Bedlam in the Big Top

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Bedlam in the Big Top
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Network CBS
Premiere date November 15, 1969
Music composed by Ted Nichols
Director(s) William Hanna
Voice director(s) Joseph Barbera
Animation director(s) Charles A. Nichols
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Title card
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"Bedlam in the Big Top" is the tenth episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! season one. It aired on November 15, 1969 on CBS. It was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

The gang gets in way over their heads when they are enthralled by a hypnotizing ghostly clown.

Detailed summary

Memorable quotes

Ghost Clown: You will pay attention for a time... and soon your thoughts shall all be mine. Watch the pretty coin of gold, and you will do as you are told.


Mr. Barnstorm: I know that man. He's Harry the Hypnotist. He had an act with us, but we caught him stealing and sent him to prison.
Velma: Looks like he wanted to get revenge.
Daphne: As the Ghost Clown, he knew he could ruin your circus.
Fred: He sure had us fooled with this balloon copy of the Ghost Clown. You see, he inflated it with this gas cartridge, and it disappeared when he deflated it.

Characters

Legend
Character debut Speaking debut Ep. debut No lines Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character Actor
Ghost Clown/Harry, the Hypnotist Barry Richards
Max, the Midget Don Messick
Samson, the Strongman John Stephenson
Velma Dinkley Nicole Jaffe
Shaggy Rogers Casey Kasem
Fred Jones Frank Welker
Daphne Blake Stefanianna Christopherson
Scooby-Doo Don Messick
Mr. Barnstorm Don Messick


Organizations

Locations

Objects

Vehicles

Production

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.[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

Errors

This page or certain elements were originally from Scoobypedia, whose content is licensed under the compatible CC-BY-SA license. View this template
  • When Velma reacts to the tandem bicycle going out of control, Daphne's lips move (or at least just barely).
  • Samson points off to his left, saying that Max flew off the bicycle in that direction, yet Scooby finds him hanging from a tree off to the strongman's right.
  • Velma's mouth doesn't move when cheering for Scooby after he rescues Max.
  • It takes mere moments for the rest of the gang to get out of the van and out of its reach after Scooby saves Max.
  • At first, Max is standing behind Scooby, with Samson next to him, then suddenly Max is by Scooby's side, and Samson is gone.
  • While unhypontizing Scooby when the Ghost Clown says you shall not work in this circus his eye sockets turn yellow
  • When Shaggy says, "Don't tell me that there are two of them", his head is up instead of right.
  • The Clown's lips are colored red, but when hypnotizing Daphne, they suddenly turn grey. It does flicker red at the beginning of his sentence, though.
  • Perhaps for more detail, Daphne is not only given white sclera, but also blue irises when being hypnotized by the Ghost Clown.
  • When the Ghost Clown yells "Give me back that whistle", the black part of his costume is colored red.
  • Samson hangs onto the bicycle handlebars, keeping his arms in exactly the same position, even though the handlebars are no longer attached to the bike.
  • It is revealed in this episode that Daphne can't even ride a bicycle. However, she rode one in the The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair," very proficiently. Naturally, she could have practiced a lot since then.
  • Velma's fine with clowns in this episode, which contradicts the later produced What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Metallic Clown," in which claims she's had a phobia of clowns since her fifth birthday.
  • How did the gang not even realize that Scooby is not with them when they were leaving the circus? 
  • When the gang (minus Scooby) were leaving the circus with the Mystery Machine going from left to right it is obvious that the animators simply flipped the cells of it going from right to left. Unfortunately, this results in the steering wheel being on the left side and the gang being in the opposite positions (Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy from left to right) from where they should be when the animators change to the front view.
  • The Ghost Clown was controlling Scooby like a puppet but that is impossible to do since he just hypnotized him.
  • The Clown attempted to convince the gang that there were two of them when they attempted to capture him. The Clown they captured was a balloon that was deflated to make it appear as though the Clown had disappeared into thin air, however, wouldn't the gang have seen the balloon in the cage once it had deflated? (Perhaps they did not check until after they had caught him?)
  • Right before the Clown is finally captured, Scooby and Shaggy hold up a mirror to prevent themselves from being hypnotized. The Clown should have stopped the hypnotism chant when he saw the mirror; instead, he hypnotizes himself.
  • Mr. Barnstorm states that the lions had begun acting like scared kittens, yet the one Shaggy tames seems to be acting perfectly normal. It is possible the Ghost Clown reversed his hypnosis on that lion, assuming this is why the lions were acting scared.
  • Shaggy says about going back to the hero sandwich in the cage (that the Ghost Clown balloon would be caught in), but there would be no reason why it would be there, especially since he would've surely eaten it not long after getting it.
  • Daphne says she hopes Scooby doesn't try the high wire again, even though she wasn't on-screen with Velma and Shaggy when it happened. It's possible she peeked inside the tent off-screen and saw Scooby on the high wire.
  • It is not revealed how the Ghost Clown/Harry the Hypnotist was brought out of his trance.
  • At the end of the episode, a young boy in the audience is inexplicably holding a balloon shaped similar to Scooby's head.

Everlasting influence

  • The episode has been referenced a couple of times in the Scooby-Doo media franchise:

Marketing and promotion

Critical reception

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
French Le Fantôme du Clown The Ghost of the Clown
Greek Ο Κλόουν του Τσίρκου
Παλαβομάρες σε Σχοινί 		The Clown of the Circus
Crack-braining on a Wire
Hungarian A bolond bohóc The crazy clown

Home availability

References

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