Decoy for a Dognapper

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Decoy for a Dognapper
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Premiere date October 11, 1969
Music composed by Ted Nichols
Director(s) William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
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"Decoy for a Dognapper" is the fifth episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! season one. It aired on October 11, 1969 on CBS. It was written by series creators, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Scooby has disguised himself as a prized show dog to trap a dognapper.

Detailed summary

While out for a walk, Scooby sees a prize poodle, who he tries and fails to impress several times. Then suddenly, it is kidnapped and Scooby races to find the rest of the gang, who he finds at the beach. As if on cue, the radio broadcasts an update on a rash of dognappings. They take a visit to one of the victims, Buck Masters, who thinks that the dognappings are related to an upcoming dog show. The gang decides to play the hunch, substituting Scooby as a decoy for a prizewinning Great Dane belonging to another show competitor. The ploy works, and Scooby is grabbed by the dognappers. Shaggy gives chase on a motor scooter but loses the dognappers' truck when he is menaced by a ghostly Indian on horseback. Meanwhile, the dognapper's ringleader, the Indian Witch Doctor, recognizes that Scooby is not Miller's Great Dane and has his henchman put Scooby on a handcar and send him down the mountain.

The rest of the gang, following the tracking beacon on Scooby's collar, catches up with Shaggy, and they then all watch as Scooby goes racing down the railroad track. Shaggy leaps onto the handcar, brakes it, and rushes it back to safety just ahead of the Midnight Express. Scooby leads them back to where he had been taken, an abandoned Indian village high up in a cliff. No sooner do they arrive than the witch doctor appears and warns them off. But the gang separates and presses on. Fred and Daphne once again meet the witch doctor, and Daphne vanishes when Fred goes to investigate the stone idol in front of which the witch doctor had been standing. Meanwhile, Scooby also becomes separated from Shaggy and Velma; following a passage, he finds Daphne (who's been tied up) and the imprisoned dogs. The two of them round up the rest of the gang, free the dogs, and use them to chase and tree the witch doctor, who they unmask as Buck Masters.

The gang and the sheriff relocate back at the latter's office, where they discuss Masters' plan to kidnap all the dogs who might have beaten his own dog in the competition and then release his dog in time to win. Scooby then gets a laugh out of making a shadow with feathers and a tomahawk, which to Shaggy, looks like Geronimo.

Memorable quotes

Shaggy: Lucky for you, I'm a dog lover!


Buck: You blasted kids! Why didn't you mind your own business?!
Fred: Actually, catching dognappers is our business, Mr. Masters. After all, Scooby-Doo is a dog, and we love him very much.
Scooby: Aww…

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Scooby-Doo Don Messick
Princess Frank Welker
Princess's owner Jean Vander Pyl
Mike Casey Kasem
Velma Dinkley Nicole Jaffe
Shaggy Rogers Casey Kasem
Fred Jones Frank Welker
Daphne Blake Stefanianna Christopherson
Radio announcer Don Messick
Buck Masters/Witch Doctor Don Messick
Bob Miller
Big Red (photo) N/A
Pink dog Frank Welker
Charlie Frank Welker
Sheriff Don Messick


Organizations

Locations

Objects

Vehicles

Production

Development

This is the last episode that Joe Ruby and Ken Spears could identify as having written themselves, with the following episodes either being written or edited by them.[1]

Filming

Music

The theme song, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" was performed by Larry Marks, with lyrics and music written by David Mook, while Ben Raleigh wrote the music, respectively. The rest of the music was composed by Ted Nichols, who was credited as the musical director.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

