One of the lesser known entries into Hanna-Barbera's long-running "Scooby-Doo" franchise, "The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show" arrives onto DVD the way it was meant to be seen in its original unedited format, complete with the original theme song intact. Premiering in September of 1980, Hanna-Barbera's top dog actually received second billing for the first and to-date only time, and to Richie Rich, no less. The title of the show can be misleading, however, as Richie Rich and Scooby-Doo never ever crossover into each other's respective cartoons. It was only a simple marketing device of packaging together two shows into an hour long format. It also secured a success for the new series, based upon the long-running comic book character, Richie Rich, by pairing him up with the extremely popular Scooby-Doo. They probably thought that the kids would sit through the "Richie Rich" shows just to see the rest of the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, and then maybe they'll like Richie, too.

"The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show" is split evenly between cartoons featuring Richie Rich and Scooby-Doo, obviously. Chronologically, this series comes directly after the original "Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show" from the previous season and now features only Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Scrappy Doo is short seven minute cartoons. However, the game plan has been altered here a bit. They're not solving mysteries anymore and they're no longer with the rest of Mystery, Inc. I'd love to know what happened to have them part ways. Instead, our trio travels the world and happen upon all sorts of adventure, sometimes supernatural, involving vampires, aliens, and mummies, and other natural bad guys like crooks, bank robbers, and the traditional guy in a monster mask. The shows rely more on the antics of the characters and their reactions to the monsters. Take the original "Scooby-Doo" formula and subtract the mystery aspect and you have this show.

On the flip side, I found the "Richie Rich" cartoons to be the weaker of the bunch. And that's really something because this particular season of "Scooby-Doo" was probably the weakest of its original run. How can you describe Richie Rich? His name says it all. He's the richest boy in the world and lives with his parents on a multi-billion dollar estate. He spends most of his time with his girlfriend, Gloria Glad, and his daydreaming dog, Dollar. He's also aided by the robot maid, Irona; the resident scientist, Professor Keanbean; the butler, Cadbury; and the chef, Pierre. Also appearing occasionally is Reggie's foil, his cousin, Reggie Van Dough. Reggie hates Richie and is always scheming to steal Gloria away for himself.

There's several different classifications of "Richie Rich" episodes. "Riches" and "Treasure Chest" are basically the same thing, and feature a short, minor adventure, usually comical, involving the family with something along the lines of Dollar the dog getting into mischief. "Gems" is an even shorter cartoon, sometimes lasting only thirty seconds and it's only purpose it seems is to show off Richie's enormous wealth and their extensive house and possessions. Finally, the strongest of the bunch are the "Zillion-Dollar Adventures" which feature Richie, Dollar, Gloria, and sometimes other members of the Rich household going off to save the world or something of that sort. Richie even has his own rogues gallery of villains who are always out to steal his fortune.

Hanna-Barbera enthusiasts, such as myself, will be delighted to see this show finally come to DVD. Taking a nod from 2008's "The All-New Superfriends Hour" set, Warner Bros. finally got it right this time with Scooby as opposed to 2006's "The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour" set in which they opted not to present the show in its original broadcasting format, instead with the respective syndicated openings and closings. I, for one, had never seen the original opening to "The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show," but after I finished watching it for the first time, I just had to rewind and watch it again. It's just that good. Now, this is the only time in the entire show that the two stars actually appear in the same frame. During the theme song, they briefly appear together, but Scooby and the gang are on Richie's television screen. That's the closest we ever get to the two meeting. Although the original opening is intact, the closing credits are not. At the end of the sixth cartoon in each episode, two sets of credits play. If I remember correctly from the show's syndicated versions, one is the closing for "Richie Rich" and one is the closing for "Scooby and Scrappy Doo."

Seven complete episodes are presented in this first volume set. Each episode runs approximately forty-two minutes long and is comprised on three "Scooby and Scrappy Doo" cartoons and three "Richie Rich" cartoons. There's also shorter "Richie Rich" shorts thrown in-between, called "Gems" that last about a minute/ In order to avoid further confusion as to which "Scooby-Doo" shows are on this set, here is the complete episode listing for this set. Please note that the cartoons alternate starting first with a "Scooby" cartoon, followed by a "Richie Rich," and back to "Scooby" again.

Episode One: Scooby Goes West/Piggy Bank Prank/Swamp Witch/Muscle Beach/Waxworld/Robotnappers

Episode Two: A Close Encounter with a Strange Kind/The Rare Scare/A Fit Night Out For Bats/Kitty Sitter/The Chinese Food Factory/One of Our Ancient Carriers is Missing

Episode Three: Scooby's Desert Dilemma/Spring Cleaning/Stuntman Scooby/Silence is Golden/Mummy's the Word//The Shocking Lady Strikes Again

Episode Four: The Old Cat and Mouse Game/The Blur/Scooby's Three Ding-a-Ling Circus/Cur Wash/Hang In There, Scooby/The Kangaroo Hop

Episode Five: Scooby's Bull Fright/Irona Versus Demona/Stow-Aways/Chef's Surprise/Long John Scrappy/The Snow Bounders

Episode Six: Scrappy's Birthday/The Abominable Snow Plan/Sir Scooby and the Black Night/Miss Robot America/A Bungle in the Jungle/Constructo

Episode Seven: Scooby in Wonderland/Counterfeit Dollar/Scooby's Fun Zone/The Greatest Invention in the World/Scooby's Fantastic Island/Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Bug?

What I find most interesting about this set is the marketing strategy. I was shocked, absolutely shocked that they actually put Scrappy's name on the back of the box in the description. In case you hadn't noticed before, on the releases for "Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf" and "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School," Scrappy was completely absent from the box art and description. I actually happen to like Scrappy and don't find him quite as offensive and annoying as most people do, but I think they calmed him down a little bit after his first appearances on the original "Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show." The back of the box also mentions Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy as under the employ of the Fearless Detective Agency, even though none of these shorts feature that concept. That idea didn't manifest until "The Scooby, Scrappy, and Yabba Doo Show" which premiered in 1982.

Let me just say that these cartoons look fantastic. The restoration quality looks excellent and I've never seen these shows looking so good. Especially the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons. All of the episodes look so sharp and the colors are very vibrant. On the special feature front, only one roughly ten minute featurette entitled "The Story of Richie Rich" which feature several people who actually worked on the series back in the day and helped to translate Richie from comic to cartoon. It's really interesting to watch and it shows the deep devotion these people had for the comic and the character as they brought over the comic's characters and concepts quite faithfully, even the yellow skies, which they point out in the featurette. Although I would have liked to have heard about how the original idea of putting Richie with Scooby came about, this was still a good bonus feature. Hey, at least we actually got a special feature, even if we only got one.

I had somewhat of a different attitude about this series before and after I watched it in its entirety here on DVD. From what I had remembered watching on Boomerang in reruns and had turned away from, I actually liked by watching them again. I think the key point is splitting the show's segments apart. By watching one "Scooby" and then a "Richie" it keeps you from getting too bored as you would almost certainly get from watching four of these "Scooby" cartoons one right after another. Now, for years I've been trying to collect all of the Scooby-Doo shows off of Boomerang, but it's just too hard because of all of the multiple packaging and series. Now, I finally have a definite series to check back with and I hope that Warner Bros. continues to release the rest of the "Scooby-Doo" series. This obviously isn't the greatest "Scooby-Doo" series available, but there's just this common misconception that anything with Scrappy in it is automatically bad. Give this series a chance. It might grow on you.