A Clue for Scooby Doo

A Clue For Scooby Doo is the second episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
At Rocky Point Beach, the gang encounter the ghost of an old sea diver. A sailor claims it to be the ghost of Captain Cutler, who, according to legend, died at sea many years ago when his boat got wrecked and he is getting his revenge.

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 tanks 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.

Villains

 * Ghost of Captain Cutler/Captain Cutler

Locations

 * Rocky Point Beach
 * Malt Shop
 * Ebenezer Shark's boat home
 * Old Lighthouse
 * Graveyard of Ships
 * Marina
 * Underground cave

Notes/trivia

 * Disguises: Mastheads
 * Scooby Snacks: 1
 * Zoinks: 5
 * The Ghost of Captain Cutler was unique as it was the person disguised as his own ghost.
 * 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 theme song," 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, until Turner decided to remaster all the episodes in 1998.
 * The title card for this episode and the previous one were different than those seen in the rest of the series.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * 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 diving suit 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. It is possible she said this just to get Scooby to go, and in What A Night For A Knight it is stated that Shaggy is the skinniest of the group, and only he can fit in the window.
 * A plant in the foreground moves along with the gang as they swim.
 * 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.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * It would have been difficult (if not impossible) for the gang, and the ghost to stand, walk or run underwater.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries VHS released June 4, 2002.
 * Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries DVD released March 14 2000.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released March 16, 2004.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Volume 1 - A Monster Catch DVD released January 27, 2009.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released November 9, 2010.