Scooby-Doh! Homer's record beaten

Homer would have gotten away with it if it hadn't been for those meddling kids.

The Simpsons have lost their place in the Guinness World Records book as the cartoon comedy series with the most episodes - to Scooby-Doo and his ghostbusting gang.

The fearful hound, together with his friends Velma, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne has featured in a total of 350 episodes since the cartoon first aired in 1969.

Homer and the rest of Springfield's finest have appeared in 335.

Richard Kilgarriff, of British-based

Boomerang TV, which will screen the latest episode, Scooby-Doo Hallowe'en, on Sunday, said: 'It's a great honour to have taken Homer's crown.'

Scooby-Doo's other cartoon rivals are lagging even further behind. Tom and Jerry managed to notch up only 209 episodes, ahead of The Flintstones with 166 and Mickey Mouse with 120.

Scooby-Doo was also named secondfavourite childhood cartoon in a recent poll of adults, behind Tom and Jerry.