"Original Mystery Inc" That makes me sad. The ORIGINAL was "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" with one of the best TV theme songs of all time.

It taught skepticism. Where everyone on the landscape thought the monster was real, the Mystery Inc kids didn't, and investigated further, and always found out that it was just some scammer in a suit. Sure it was formulaic, but you didn't give a shit about that as a kid.

Frankly, it started to go downhill with the next series, which started introducing "guest stars" like the Harlem Globetrotters (pretty cool for the time) and Carol Channing (why?! Probably only because of archie and mehitabel or Tinpan Alley or whatever that movie was called, which wasn't a kids' cartoon anyway) ... but all the ghosts started to be real, which I didn't like even back then (real ghosts should have been limited to Goober and the Ghost Chasers. It would have given the two franchises each a reason to exist.)

If anything, Mystery Inc is in fact a redemption of the series.

Which has since been evilly squandered. like someone using their Heaven Can Wait second chance at life to go around murdering everything they can get their hands on.

As for why they hung around with each other back then, in the late 60s/early 70s - because that was that decade's version of the 80s Goonies standard mix of kids. A straight arrow preppie type (Fred) the nerd girl bookworm type (to encourage girls to not afraid to be bookish and knowledgable, in Velma), the cheerleader type in Daphne (standard comic relief) and The hippie and his dog (Shaggy and Scooby), though note that the preppie owned the van, but the hippie probably painted it.

"Original Mystery Inc" That makes me sad. The ORIGINAL was "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" with one of the best TV theme songs of all time.

It taught skepticism. Where everyone on the landscape thought the monster was real, the Mystery Inc kids didn't, and investigated further, and always found out that it was just some scammer in a suit. Sure it was formulaic, but you didn't give a shit about that as a kid.

Frankly, it started to go downhill with the next series, which started introducing "guest stars" like the Harlem Globetrotters (pretty cool for the time) and Carol Channing (why?! Probably only because of archie and mehitabel or Tinpan Alley or whatever that movie was called, which wasn't a kids' cartoon anyway) ... but all the ghosts started to be real, which I didn't like even back then (real ghosts should have been limited to Goober and the Ghost Chasers. It would have given the two franchises each a reason to exist.)

If anything, Mystery Inc is in fact a redemption of the series.

Which has since been evilly squandered. like someone using their Heaven Can Wait second chance at life to go around murdering everything they can get their hands on.