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Fred almost played Shaggy - and Shaggy wanted to play Fred!
Casey Kasem and Frank Welker both planned on auditioning for different roles on "Scooby-Doo! Where are You?"
Zoinks! What if Shaggy was the voice of Fred or vice versa? Well, that's nearly what happened in the early stages of casting Scooby-Doo! Where are You?
The story starts in 1969 at a comedy club in Los Angeles where a young Frank Welker was performing standup. Welker's routine involved reenacting a dog and cat fight, showing off his animal impersonations. Watching in the audience was a commercial agent, who later booked Welker for some commercials; but more importantly the commercial agent was engaged to the casting director at ABC for a brand new show called Scooby-Doo! Where are You? They invited Welker to audition for the show.
"I went over there and I got the script and I saw Shaggy," Welker said in an interview with the whole voice cast. "I said, 'This is me!.'"
He loved how funny Shaggy was and looked forward to playing Shaggy after playing so many "straight guys." Shaggy seemed like the perfect fit for the young comic.
Meanwhile, Casey Kasem's journey to Scooby-Doo was more of a long and arduous journey. After serving in the Korean War, Kasem bounced around the country working as a radio jockey and trying to become an actor in New York. While he did not have much luck on stage, he ended up capturing the attention of Dick Clark who hired him as a cohost on the teen music radio show Shebang.
From there, Kasem landed a few small roles in television, radio dramas, and low-budget movies. As he approached the audition for Scooby-Doo, Kasem focused on getting the role of Fred because he longed to play more serious roles and because Fred's voice seemed like a better fit for Kasem's golden radio host voice.
The two actors met at the Scooby-Doo audition and quickly became friends. Kasem described his audition as "The character I wanted to do was Fred, so they said 'No, we'd like you to read for the other character, Shaggy.'"
Kasem quickly improvised a voice, saying "Scoob, old buddy, old pal, it's me Shaggy!" and was called back three times before being cast as Shaggy. In the question and answer section of his website, Welker said "When I heard Casey’s Shaggy, I thought 'Oh my that fits the drawing perfectly.' He nailed it! I wish I could remember how he sounded as Freddy...hah!"
In the end, Frank Welker was cast as Fred Jones and Casey Kasem was cast as Shaggy Rogers. Despite both actors getting the other's preferred character, there was no bad blood. In fact, as a high school student, Welker had been a fan of Kasem's radio show!
Welker said "...it was quite a thrill to be working with Casey Kasem. He told of stories about working in various radio outlets and his early days all very interesting. Later Casey would take me out for Lebanese food and more stories."
The friends continued to act together in both the Scooby-Doo series and other shows together like Transformers and Super Friends. Both regularly recommended each other for auditions so they could continue working together. Scooby-Doo was both actors' first animated role and they stuck with the series for nearly fifty years together. Kasem played Shaggy until 2006 and then played Shaggy's relatives until his death in 2014. Frank Welker continues to act in the Scooby-Doo universe to this day.
