Zoinks! Ozarks radio host, 'Scooby-Doo' voice actor Scott Innes to visit Springfield

Jinkies! "Scooby-Doo" fans better load up in The Mystery Machine, because the man behind some of the most beloved characters is making his way back to Springfield next month.

Scott Innes, known for voicing "Scooby-Doo" characters like Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo and Shaggy over the years, is one of several actors attending the Missouri Comic Con at the Springfield Expo Center on Feb. 10-11. Innes will be available for both photo-ops and autographs during the convention. Most recently, Innes voiced the Radio Announcer in the 2023 film "The Iron Claw," starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White.

In addition to voice acting, Innes is a radio show host and throughout the '90s, his voice was frequently heard on Ozarks airwaves. Between 1991-1996, Innes was the host of "Innes and Company" on KKHT 98.5 FM, a Springfield-based radio station. Innes described the Top 40s morning show as a "zoo," full of some of his favorite memories from his radio career.

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One of the most notable, which also helped catapult Innes' career, was his mix of "Dear Daddy: The Wind Beneath My Wings" in 1991. The song was a remix of Bette Miller's "Wind Beneath My Wings," featuring his son Josh Innes, who was 4 years old at the time.

Played over Miller's angelic lyrics, Josh reads a letter that KKHT received from an anonymous parent at the radio station. The parent had written in that her own 4-year-old son wrote the letter to his father, who was a solider in the Persian Gulf.

"Mommy cries all the time ... Do you miss me? ... I miss you," were some of the lines Josh read to the song, according to a News-Leader story published on Jan. 23, 1991.

Following the airing of "Dear Daddy: The Wind Beneath My Wings" in Springfield, more than 400 radio stations across the country began to play it too, according to the News-Leader story. Radio stations in St. Louis, Dallas, Texas and Mobile, Alabama, all played the song, which proved to be highly requested by their listeners.

Several years later, in 1997, Innes began working at WRQQ 103.3 FM in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he remains a morning host today. It was Innes' work at this station that paved the groundwork for his voice acting career.

Early on at WRQQ 103.3 FM, Innes mixed a parody of Alabama's "Dancin', Shaggin' on the Boulevard." His version of the song, "Shaggy on the Boulevard" featuring him singing the song in Shaggy's voice from "Scooby-Doo."

Around this same time, Don Messick, the original voice actor of Scooby-Doo, suffered a stroke that left him unable to work; Messick died at the age of 71 in October 1997. Innes' "Shaggy on the Boulevard" was heard by the right people and before he knew it, he was auditioning to voice Scooby-Doo in "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island."

Innes went on to voice Scooby and Shaggy in the countless movies that followed, including "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost," "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders" and "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase," occasionally voicing for Scrappy-Doo, Scooby-Doo's nephew. Innes has also voiced characters in branded video games like "Scooby-Doo! Unmasked," "Scooby-Doo! The Glowing Bug Man" and "Scooby-Doo! First Rights."

Throughout his career, Innes has voiced several other popular characters from the Hanna-Barbera franchise, an animation studio that was absorbed by Warner Bros. in 2001, including Popeye the Sailor, Fred Flintstone, Bugs Bunny and Yogi Bear, among many others.

Connecting with fans

Throughout his 20-plus year career in voice acting, Innes said one of his favorite experiences continues to be meeting fans at comic conventions.

"Scooby has touched so many lives," he said. "I had a kid come up to me in Corpus Christi and he was bawling. When he calmed down I was like, 'What's the deal?' And he said, 'Well ... I lived in a very bad household and argued and fight all the time. I'd escape to my room and I'd hide under the bed and I'd watch 'Scooby-Doo.' It's given me peace. You were a real big piece of my childhood. Because of you, I was able to escape that chaos in my house.' As voice actors, I think we take a lot of things for granted, how these characters touch (people)."

What makes Missouri Comic Con even more special, Innes said, is that it will be like a "family reunion," catching up with old friends and colleagues and folks who listened to him on air in the '90s.

"My buddy who puts on that comic con, he asked me if I wanted to come to Springfield and I said, 'Do I want to come to Springfield? Abso-freaking-lutely.'"

Innes said he is also looking forward to chatting with a few voice acting colleagues, like Grey Delisle, who's voiced Daphne in several "Scooby-Doo" films and Billy West, who's voiced various "Scooby-Doo" characters like Shaggy in "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" and Jimmy Proudwolf in "Scooby-Doo! and the Safari Creatures" and "What's New, Scooby-Doo?"

Several new projects coming in 2024

In addition to Missouri Comic Con, Innes said he is participating in a 30-city comic convention tour over the next few months.

As far as future projects, Innes said he is completing an independent film called "Bad Habit," in which he is a co-writer and actor. The film follows a small-town detective working with the Los Angeles Police Department on a mysterious murder. He also is the voice of a character in a new Missouri-made film called "Shakespeare's Mummy," which tells the story of a group of kids trying to stop an Egyptian zombie apocalypse.

Innes told the News-Leader that he was also cast to voice the commercials for Texas' Puppy Food Bank, a project he is happy to support.

Photo-op tickets with Innes are available on the Missouri Comic Con website, starting at $55. One photo-op ticket gets guests one color 8x10 printed photo with Innes.

Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretacrossphoto. Story idea? Email her at gcross@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: 'Scooby-Doo' voice actor Scott Innes to appear at Missouri Comic Con