Behind the scenes

  • Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache.
  • Custer's Last Stand is a reference to the 1936 film serial of the same name. The film is based on Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, which was nicknamed Custer's Last Stand, due to the last war fought by George Armstrong Custer.
  • This is one of the few instances, perhaps even the only time, thay Scooby is seen on a leash.
  • This is the first instance where the gang act as real detectives and offer their services to someone (even if it does turn out to be the culprit).
  • This is also the first time that they decide to investigate a case that initially has nothing to do with the supernatural. Eventually, the dognapping case does become supernatural with the appearance of the Indian witch doctor and the ghost of Geronimo.
  • The witch doctor warns the gang that they will "meet the fate of Spanish conquistadores" if they do not leave. Spanish conquistador Francisco Vázquez de Coronado explored the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542; he was among the first Europeans to view the Grand Canyon.
  • The "Batusi" is an infamous dance by Batman from the 60s TV series, starring Adam West.
  • When the gang discovers the Indigenous Village, Shaggy says he likes his hair where it is. This implies the racist stereotype that Native Americans would scalp people. This, of course, was based on the time period of the 1960s.
  • During the railroad trestle scene, in close-ups of the Midnight Express train, parts of the Santa Fe railway logo can be seen on the locomotive.
  • This is the first time the culprit expresses anger towards the gang for their interference. In this case, Buck Masters chastises them the very moment he was caught in the act instead of lamenting on his plans.

Errors

  • The picture of Bob's dog is originally shown in full, but the second time only its head and neck are shown. The word "Champion" also moves from inside the teal background to the white frame. The "p" in "Champion" in the second shot also looks more like a "d". The eye is different in each one too, in the first it's black and in the second the sclera is brown instead of white (which was done for animals, but not humans) which makes it look completely shut as its eyelid is half shut. Its eye dot is also a little above its eyelid.
    • Fred calls it a "photo", although it could be seen as a framed picture.
    • When the scene shifts from Fred holding it, to the entire gang, he's now holding two sheets of empty paper.
    • The photo goes from Fred to Shaggy, but there's no noticeable exchange between them.
  • As Fred is putting the new collar on Scooby, there is a line on his neck.
  • The chair behind Mr. Masters is temporarily blue instead of brown. 
  • Scooby temporarily loses his spots when the garbage almost lands on him.
  • On Beach Boulevard, while Shaggy is talking to Scooby about taking Miller's and his dog's place for their evening walk, the top of the dog lead is poking through the collar.
  • The new collar is supposed to have replaced Scooby's regular one, but when Mike opens the crate and the Indian Witch Doctor reacts to seeing Scooby, his dog tag is sticking out. A few seconds later, when the Indian Witch Doctor tells Mike to get rid of Scooby, his collar is also sticking out.
  • As Fred announces to Daphne and Velma that they've arrived on Beach Boulevard, his teeth turn flesh colored as his mouth half closes.
  • Also during that time, Velma is not wearing her headphones.
  • Velma said the signal representing Scooby was moving awfully fast when in fact it wasn't "moving" at all. The signal flashing fast could compensate for that.
  • Fred and Daphne are missing from the Mystery Machine, when he says, "Okay. That's it. Here we go."
  • When Scooby digs his nails into the floorboards, they are brown.
  • As Shaggy is telling Fred about his encounter with the Ghost of Geronimo, the additional equipment in the Mystery Machine is missing.
  • While Scooby has his head out of the crate, two of the holes have simply been covered in brown even if it doesn't match Scooby's movements.
  • When Scooby looks at Shaggy trying to pull the lever, his dog collar is miscolored like his regular one. (A bit of his body below his collar is also missing so it looks like his head is floating.) When he then reacts to helping Shaggy, the new dog collar is completely blue.
  • Scooby's head floats again when he tells Shaggy to go faster as the train is gaining on them.
  • When they watch the train go past them (after Fred pulled a switch), Scooby's new collar is blue again.
  • After the brief fade to black after the rescue, Scooby is now wearing his regular collar. It's fairly possible that they replaced it in that brief instance, although it seems highly unlikely as the first thing Daphne and Velma seem to do is to ask Scooby if he's okay.
  • Shortly after the bats, as the gang enters the old Indian village, Daphne and Fred are about to go into a room (right before they see the witch doctor and Daphne falls through a trapdoor). Look closely and one part, one of the lavender strips on Daphne's skirt is missing.
  • Fred's figure is gone after they chase after the dognapper.

Everlasting influence

The episode and characters have been referenced several other times in the Scooby-Doo media franchise:

Critical reception

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
French L'Appât The lure
Greek Δόλωμα για Απαγωγή Bait for Kidnapping
Hungarian Kukackutya Dog decoy
Italian Cani rapiti Kidnapped dogs

Home availability

References

  1. ^ Joe Ruby and Ken Spears. Scooby Addicts. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
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