At night in the city, the Blue Scarab is on a rooftop, and drops down through the skylight on his creator Jerry Sloane, using all the powers he ascribed to him, and tells him to stop drawing the comic. He disappears leaving the artist totally befuddled
The gang is at the malt shop, and Shaggy is reading the Blue Scarab comic. Scrappy's very first line: "Keep reading, Shaggy; I love how you read the Blue Scawab!" Velma reads the story of Sloane being haunted by his own creation. Scrappy, not paying attention to the details, carries Scooby off to see his hero, and the others follow.
At Mr. Sloane's, they ask him about the situation, (Shaggy and Scooby hope it's a joke, and Scooby tries to shake Sloane's head "yes"). The sign of the scarab has been painted on his wall. Scrappy now goes to look for the Blue Scarab, to "splat" him. He opens a closet causing a pile ot comic books to fall into Scooby. Shaggy finds the unreleased next month issue, captioned "Blue Scarab, Super Crook". Sloane let's him have it.
While Shaggy and the dogs stay behind (to "clean up", or really, to read comics), Fred and the girls go to talk to the publisher, who says if Sloane stops drawing, he's out of millions. Floyd Hotchkinson, another artist enters, and is clearly antagonistic to Sloane.
Sloane teaches Shaggy and the dogs how comics are made. The "Scarab alarm" (basically, the "Kooky Space Kook" sound) is heard, and he enters through the window ("This is no time to look for clues in there, Uncle Scooby; the Blue Scarab is HERE!") As he threatens Sloane (and Shaggy backing up with him), it's finally sinking in to Scrappy that "my hero is a meanie!" and goes after him (pulling both Shaggy and Scooby along), but catches Harold Gruber his assistant (who does the lettering. This young Scrappy barks like one of those little dogs, and then walks up his laid out body and asks "Well, what'd you expect; I'm just a little puppy!") Fred and the girls enter; the Scarab has escaped down the hall both Gruber and Fred and the girls were in, and no one has seen him. Gruber quits, though skeptical of the Blue Scarab. Scrappy continues to realize "The Blue Scawab, a criminal? This could destroy a doggy's faith!" and cries.
Shaggy notices "Blue Scarab: Supercrook" is what's on the new comic. His first stop will be a jewelry store. Sure enough, at Romeo Jewelry, a guard is reading his comic, and he strikes. The gang and Sloane hear the report on the radio. (Shaggy and Scooby no longer want the comic). Scrappy reads that the Blue Scarab's next crime is a bank heist. This is now reported on the radio. It's now clear the Blue Scarab is acting out the comic book, and his next target, the city museum. The gang arrives there, and all is quiet, except the Scarab is on the roof. In front of the entrance, they tell Scrappy to "don't move" while they go inside. The Scarab pushes a huge gargoyle off of the parapet, and when the others see Scrappy and tell him to move, he now refuses, in following their orders ("I'm not movin'; I'm not MO-VIN'!"). He sees it coming, and Scooby grabs him, but the statue bounces off of several objects after them before it lands.
They see him on the roof and go in after him, leaving Scrappy behind again. He then takes the time to devise a Scrappy trap. Inside Scooby takes a different elevator than the others and ends up riding with the Scarab. (The tussle inside seen in the elevator button lights). They both alight on the roof. He's gone for a moment, but then appears with the ruby crown and swings to another roof. Back on the ground Shaggy and Scooby are sent one way to look for him, and he sneaks up and slips a cover over Scooby scaring Shaggy, and then gets caught in the Scrappy trap, which tosses him in a pool. Scrappy searches the pool ("Did you see the Blue Scarab in there anywhere, Uncle Scooby?"), and Scooby gives him an angry-looking nose-to-nose butt.
Back at Sloane's, he discontinues the comic, with a call he was on reporting there were already a thousand subscription cancellations. Velma and Freddy realize the next place to check out is the presses. He's there watching as they split up. Shaggy and the dogs are on a high conveyor to see the whole room, and the Scarab starts it, and it's heading for a slicer. Scooby saves them by grabbing onto a hook. The Scarab then confronts the others, and Scrappy lands on his head, covering his eyes, while Shaggy and Scooby land on reams of paper that knock him over.
As they explain to Slone, whoever was pretending to be the Scarab had to have read the unpublished comic, but is not the publisher. He had to be a good artist, as told by the quality of the scarab painting on the wall, but is not Hotchkins his rival. It was the only other person in the hallway when the Scarab disappeared: his assistant, Gruber! He wanted to destroy the Scarab so he could do his own character and not be an "unknown assistant".
Shaggy and the dogs are at the artist desk, and producing a new Comic, "the Blue Scooby" and his partner and nephew, Scrappy Blue. (Sloane: "Well, it's an idea!"). Says Scrappy: "He's the superest uncle I know!"
•We can see why it is quite understandable that people would dislike this character. This early Scrappy is genuinely annoying, like when pouncing on the wrong people, the barking, and he goes from stubbornly following to stubbornly staying put, to the point that he might have gotten hurt if not snatched out of the way in time. The Lennie Weinrib voice also grates on the nerves, but will be replaced the next season. (The same mistake would be repeated a decade later, when the fad would be younger versions of the the cartoons, and Weinrib would voice a young Fred Flintstone, only to be quickly replaced again).
But enough people in the beginning apparently liked him, so that the addition was enough to save the franchise, which, as has been pointed out numerous times, was in a rut, and the inter-character dynamic had already changed from the original show. Now, the divide between "Freddy and the girls" and "Shaggy and the dogs" is complete, and Scrappy adds a balance that was lost when Velma was permanently taken away from Shaggy and Scooby, who wanted nothing more than to abandon the mystery.
The thing is, people have never looked beyond this first season to see that beginning next season, Scrappy will be much more matured, sound much better, and can save the others. Though that will be when Freddy and the girls and the mystery format will be totally eliminated, which people tend to blame on Scrappy, so that simply sealed the deal for them. But even later, when the mystery format is restored, and we begin to see the other characters again, Scrappy will have by then mellowed down enough to play a role similar to Freddy.
•This was originally a story by Scrappy developer Mark Evanier, “The Mark of the Scarab”, from the comic book “Scooby Doo, Where Are You” #24, April 1974 (with just the original gang, of course). This was a good new idea for an animated episode
•The title screens are the same as the previous season, except for "Scooby and Scrappy Doo" replacing the "Scooby Doo" logo, and now, Scrappy is carrying Scooby and Shaggy toward the mansion, while silhouettes of Velma, Daphne and Fred are in the background running away from the house! These will continue to be used in the next season, even though the characters are absent from the stories. The background music changes to a simple horn playing the notes of "Scooby Dooby Doo", without any beat. This will be used on the next three seasons.
THE NIGHT GHOUL OF WONDERWORLD
Wonderland is a place where you can live out your fantasies, via computer programmed robots. Velma's fantasy is to solve a case with Sherlock Holmes. Mr. Marino the host demonstrates that the robots can't harm you by having a Hulk-like monster come out, which Scrappy challenges, and just as it's about to pound him, the sensor stops his fist and Scrappy walks away self-confident). The stay is three days, and there's no way out until your time is up. In the monorail heading to Londonworld, another patron, Alexander Wodehouse, also dreamed of visiting Victorial London. (They pass through different "worlds" along the way).
At King Albert station, the robot Sherlock greets Velma, who he's taking as his assistant. (Wodehose buys real flowers from an artificial girl, as Shaggy points out as "a real switch"). The case is the theft of the crown jewels of England (from the Tower of London), by the Night Ghoul of London. (When Scrappy demonstrates how he'll give him "a right, and a left and a right..." he ends up punching himself out!)
All seems to be going well. Scooby expects a "beefeater" guard to taste good when licked, and Shaggy points out he must keep his hamburgers somewhere. When they look, they find the real guard tied up, and the guard they saw before was really the Night Ghoul. He chases them and falls into the moat, and they remember he's not real. He shorts out, but then is seen getting back up. Shaggy tells the others, who realize the jewels must still be there, and Velma finds them under the display case where they were supposedly taken.
They think the mystery is over so soon, but then the Night Ghoul comes from behind a tapestry, which he throws onto evryone. Scrappy challenges him, and he traps him in a case and takes the jewels. Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy run after him, and he throws stuff at them and drops a candelabra on them. ("This is too realistic") They figure he's malfunctioning.
They next check Big Ben. Shaggy and the dogs find the Night Ghoul, and carry Scrappy away ("We took a vote, and the cowards win"). They eventually trip the Ghoul over some barrels, shorting him out completely, but he doesn't have the jewels. Mr. Marino arrives and offers them a refund for the mystery being over so soon and says they can leave, but Velma realizes that she hasn't solved the mystery as the jewels are gone. He checks Sherlock to make sure he's working fine, and leaves.
They eat fish & chips wrapped in newspaper, and in one paper, Velma notices something strange. The Night Ghoul shows up, and they realize that he's not the robot (which was sent to the scrap yard), but real. He tells them to leave, and then runs away. Scrappy tries to pounce him, but gets Mr. Wodehouse. ("I'm just a doggy. And, and, I'm allowed a few mistakes"). They find a book about the Night Ghoul, and that his hiding place is "the Four Faces of Time", which Velma thinks are the four clock faces of Big Ben, but Sherlock says it's the four walls of Westminster Abbey, which have "stood for a much longer time". She takes his word for it, and they send Shaggy and the dogs to Big Ben to check it out just in case.
