Optical Toys and Stuffed Animals: At Home with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Public Presentation by Dr. Kevin Sandler

6 PM
April 11, 2024

Experience a hand-on demonstration and reflection on the non-violent optical devices and plush toys that surrounded the premiere of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. This talk reveals how optical toys like Give-A-Show Projector and View-Master attempted to cultivate a deeper investment among children by extracting the Scooby-Doo cartoon's storyworld into another medium. The talk also highlights the hazardous construction of Scooby-Doo stuffed animals prior to the creation of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in 1972.

Dr. Kevin Sandler is an associate professor in the Film and Media Studies program at Arizona State University. He specializes in the contemporary U. S. media business, with a particular focus on censorship and animation. He is the author of Hanna and Barbera: Conversations (University Press of Mississippi, 2024), The Naked Truth: Why Hollywood Doesn't Make X-Rated Movies (Rutgers University Press, 2007), the co-editor of Titanic: Anatomy of a Blockbuster (Rutgers, 1999), and editor of Reading the Rabbit: Explorations in Warner Bros. Animation (Rutgers, 1998). He also has published in several anthologies, journals, and public-facing outlets including Cinema Journal, Animation Journal, and Slate. His upcoming books are Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (Duke University Press) and the Hanna-Barbera Anthology (University of Texas Press).

Lecture sponsored by the Art History area, School of Art, TTU.

For questions about this event, please contact:
Laura Ray
Communications and Marketing
Museum of Texas Tech University
laura.ray@ttu.edu