Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo

Happy Birthday, Scooby-Doo is the first episode of The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries.

Premise
The kids head to the TV station ZPOP to surprise Scooby, who thinks they have forgotten his birthday. When there, Scooby is surprised with "Here Is Your Life Scooby Doo", hosted by Mark Winkendale. Special surprise guests include Velma, Freddie, and Mrs. Vandereel, whom they helped by solving the mystery of the Red Skull Curse. Before too long the Red Skull comes back and steals the Last Hope Diamond again, but is it really Freddie as everyone seems to believe?

Part 1
Driving through the city, the gang, answering as the "Scooby Doo Detective Agency" gets a call about a robbery at the TV station. Scooby is only concerned about it being his birthday, which no one seems to remember. Looking for his birthday cake in the oven, he gets covered with Scrappy's invention--crazy rubber. At the TV station, ZPOP, they look for a "howling ghoul". Scooby is sent into studio 1 to look for him, and is locked in the dark. Sad, he sings "Happy birthday to me", and is surrounded by dozens of eyes. It is a surprise birthday party on stage! The howling ghoul myth was made up for the surprise, but a real fiend is shown lurking around.

Mark Winkendale presents Scooby with a book "Here is Your Life Scooby Doo", and he is dressed up like a king. He faints in embarrassment, and the station director, Milo Spender runs shouting "That's not in the script!" He wakes up to birthday cake, but is grabbed away to the show.

The first piece is a film of baby Shaggy and Scooby and their monstrous babysitters. (Shaggy: "It was a monstrous childhood!") The fiend on the catwalk drops a light nearly splatting Scooby.

Next, Scooby is asked to remember a couple of voices: "Jinkies!" and "Let's split up!" It is old gang members Velma Dinkley, now an apprentice research scientist for NASA, and Freddy Jones, now a mystery writer. Meanwhile, Scrappy and Daphne search and find that the light had been unscrewed.

Freddy and Velma retell an old case of Scooby's--the Red Skull, who had stolen a diamond necklace from Mrs. Vanderwheel, was captured by Freddy and Scooby, and turned out to be Stuyvesant, her butler. As he is arrested, Stuyvesant angrily vows that he will get even with the gang. Mrs. Vanderwheel now comes out and greets Scooby. By now, Freddy is missing, as is noticed by Daphne. When Scooby boasts of having defeated the Red Skull single-handedly, the Red Skull (the fiend seen earlier, who dropped the light) comes out of the TV screen he was on, shouting "You haven't defeated me!"

Part 2
Scooby runs, and is twirled around the microphone, and the Red Skull steals Mrs. Vanderwheel's necklace --again! Scooby and the Red Skull both get twirled by the mike, and the Red Skull lands on a catwalk while Scooby is left dangling from a rope. The Red Skull wishes him a happy last birthday and unties the rope. Scooby falls and is saved by a piece of crazy rubber that Scrappy finds, stretched out by his friends. (Dir.:"that Red Skull is trying to ruin my show'!"')

Freddy shows up ("Did I miss anything?), and the director asks him, suspiciously, where he was. Everyone splits up and searches, (Scooby being motivated by Velma telling him his birthday present is hidden backstage) while Freddy goes to get the police.

Scrappy and the girls fall through a vent. (Velma: "The superstructure's atmospheric control system the perpetrator utilized to extricate himself"). They find an ascot, which Fred appears and claims as his own. He then remembers he also left his briefcase in the washroom. Scrappy and the girls feel he is acting "too forgetful".

Meanwhile, the camera crews follow Shaggy and Scooby, searching for his present. Soon, they find the Red Skull. They disguise as French chefs and make "crepe du Scoobettes". Police Chief Bundy arrives and Shaggy and Scooby are running from the Red Skull.

Scrappy goes to catch the bad guy for ruining his Uncle Scooby's birthday, and pulls out Freddy, in whose briefcase are red screws. Scrappy adds up the clues on his wrist computer, which suggests the bad guy is Freddy. The officer tries to arrest him, but he escapes.

Shaggy and Scooby are up on the roof talking about how only someone real stupid would be up there on a night like this in a thunderstorm, and the Red Skull appears regardless (Hi, genius!) He chases them to a ledge. Scooby rearranges the station billboard to read "RELP!", and the others see it (Fred already in custody), and run to the rescue. Scrappy trips "numb skull", who then winds up dangling below Shaggy and Scooby.

Back on stage, he is unmasked, and turns out to be the TV station director, Milo Spender (Winkindale: "But boss, why?") He claims it was just a gag to liven up the show, and that he was going to return the diamond. But since he kept trying to pin the crime on Freddy and squish Scooby, the gang knew it was really the revenge of Stuyvesant the original butler on the ones who caught him. They remove a second mask revealing him. ("The rutler rid it!") Scooby is praised for capturing the Red Skull twice.

The show ends with everyone singing "Happy birthday Scooby Doo", to the tune of "Frere Jacques".

Villains

 * Red Skull/Milo Spender/Stuyvesant

Locations

 * Station ZPOP
 * Mrs. Vandereel's mansion(flashback)
 * Graveyard(flashback)

Notes/trivia

 * The "first babysitter" flashback has a woman with a Bride of Frankenstein hair-do, like the one in the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo episode, The Babysitter from Beyond. Possibly that episode referred back to this one, and it is meant to be the same babysitter, except that the one from The Babysitter from Beyond was Caucasian and this one is inhumanly green.
 * The TV show parodies the show This Is Your Life.
 * The birthday song they sing isn't the traditional one, but one based on the tune of Frère Jacques. This may be to avoid royalties on the traditional song, although Scooby-Doo does sing the traditional version to himself.
 * Instead of Shaggy going with Scooby-Doo while Fred goes with Velma and Daphne, it's vice versa: Fred goes with Scooby-Doo while Shaggy goes with Daphne and Velma, and in doing Fred picks up Shaggy's freightened mannerisms.
 * According to Fred, Scooby's greatest mystery is not one the audience has already seen, but one that has occured off-screen called the Red Skull Curse Case.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Fred is incorrectly addressed by the announcer when he appears as "Freddie Rogers", instead of Jones; Rogers was already chosen to be Shaggy's last name.