Shaggy and Scooby find a secret room, with the crown jewels, and the Night Ghoul is there. He chases them out onto a clock face and end up hanging from the hands of the clock, while Scrappy tussles with him. They end up setting the clock to midnight, which it strikes (even though it's 2AM), alerting the others. Sherlock suggests this is perhaps because it's 2AM somewhere else in the world, and begins shorting out. Velma announces solving the mystery, and they head over to Big Ben.
The chase on the clock hands and gears leads to the Night Ghoul getting knocked out, and now, at 221B Baker St., Scotland Yard is interested in the jewels, because they are not Wonderworld fakes, but the real crown jewels. The picture of the Tower of London in the newspaper clip had TV antennas, which the Wonderworld imitation didn't, so the article describing the same crime wasn't describing Velma's fantasy, but a real crime. So the criminal hid the jewels in plain sight in Wonderworld, which were hidden by the robot Night Ghoul, so he had to try to find them himself as the Night Ghoul. Unmasked, he is Mr. Marino, who pretended to examine Holmes, but short circuited him so he'd be of no use as a detective.
Scooby is now disguised as Holmes, and served tea and biscuits, but it's "robot food".
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF A SCOOBY KIND
We open on a police chase of a suspect in a nuclear laboratory theft of radioactive metals worth millions. The driver they're chasing is really a space alien.
Shaggy and the dogs are hiking. They've only been at it for five minutes, but that's too long for Shaggy and Scooby to go without food. The cars drive by splasing water on the steaks Scrappy was making, and a flying saucer beams up the alien, and the police car takes off in fear.
They run to the others (trying to get a camping cabin from Mr. Moss), and tell them what happened. They take them back to the spot. Velma notices the alien's car is full of glowing handprints. Scrappy sees the foundations for a new building being built. The alien comes up behind Shaggy and the dogs. Scrappy challenges ("pick on somebody from your own planet!") and Scooby grabs him, and they run ("I bet you wouldn't treat Luke Skywalker this way").
Fred and the girls ask about the crime at the police station, and they have photos of the alien ("And we left Shaggy and the dogs out there, with THAT?") They then return to a house with the others only to get caught in a Scrappy trap. ("You wouldn't send a doggie back to the kennel, for an honest mistake, would you?" Daphne, graciously saying "of course not", tries to kiss him through the net she is in, but then he runs off when he hears something. The producers of the "Scooby Doo Project", the live action movie, etc. must not be aware of stuff like this!)
Scrappy catches something outside: "My Uncle Scooby is fearless, and ferocious, and so am I! Scrappy Doo always gets his man, or alien, or creature, or beast!" Shaggy: "Or boot!" He then jumps inside the boot trying to "fight". The owner, Mr.Moss shows up and ejects him from it, and warns them due to the saucer, and seems to disappear outside. Then a lady, Tessie, with her mule says not to listen to him, and the talk of saucers is foolish. Scrappy finds her geiger counter, which is detecting radioactivity coming from Moss' office.
She takes them to where Moss said the saucer landed (as he watches from his window). Right as they speak, the saucer flies in and beams up Tessie and the mule! Shaggy and Scooby back up and fall off a clif, hanging from a branch (Scrappy: "What are you guys doing down there; you're missing all the action!"), and Fred rescues them (Scooby steps on Shaggy's face climbing up). The saucer disappears. Velma finds a little device looking like a remote control. Scrappy tries to lead them back to the cabin, but they only find the ones under construction. Shaggy touches a hot crane, and the alien is watching from nearby. (When they can't find Mr. Moss, Shaggy thinks they might be the only earthlings left. He and Scooby begin packing, and when he explains it's due to "timing, planning, and PANIC:, Scrappy says "Sometime Shaggy really confuses me!") Scrappy finds another remote control in a drawer, and despite Shaggy thinking it could "blow us from here to China", Scrappy presses it, and rumbling is heard ("He's set off a whole space war!") but all it is is a TV remote.
Velma finds a glow-in-the-dark clock, and then devises a plan, which Scrappy has volunteered himself, Shaggy and Scooby to be the bait for ("Well, you didn't want to miss all the action, did ya?") They are left standing out in the open, and the saucer lands. Scrappy enters it, and Shaggy and Scooby follow, but as they grab him and run back out, they are closed in, and the ship then takes off, and then quickly lands, presumably on "Planet X". The door opens, and Scrappy leaps out into what looks like a rocky alien planet surface. As they try to reboard the ship, the alien blocks them, and they run away, and find barrels marked "nuclear laboratories". As the alien approaches, they disguise as waiters for a pizza restaurant, and toss the dough onto him. They run back on the ship, and the alien follows before they can close the door. (Scrappy grabs his leg "I got him!") The ship begins moving by itself as the alien chases Shaggy and Scooby. Scrappy opens the door, and they are left hanging over one of the constructions sites ("We're back on earth!" "You never left it!") Freddy operates the crane to lower it.
The alien is now handcuffed in an officer's custody. Velma explains the clues, the glowing prints (phosphorescent paint to create the "alien" look). The alien had the saucer under one of the cement pads, and lifted it with the crane. (Hence the hot engine). The first remote control found also operated the crane. The alien is Tessie, and it was Moss's radium dial that made the geiger counter react, making him look like the alien. The disguise was to scare the police off her trail ("While the police chase UFO's...") as she sells the metals for a fortune.
Shaggy and Scooby brag about not being scared, but jump when they see the alien head moving toward them on the ground. "It's the attack of the monster head!" "No, it's the attack of Scrappy Doo!"
•The alien planet getup was a great idea
NEON PHANTOM OF THE ROLLER DISCO
A "neon phantom" energes from a closed Sparkles roller disco. The gang arrives in Hollywood, to catch the premiere of "Hair Grease Fever Tonight" at the Chinese Theater. They follow Scrappy's wrong map directions and end up at the Hollywood Bowl ("OK! So I made a mistake! I'm a puppy! If you want directions, get a pointer!") They decide to watch a concert there, before the show. The music shorts out, and the neon phantom appears at the top of the bandshell. ("I feed on your electricity, and nothing can stop me!")
Instead of heading to the show, they now head to Sparkles (at 731 Sundown). The phantom is already there, and Scrappy carries Scooby out after him. (Shaggy runs in place, waiting for someone to talk him out of going after the dogs, and Freddy pushes him! He hides in a garbage can, and Scrappy pulls him out "So you're the phantom! Shame on you, Shaggy!")
Trying to enter, a burglar alarm on the house next door is activated, and its resident Bill Walker comes out, and they explain they were tying to catch the phantom. Sparkles is his landlord, and he watches the building for them. Scooby finds an ad flier for Sparkles.
Scrappy manages to get the door open. Inside, they find the main disco room, and someone turns out the lights from the DJ booth. Scrappy carries him out: Joey Casette, one of the owners of Sparkles ("Are you sure you're not the neon phantom?") Steve Shivers, Casette's partner enters, and says the phantom is ruining the business, and wants to close it, but Casette is willing to buy his share.
Fred and the girls watch a session with the Sparkles band. The phantom appears and drains the energy from the building. Shaggy and the dogs have gone to the movie premiere (Shaggy can't see over the crowd, but Scrappy looks from the lower position and sees the legs or ankles of Jagger, Travolta, Streisand, etc). The others realize this place with all its lights, crowds, reporters, etc. is where the phantom will strike next. Sure enough, he appears there ("Your next movie premiere will be done by candle light!") Scrappy carries Scooby to the back of the theater, where he bets the phantom will get away to. He drops down behind them, and they grab Scrappy (repeating his "My Uncle Scooby is fearless and ferocious, and so am I!" from the last episode; says Shaggy: "We're scared enough for all three of us!") They bump into the others back in front, but the phantom is gone. They check out the theater's electric contol panel and find a dimmer with a timer hooked to the master circuit, like the roller disco would use.
Back at Sparkles, they find a circular from an electric supply house (which included dimmers) on Steve Shimmer's desk. On the back is printed "umopuns EEL". Velma realizes they have to set a trap for "our slippery electric eel". Shaggy and the dogs hang banners for a "Grand Reopening". The phantom appears, the lights go out, and he escapes out the door, and Scrappy goes after him, followed by Shaggy and Scooby, all on skates, and then the others pursue in the Mystery Machine. He's now heading for the Hollywood sign. Scrappy tells Scooby to catapult him up the the "H", where the phantom is, but Scooby is bounced up there himself (as if Scrappy were heavier). The phantom is in turn left hanging from the "W".
It really looks like it's Shimmers, but then he drives up with Cassette. The circular was delivered to him by mistake, and "umopuns EEL" is really "733 Sundown" upside down (this was quite obviously the first time you saw it), which was the address of Bill Walker, who is the phantom unmasked. He tried to drive them out of business, because they were expanding and would evict him. ("Only now he'll have to move anyway. —To a place with bars on the window".
