The Backstage Rage

The Backstage Rage is the ninth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
Shaggy and Scooby are on their way home from a pizzeria and stumble upon a violin case full of cash. Shaggy rounds up the rest of the team and their investigation leads to an abandoned theater where they face a spooky phantom and his puppets and a counterfeiting operation!

Synopsis
Scooby and Shaggy are walking home from a pizzeria when a car rolls by, hits a bump and loses a violin case that falls out of the back window. Shaggy and Scooby investigate and find the violin case full of money. Shaggy goes to call the gang, leaving Scooby to guard the violin case. Suddenly, a girl poodle limps by, whining and Scooby goes over to see the poodle, and a man grabs the violin case and the girl dog disappears. Fred, Daphne and Velma arrive and Scooby explains the situation.

The gang searches the area and find a puppet controller with "Pietro's Puppets" written on it. Under the circumstances, the gang deduces this was the work of counterfeiters. So, Mystery Inc. head to Strand Theater, an old abandoned theater where Pietro's Puppets is located. They talk with the doorman who they fool by signing Scooby up for an audition. But Shaggy finds a discarded counterfeit bill, and with the evidence, the gang leaves. But in the van, Velma concludes it was a real dollar. The gang returns and sneaks past the sleeping doorman. The gang splits up and a phantom in a black cape begins to stalk the gang, trying to drop sandbags, and set props onto them. The gang sees the phantom and follow it into a room filled with empty violin cases. They are lured back on stage by the sound of an organ playing and as they get onto the stage, they see the phantom playing the organ. In a second, the phantom disappears. All of a sudden, the gang are attacked by Viking and pirate figures, and the girl poodle shows up and Scooby disables the dog. and they see it is a puppet.

In the dog's stuffing, rests a money-printing case for a 20 dollar bill. They confront the doorman, but he is just a life-size puppet! The gang returns to the room underneath the stage and find a secret room. Inside they find a printing press and the phantom that gives chase. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby go back onto the stage and the pirates and Vikings attack again, but Velma realizes they are just puppets. Scooby spots the phantom working the puppets from a catwalk and corners him on a rope. Freddy pulls another rope, causing the villain to fall into a trap and the phantom is unmasked as Mr. Pietro, who pretended to be the doorman and was scaring everybody away from the theater and his counterfeiting operation.

Villains

 * Puppet master/Pietro

Locations

 * Strand Theatre

Notes/trivia

 * TBA

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * When the gang first splits up, the phantom pushes a scenery wall and it falls onto Shaggy and Shaggy blames it on Scooby. A few moments later, the scenery wall is gone.
 * The harp-shaped door that Freddy opens in the room with the violin cases appears as the correct shape from the outside, but when viewed from the inside, the doorway is rectangular.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * None known.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries VHS released April 13, 1988.
 * Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries DVD set released May 6, 2003.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Volume 3 - Hello Mummy DVD.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set.