Scooby-Doo has been running since 1969 on a formula so rigid it became a genre. Four teenagers and a dog arrive somewhere, a ghost appears, the ghost is a man in a costume with a financial motive, and Velma finds the evidence.
The consistency is the appeal, but the show is also quietly sceptical in a way that's aged extremely well. Every single supernatural threat turns out to be fraud. Hundreds of episodes across five decades, and the answer is always that someone was after property, insurance or treasure. It's the most persistently rationalist children's programme ever made.
The characters do the rest. Shaggy and Scooby's cowardice and appetite are the comedy engine, Fred's traps never work as designed, Daphne finds trouble, and Velma solves it while everyone else is still panicking.
The Mystery Machine deserves its own credit as one of the most recognisable vehicles in animation, purely on the strength of a green-and-orange paint job.
This collection covers the gang, the van and the assorted masks. Zoinks, and so on.