At Sparkles, Scrappy skates holding Scooby in a pose ("Maybe we whould enter him in the Olympic tryouts!") and twirl, leaving Scooby in a daze.
•The "villain" is presumed to be subject to imprisonment, even though he did not really commit any serious crime, at least not beyond perhaps a "disturbing the peace" sort of misdemeanor. He was only trying to keep from losing his home. (Compare to the villain of "Sandy Duncan's Jeckyll and Hydes", who was similarly trying to prevent the demolition of a property, but tried to harm people, in addition to kidnapping, yet was not only not arrested; but rather "rewarded" with a new film career!)
•Scrappy is pretty obnoxious in the aftermath of his two mistakes
SHIVER AND SHAKE, THAT DEMON'S A SNAKE
An excellent plot, that takes our gang through three cities, in two countries. We begin in Haiti, where a snake demon scares some guards and uncovers a shipment of silver. The gang arrives on their cruise, and at a woodcarving contest, Scrappy carves himself, in a breeze, covering the others with sawdust. Daphne buys a cobra souvenir, and Shaggy finds a key, which a woman on the cruise says is good luck against voodoo. Back on the boat, she explains the snake image. That it's the image of the voodoo demon is only the good news. The bad news is that it carries a curse.
The snake demon is now on the ship. Shaggy and the dogs are sleeping in hammocks. Scrappy falls, awaking Shaggy and Scooby. They make a snack, but Scrappy eats it leaving them still hungry. They dig for food, and Scooby finds an anchor. Wearing a captain's cap and vest, he looks like "Long John Scooby". The snake demon appears, and they grab Scrappy and run. They barricade the door, thinking they've lost him, but Scrappy carries him in from the other way ("Look guys, I've found him!"). They go to tell the others, and he appears on the deck. Shaggy gives him the idol, but Scrappy takes it, drops it into the water, and jumps in to retrieve it, but it is lost.
They arrive in Miami, and the gang searches the ship. Shaggy and Scooby show their 'ACA'(American Cowards Association) cards ("Don't run off without it"). Shaggy and the dogs are left on the dock. Just to humor Scrappy, Shaggy tells him "I'm sure the demon will show up", and he does. They try to escape on a conveyor belt, and crash into some boxes. Shaggy and Scooby run, and Scrappy challenges the demon, who puts him in a box. He gets out and makes a Scrappy trap that winds up landing Shaggy and Scooby in a fish tank. ("Nice of you guys to try it out"). Scrappy then eats a whole cake.
They have set sail again, and the woman tells the gang that everyone is in danger except Shaggy, because he has the key. He is placed on "the dog watch" (Scrappy: "That means us, right Uncle Scooby"?) The demon grabs Shaggy and takes him up to the mast, and takes the key. Scrappy goes to his rescue and the demon falls into Scooby's arms. He tosses him and runs.
The three sleep on the mast, and the boat finally docks at New Orleans. Shaggy and the dogs eagerly run to a parade, and hop on one of the floats. Velma notices the ship is riding high, and they see purple flowers on the dock. Realizing one of the floats has pulled up to the dock and that Shaggy and the dogs are in terrible danger, she disguises as a traffic cop and diverts the float. Scrappy recognizes her, and she warns them, but it is too late. Scrappy is thrown forward and lands on the driver, pulling his clown mask off, exposing the snake demon, who goes after Shaggy on top of the float. They hold on and are slung off, splatting the demon. The gang begins to explain the mystery; he was smuggling the silver ingots, and unloaded them from the ship to the float. The significance of Shaggy's key is that it unlocks the secret cargo hold--in plain sight on the side of the ship. Unmasked, the demon is the first mate.
Scrappy and Scooby are a two dog dixieland band. Says Shaggy: "Dog is the right word!"
"This is really mysterious! An actual skeleton flying a plane!" Sounds kind of corny, with all the spooky characters they've tackled, doing all sort of things.
Daphne's high school friend Wendy is now a professional stunt pilot, who's now in the Sky Circus air show, which the gang is driving to see, the next day. They see "a flying skeleton"; an old fashioned plane with a skeleton painted on the underside, which buzzes just inches above the Mystery Machine and then heads toward the Sky Circus. They find no one there, not even Wendy. The plane skywrites "Beware, be gone, the Sky Skeleton will strike again!" Shaggy and Scooby run into the tower, and Scrappy follows ("I get it! We can grab that ol' skeleton as he flies by!" Scooby "Uh, r-right!") but then the skeleton is gone. Fred and the girls enter, followed by Amelia Palmer, manager of the Sky Circus (and also claims to be the best stunt pilot in the business), who is not scared by the sky skeleton like Daphne's friend. (As they head to the bunk, and Shaggy says "the only thing flying in there might be a flight of stairs; Scooby laughs and then realizes "I don't get it!" This gag we've seen twice before now, is catching on!)
They see a shadow, and Scrappy pounces. It's Eddie Drake, a reporter from Newsbreak Magazine, doing a story on the sky skeleton. As he hands his card, bits of paper he says are confetti from a ticker tape parade also fall out. He goes to call his editor.
At the bunk house, they see Henry Graycloud on the porch. (When his voice scares Scooby to the top of Shaggy's head, Scrappy says "He was just getting ready to pounce if it was the skeleton!") He says the Sky Circus has only brought trouble to his land, and too little money in return. Wendy arrives and mentions the sky skeleton. They see someone down by the hangars and the gang checks it out. Freddy and the girls see Amelia doing something to a plane, and she says se's securing it and says none of the trouble started until Wendy arrived.
Shaggy and the dogs are inside the hangar, and the skeleton enters from a roof hatch (Fix us? But we're not broken". "I think he plans to take care of that!") The skeleton, rolling on a hook, picks up Scrappy with his feet and drops him onto the propellor of a plane, which then starts and crashes into a stack of parachutes. Shaggy and Scooby have hidden in a wind tunnel and the skeleton has now trapped them. Scrappy sets a Scrappy trap using a parachute and turning on the wind, which blows Shaggy and Scooby, but not the skeleton into the parachute. They land on top of an engine ("Uncle Scooby, you're not the sky skeleton, are ya?") They fall through the floor, onto a mine car, Scrappy joins them, and it begins rolling. (To Scrappy, it's a rollercoaster).
Fred and the girls see the skeleton land, passing right over them, and follow in the Mystery Machine. It's now a lightning storm, and he lands in a hidden airfield. Daphne goes to yell at him, and sees he's really a skeleton. They also find a computer, and the skeleton's plane starts up again. Velma stops it by pulling out its computer punch card, which was a command "attack Sky Circus, low flight". There are a bunch of other cards with orders.
The mine car dumps Shaggy and the dogs into water, which delivers them right to Fred and the girls. They're covered in the same stuff Scooby was earlier covered in when he fell into a well. Fred finds a map of the area, with "Ed Dept." printed on it (Shaggy thinks this is a name). They take the cards and go to warn Wendy. The walking skeleton is watching ("You think you can stop me so easily!") and takes to the plane himself.
At the Sky Circus the next day, Wendy has fixed a wire someone has cut, and takes off. The plane suddenly drops from the sky, and then chases Shaggy and Scooby down the runway and around the tower, and finally stops. Shaggy and Scooby have climbed a pole, which the skeleton bumps into, flinging them onto his plane. Scrappy runs and jumps in. The skeleton does somersaults trying to eject them. Shaggy and Scooby end up on the wings ("I've heard of winging it, but this is for the birds!") He puts the plane on autopilot, and climbs out after them. Scrappy jumps on the wing, bouncing the skeleton off, onto a windmill. They now have to pilot the plane themselves. They lose the wings and tail, and land in water.
Velma realizes the map was a geological survey of the area, showing oil, which was the goop they kept finding. It belongs to the Editorial Department of Newsbreak Magazine; the skeleton unmasked being Eddie Drake. The "confetti" was from the punch cards. When he found the oil report, he decided to scare Amelia and Greycloud off the land (Scrappy: "Shame on you!")
They watch Wendy do somersaults. Shaggy and Scooby are glad it's not them up there but Scrappy flies a paper plane which Scooby grabs onto, doing somersults as well. "All right! That's my Uncle Scooby!"
•The episode opens in a bit of 1968 score that was often used in earlier seasons. This is the last time any of it will be used in the series. (Some of it will be recreated for 2003's "Monster of Mexico")
•Velma asks in the explanation of the mystery "who ever heard of square confetti?" That is a poor clue, as confetti often does include square pieces.
•They at first think the inanimate skeleton in the plane is real (i.e. "an actual skeleton"), but never explain what it really was. We're left to assume it was a fake prop (just like in "Tiki Scare Is No Fair"), part of the "remote control plane".
At the International Series in Tokyo, as the play is about to begin, a dragon beast emeges out of a cloud smoke on the pitcher's mound, saying they have defiled his resting place, and commands them to leave, swelling to a huge size. The gang arrives at the airport, too late to catch the game, and get their luggage (which is a whole production with Shaggy and the dogs). Fred and the girls see Willie Turner, coach of the US team, trying to buy tickets for the team to return to the states. When they ask if the series is over, he tells them about the dragon beast. So instead of the hotel, they are now heading for the stadium. ("You mean we came all the way to Japan just to chase ghosts again?" "Let me put it this way, Shaggy. Yes!")
