A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts

"A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts" is the eleventh episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! season one. It aired on November 22, 1969 on ABC. It was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joe Barbera, the co-founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Upon visiting Franken Castle, a variety of movie-type monsters try to scare Mystery Inc. away.

Detailed summary
From Franken Castle, the Wolfman watches the gang make their way to the castle. Close up, the gang discuss the history of the castle's move from Transylvania to the States. They then noticed a gypsy wagon and stop to have their fortune told; the gypsy tells them that the castle caretaker has just been frightened off and warns them to stay away from the castle.

After dismissing her warnings, they continue and eventually reach the castle. They're warned off at the drawbridge by Dracula. All but Daphne manage to get off the drawbridge before it is raised, leaving her trapped on the other side. There she is pursued by Frankenstein's Monster. Shaggy and Scooby swing across to the castle to open the drawbridge. They manage to lower it, but are chased by the Wolfman.

Fred and Velma come upon a dining hall where Dracula appears, transforms into a bat and swoops down on them. Velma loses her glasses and while crawling about looking for them she disappears through a trapdoor behind the fireplace.

In the meantime, Scooby and Shaggy have found the kitchen—and Frankenstein's Monster. Eventually they end up in the torture chamber into which Velma, too, has 'blindly' wandered. They manage to find Daphne in a dungeon and rescue her while trapping Dracula. The four leave but become separated; Daphne and Velma hook up again with Fred and check out a clue that Daphne found: an inscription that points to a treasure hidden in the Franken crypt.

Meanwhile Scooby and Shaggy find a mad scientist's lab, where they begin to experiment, narrowly avoiding both the Wolfman and Frankenstein's Monster. Soon they are discovered by the rest of the gang go down to the crypt, where they find Dracula resting in one of the coffins. He chases Fred, Velma and Daphne. Shaggy and Scooby try to catch him with a tapestry, but he leaps back into the coffin, taking the tapestry with him. When they reopen the coffin, Dracula's disappeared, but left behind a ruby, diamond and gold earring. The ruby and diamond have come off the tapestry (into which they had been woven). The gold earring is identical to one worn by the gypsy they saw earlier.

Returning to the gypsy wagon, they find that "she" is actually a he: "Big Bob" Oakley, alias "The Actor", a man wanted in seven States who had been trying to scare people off so he could search for the Franken treasure alone.

Later, the gang relax outside the castle with a picnic. The four teens wonder about the truth behind the bat that wasn't discussed before. Just then, Scooby swoops down on top of the prosthetic bat, which is attached on a wire, and takes a bite out of Shaggy's sandwich.

Memorable quotes
Dracula: Halt! You are not welcome in the castle. Go now or abandon all hope of seeing the sun again. Velma: You stop that! We have permission to visit this castle.

Fred: Look at that fire. Maybe we're expected for dinner? Velma: Fine. As long as we're not the dinner.

Daphne: He was after the Franken Jewels, which are woven into that tapestry. Big Bob Oakley: Yes, and I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for these blasted kids and their dog.

Characters
In order of appearance:


 * Wolfman (John Stephenson)
 * Fred Jones (Frank Welker)
 * Velma Dinkley (Nicole Jaffe)
 * Daphne Blake (Stefanianna Christopherson)
 * Scooby-Doo (Don Messick)
 * Gypsy (June Foray)
 * Dracula (John Stephenson)
 * Frankenstein's Monster (John Stephenson)
 * King Tut
 * Sheriff (Don Messick)

Locations

 * United States
 * Franken Castle
 * Translyvania

Objects

 * Scooby Snack
 * Franken Jewels

Vehicles

 * The Mystery Machine

Development
Joe Ruby and Ken Spears either wrote or story edited, as they were unable to remember what they specifically did past the fifth episode.

Behind the scenes

 * The immortal line, "Yes, and I'd have gotten away with it, too, if it wasn't for these blasted kids and their dog!" was first uttered in this episode.
 * This episode is an ode to the three famous Universal movie monsters of the 1930's and 1940's: Dracula, Frankenstein, and Wolf Man.
 * Shaggy calls Scooby, Igor, referring to Dr. Frankenstein's assistant.

