He comments "Not bad. Not bad at all." Later episodes see him happily accepting them as bribes. Before this, they were used exclusively to persuade Scooby to do something; there are even some scenarios, such as getting in a mine shaft in "Mine Your Own Business" (1969), where Shaggy is not shown to be fearful at all, whereas later on the pair usually share fears and reluctance to do something.
• "What the Hex Going On?" Has this of a sort. The ghost here does not use a Latex Perfection-style mask, but wears a wig and full theatrical paint makeup job that somehow manages to cover Uncle Stuart's eyeglasses, and they spray him with makeup remover before wiping it off during The Reveal. Although makeup jobs like this would also be featured at times in What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
• "Never Ape an Ape Man": The Ape Man is not unmasked in the traditional Dramatic Unmask manner. Instead, Shaggy snaps a photo of the culprit putting his mask on, and once the instant photo is developed, the gang discovers that the culprit is Carl the Stuntman.
• In "Foul Play in Funland" (1969), the eighth episode, Daphne explains to Shaggy Scooby's apparent aversion to eating clams, as if she’s more familiar with Scooby's tastes in food. Most later episodes have Shaggy both knowing Scooby's tastes and sharing several of them. Furthermore, the idea that Scooby would be picky about what he ate is unusual. A later series would even depict clams as Scooby's Trademark Favorite Food!
• Shaggy doesn't address Scooby as his popularized shortening "Scoob" until the ninth episode, "The Backstage Rage" (1969). He's also more annoyed with Scooby's antics (especially when Scooby eats his food) and often snarks at him, both traits disappearing over time.
• Scooby's behavior - talking, reading, etc. notwithstanding - is more like that of a typical dog (sniffing, barking, etc.) than in later series and films.
• This is the only series where Scooby's name isn't hyphenated in the title, although it was hyphenated in promos during the original CBS run.
• Velma does not say "Jinkies!" at all across the show's entire run, and would not until The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
• Similarly, Daphne only says "Jeepers!" once, in "What the Hex is Going On?" (1969).
• The "You Meddling Kids" phrase doesn't debut until the third episode of the second season, "Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright." (A few others said some kind of variation of it; Big Bob Oakley in "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts" calls them "blasted kids.") And the episode coming right after has Mr. Carswell mutter "Blasted meddling kids." But later uses and parodies eventually made it a main part of the franchise.
• The way Scooby expresses his signature catchphrase "Scooby Dooby Doo!" is more lower pitched and low-key in the earlier episodes by comparison to the more familiar way it's expressed later on in the franchise.
• To all who became acquainted with the series via a post-1990 production, it may be startling to watch how undeveloped the characters of Velma, Daphne and Fred seem to be in any cartoons made in 60's or 70s.

The Scooby-Doo Show

• As Daphne's wealthy background has not yet been established along with her role as The Team Benefactor, there were moments that clash with it later such as "High Rise Hair Raiser" where the guys of her team had to get jobs when they were getting low on money and "Creepy Cruise" where Fred claimed he and his team were not "wealthy investors". One way to handwave these if these episodes get remade today would be Daphne getting approval from her parents to have independent access to family funds following the "High Rise Hair Raiser" case and being advised by her friends not to invest in Von Klamp's time machine that turned out to be fake at the end of the "Creepy Cruise" case.

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo

• Going back to this series today presents probably one of the oddest visuals in the entire franchise of Scrappy walking on all four legs like his uncle Scooby, despite his large head and small body making this look awkward. Going forwards, Scrappy-Doo would walk upright on two legs as a core character design element.

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

• "A Bicycle Built for Boo!" had these oddities compared to the rest of the series.
  • This is the only episode that does not include a picture of Shaggy being dragged by Scooby in the Episode Title Card.
  • The gang agrees with Freddy's assertion that it was Red Herring, and Velma even gets him a power sander to prove his theory that Red stole Shaggy's bike and painted it blue. Red does actually dress up as a monster to scare the gang, which makes Fred’s accusation seem more reasonable as compared to future episodes.
  • Velma is portrayed as The Silent Bob, where the gang reacts to Velma speaking, not her catchphrase of "Jinkies".

What's New, Scooby-Doo?

• The Fast and the Wormious marks the first appearance of Gibby Norton, a fellow nerd with an unreciprocated crush on Velma. Though Velma is dismissive, she's nowhere near as cutting as she will be in later episodes (one in the same season even had her begging for Gibby to be the culprit so they could send him to jail); she even seems potentially flattered that he pulled the entire hoax to impress her with his worm-mobile.