The arrive at the office of Mr. Husai, who's holding the Baseball Diamond trophy. If the dragon beast scares everyone off, there will be no more games, and he will have to sell the stadium. (Scooby finds a stand of food, and thinking it's Japanese hot dogs, Shaggy makes a "sandwich fit for a king". Scooby shows up in a royal robe and crown and eats it, but then sees it's raw fish, as he swallows it!)
The dragon beast, in a locker, grabs Scooby's tail as he carries Scrappy, and then tosses him into a bathtub, and is gone. They join Shaggy on the field, and the dragon beast appears again and warns them and inflates again. Shaggy and Scooby run, bumping into Ken Sumoto, a famous ball player who Husai kicked off the team. Scrappy climbs into a room ("If I were a dragon beast, where would I hide"?) Scooby follows and trips, landing on wires, and now the scoreboard reads "RELP!" and the others all follow. Velma finds a box of extra brite bulbs. They go to check into the hotel and return in the morning. The dragon beast is listening to them and jumps on top of their taxi, riding along.
In their rooms, Shaggy and Scooby (thinking they're safe) go to sleep, and Scrappy sets up a Scrappy-trap. The dragon beast knocks on the window, and Scooby answers, then tells Shaggy "it's for you". Both get caught in the Scrappy-trap, and the dragon beast gets away ("Let him; let him!") He goes into a fireworks factory and they follow and split up. Following the mistake of the gang in the Addam's Family episode, Scrappy lights Roman candles ("Candles are what we need no matter where they're from"), and this comes in handy to distract the dragon beast when he confronts them. Fred and the girls finds boxes marked "USA".
He's gotten away again, and they go back to the stadium and speak to Mr. Husai, who's filling out the forms to sell the stadium. Velma asks him to make certain the Baseball Diamond is still in the vault. She handles it, and almost drops it, yet there is no scratch to the glass case as the diamond makes contact with it.
Shaggy and the dogs are at the lockers where they saw the dragon beast, and in #13 ("Unlucky for that ol' dragon beast when I get my paws on him!"), Scooby falls into a secret passage, which leads to a ladder. They come up on the pitcher's mound, just as the dragon beast appears on it to Fred and the girls. They go back down, and the dragon beast goes after them, and the others follow. Velma finds two metal bands, and Shaggy and the dogs go back through the locker and lock it. The dragon beast knocks down the whole row of lockers and continiues after them. Back on field, they pretend to coach him for practice, using the baseball pitching machine which pelts him with balls. Fred and Daphne trap him in a net.
He used the fireworks and bright lights to create the smoke screen and dragon in the sky. The metal bands are the ones used on the boxes, and when removed, we see that "USA" is really part of the name "HUSAI", who's the dragon beast. The trophy he showed was phony, as a real diamond would have scratched the glass. Have had taken the real diamond long ago, and the American team would discover the theft if they won the trophy, and hence tried to stop the game by scaring everybody off.
As they are getting ready to leave to get their rest for the next day, Scooby and Scrappy bring two rockets which they detonate: the first one, creates an image of Scooby, and the second, a dragon, who chases the Scooby one off. "Whoops! Wrong rocket!"
In an Indian cliff dwelling, an archaeologist finds only broken pottery fragments and wall paintings (instead of a treasure they believe is hidden somewhere), and is confronted by a "demon bear" seen in a painting. He swipes at her, and scratches the painting.
The gang arrives at the Grand Canyon, riding mules. Ranger Brantley points over to the cliff dwellings, "not the sort of place you go poking around". So they of course go there, and are introduced to Mr. Carver and the archaeologist, who tells everyone of the devil bear and shows them the damaged wall painting. (Scrappy puts together a broken piece of pottery. When Scooby adds the last remaining piece, it falls apart. He replaces it with a modern pitcher ["I never guessed it would look like this when done"], which fools both Scrappy and Shaggy, who point out "you can't even see the cracks". When Scooby draws the cracks, it crumbles!)
They are next introduced to Chuck Hunt, who handles their radio and electrical gear, powered by generators. Shaggy makes a sandwich that Scooby swipes, but then falls to Scrappy. Scooby thinks he sees the devil bear in a hole in the wall he followed the olive into, and Scrappy jackhammers him out, but they only find a room with more paintings, and an old umbrella. The only other person in the dwellings in an old hermit, McGee. They go to his cave and he tells them the legend. The archaeologists' digging has angered the devil bear, and fearful the gang's snooping will also, he throws them out.
They've pitched tents outside the dwellings, Scrappy hears the devil bear, and runs, pulling Shaggy and Scooby with him, and up the ladders and find him. Shaggy reads his "Coward's Handbook", whch says "run!" (as the bear tears it up). The bear corners Shaggy, who covers his face, but when Scrappy brings in all the others, he's gone. Fred and the girls go look for McGee.
Shaggy and Scooby are taking Scrappy fishing ("Aw, but we'll miss all the action". "I think he's catching on, Scoob!") They catch a pile of tires and try to teach Scrappy, who's already caught a bunch of fish ("With Uncle Scooby's help, I'll do a lot better that this!" "Like Scooby, I don't think he needs our kind of help"). Scooby hooks a piece of pottery which falls on his head. He runs into a cave and bumps into the devil bear, then runs into a fake stalagmite which hides a battery. Fred and the girls follow the wire leading from it, through McGee's cave to the pueblo, where they connect to a tape recorder.
Scrappy finds the lever that uprights the stalagmite, which throws Scooby out of the cave and into a raft on the river below, which is heading for the waterfall. Behind the waterfall is another cave, where they find treasure, and the devil bear, who chases them, and gets wrapped up in fabric, as the others enter. ("Looks like this case is already wrapped up!")
In explaining the clues, the scratch on the painting had five claw marks, when a bear would leave four. The paint that had gotten on Shaggy's shirt proved some of the cave paintings were fresh. This was to lead the archaeologists in the wrong direction. The devil bear is his assistant, Chuck Hunt. The devil bear roar in the hole in the wall was from the tape recorder. He found the treasure and decided to keep it for himself.
Scrappy sees a painting of a rain dance and decides to test it out. Shaggy and Scooby think it's just superstition, but a storm cloud forms over them (still in the cave) and zaps them with lightning.
TWENTY-THOUSAND SCREAMS UNDER THE SEA
A man rowing on the ocean is attacked by a sea beast. On a beach in Acapulco, Velma reads the story of the Aztec creature from an Acapulco guide book, and Scrappy creates a sand statue of it (which Shaggy and Scooby think is real, and grab him and run from it). The man tells them the creature is not just a legend, and was in Neodoso Cove (cove of fear), which is where the gang will see the cliffdiving contest that afternoon.
Cut to the event, star diver Tiger Morris arrives, and is the first to dive. He does it alright, but then soon begins shouting that "there's something down there, something terrible, stay away!" and the sea beast appears. Fred and the girls go to check it out, while Shaggy and the dogs find a geyser and fall into it when the eruption stops. (Scrappy thinks Scooby, holding on to the mouth of the geyser, is "stuck"; prys his hands off, and says "you can thank me later").
The others have found a sea cave, and are approached by the man from before, Miguel Valdez, who collects seafood. Shaggy and the dogs then fall in. (Scrappy punches himself in the nose preparing to splat the sea beast, and then pounces on Señor Valdez). Valdez takes Fred and the girls to where he saw the sea beast. Scrappy wants to go, and Scooby grabs onto him, holding onto Shaggy with his other hand, and Shaggy is left holding onto the tentacle of an octopus, which slings Shaggy and Scooby across the cave. Scrappy calls "puppy power!" and ties the octopus into knots (a preview of the more "invincible" Scrappy to come!) and joins Shaggy and Scooby, opening abalone, to find not pearls, but rather whole pearl necklaces (a gag lifted from "There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark", except that pearls are supposed to be in oysters, not abalone). The sea beast appears, and they pretend to play cards for the shells. They toss the cards at him, playing "go fish". Scrappy challenges him and the beast grabs him ("I got 'im, Uncle Scooby! Don't I got him?") and they grab him away.
The others in a boat, see the silhouette of something huge beneath the ocean. The current pulls them into the cave, where Shaggy and the dogs are picked up, and they are washed onto the beach where the contest is. Scrappy takes the #1 button out of the fishbowl and pins it on Scooby ("A #1 button for my #1 uncle!"), and Velma questions how it got back into jar (when Tiger earlier drew it). Shaggy shows them the pearl necklace.
They ask Señor Gonzales at the jewelry store about the pearls, and he says they are very rare and valuable, bearing the mark of Spanish royalty. (Shaggy, answering where he got them: "Like if we told you, you'd think it was "ahh, baloney!"). Scrappy is reading a guest book, and Velma notices Tiger Morris' name is signed in it. Gonzales closes the book and tells them good night.
