If you’re like me, your broadcast diet consists of more CW than a healthy person should take in. Cheaply made tales of superheroes, magicians and aliens are totally my jam, along with their vastly underrated take on Nancy Drew (seriously, check this out before they death-slot the thing on Friday nights). There’s one niche even they have shied away from, though, and that’s animation.
The network hasn’t hosted any animated content since Mission Hill and The Oblongs underperformed, twenty years ago when it was The WB. (And no, we’re not counting that awful “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer” thing they keep dredging up every twelve months.) The closest The CW has ever come since then is a special episode of Supernatural where Sam and Dean were transported into a Scooby Doo cartoon.
Well, according to the CW Upfront that took place this week, animated content is now being produced for the network — two hour-long specials are in production for the 2021-22 season. And fittingly, one of them stars Scooby again.
“The Scooby-Doo Reunion Special” involves Mystery Inc. touring Warner Bros. Studios, observing the props and sets from their favorite cases. But then a “real” monster starts wreaking havoc on the studio backlot and they have to get to work. Apparently this takes place outside the show’s continuity and portrays them as actors..who are basically the same people…don’t ask me what’s really going on; we’ll have to watch to find out.
Meanwhile, if you had to pick one CW superstar to get his own holiday special, which one would it be? Beebo, of course. Yes, it’s happening. The blue Elmo knockoff first appeared in a second-season episode of Legends Of Tomorrow and has grown into one of the most recognizable characters of the Arrowverse, and in “Beebo Saves Christmas” we’ll learn a lot more about him.
According to the official synopsis, “when Sprinkles, an efficiency-obsessed elf, decides that Christmas would run better without Santa Claus, Beebo and his friends travel to the North Pole to help discover what truly makes Christmas meaningful.” Ben Diskin wlll voice Beebo, while Kimiko Glenn, Yvette Nicole Brown and Keith Ferrguson will voice his friends Tweebo, Turbo and Fleabo respectively. Chris Kattan will play Sprinkles, Ernie Hudson will be Santa and former Legends cast member Victor Garber will narrate the story.
And who knows — if these do well we might see The CW return to regular animation production. They have an extra night to fill now.
