That really did make them seem like 'movies.' Although, admittedly, the episodes are a lot brighter in memory than they are in rewatching, so 40 minutes of the same Scooby-Doo show can sometimes feel like the same joke is dragging on a little long. Moreover, the adventures had been expanded to take up an hour of broadcast time (40 minutes these days with the commercials extracted). This added a new layer to the mysteries - which, nonetheless, involved the being taken for accidental rides, running back and forth across the screen, and dropping nets on ghosts who ended up being someone in a rubber mask. Thus was born the New Scooby-Doo Movies, a series where the gang would meet up with famous celebrities or other Hanna-Barbera cartoon properties. One of the ways the folks at Hanna-Barbera stroke to keep Scooby-Doo fresh and relateable was to bring in guest stars, people or characters whom the viewers already knew. Something had to be done to keep the kids coming back. The Mystery Inc gang was a group of meddling kids who knew how to ride mine cars, run back and forth across the screen, and drop a net on a ghost who would end up being a guy in a rubber mask. Even the youngest of television viewers can figure out the plot of a Scooby-Doo cartoon after seeing three or four of them.
