Tomorrow (at the time of this being written and posted), the first ever Scooby-Doo episode will turn 50 years old. Which means Scooby-Doo and the gang will be 50, or because they started out as teenagers, maybe like 67 or something.
Regardless of their actual age, it’s a pretty big deal to have a 50th anniversary of a television show and still be as good and relevant as they are today.
Because of that, I will be putting my previous film classes I took to use and analyze their very first episode: “What a Night for a Night.”
The overall synopsis is that Shaggy and Scooby-Doo discover an abandoned pickup truck in the woods with an old suit of armor in the driver’s seat. They go and return it to the county museum and when they do they discover that there’s a curse on the armor that makes it come to life every full moon.
When they return the suit of armor, it was the museum curator, Mr. Wickles, who told them about the curse. He also mentioned that it was the curse that got Professor Hyde White, and that is why they found the truck abandoned in the first place.
Before they leave the museum, Scooby finds a special-looking pair of glasses on one of the statues, and instead of anyone in the group actually putting them on and wearing them to see what it looks like, they go to the library to research it, and somehow find exactly what they’re looking for within 10 minutes of searching.
I’m not saying it’s incredibly unrealistic, but it’s amazing they find the exact pair of glasses, and they say they’re incredibly rare and only a few made in England, where Professor Hyde White is from. They just got their first suspect for the mystery.
We do also get this classic image of the gang in the library looking towards the camera in this first episode.
So they sneak back into the museum. Or, quite literally break in. As it is a cartoon, Hanna and Barbara have you suspend your belief and watch as Shaggy rides a ladder while Fred uses a car jack to make it go up higher.
Shaggy jumps into the window, and the gang, and the audience hears crashing and shattering, before cutting to the inside of the museum. They just caused millions of damages for a hunch.
They discover inside a secret room that someone’s been making forgeries of all the museum pieces, so maybe the damages aren’t so bad? We’re unsure because it’s never brought up.
They’re chased by the Black Knight, and Shaggy and Scooby end up hiding in a biplane, somehow it turn on, and then it barrels towards the Knight. Knocking him out, and potentially causing even more damages to priceless artifacts.
This being the first episode ever, it is also the first time we see them unmask someone.
It’s Mr. Wickles!
It makes sense, because the only two people that the gang even knew about was him and the Professor, who Mr. Wickles tied up and put on display in the museum.
So the Mystery Inc. Gang solved their first mystery, and potentially caused millions or even billions of damages.
But still: they caught the villain doing something illegal, by breaking and entering, and (maybe) damaging hundreds of priceless items in the process.
All for the greater good.
Overall, this is a fun first episode. It started the running gags of Scooby Snacks, Velma losing her glasses, and Scooby dressing up in front of villains.
The older Scooby-Doo also had a laugh track that was constantly on. Sometimes couldn’t even tell what was being laughed at, but it was a neat thing to add to this show.
If you haven’t seen it yet? Why not? This is usually considered their first case ever, and they stopped their first villain, so go to watching this 30 minute episode.
Be sure to check back one more time tomorrow on Scooby-Doo’s 50th to see the concluding post celebrating these meddling kids and their dog!
Kristopher K. Online 