Next, Fred and the girls go scuba diving, Shaggy and Scooby terrified of going in the water (Scrappy: "I get it; they'll scare him out of the water, then we'll SPLAT him!"), and as soon as they jump in, Shaggy and Scooby, thinking they're returning quickly, pull up the sea beast, who kicks a hole in the boat and leaves them trying frantically to bail the water. Fred and the girls find a sunken wreck, with empty trunks on the deck, and then arise with their boat on their heads, not knowing where it is at first. Señor Valdez arrives in his boat to rescue them. He drops them off at the Harbor Patrol office. (Scrappy: "Aw, what do we need them for?") The sea beast is there, but Harbor Patrol isn't. They take another boat, and Shaggy and the dogs have to hang glide behind it. The sea beast grabs on with them, and then they end up hanging from his legs. They steer into a yacht club where he gets caught on a mast.
The sea beast is Tiger Morris, and the current had pulled the treasure from the sunken galleon to the cove where they were gobbled up by the abalone. He had a duplicate #1 button to make certain he would be the first to dive and scare everyone else away as the sea beast, as he stole the treasure (and was also implicated by his signature being in the book).
On the beach, Scrappy makes a sand statue of Scooby. How he got it so lifelike? He just covered Scooby with sand. Scooby sneezes, now covering the kids. "I think they found us out, Uncle Scooby!"
I LEFT MY NECK IN SAN FRANCISCO
The gang arrives at Alcatraz (Scrappy: "Bring on the crooks, and my Uncle Scooby will SPLAT em!") Another tourist, Sally tells them about the "Lady Vampire of the Bay", which Jack, the tour guide says is just a legend. Daphne is feeling under the weather, perhaps seeasick. When they hear the legend that the ghost of old prisoners still haunt their cells, Shaggy and Scooby stay outside as the others go in, and Scrappy looks for the vampire, who comes up behind Shaggy and Scooby.
Sally wants to see Lefty Callahan's cell, who stole the world's largest diamond, emerald and ruby all in one night, but Alcatraz was closed, and she was sent to San Quentin. The jewels were never found. Daphne s missing, and Shaggy and Scooby come running carrying Scrappy and lock themselves in a cell (Scrappy: "The vampire isn't in here, she's out there!") Fred and Velma now see the vampire and pursue, but she's gone. (They point out that Shaggy and Scooby picked the cell of the Birdman of Alcatraz. "Perfect for a couple of chickens!"
The other tourist, Mrs. Cornell, says she saw the vampire go a certain way, and Scrappy charges, and carries back Daphne (Shaggy now begins noting, in joking, that the vampire has red hair like Daphne, and so, "Maybe it's Daphne!") They're now riding the boat away from the island (Velma notes one of the red lights is broken). At the hotel, Daphne decides to go to bed still not feeling well, and the other tourists also go elsewhere, Mrs. Cornell mentioning the opera, and the rest of the gang checks a reading room, before going to Fisherman's Wharf. They find an entry on the vampire in "Legends of Old San Francisco", which mentions that like other vampires, she casts no reflections in a mirror. The lights go out, and the vampire is standing in front of a mirror, which is "drawing a blank!" Scrappy challenges, and she rolls him up in a carpet. He gets out, and thinks he has the vampire, but it's Jack. He looks in his mouth, "Not a fang in sight". Daphne comes down, asking what's going on, and Shaggy and Scooby notice that standing in front of the mirror, she's also not casting a reflection!
On the wharf, Shaggy and Scooby order a pizza with a whole wreath of garlic, to make themselves "vampire proof" (Scrappy: "You can't fight vampires with garlic. You gotta give 'em a right, and a left!") They test their "anti-vampire breath" on a plant, which keels over. They think they see Daphne walking alone (and concerned she might run into a vampire), and follow her through Chinatown, but it's the vampire. Scrappy challenges her, and she traps him in a little chest. (Shaggy says "Maybe we should leave him in there", to which he responds "I heard that!")
Fred amd Velma find fresh paint the color of the lobby, but the walls are dry. They then hear screams outside, and see the vampire, who steals one of the Chinatown tiger gargoyle's green eyes and disappears in an alley. (Putting this together with the red boat lens, Velma begins suspecting these might be the jewels). Shaggy and the dogs then see the vampire running, too, and Scrappy pursues, carrying Shaggy and Scooby in a wheelbarrow. Turning a corner in an alley, she's turned into a bat, who then flies into the hotel. Scrappy carries them in, and suggests "maybe Daphne can help", but by this time, Shaggy and Scooby are convinced she's the vampire (and so "that's not the kind of help we need!") The bat is flying around her room. When Fred and Velma arrive and open the door, we only see Daphne sleeping in the bed.
They now want to know where the diamond is, and from seeing a poster of the San Francisco Opera, figure the vampire's next appearance will be there. The opera house is closed, and they split up. Backstage is the perfect place for a Scrappy-trap. Shaggy and Scooby try on costumes, and the vampire enters, whom Scooby at first thinks is Shaggy in disguise. The vampire trips on Scrappy's trip cord, but Shaggy and Scooby are the ones roped ("Hey! What are you guys doing in my trap?")
Fred and Velma see the vampire jump onto the chandelier ("My collection is complete!") Scrappy, trying to lower Shaggy and Scooby, ends up dropping a cage on the vampire, but then turns the lights off, and she's gone. The other tourists and Daphne enter (Shaggy: "Zoinks! Daphne!", and he and Scooby jump and crouch behind Scrappy!) Velma says "One of you is the vampire! —And also a crook!" (The diamond being in the chandelier. Daphne is shown looking guilty). Mrs. Cornell had said she was going to the opera, but it was closed, so she did go there, as the vampire. The Mrs. Cornell mask is removed, and the vampire is really makeup which they remove, revealing Lefty Callahan ("Lefty's a girl?") The mirror that didn't reflect was a painting, switched when the lights went out. She released the bat in the alley, and it flew into Daphne's room because it was the only dark one in the hotel, and she had stepped away the first time they looked and saw only the bat. (Shaggy apologizes for thinking she was the vampire). The missing jewels are in Lefty's purse.
•"Lady Vampire of the Bay" seems corny, and (along with some of these other monsters) shows they were running out of ideas, and it was time to give the mystery format a rest. However, the plot development of Daphne being thought to be the vampire was a good idea
WHEN YOU WISH UPON A STAR CREATURE
At the Greenfield observatory, Professor Spalding says he's found a new star. The guard looks through the telescope and sees the star, which beams a monster into the room, there to claim the earth as his own. The gang is driving to the observatory, and Scrappy claims you can see creatures on the moon with his telescope. Scooby looks through and sees a spider. As they drive, they are passed by several cars with people screaming about the star creature. They stop at the observatory and Scrappy pounces on Prof. Spalding, who was also leaving because of the creature, and tells them to leave. The Mystery Machine had blown a tire, which Shaggy and Scooby stay behind to fix, while Fred and the girls go inside to investigate.
Velma notes the telescope is not pointing up toward the stars. Mr. Greenfield himself comes in and sets it right, and now the new star, being called "Greenfield-12B" after him, is clearly seen. He asks them to leave. Velma notices the telescope is made by "Star Laboratories", which is actually the second clue she's found.
Scrappy jacks up the Mystery Machine too high, exposing the star creature on the other side and he and Scooby end up in his arms. Shaggy disguises as a maid, distracting him long enough to free the others. (Dusting the glassy creature: "We don't do windows!") They go and tell Fred and the girls, and Scrappy pounces on a light moving through the bushes (Shaggy feels sorry for the star creature rather than Scrappy!), but it's Hank Brian, who also advises them to leave. They leave to go to Star Laboratories, as the three men they've met listen and watch.
There, the guard refuses to let them in, due to a number of thefts; of top secrets, though there were no break-ins. Behind his back, Scrappy slips under a fence and Scooby and Shaggy go after him. (The guard sees them, but doesn't stop them), Scooby opens several doors, with the star creature behind one, (he misses this at first), then Scrappy behind the next. The star creature comes out after them (Scrappy: "Come on and take your splat like a villain!") They grab him and run to the others, who see him run to the hills toward the Greenfield Observatory. (Scrappy starts carrying Shaggy and Scooby back to there).
They enter through the Lazerlight Show room door. It's dark inside Shaggy: "Maybe this is the Lazerdark Show?"; Scrappy: "Yeah, I almost can't see the star creature over there!" The creature starts the light show. Scrappy dons sunglasses and goes after him. He pounces but only comes out with a strobe light belt. Greenfield enters ("You again!") and Scrappy enters the space suit exhibit, and Shaggy and Scooby follow, and the star creature is behind them. They try to get Scrappy out of a space suit, but activate the jet pack. Scrappy now gets to fly by the star creature like he's actually fighting him. ("Take this, and that...!") Scooby and Scrappy grab on to it, and fly out of the room.
Back at the telescope, it's back at the low angle. Velma looks through it and sees Scooby, who's hanging from it outside, with the others. Spalding enters, changing the setting, which now tosses Scrappy into the air. He lands on top of a flagpole, Scooby climbs after him, and both are tossed onto a camp tent that Brian was in, in nearby woods. Scooby grabs Scrappy and runs, and Scrappy thinks he hears the creature and jumps into a bush after him, but instead finds a bear cub. The parent attacks Scooby, dragging him into a bush (Scrappy thinks Scooby is attacking the bear, and is so brave. Even he says "I know you know what you're doing, but I think that's one mean bear!") The bear tosses Scooby into the distance ("Are you through with him, Uncle Scooby?" [the bear shakes his head "yes"] Yep. I guess my Uncle Scooby took care of that bear!")
