The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
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| The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo | |
|---|---|
 The main title card from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985) |
|
| Genre | Animation |
| Creator(s) | Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
| Starring | Don Messick Casey Kasem Heather North Kenney Vincent Price Susan Blu Howard Morris Arte Johnson |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ABC |
| Original run | September 7, 1985 – December 7, 1985 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The All-New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (1983–1984) |
| Followed by | A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988–1991) |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
| TV.com summary | |
The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was the seventh incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. The final first-run version of the original 1969 - 1986 broadcast run of the series, it premiered on September 7, 1985 and ran for one season on ABC as a half-hour program. Thirteen episodes of the show were made in 1985-1986. It replaced Scary Scooby Funnies (a repackaging of earlier shows, and another repackaged series, Scooby's Mystery Funhouse, followed.)
13 Ghosts attempted to give the show a more contemporary feel. It was also produced to capitalize on the success of the 1984 blockbuster movie Ghostbusters (where the premise is to capture ghosts). Daphne and Shaggy were given redesigns to fit them into the mid-1980s style, and they, along with Scooby and Scrappy, were joined in this season by a young Chinese con-artist called Flim-Flam, and a warlock mentor, Vincent Van Ghoul, a parody of Vincent Price, who voiced the character as well. Fred and Velma were absent from the series.
The plot of this series was an ongoing one, which chronicled the gang's attempts to recapture the thirteen most terrifying ghosts and monsters on the face of the earth. The show featured a lot of self-parody, pop culture references, and fourth-wall-breaking gags, typical of Looney Tunes shorts; this was the influence of associate producer Tom Ruegger, who would later go on to produce A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs.
The show was cancelled by ABC in March 1986 and replaced with re-runs of Laff-a-Lympics. No new Scooby series was there to take its place that September, the first time in a decade-and-a-half that Scooby-Doo did not air on Saturday morning.
[edit] Episode list
| # | Episode title | Ghost | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | "To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before" | all ghosts are released | September 7, 1985 |
| 1.2 | "Scoobra Kadoobra" | Maldor the Malevolent | September 14, 1985 |
| 1.3 | "Me and My Shadow Demon" | Queen Morbidia | September 21, 1985 |
| 1.4 | "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye" | Mirror Demon | September 28, 1985 |
| 1.5 | "That's Monstertainment" | Zomba | October 5, 1985 |
| 1.6 | "Ship of Ghouls" | ghosts in chest escape but are recaptured | October 12, 1985 |
| 1.7 | "A Spooky Little Ghoul Like You" | Nicara | October 19, 1985 |
| 1.8 | "When You Wish Upon a Scoob" | Marcella | October 26, 1985 |
| 1.9 | "It's a Wonderful Scoob" | Time Slime | November 2, 1985 |
| 1.10 | "Scooby in Kwackyland" | Demondo | November 9, 1985 |
| 1.11 | "Coast to Ghost" | Rankor | November 16, 1985 |
| 1.12 | "The Ghouliest Show on Earth" | Professor Phantasmo | November 23, 1985 |
| 1.13 | "Horror-Scope Scoob" | Zimbulu | December 7, 1985 |
[edit] Trivia
- The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was the last series for which Heather North Kenney voiced Daphne. The series also marked the final Saturday morning Scooby series to feature Scrappy-Doo, and was the only Scooby series that had a pre-adolescent child (Flim Flam) become part of the Mystery, Inc. gang.
- Only thirteen episodes of the series were produced, and the pilot episode only revealed the characters freeing the ghosts. Episode 6 Ship of Ghouls featured another demon escaping from the chest that was not part of the original 13 while the gang were onboard a ghostship. Therefore, only eleven of the thirteen ghosts were caught, and two were never found. However, it is argued that the ghost that escaped from the chest in episode 6 was a conglomeration of the previously captured ghosts from episodes 2 through 5. (When the chest was originally opened in episode 1, the ghosts merged into a big ghost steamroller like in the intro credits.) This would still leave only eleven captured with two never found.
- Flim Flam was supposed to be a Himalayan orphan, yet spoke English seemingly as a primary language.
- The chest of demons can only be opened "supposedly" by the living. However, in many of the episodes, the ghosts are trying to steal the chest to open it themselves.
