Fred Jones

Frederick Herman Jones, known as Freddy in his pre-teen years, 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 official leader of Mystery Incorporated.

Character description
In all depictions, Fred wears a blue and/or white shirt/sweater (which is sometimes worn under a white shirt, sweater, or jacket) and blue jeans. In the original depictions, Fred wears an 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 villain 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, leaving Velma to go with Shaggy and Scooby. Although generally a very nice and handsome guy, Fred can be bossy at times, and will force Shaggy and Scooby to hang around till the mystery's solved. He (alongside Velma and Daphne) is the leader of the gang.

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 (often incorrectly) blame the crime on the neighborhood bully, Red Herring (a play on the idiom red herring). This more ditzy and scatterbrained version of Fred was also carried over to What's New, Scooby-Doo? but without his legend/supernatural beliefs. In his teenage version, he is shown to have many interests (obsessions for traps, martial arts, wrestling, and weight lifting). He is also shown to be hopeless at speaking any language other than English (in an episode of What's New, Scooby Doo?, Fred attempted to learn French, leading Daphne to suggest he sticks to saying "oui-oui" (wee-wee), to which he replies, "I already did that before we left the hotel"). He is oblivious to Daphne's romantic interests, while at the same time falling for other girls.

Development
The Fred character was inspired by the titular character of the late 1950s/early 1960s American sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, as played by Dwayne Hickman. Network sales presentation art from an early version of Scooby-Doo, entitled Who's S-S-Scared?, feature early designs of Fred with brown hair; Dobie Gillis was depicted with both blond and brown hair during the course of the series.

Originally named "Ronnie" when production on Scooby-Doo began in spring 1969, Fred was named by and after Fred Silverman, then head of daytime programming at CBS and a key member of the show's development team. Frank Welker, a young comedian and impressionist, was asked by the network to audition for the voice of Fred, although he'd originally intended to audition for first Scooby-Doo and later Shaggy (Casey Kasem, who was cast as Shaggy, had originally wanted to voice Fred). Being cast as Fred led to the start of a long, prolific career in voice work for Welker, with Scooby-Doo being his first such job.

Relatives
Relatives of Fred's shown or mentioned during the series include:
 * Mayor Frederick Jones Sr.: Fred Jr.'s illegal "father" in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, voiced by Gary Cole. In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Fred's fake 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 the season finale, it is revealed Mayor Jones was masquerading as a monster known as "the Freak of Crystal Cove", and is the person responsible for the disappearance of the original Mystery Incorporated 20 years prior. In order to make sure two members never returned, he kidnapped Fred as an infant as blackmail, raising him as his own son. He is later arrested for his crimes.
 * Skip and Peggy Jones: Fred's father and mother in the movie Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!.
 * Brad Chiles and Judy Reeves: Fred's real father and mother in Mystery Incorporated, voiced by Tim Matheson and Tia Carrere (younger selves voiced by Nolan North and Kari Wahlgren). Both were members of the original Mystery Incorporated searching for the haunted treasure of Crystal Cove, until they were blackmailed by Mayor Jones into leaving Crystal Cove forever. (see above)
 * Eddie Jones: Fred's uncle from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. 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 Monkees member Davy Jones, "The Haunted Horseman of Hagglethorn Hall".
 * Jed Jones: Fred's cousin working for Monstrous, Fright, and Magic. He is voiced by Chris Edgerly.