As they reenter the telescope room with the others, and Spalding leaves, Velma resets the telescope to what it was on before, and this has it pointing at Star Laboratories. The star creature enters, to "teach them a lesson" (Scrappy: "Yeah? well how about a lesson in addition: star creature plus Scrappy, is SPLAT!") Shaggy leans on the telescope controls, causing it to twirl around the room. It knocks the star creature, who lands on the floor. Scrappy unmasks him, and it's Mr. Greenfield himself. He kept setting the telescope to Star Laboratories to get the secrets, and used the strobe lights with the laser show to create the star creature outfit. This was to scare Spalding and others away, when he was working there longer after discovering the new star. ("Scrappy: Boy! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Greenfield gnarls at him!)
Outside, they see a falling star, and Shaggy tells Scrappy it's just an expression. They are almost hit by the meteoroid. "Of course, I could be wrong!"
•This is the 100th episode of the franchise.
•This is Pat Stevens' last regular episode as Velma. Debuting 12-1-79, Stevens would also do the voice in "Scooby Goes Hollywood", a special which aired later that same month on the 23rd (the day after "The Sorcerer's a Menace"), and was likely made before the rest of the season, especially being that it doesn't have Scrappy.
THE GHOUL, THE BAT, AND THE UGLY
At a spooky mansion, the Brandon Davies' estate, The Batty Awards ceremony is taking place (and the entire audience dressed as monsters), the host, Mr. Davies, plays a preview of next year's horror film "the Curse of the Shadow Creature". The film misfeeds, and the actual shadow creature appears on a ledge in the auditorium ("Something's wrong with your ceremony!") and swings on a rope into the picture, saying they've glorified make-believe horror too long, and will now see what it's like to really face the powers of darkness. He causes two objects to levitate. Everyone flees.
The gang is driving to the Batty Awards, and arrive at Hillside Manor as everyone is fleeing. (Scrappy wants to fight all the monsters. "OK, to be fair, groups of ten!") Davies comes out and tells the gang about the shadow creature, which could ruin the Batty Awards for good. He takes Fred and the girls to the projection room, where all the film has been destroyed. It was the producer's only copy of the film, lent to him for the preview. In a dark ballroom, Scrappy jumps on the leg of a vampire entering from the balcony. He kicks him, off; landing him in the cuckoo clock, and then goes after Scooby and Shaggy. Davies enters with the others and identifies him as the famous actor Creighton Aines[sp?] who's mad that Davies has given the Batty Award to someone else for the past three years. He makes a threatening statement, and leaves.
They split up, and Fred and the girls find a full page ad for the awards in The Times. The shadow creature enters, and Fred calls his bluff, and the creature begins levitating several things and opening the doors to let a strong wind in, which tears up the room, and disappears. Velma notices on the back of the awards as is a story about priceless covers stolen.
Shaggy and the dogs enter a room, and Shaggy pulls on a book on a shelf which is really a secret panel, which rotates, replacing him with a werewolf, who now comes up behind Scooby at a window with the full moon showing. He grabs Scrappy and runs through the secret panel, exposing Shaggy to the wolfman, and then both he and the dogs rotate the panel repeatedly until it tosses all of them out as Fred and the girls enter. Unmasking himself, the wolfman is Harrison Stone, who was one of the founders of the Batty Awards, who founded a competing group after a disagreement with Davies, as Shaggy has read in a book he picked up. He says he was there to patch things up with him. (Velma: "Sneaking around behind a secret panel seems like a funny way to patch up a quarrel!" He claims it's because of the shadow creature). Shaggy's book also contains several letters supposedly for Davies, but none of them addressed to him.
Shaggy and the dogs now check out the kitchen. Scrappy finds the shadow creature, and Shaggy doesn't believe him until he begins levitating everything in the room, and closes the doors. (We assume they're locked, and Scooby is unable to pull one open, but Scrappy shows it's pushed open). They grab Scrappy, who was challenging him, and run, but find him in another door. The others enter, and Scrappy goes into another room and carries someone in, but it's Aines (still in the vampire costume). He claims people are paying Davies to win. He denies being broke enough to do that, evidenced by the estate.
Shaggy and Scooby enter the Horror Hall of Fame room, which contains wax statues of various monsters, and a female vampire begins following them. They run back out and are caught in a Scrappy-trap. Scrappy then lunges at her, and slips on a strip of film, landing before the others. Davies identifies her as Delores Canfield, a real estate devloper (who had to wear the outfit just to get into the house). She's been pressing him to sell to her, so she can put up a shopping center, but she claims it was him who approached her, but he ssays he's not interested anymore. Velma thinks the strip of film might contain a clue.
Fred plays the film strip, which is a location scene from the movie, but Davies is seen in the background, exiting a philatelist office. They realize they need to get the letters from Shaggy before the creature does.
Scrappy carries Shaggy and Scooby out to a hedge maze, where he thinks the shadow creature will hide, and they're lost (Shaggy: "If we don't know where we are, neither will the shadow creature!") The creature comes through a hedge wall, and chases them around the maze. When they finally lose him, Scrappy "finds" him for them! They fall through a trap door, and the monster jumps in after them. They land back in the room with the secret panel shelf, and a poster falls on them making them look like a monster, and he runs through the panel, but Scrappy spins it, landing him on the pool table, literally "behind the 8 ball"!
(Answering the question of who it is, Velma repeats verbatim a line from the last episode, "That's an easy one when you know what's really been going on!") It was Davies, who was after the film (not really trying to break up the Batty Awards), because it showed him, as the thief, leaving the scene of the robbery, which "covers" were really valuable stamps, like the ones on the letters. The shadow creature would then be blamed for the destruction of the film. His "magic" of floating furniture, etc. was done with wires he rigged up. He then confesses he's not rich anymore, and he needed the money to keep the house and the Batty Awards.
The gang tries to play a film, but the projector is not working. Scrappy plugs the machine in, and Scooby gets wound up in the film reel.
•Maria Frumkin becomes the third Velma voice. We're now getting even further from the original Velma, as Frumkin sounds somewhat like Stevens, but without the characteristic "twang" (forced inflection) of either Stevens or Jaffe. It's like a "smoothed off" version of Stevens. However, her personality is less "dry" or caustic than Stevens' was.
She will do this and the next three episodes, but Velma will be silent in the final episode. Frumkin will return in five years when Velma appears as a guest in four episodes. (We are getting ready to say farewell to the full gang for awhile!)
•The scene of Shaggy and Scooby running and clenching onto each other after seeing the vampire was used to replace the scene at the end of the opening sequence, of Scrappy carrying Scooby into a waiting room where the kids are; for the currently airing syndicated and cable version of the next three seasons, which will not include Fred and the girls. In these seasons, the new Scooby cartoons were originally bundled in packaged shows with other cartoon characters, (which were licensed, and not even owned by Hanna-Barbera or the later Turner and WB companies), and so a modified version of this first season opening was produced for the later rebroadcast of the Scooby episodes. (You would think they would have selected a scene from those seasons). This is how you can tell whether the "Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show" you see coming on will be an episode from this first season or not!
•Good original (and pretty scary looking) idea for a monster, compared to some of the others we've been seeing.
We open on a snowy skiing scene at Pratt's Peak Lodge. The ghost of Jeremiah Pratt emerges from the snow, ("Tresspassers, beware! This is MY mountain!") scaring away the skiiers. The gang is unloading their stuff at the lodge, and Velma notes it looks awfully deserted. The housekeeper Mrs. Withers, stands in the door warning of "grave danger". Noah Reed, the lodge's owner, says she's being superstitious, and both then explain the legend of Jeremiah Pratt, who died in 1865 in an avalanche while riding his covered wagon. Will Henry, the lodge's ski instructor enters, also saying there's no such thing as ghosts. (Scrappy jumps on him, "you wouldn't be a ghost, would you?", and he calls him a "cute little pup", to which he responds "I'll show you who's a cute little pup!" until Scooby restrains him).
They take their rooms, and when Shaggy opens the blinds, the ghost is on the balcony ("We'll have to complain about this; we won't be able to see anything if somebody doesn't move this ghost out of our way!") Scrappy challenges him, but gets rolled up into the blinds when Shaggy tries to close them, and they run and tell the others. They go onto the deck, and he's now on the roof.and causes them to be buried in snow, and is gone.
Fred and the girls go to check out Jeremiah Pratt's cabin on the summit of the mountain, via the ski lift (While Shaggy says they will stay down and "check out" of the hotel, and Scooby laughs and confesses "I don't get it"). They go skiing ("Good thinking Uncle Scooby! We're going to practice skiing, so we can catch that frozen ghost!") Due to a snow-covered sign, instead of the "Bunny Slope", they go the other way, marked "danger". This leads to increasingly steeper slopes, and they go right through a bank of snow, and Scooby comes out with a bear, who threatens, but gets knocked off by a branch. They bump into another snow bank, which contains the ghost (Scrappy: "We'll get him from the left; we'll get him from the right; we'll get him from the front, and we'll get him from the back!") Shaggy and Scooby fall, turning into a huge snowball that captures the ghost and Scrappy. They land on ice floes in the water, leading to a cave, and Scrappy is allowed one last word about the ghost: that's he's right behind them. They enter the cave, and hide in the ice. (Scrappy says "The ghost is getting away", and Shaggy has to explain how they are getting away, and it's about "staying alive". Scrappy protests "I am not too young to get it! I get it! ...Well, most of it). They then find an icy ladder.