Errors

 * Despite its appearance, the Wolfman is only referred to as a "werewolf."
 * When the Wolfman is first looking down from the castle, the small gap between his arm and his stomach briefly flashes the color of his coat.
 * There is no one in the Mystery Machine during the moment the Werewolf sees it driving towards the castle.
 * When Shaggy suggests going into the gypsy wagon, Scooby's ears stick out the top of the front of the Mystery Machine.
 * When Fred agrees to go into the gypsy wagon, the collar of his shirt is white instead of blue.
 * When the Mystery Machine first arrives at the castle, its empty.
 * When Frankenstein's Monster is first heading towards Daphne, a small spot on his neck flickers between pale green and blue.
 * The gargoyle casts a shadow, although the lasso doesn't.
 * When the chandelier drops on the Werewolf, the rope disappears, but then reappears when the Werewolf attempts to wrestle himself loose.
 * When Shaggy and Scooby enter the dumb waiter, the doors close. But when a different view is shown, the doors to the dumb waiter are open.
 * The gang was only using one rope to pull Daphne out of the dungeon. But when Scooby went to go trap Dracula, where did he get another rope from?
 * As Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma are rescuing Daphne, the vampire appears. In this appearance, he has a large, pointed nose, not unlike that of Big Bob Oakley, despite the fact that his nose appears shorter, stubbier, and flatter when we saw him before.
 * This may be explained by the fact that in this instance, he is seen in profile, rather than being seen by head.
 * After Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Velma capture the vampire, and when Shaggy says, "Speaking of escaping, let's get out of here!", Scooby agrees, with an emphatic "Rooby Roo!" and he is seen and heard running off-screen. However, the next shot shows Daphne, Shaggy, and Velma running through the statue entrance that Dracula came in from, but Scooby is never actually seen to enter it on screen.
 * When Velma asked Shaggy and Scooby why they were riding on that cart, the background behind them changes.
 * When Shaggy and Fred open the coffin, the vampire is wearing the tapestry, which Shaggy and Scooby used to trap him a little later in the episode. Then a few seconds later, the vampire is wearing his black tuxedo again.
 * The headlights shine on the gang's faces, then on their backs.
 * When the gang go back from the castle to the gypsy wagon, they encounter the gypsy with no earring on her left ear, but when she runs away with the tapestry, she suddenly has an earring on her left ear.
 * How did Oakley create that lightning effect?
 * The Ancient Egyptians so completely obliterated all trace of King Tutankhamen that it wasn't until the discovery of his tomb in 1922 that he was even known to have existed, so there is no way a person in 1668 would have known of him.
 * When Freddy and Velma encountered Dracula for the second time, Velma asks who it is, when they literally just him outside the castle.
 * The success of this scheme done by [Oakley would have most likely failed in real life because there was no way he could change costumes so fast and get to the castle without the gang seeing him and getting back to the gypsy wagon.
 * Velma lost her glasses and asks Shaggy for her extra pair, so she doesn't even try going back and looking for her old pair? It's possible that she was more focused on solving the mystery, but still she should have at least tried to go and find them.
 * The two times Dracula vanishes, he gets more and more transparent until he's gone.
 * The Wolfman, even hunched, is significantly shorter than Oakley himself.
 * Frankenstein's monster sounds different at his last appearance.
 * Daphne's one piece of paper becomes a page of an entire notepad when Fred shows it to Scooby and Shag.
 * It is unknown how Dracula vanished in that coffin.

Everlasting influence
This episode has been adapted several times in the following decades:
 * Gold Key Comics' Scooby Doo... Where Are You! #10 (retitled "The Ghosts of Grimstone Castle")
 * Landoll's A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts
 * Piggy Toes Press' Scooby-Doo! Scooby...Don't!
 * In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, a sequel with a reboot twist (in modern conventional terms), Fred has put the trap he used for defeating "Carlotta the Gypsy" in his trap scrapbook.
 * The LEGO Group did a mansion set based on this episode, with the only monster included being Dracula.