As I’ve noted here at the Web Journal, I was just about three-years old when the iconic television series Scooby-Doo Where Are You first aired. My older daughter was just about three-years old when Warner Brothers released the direct-to-video movie Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. The movie featured an impressive guest cast that included Mark Hamill and Adriane Barbeau. I had known Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby-Doo himself, had passed away in 1997, so I wasn’t surprised to see that a new actor voiced him. That actor was Scott Innes. Starting with Warner’s next direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movie, Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, Innes voiced both Scooby and Shaggy. I continued to follow Innes’s work through the following Scooby-Doo movies and even the 2002 live action film, where he played Scooby’s feisty nephew Scrappy-Doo.
I finally had the chance to meet Scott Innes this year at El Paso Comic Con. He took time to visit with me and we discussed everything from voice acting, which I’ve done, though not at such a high-profile level, to day jobs. That’s when I learned that Innes is the morning show host for a country music station in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That blew my mind because my oldest daughter, who grew up with Scott’s voice on assorted home video and toys, went to college just down the road in New Orleans. On road trips from New Mexico to Louisiana, I used to dial through radio stations to get a sense of the local flavor. Unfortunately, I never caught Scott’s show. I think that was because our drives often put us in the range of Lafayette radio stations in the morning and we didn’t tend to pick up Baton Rouge until lunchtime. In the meantime, he asked me about my work at Kitt Peak and was fascinated by our projects studying exoplanets and mapping the known universe. Of course, he asked me what I thought about aliens, most people do, but it occurred to me this was the guy who voiced Scooby and Shaggy in Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders asking me about aliens!
I enjoyed my visit with Scott so much that I bought his autobiography, Cartoons and Country Music. The book is written for a young audience, but it was perfect for me while recovering from my prostate surgery. The book discussed Scott’s longtime love of cartoon characters and how he had gotten to know such incredible voice actors as Mel Blanc and Don Messick. Of course, the book told how he landed the job voicing Scooby in Zombie Island and became the official voice of Scooby for several years. The book also delved into his love of country music and radio. Although I’ve tended to drift away from country music, I listened frequently as a kid and still have a soft spot for many of the classic acts. One of the things that I always wondered about was why Billy Ray Cyrus sang the Scooby-Doo theme in Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. It’s an awesome take on the song, but it came from around the time the only thing you heard from Cyrus was “Achy-Breaky Heart.” It turns out, this came from Scott making the suggestion to Warner Brothers and the studio following through.
Scott’s message in the Cartoons and Country Music is to find what you want to do, pursue your goals, meet the best people in the business and learn from them. His experiences with people like Mel Blanc, June Fornay, and Don Messick echo my own experiences with people in the science fiction world like Ray Bradbury, David Gerrold, and Jane Lindskold. Each of them have given me both encouragement and practical advice I’ve found invaluable. Scott has also given back to the community through work raising funds for Saint Jude’s Children’s Hospital. Admittedly I didn’t have cancer as a child, but I appreciate the work of anyone doing their part to end this horrible, devastating illness that brings misery to all. Now that I’ve had the chance to know Scott Innes better through his autobiography, I hope I get another chance to interact with him down the road. If you haven’t seen Warner’s direct-to-video Scooby movies, make sure to do so. They’re among the best work in the franchise and a lot of that is down to the voice talent of Scott Innes breathing life into Scooby and Shaggy.
David Lee Summers' Web Journal 