Fred Jones

Frederick Herman Jones, Jr., better known Fred or Freddie, is a fictional character in the American television animated series Scooby-Doo, about a quartet of teenage mystery solvers and their Great Dane companion, Scooby-Doo. He is the Leader of Mystery Incorporated.

character description
In all depictions, Fred wears a blue and/or white shirt (which is sometimes worn under a white shirt, sweater, or jacket) and blue jeans. In the original depictions, Fred wears an 16 1/2 size orange ascot. In the 1990s direct-to-video movies and in the 2000s series What's New, Scooby-Doo?, Fred's outfit was given an update, with the removal of his orange ascot and two blue stripes added to his sleeves. He is often shown constructing various Rube Goldberg traps for villains, which Scooby-Doo and/or Shaggy would often set off by mistake, causing the villian to be captured another way. Fred usually takes the lead in solving mysteries. When searching for clues, Fred and Daphne usually go together with Velma coming along, but sometimes Fred and Daphne would pair off,having Velma to go with Shaggy and Scooby. Many people having been wondering if Fred and Daphne are doing somthing else other than searching for clues. In A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Fred was depicted as being somewhat less intelligent and was often believing in crazy legends such as Bigfoot and mole people and liked reading a magazine called The National Exaggerator. In each episode, Fred would (usually wrong) blame the crime on the neighborhood bully Red Herring (a play on the idiom red herring). In his teenage version he is shown to have many interests (obsessions for traps, martial arts, wrestling, and weight lifting). He is shown to be hopeless at speaking any language other than English (in an episode of What's New, Scooby Doo?, Fred is learning to speak French - badly - and Daphne suggests he just sticks to saying 'wee-wee', to which he replies, "I already did that before we left the hotel"). He typically shown to be oblivious to Daphne's romantic interests, while at the same time falling for other girls.

[edit] Development
Fred is named after Fred Silverman, who insisted the character be named after him, apparently as a condition of the show being picked up.[1] When the voice actors Casey Kasem and Frank Welker became a part of the original Scooby-Doo series, Kasem wanted to portray Fred, while Welker wanted to portray Shaggy Rogers. Instead the network assigned Kasem to Shaggy and Welker to Fred.[2]

[edit] Performers
In ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo%21_The_Mystery_Begins Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins]'', Robbie Amell portrays Fred as a brunette rather than a blond. Although it is never explained why in the film, the real reason is because it took too long to get Amell ready for the production and they decided just to leave his hair the way it was.[citation needed] However, in the sequel, ''[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo%21_Curse_of_the_Lake_Monster Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster]'', he is again blond.
 * Frank Welker (1969–present)
 * Carl Stevens (A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, 1988–1991)
 * Freddie Prinze, Jr. (2002 and 2004 live-action films, Robot Chicken)
 * Robbie Amell (Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009), Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010), Scooby-Doo! 5 (TBA))

relatives
Relatives of Fred's shown or mentioned during the series include:
 * Skip and Peggy Jones: Fred's parents. Tim Conway (who had previously guest-starred as himself in episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies) and Edie McClurg voice Skip and Peggy in Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!, Gary Cole of Pineapple Express and Kath Soucie voice Skip and Peggy in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. On Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Fred's father is the mayor of Crystal Cove. He is self-centered and more interested in his status as town mayor and keeping the town's tourist industry going, something he tries to force on his son. In this version Fred's father is Fred Jones Sr. not Skip. But it maybe possible Skip is a nickname and his real name has always been Fred(erick Herman) Jones, Sr (See below). A difference is that Skip is blond, while Fred Sr. has black/graying hair and glasses.
 * Eddie Jones: Fred's uncle. The publisher of the tabloid newspaper The National Exaggerator.
 * The Count von Jones: Fred's uncle. Lives in a castle near a factory that makes specialized coffins, and runs a museum. Fred intended to visit him during one episode of What's New Scooby-Doo but was outvoted by the gang, who decided to watch a dog show instead.
 * Uncle Karl: Fred's uncle who runs a cheese shop near Lake Michigan in Wisconsin. He is better than Fred at bench-pressing.
 * An uncle in the United States Air Force and works for a space agency.
 * An uncle who is first cymbalist in the United States Marine Corps band.
 * A 3 year-old nephew. Mentioned in The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode that guest-starred Davy Jones, 'The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall'. This does mean that, presumably, Fred has at least one sibling.
 * Jed Jones: Fred's cousin working for Monstrous, Fright, and Magic. He is voiced by Chris Edgerly.
 * Fred Jones, Sr.: Fred's father and mayor of Crystal Cove in Mystery Incorporated (see above).

reception
Members of the fanbase of the original Scooby Doo speculated that Fred and Daphne Blake had a romantic attraction to one another.[2] [3] The makers of the Scooby-Doo film originally planned to refer to the rumor by including a scene where Fred asks to stay with Daphne, using the presence of a toothbrush to imply that he wanted to stay with Daphne for the night. The scene was not included in the final version of the film.