Dog Beats Man to Win World Record as Scooby-Doo Steals Homer's Crown

Scooby-Doo Crowned TV's Top Dog as Cartoon Celebrates its 350th Episode with a Guinness World Record

Legendary canine super sleuth Scooby-Doo, has been awarded a Guinness World Record for "The most episodes of a cartoon comedy series" knocking The Simpsons from the top spot. Scooby-Doo�s record breaking 350 episodes beats The Simpsons� previously held title of 335. This is closely followed by Tom and Jerry who claim 209, The Flintstones, 166 and Disney�s classic Mickey Mouse notching up a mere 120 episodes.

The World Record is awarded to Scooby-Doo and the 350th episode, A Scooby-Doo Halloween, will be premiered on U.K. cartoon channel Boomerang as part of its "Scooby-Doo Week" showing back to back episodes of the program throughout October half term. The landmark 350th episode can be seen on 29th October at 5.30pm and again on Halloween itself - Sunday 31st October at the same time.

The internationally famous Great Dane first bounded onto TV screens in 1969 with �Scooby-Doo - Where Are You?� when it immediately became the highlight of two US network schedules, the first cartoon to incorporate an action-adventure format with humans in supporting roles. The first series did not end its run till 1991 making it the longest running cartoon series in TV history and since then many more series have been created and characters introduced including a new pup Scrappy.

"It�s no mystery," said Boomerang�s Channel Manager, Dan Balaam. "Scooby, those meddling kids and the creepy ghouls and baddies bring fun and frights to generation after generation."

Richard Kilgarriff, head of Turner Entertainment in the UK comments, "It�s a great honour to have taken Homer�s crown - although it�s no surprise to see how popular Boomerang�s top dog is with kids and adults alike".

Notes to Editors

Scooby-Doo was the brainchild of Fred Silverman, Head of Programming for CBS who was inspired by the Frank Sinatra song �Strangers in the Night� where Silverman improvised the refrain "Scooby-dooby-doo!". The Hanna-Barbera studio had initially presented CBS with a mystery show featuring whimsical teenagers and was called "Mysteries Five and Who�s Scared?" which was considered too scary for a Saturday morning kids audience. Silverman decided to rearrange the show making Scooby-Doo the star, transforming it into more of a comedy than a mystery series.

The cowardly Great Dane who can be coaxed into any situation with the promise of a Scooby Snack is always on the trail of a new supernatural adventure, accompanied by his loyal teenage gang of friends Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy.

Scooby-Doo Facts and Figures��..

- Scooby�s real name is Scoobert

- Scooby is a Great Dane

- At the start of every episode a bat flies across the screen

- Scooby always solves the mysteries

- Scooby�s favourite food is a Scooby Snack

- Scooby-Doo was created in 1969 by Santa Barbara Studios for CBS

- Scooby-Doo - Where are You was the first Scooby series

- Scooby-Doo is forever 7 years old

- The Mystery Machine is the groovy van featured in Scooby-Doo

- Sinatra�s song "Strangers in the Night" was the inspiration for the phrase "Scooby Dooby Doo"

- Scooby-Doo�s nephew is Scrappy-Doo

- The first series of Scooby-Doo is TV�s longest running cartoon series

- Movie guest stars include the Addams Family, Batman and Robin, Dick Van Dyke, The Harlem Globetrotters and Cher

- Scooby Doo was originally intended to be called Who�s Scared and Mysteries Five

- In the Who�s Scared version, Scooby was originally a secondary character - he was to be a bongo playing hippie-dog called Too Much

- When the artist who designed Scooby- Doo was sketching a first draft of the crime-busting canine, he consulted a fellow Hanna-Barbera employee who owned a prize-winning Great Dane. He told her to describe all the attributes that make a Great Dane great, and drew Scooby as the exact opposite

- Daphne�s father funds the gang

- Shaggy�s name is Norville

- The show is considered to be part of Generation X

- It was Velma not Daphne who became the group�s first female pop icon

- Velma also got her own web page

- Shaggy was usually the bait to catch the villains

- Velma can talk every language in the world

- Velma loses her glasses in most episodes

- Daphne was also known as Dangerphone Daphne

- Scooby-Doo the movie grossed over $54.2 million at the box office, making it the second biggest opening for a June release in box office history

- Scooby-Doo is enjoyed by millions in over 160 countries