12 of the Weirdest ‘Scooby-Doo’ Guest Stars

Perhaps the single most iconically incongruous guest on Scooby-Doo were the Harlem Globetrotters, who appeared not once, not twice, but in THREE separate mysteries. At which point, maybe the gang should start looking into the Globetrotters themselves?

It’s great that the modern reboots of Scooby-Doo have clearly taken guidance from the old days for their choice of guest stars. Like the two-time appearance of… award-winning science-fiction writer and author of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, Harlan Ellison! Big miss not to call the episode “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Snack.”

Scooby-Doo is, at least in theory, a children’s show. Even on the episode’s original air date back in the 1970s, I don’t think there were a lot of children who were cheering, “It’s Don Knotts, from Three's Company and The Andy Griffith Show!” 

I remember seeing one of the two episodes he guested on later as a re-run and thinking, “Clearly I’m missing critical information about this huge-eared man.”

Do you remember Olympic figure skating gold medalist Tara Lipinski? Now, and be honest, did you remember her before I specifically reminded you? She won the gold medal in Nagano in 1998, the first step on what was apparently a 22-year-journey to land on Scooby-Doo in 2020.

You could point to some of these and say, “Well, when they aired, that person was legitimately a cultural force.” This episode featuring actor Christian Slater aired in July 2020.

Look, based purely on their credentials, this is a great get. The problem is, when this episode aired in 1972, Oliver Hardy had been dead for 15 years. Having someone impersonating their voices from beyond the grave on a children’s TV show lands somewhere between a loving nod and necromancy.

I don’t really know what Gigi Hadid does, and I know even less about how it could possibly relate to paranormal investigation. Just more evidence that when Hollywood wants to make you famous, they’ll find a way.

They play it up in a fun way, with Mr. Chestnut being a hero of devoted over-eaters Scooby and Shaggy. Still, if you have to put a hot dog on someone’s shirt so people know who they are, you’re reaching.

I understand that they were a bona fide phenomenon at the time, but it still doesn’t seem like something children are running to the family room so they don’t miss. Sonny’s untimely death by ski-and-tree make the whole thing a little weirder in retrospect, too. Though, I guess you needed him there so everyone didn’t just assume Cher was Morticia Addams.

This one does sort of make sense, just because Bobby Flay is basically the man a lab trying to produce a guest star would produce. Still, it wrinkles my brow. Unlike the inclusion of Alton Brown, who is an absolutely perfect choice.

Look, just because guest appearances are out of nowhere doesn’t mean they don’t rule. Reverend Run’s appearance is evidence of that.

I will never speak a single ill word of this man. My only gripe: Give him the mustache! I don’t care if he’d shaved it off by that point! In fact, someone make a fan-edit of this episode that corrects this grievous error.