Scooby-Doo/Courage the Cowardly Dog Scare-A-Thon (promo)

The Scooby-Doo/Courage the Cowardly Dog Scare-A-Thon was a Cartoon Network marathon block, featuring a mix of episodes of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and Courage the Cowardly Dog. The marathon aired October 23-26, 2000 from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM.

To advertise the marathon, sixteen one-minute bumpers and three one-minute ads were produced, featuring the casts of both programs crossing over with one another.

Premise
The Mystery Machine is stuck in Nowhere, leading the gang to seek help from the Bagges.

Synopsis
A strange light (possibly a UFO) momentarily disrupts the Mystery Machine's electronics and causes the gang to experience a period of uncontrolled weightlessness, before disappearing entirely. After straightening themselves out, Fred tries to start the van, but the battery's dead.

On Velma's suggestion, the gang goes to the Bagge family farmhouse to see about using a phone. Unfortunately, after being greeted by Muriel at the front door, they're informed that the house has no power. Rather optimistically, Muriel believes it will be back on soon and suggests they pass the time by telling ghost stories.

Courage and Scooby immediately head for the door, desperately trying to leave, prompting Velma to suggest Courage might be more frightened than Scooby. Eustace is quick to accept this "bet" and tells Muriel to start the ghost stories.

Scardiest Dog
The hinted at "bet" between Eustace and Velma was, in essence, a not-so-subtle nod to the tie-in online poll, inviting viewers to vote on whether Courage or Scooby-Doo was the "scardiest dog". The winner, Scooby-Doo, was awarded a 10-hour "Scare-A-Thon Winner's Marathon" on October 29, 2000 from 12:00 PM to 10:00 PM.

Sweepstakes
An additional tie-in to this marathon block was a viewers sweepstakes that could be entered either online at CartoonNetwork.com or via a mail-in entry. The grand prize was a trip to "paranormal Roswell, New Mexico", while one hundred first prize winners were given a Cheetos snack pack and copy of Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders on VHS.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Mystery Inc.
 * Scooby-Doo
 * Shaggy Rogers
 * Daphne Blake
 * Velma Dinkley
 * Fred Jones
 * Courage
 * Muriel Bagge
 * Eustace Bagge

Villains:
 * None

Locations

 * Nowhere, Kansas
 * Bagge family farmhouse

Vehicles

 * The Mystery Machine

Notes/trivia

 * While this promo featured the most in terms of story, one of the additional spots produced for the "Scare-A-Thon" included a commercial for Cheetos and the coinciding sweepstakes, which was also directed by Steve Evangelatos . In this, a UFO is spotted near the Bagge residence, with a television announcer advising "all old people, hippies and scaredy dogs" to stay indoors. Courage unsuccessfully tries to warn Muriel and Eustace, while Shaggy accidentally gets himself abducted by the UFO, along with a Cheetos truck, because he's driving the Mystery Machine behind it. Scooby and Courage witness the whole thing, terrified. At the end of the ad, the UFO returns to spit Shaggy out onto a billboard for the sweepstakes.
 * In 2001, a Cartoon Network bumper would feature Shaggy and Scooby-Doo returning to Nowhere. This time however, Shaggy and Scooby, disguised as monsters, corner a terrified Courage in an upstairs room, refer to him as "yappy dog" and warn him that they'll "handle all the creepy villain angles on this network". Causing a bit of a continuity problem, this is revealed to be Courage's nightmare, brought on by the episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! that Eustace is watching on television. Apparently a fan of the series, Eustace is frustrated when Courage makes him "miss who the villain was".
 * In 2021, Courage and Scooby-Doo will reportedly cross paths once again, in a direct-to-video film tentatively titled "Scooby-Doo! and Courage the Cowardly Dog".

Cultural references

 * In the Cheetos/Sweepstakes commercial, as he's being abducted, Shaggy shouts "Game over, Scoob! Game over!", a reference to Bill Paxton's famous line in the film Aliens.