In the cabin, Daphne steps on a loose board that has a book under it, which is Jeremiah Pratt's diary. The last entry has been torn out, but an imprint has been left on the next page. Velma uses charcoal to make it legible. It reads "December 18, 1869, hired to guide government shipment of eagles over the pass". They realize this must have been when the avalanche struck.
Shaggy and the dogs climb in through a trap door. Scrappy says they trapped the ghost, and Fred and the girls go down, while Shaggy and Scooby grab Scooby and wait up there, "just in case". Scrappy goes to get logs for the fire. (Shaggy: "What if he meets the ghost out there? Come to think of it, the ghost is already a ghost; what more could Scrappy do to him?") He returns, followed by the ghost, and they grab Scrappy and flee the cabin.
Fred and the girls now serach the cave and see a bunch of big ice blocks hiding a secret room containing boxes of explosives. and ice-picking tools. Shaggy and the dogs are now riding the ski lift, and the ghost shaking them off into the snow (Scrappy: "Now I'm mad! I'm not going to forget this, ghost!") They join the others wearing blocks of ice. Mrs. Withers directs them to the sauna. Inside, the ghost sits next to them, and in the steam, they don't recognize him until he hollers. They run and crash into a pile of skis, before the others. Scooby says "the ghost!" but Shaggy says not to tell them that, as they'll only want to chase it, so then Scoooby says "never mind!" Scrappy says "It WAS the ghost", and goes back after it, but carries in Reed. ("Maybe I don't got him!") Velma sees on one of Henry's skiis the letters WHP, and knows what's going on and devises a plan.
Velma is in the lodge's living room with Mrs. Withers, Reed and Henry. A noise like an avalanche is heard outside, and a covered wagon is seen in the snow. It's really Shaggy and Scoob holding up a phony wagon cover, with Fred and Daphne in a tree holding up a net. The ghost arrives, but Scrappy pounces on him, making the net miss him. Now, a real avalanche occurs, uncovering the real covered wagon, which is being carried with the snow. They all have to jump into the wagon to escape, and land near the lodge, and the ghost is trapped in snow.
He was after the "eagles" in a US Mint on the wagon (Scrappy: "What would he want with a bunch of boids?", which is what $10 gold pieces were called back in those days. He was using the explosives to find it, and the ghost getup to scare the tourists away. The "WHP" monograph on the skis stands for "Will Henry Pratt!" who's unmasked, and Jeremiah being his great, great grandfather. He protests that it rightfully belongs to him, but Velma points out the government shipment belongs to Uncle Sam.
Scooby and Scrappy try the ski jump, and they do it, but Scooby's come prepared, with a parachute!
•On the dangerous slope, Scooby's tracks split around a tree. This ski slope scene will be redone in "Scooby's Swiss Miss", where it will be shown how it's done.
•The ski scene uses a common bit of score originally produced for The Wacky Races, and used occasionally in the early seasons of Scooby, along with another old piece from that era. By this time, these clips were rare.
The gang is on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, at the Beach Front Hotel, watching a magic show. Morgan the Magician asks for two volunteers, and while Shaggy and Scooby say how they would never volunteer, Scrappy, who from hearing the word "volunteer", thinks they want to be in the act, uses a bunch of devices, including a gun that fires a parachuting hand pointing to them. ("A Scooby Scout is always prepared!". "He is your nephew, Scoob, but I'll get him for this!"; Scooby: "Me too!" As Lovely Lorraine escorts them to the stage, "You can thank me later, Uncle Scoob!") Morgan takes "an object of great value", the famous black pearl of tongalane[sp?], which was on display in the hotel lobby, and places it in a box to make it disappear. Lorraine gives Shaggy and Scooby the keys. For his most dazzling illusion, a ghost appears, but it's not an illusion, but rather claims it's the illusion he stole from him, the ghost of his old teacher, the great Haldane. He places a curse on his magic, including the black pearl. Scrappy lunges at him and he disappears, but his voice is still heard. Everyone flees except the gang.
The black pearl is now gone, not even under the false box bottom of the magic trick. All that's there (after Scrappy dismantles the box thinking the ghost is hiding inside it) is gray dust. (The guard points out the hotel manager is "not going to like the idea of a 'ghost' stealng the black pearl!")
Fred and the girls go backstage to look for the disappearing pearl, while Shaggy and the dogs go to the boardwalk "for some disappearing food". (Scrappy: "Good thinking! Even ghosts have to eat sometime!") Scooby swipes some taffy from Shaggy, only to have Scrappy swipe it from him. The carousel bumps Scooby to the "Make your own taffy" machine, which tosses him to the stage door, which the ghost is exiting from. He warns them and disappears with smoke and Scrappy pulls Shaggy and Scooby inside after him and digs in a trunk, covering the ghost. Fred and the girls arrive, and when Velma removes the cover (ignoring Scooby's begging), the ghost is gone. Scrappy thinks he sees the ghost and pounces, but it's another magician, Conrad the Conjurer, who is a competitor to Morgan, who enters and escorts him out away from his special equipment ("trade secrets have a way of ending up in your pocket!")
Shaggy and the dogs are sent to check the dressing room. (Shaggy likes this, because "When was the last time you heard of a ghost who changed his clothes?" Scooby laughs, but "doesn't get it". We see, this gag is really picking up!) They fool around with Morgan's props, and the ghost enters. Shaggy and Scooby grab Scrappy ("We've got a ghost to splat!") and flee, telling him the old motto "He who turns and runs away, lives to splat, another day!" Fred and the girls now enter the dressing room and see the stuff the others left behind. They only thing they didn't touch was Morgan's gold pendant, which looks and sounds like a tuning fork.
Shaggy and the dogs are back out on the boardwalk, and Scrappy plays the ball toss game, hitting all the monsters —except for the ghost. He chases them down the boardwalk, and Shaggy and Scooby fall into the tunnel of love ride, and think they're safe in the dark, but the ghost's image appears in the dark with their eyes. On the other end, Scrappy challenges him, and Shaggy and Scooby disguise as cleaners and cover him with a poster and take a photo with him. Scrappy sees him again and drags them back into the stage door, and after getting tangled up in the saw a man in half boxes, run into the others.
Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy search the lighting booth, which Shaggy says is a good place to keep out of trouble. Scooby's tail flips a switch, and the image of the ghost appears on stage. When he shows Shaggy, his tail flips the switch again, and it disappears. The second time around Scrappy sees him, and runs down to the stage, also as Fred and the girls enter. He pounces, the ghost disappears again, and then he goes offstage and carries in Lorraine. (He says "Loraine is the ghost? Shame on you!" She says "I'm not the ghost, you cute little pup", and he says "Cute little pup? Blecch!") Morgan enters and asks them to leave.
They now look for clues on the boardwalk. Velma sees a glass blower as useful in a plan she is devising. It looks like the black pearl is back on display, in order to surprise the ghost. When he steps on an "X", Shaggy and Scooby are to lower a cage on him. He enters asking "how could those meddling kids find the pearl?" when it's still hidden in a drawer, as he sees, and as he approaches the X, Scrappy charges him, knocking over Shaggy and Scooby, who end up dropping the cage on Scrappy himself! As he's about to take the pearl and "disappear for the last time", Shaggy and Scooby enter as basketball players and take it from him, passing it to each other. He gets it, but Scrappy then plays referee and makes them jump for it. The ghost lands in a trunk which Shaggy and Scooby chain up, Houdini style. ("Well, it looks like we've locked up this case!")
They explain to the officer who has arrived, that the gray powder in the box was from a glass copy of the pearl, made on the boardwalk glass blower's booth, and its fragments made up the gray powder when it was shattered by the sound of the pendant (which Fred demonstrates), and this had replaced the real pearl. The ghost was Morgan, and the projected image of the ghost allowed him to be on the stage at the same time, and no one would suspect him if the audience thought "Haldane's ghost" did it.
Scooby tests the tuning fork on the real pearl, which doesn't shatter, but instead, leaves him and Scrappy uttering their name calls while vibrating.
•When Daphne says "Morgan hid the real pearl in his robe, until after the show", this sounds like Maria Frumkin, i.e. Velma's voice, and then Daphne's voice (Heather North) picks up with "He figured no one would suspect him...". As Frumkin's voice is actually not that different from North's, it's hard to tell.
LOCK THE DOOR, IT'S A MINOTAUR
As the sun sets on the Greek island of Helos, a man fights with his mule as he tries to flee the area around a tomb, before the minotaur wakes up. He emerges (saying he has returned to claim the island), and now, the mule pulls his master away. The gang arrives by boat. As soon as they hit the land, the minotaur is heard and seen on the temple ruins. He warns the gang and runs off. (Scrappy, pulled into the luggage by Scooby who's hiding in it, says "Give me some room; and I'll show you some doom!") Velma explains to Scrappy that a minotaur is an ancient creature that is half man, and half bull. (Shaggy: "and I'm half man, and half chicken!" Scooby: "Me Too!", and then clucks like one).
