A Clue for Scooby Doo

Synopsis
At Rocky Point Beach, the gang are all ready to have fun. But they are frightened off when the ghostly figure of a man in a diving suit materializes out of the surf. It soon vanishes, and the gang don't know what to make of it until later when they read of expensive yachts disappearing from the local marina. The newspaper quotes beach hermit Ebenezer Shark as blaming the disappearances on the ghost of Captain Cutler, who died when his boat was rammed and sunk by just such a yacht. The gang interviews Shark, whose story leaves them incredulous, especially after Scooby tangles with Shark's own diving suit, which closely resembles the one that they saw on the beach.

Fred and Daphne stay to watch Shark's movements while Velma, Shaggy and Scooby visit Cutler's widow. She is a practicing witch and claims responsibility for summoning up her husband's ghost, though she also says that she regrets that he is taking his revenge. After taking their leave, the three spot a mysterious glowing patch moving across the beach; they catch up to it and discover it is a wad of phosphorescent glowing seaweed native to the "Graveyard of Ships," the patch of sea where Cutler went down.

Changing into their diving gear, the gang heads out to the Graveyard of Ships to investigate. On their way out, they spot a yacht (empty of occupants) gliding into a cove. They follow it, but it has vanished. Returning to the Graveyard of Ships, they dive to investigate and split up.

Fred, Daphne and Velma think that they've found Cutler's corpse inside a wreck and go to investigate, but they are locked inside by Cutler's ghost, which then spots and chases Scooby and Shaggy. Scooby escapes and crashes into another wreck where glowing oxygen are being stored. Shaggy and Scooby then stumble onto and free Freddy, Daphne and Velma, and the gang follows Cutler's glowing tracks to an undersea cliff, which they recognize as the spot where the yacht had vanished. Shaggy sits on a rock which works the lever that opens a secret entrance in the cliff. Inside they find a gigantic cavern containing all the stolen yachts, which are in the process of being repainted. They trap the ghost and pull his helmet off. They don't recognize the villain until Shaggy adds a patch of seaweed as a beard: It's Captain Cutler himself. While stealing yachts one evening, he became encumbered in the glowing seaweed, and he and his wife decided to use the legend of a ghost in order to cover up their scheme to steal, repaint, and resell expensive yachts.

Credits

 * Original Network: CBS
 * Running Time: 30 Minutes
 * Producer and Director: Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
 * Associate Producer: Lew Marshall
 * Story: Ken Spears, Bill Lutz, Joe Ruby
 * Story Direction: Howard Swift
 * Voices: Nicole Jaffe, Casey Kasem, Don Messick, Vic Perrin, Stefanianna Christopherson, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, Jean Vander Pyl, Frank Welker
 * Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
 * Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
 * Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
 * Layout: Bob Singer, Alvaro Arce, Paul Oruwell, Mike Arens, Alex Ignatiev, Rick Gonzales, Bill Lignante
 * Animation: Bill Keil, George Rowley, Oliver E. Callahan, Ed Love, Rudy Cataldei, Bill Nunes, Zdenko Oasparovic, Joan Orbison, Bob Goe, Jay Sarbry, Hicks Lokey, Ken Southworth, Lloyd Vaughan
 * Background Styling: Walt Peregoy
 * Backgrounds: Ron Dias, Gary Niblett, Daniela Bielecka, Rolly oliva
 * Title Design: Bill Perez
 * Titles: Robert Schaefer
 * Musical Director: Ted Nichols
 * Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
 * Ink and Paint Supervisor: Roberta Greutert
 * Xerography: Robert 'Tiger' West
 * Sound Direction: Richard Olson
 * Film Editing: Gregory V. Watson Jr., Ted Baker, Chip Yaras
 * Camera: Dick Blundell, Bill Kotler, George Epperson, Cliff Shirpser, Charles Flekal, Roy Wade

Cast and Characters

 * Frank Welker as Fred Jones
 * Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne Blake
 * Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley
 * Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers
 * Don Messick as Scooby-Doo
 * Unknown as Ebenezer Shark
 * Jean Vander Pyl as Widow Cutler

Non-speaking Roles

 * Captain Cutler
 * The Ghost of Captain Cutler

Suspects

 * Ebenezer Shark
 * Widow Cutler
 * Captain Cutler

Culprits

 * Captain Cutler
 * Widow Cutler

Trivia
This marks the first use of a laugh track. The opening and closing titles for the first two episodes of Scooby Doo, Where Are You!, "What A Night For A Knight," and "A Clue For Scooby Doo," boasted different theme music composed by Hoyt S. Curtin, with a spooky feisty tune which is an extension of the sub-main title theme, complete with intro, bridge and close. From the third episode ("Hassle In The Castle") on, the song "Scooby-Dooby-Doo," composed by the late David Mook and Ben Raleigh, was used as the theme. The original theme was unheard for many years until the show's resurrection on USA's Cartoon Express in 1990 and was heard during its run on Cartoon Network, too- until Turner decided to remaster all the episodes in 1998!

Goofs

 * At one point Shaggy and Daphne both had blond hair.
 * When they arrive at the beach, the whole gang begins talking at once, but there is no lip movement
 * Velma does an excellent imitation of Daphne due to lipsync failure.
 * Daphne has in various scenes, a green dress and poorly rendered lipstick.
 * The door of the locker disappears when the diving suit falls on Scooby.
 * The inside of Shaggy's collar is skin-colored instead of green.
 * When Scooby and Shaggy fall from the boat, the bosun's chair and rope are missing by the time they hit the water.
 * When Shaggy grabs a bottle, his arm is bare, but before that he was wearing his long-sleeved diving suit.
 * When Shaggy sits on an underwater rock, his hair briefly changes to a 'hairdo' suspiciously like Fred's blond coif.
 * Fred tries desperately to open the door of the sunken ship, but to no avail. He might have had better success if he braced his foot on the wall instead of the door he was trying to pull open. (unbeknown to Fred the door opened by pushing).
 * Shaggy punctures Sccoby's diving suit but Scooby shoots off in the direction of the puncture instead of away from it. The hole in Scooby's is never seen again.
 * Velma says that only Scooby can squeeze through the drainpipe when, in fact, if Scooby can fit inside, then Velma or Shaggy could also fit just fine.
 * A plant in the foreground moves along with the gang as they swim.
 * Shaggy says that the cannon is loaded, but how can he tell and why does Shaggy carry matches in his diving suit?
 * When the gang springs the trap on the diver, the bottle with soap attached to the hose vanishes.
 * The cargo net in which they planned to trap the diver disappears.
 * Daphne cries out that Scooby can't see where he's going in the runaway boat; the soap suds aren't covering his eyes; and he's not trying to steer it.
 * When the diver is unmasked, Shaggy puts seaweed on the man's face and asks if it reminds anyone of the picture on Widow Cutler's wall. Fred, Daphne, and *Velma all shout, "Captain Cutler", even though Fred and Daphne never even saw the picture.
 * Shaggy's glass mysteriously fills again just before Scooby slurps all the sodas down