Scooby-Doo first appeared in 1969

Children's cartoon Scooby-Doo has officially become the most prolific TV animation in history, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.

Canine crimefighter Scooby-Doo may have remained seven years old on screen since he first appeared - but in dog years he would be 245 by now.

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon series has entertained generations of children - and adults - since 1969, with new versions, spin-offs and movie versions.

William Hanna and Joe Barbera had years of cartoon success behind them, but wanted to try something different - a series that would incorporate contemporary human characters.

But the show - under the working titles Mysteries Five and Who's Scared? - was rejected at first, when TV executives judged the cartoon's haunted houses, monsters and eerie locations too scary for children.

Fred Silverman, CBS's head of children's programming, is credited with softening the tone of the show by making the huge dog a yellow-bellied comedy figure.

He is also credited with coming up with the name for the Great Dane - Scooby-Doo - reportedly inspired by Frank Sinatra's improvised vocals on Strangers in The Night, who sang: "Dooby dooby do - be dooby dooby dooby dooby dooby do."

The show launched in the US on 13 September 1969 with a cast of cartoon teenagers - the sensible, all-American leader Fred, bespectacled and brainy Velma, pretty Daphne and the bumbling hippy Shaggy.

The gang travelled throughout the country in their van, The Mystery Machine, on the trail of supernatural adventures.

Almost every episode followed a certain formula.

The team would arrive in a foreboding spot, to take on a local ghoul ruining things for everyone else.

After chases, accidents and scares - but no actual violence - the team would unravel the mystery, usually helped by Scooby-Doo chancing on a lucky clue.

Fred and Velma would reveal that the malevolent presence was actually a real person, posing as a ghost to scare others away from some selfish scheme.

And inevitably, the villain would say, as they were led away, that they would have succeeded in their evil efforts "if it weren't for those pesky kids".

Their adventures would be punctured by the hilarious and cowardly antics of Shaggy and Scooby, who invariably ended up in ridiculous scrapes after splitting off from the rest of the group. 

(Agencies)