They walk through the town, which is deserted. Scrappy runs ahead hoping to catch the minotaur, and winds up on top of a hay carriage, which Scooby accidentally releases the brake of ("Great work Uncle Scooby. We'll find that monster a lot faster this way! We're comin' to getcha!") Shaggy and Scooby jump on, and they roll down the hill crashing into a barn. (Shaggy to Scrappy, who's looking for the monster: "It's 'finders-keepers'. You find him, you keep him!") The minotaur is right behind them. They run outside, but Scrappy carries them back in ("We're running the wrong way. The monotaur's over here!") They come out the other side of the barn, near the docks, and Scrappy pounces on a man, Petros, who owns the taverna in town and the olive grove, causing his bag of olives to burst, as Fred and the girls enter. He is chewed out by Lord Silvertree, an Englishman whose yacht was admired by Shaggy at the beginning. He warns his shipment of olives had better be on the yacht when it leaves for England in the morning. He dismisses the minotaur, "just ancient nonsense", as an excuse. (Shaggy: "Gee, his yacht's a lot nicer than he is").
They go to his taverna, and he introduces them to Nick Pappas, who works on Silvertree's yacht. (His shadow is first seen with a bull's horns in the background, making Shaggy and Scooby think it was the minotaur). They tell the gang the legend of the minotaur, and the gang then heads to the minotaur's temple (Scrappy: "Ruff; and double ruff! We're going to take on that half man and half bull. Which half do you want, Uncle Scooby?")
Inside, they see a stone minotaur, carved onto a throne. Shaggy and Scooby play tic tac toe, and a foot steps into the game, and Scrappy pounces, and it is just Petros again. He's come to warn them that the ruins are dangerous, and he leaves. Shaggy and Scooby sit on the throne, but find themselves in the lap of the minotaur. ("For an old throne, this is well padded!" Scrappy: "You got him!" When they realize and slip out of his grasp and run: "Well, you had him!") They run outside, and into a small cave, "The perfect place for a Scrappy-trap", but who it is once again is Petros, who gets caught in it (raining olives down on Shaggy and the dogs). Fred and the girls, who heard them yelling, now join. The cave is actually his olive storehouse, and he explains how treasures were often hidden in them.
They go back to the taverna (Scooby aims to swipe Shaggy's stuffed grape leaves, but Scrappy's already under the cover of the dish having consumed it). Scrappy tries to play with what looked like a silver coin he found at the minotaur's throne, but Petros points out it's not money. This leads them to go back to the ruins and the throne. Shaggy hopes Petros accepts his "American Cowards Club" credit card. When the minotaur suddenly enters, "Whoops; nearly forgot, 'don't run off without it!'") He opens a cabinet, and they are inside, disguised as Mediterranean dancers, and they include him in the dance, but he soon gets wise, and they go through a secret panel and slide down to the ancient labyrinth of the minotaur. He follows and bucks off the challenging Scrappy who lands on a candelabra, which activates a ramp allowing them to escape.
They come up in the throne, where the others are. The horn also activates the secret passage, which Fred and the girls now use to go down into the labyrinth, while Shaggy and Scooby want go go to "The only safe place on this island, namely, off it!" Fred turns this into "Good idea; you three check the dock area". As Scrappy carries them off ("That's more like it!"), Shaggy laments "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind!"
Velma and Fred find the ramp and secret opening Shaggy and Scooby had come through, and that something heavy had been dragged through. Daphne finds a piece of canvas in one of the barrels of olives, and they realize Shaggy and the dogs are in terrible danger, and head for the docks. They are on Silvertree's yacht eating olives. The minotaur shows up, and Shaggy and Scooby deliberately faint. Scrappy uses the ship's red flag to bullfight him. Scooby takes the flag, and ends up in the bullfighting position. Scooby dodges, the flag lands on the minotaur's head and he goes over the side.
Velma explains that the minotaur was after the art treasures hidden after the war and never recovered, but he found in the labyrinth, and used the legend to scare people off the streets while he dragged the sacks of loot into the shed behind the taverna. The treasures weren't just paintings. As they talk, and Shaggy and the dogs continue eating olives, and uncover another treasure, a priceless stone statue. So the loot was hidden in the barrels of olives, bound for Silvertree's boat, where it would be taken to England and sold on the black market by Nick Pappas, who is unmasked. The "clincher" was the silver coin Scrappy found, which was a piece from Nick's fancy belt, which was missing.
Scrappy is ready to get down to some serious sightseeing, but Shaggy and Scooby are trying to sleep on the lifeboat, but Scooby's foot releases it, and Scrappy now jumps on and skippers it out to sea. "Well, I guess Scooby and Shaggy are going sightseeing after all!"
•"Don't leave home without it" was a very common slogan for American Express Traveler's Cheques during this period
•As the monster and the villain disguised as him are usually voiced by the same person, this one is possibly a giveaway, as Nick has the same deep voice as the minotaur, which really stands out.
•Scooby will tangle with a minotaur again four seasons from now
THE RANSOM OF SCOOBY CHIEF
AFTER 10 years and 104 episodes of solving mysteries, Scooby is by now established as a famous star in his own right, being right away recognizable, and worth millions to a pair of New York City bad guys looking for a quick fortune.
Dropped off in the city by Freddy and the girls in the Mystery Machine (their one of only two brief appearances in the story), Shaggy and Scooby take Scrappy to his old neighborhood to visit his old chums, Annie and Duke. Scrappy calls them out of their tenement with the group's ear piercing secret whistle (Shaggy: "I wish you'd keep it a secret!"). Scrappy boasts to them about how he had been busy splatting ghosts and monsters left and right with his Uncle Scooby, who he introduces to them as "one in a zillion". This further motivates the two nearby crooks, who had already been eyeing Scooby for their ransom scheme.
The gang begins to tour the neighborhood, but Scooby and Shaggy are only interested in the grocery store ("You check out what you want to check out, and we'll check out what we want to check out"). Upon exiting the store, Scooby, whose vision is blocked by all the grocery bags he's carrying, gets trapped in the bad guys' truck, and is driven off. Shaggy alerts the others, and runs, climbing aboard the truck, knocking off a crate. The puppies find the shattered crate, and piecing together a "Made in Japan" plaque, Scrappy fears they've taken Scooby "clear around the woild". But Annie figures out they've taken him instead to "Paris"— the Paris Warehouse, which is stamped on a label, and is only a subway ride away. They manage to fish a runaway token out of a sewer with bubble gum, and disguised as a man, they sneak aboard the B train.
Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby, locked in an upper room of the warehouse, launch a couple of unsuccessful attempts to escape out the window, which is then barred; and next try to bluff the crooks with interrogation and a growl. They finally find a vent they can crawl through.
Scrappy and his friends arrive and stick plungers to the wall of the building, forming a ladder up to the window. They fit easily through the bars, and encounter the crooks, who at first think Scrappy is "a cute little puppy" (You know what that idea does to him!), but then realize that "they mean business", and flee. Meanwhile, as luck would have it, the other end of the vent drops Scooby and Shaggy right back into the bad guys' truck, which they now drive to the docks, and place Shaggy and Scooby on a cargo ship. The puppies discover one of the crooks making a phone call regarding the ransom ("Get me Hollywood,—or anyone who handles ransoms"), and follow him aboard his boat ("nobody's here" gag under covers), and then onto the ship. Shaggy and Scooby pile boxes up to the hatch, but seeing Shaggy's hand opening it, the puppies pounce, thinking it was the crooks, and Shaggy and Scooby go crashing back down to the floor. Shaggy asks Scrappy to throw him a rope, but Scrappy throws down the whole rope, not realizing he was supposed to keep one end. The bad guys discover them. Scrappy grabs one of their legs, but his friends snatch him away. Tiptoeing around in oilcans, Scrappy trips, hitting Shaggy, who had managed to reach the hatch again, once again sending him crashing to the floor below. (Upon hearing that Scrappy's gang would save them, Shaggy asks "who'll save us from Scrappy's gang?") The hostages manage to escape again, but are catapulted right back down the hatch by a Scrappy-trap intended for the crooks. The puppies are then netted themselves, and now depend on Scooby. Shaggy and Scooby realize a life raft (which Scooby earlier rendered useless by inflating inside the ship), will now have to be their only way out after all. They are able to stuff it through the porthole, and it sucks them out, flying all around the seaport. They finally land on the crooks, who now surrender, asking to be taken "someplace safe—like a nice jail cell".
When Freddy and the girls return to pick them up, Scrappy's friends ask him to do his secret whistle one more time before departing. He does, practically deafening everybody, and blows out all windows and tires of the Mystery Machine. Nobody does it like Scrappy!
With this transitional episode (of sorts), we draw to a close the first era of mystery solving. Scooby,
Scrappy, and Shaggy now will take off on their own, in a series of entirely different type
adventures.
To the Scooby and scrappy short episodes seasons
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