What a Night for a Knight

What A Night For A Knight is the the first episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
When Scooby and Shaggy find an abandoned pick-up truck belonging to a British archaeologist, the gang heads to the local museum, where the cargo, a suit of armor, was supposed to be headed. They arrive and talk to the curator who tells that the missing professor has something to do with a mysterious Black Knight ghost that appears on full moons.

Synopsis
Scooby and Shaggy are walking home from the movies one night and stumble upon a deserted pick-up truck with an empty suit of armor sitting in the driver's seat. Shaggy and Scooby call Fred, Daphne and Velma and they come down to the mysterious truck where they find a plate on a crate in the back of the truck. The plate reads Deliver to Jameson Hyde White: Professor of Archeaology, London, England. They also find a delivery slip reading Deliver to the County Museum.

The gang travels to the museum where they deliver the knight to the museum curator, Mr. Wickles. He explains that when the moon is full, the Black Knight Ghost comes out to wreak havoc. Mr. Wickles also explains that Professor Hyde White has mysteriously disappeared. Scooby finds a strange pair of glasses and the gang heads to the library to search up on the odd spectacles. They read that the spectacles are special glasses used by archeaologists and are from England. They realize these were Professor Hyde White's glasses and something fishy is going on.

The gang returns to the museum at night and break in through an upper window. They split up and look for clues, not knowing that spooky eyes in an Indian effigy are watching them. Scooby, Shaggy and Velma bump into the Black Knight Ghost and have a brief altercation. Scooby runs into the fossil exhibit and begins gnawing on the bone, but is chased by the Knight. He meets up with Shaggy and the two find one of the paintings is missing. He informs the gang, but when they return, the painting is back on the wall. Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby follow a trail of paint to a hidden room behind a sarcophagus and find the room full of finished and unfinished paintings. The Knight appears and chases the gang into the relic room, where Scooby and Shaggy hide in a World War biplane. Scooby accidentally flips the power, and the plane roars to life, flying erratically around the room until it finally crashes, taking the zombie down with it. The Knight is unmasked as Mr. Wickles, the curator! He was part of a smuggling ring, he would steal the paintings and sell them, and then paint fakes of the paintings and put them back on the wall (that explained the hidden room, the missing painting and the paint drops on the floor). Mr. Wickles knew that Professor Hyde White would know that the paintings were faked, so he kidnapped him and thought up this Black Knight Ghost ruse. Professor Hyde White is later found tied up in the Indian effigy.

Villains

 * Black Knight

Locations

 * County Museum
 * Library

Notes/trivia

 * This was the first episode of the series and by default the Scooby-Doo franchise.
 * "Zoinks!": 4
 * Disguises: Portrait artist
 * Scooby Snacks: 2

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * When Velma loses her glasses, she mistakes the knight for Shaggy and hearing the knight's raspy voice, Velma tries to give the knight cough syrup, thinking it's Shaggy. Shaggy enters and takes the cough syrup. A few scenes later, with no time for Velma to find her glasses, she has her glasses back on.
 * The red crest on the knight's head disappears and reappears a few times during the episode.

Inconstitencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Mr. Wickles appeared shorter than the Black Knight. Nothing was ever explained of how he made himself look taller.

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.