What the Hex Going On?

What the Hex Going On? is the sixth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
Mystery Inc. is headed to their friend Sharon Wetherby's estate. When they arrive, Sharon's Uncle Stuart disappears, and when they find him, he says he was beckoned by the voice of the Ghost of Elias Kingston from the Kingston Mansion. The gang find themselves wrapped in the tangle of the spooky ghoul of Elias Kingston and the ghost's want for the family treasure.

Synopsis
A ghostly voice calls out from a spooky mansion, beckoning to a man walking in a trance. On their way to visit their friend Sharon Wetherby, the Mystery Inc. gang see this odd sight. When they arrive at the Wetherby's, they learn that Sharon's Uncle Stuart is missing, and they deduce that he was the man they saw going into the deserted Kingston mansion. Investigating, the gang find Uncle Stuart, but he has been transformed into an old man. He tells them that he was called out of the Wetherby house by the ghost of Elias Kingston, who demanded that the Wetherby fortune be surrendered to him, otherwise he would put an old-age hex on the family; he turned Uncle Stuart into an old man as a warning.

While Mr. Weatherby goes to speak to the sheriff, the gang stay behind with Sharon and her enfeebled uncle. The voice calls again, and Stuart walks out in another trance. When Scooby wakes the gang, they find that not only is Stuart gone, but Sharon is missing also. They go to the Kingston mansion to investigate. Their first clue is a watchdog that has been left to guard the mansion: what does a ghost need with a watchdog? Then they find the mummified bones of Uncle Stuart, who apparently had another run in with the ghost. Finally, Elias Kingston himself appears and repeats his threat to the kids. They watch as he disappears into the Kingston family mausoleum in the cemetery next door and follow, noting that this supposed ghost has left behind fingerprints on the doorknob to the crypt. Inside they find a book on crystalomacy, but are trapped when the ghost locks them inside. They find a secret entrance out of the crypt and follow up on the crystalomancy book by going into town to consult a swami. The swami is out, and Scooby winds up impersonating the swami when a customer unexpectedly enters. After the customer leaves, the face of Kingston appears in the crystal ball and the table levitates, chasing them about the room. It crashes, revealing a fan-like motor beneath, and more clues quickly reveal themselves: packed suitcases, a professional make-up kit, and a closed circuit TV camera, suitable for broadcasting images onto the crystal ball.

Back at the Kingston mansion, the gang lays a trap for the ghost. Shaggy and Scooby lure him out with a chest that is supposedly holding the fortune, which, instead of the Wetherby fortune, contains a water-squirting jack-in-the-box. They then use footage of the ghost himself with the special camera to frighten him into a trap. Back at the Wetherby estate, the ghost is unmasked as Uncle Stuart. He wanted to gain control of the family fortune and decided to get the fortune by tricking his family into giving it to him. He used make-up to make him look older. When Stuart is asked why he conspired against them, Sharon and Mr. Weatherby decides to let him explain his purpose to the sheriff as the group celebrates with dinner.

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

Supporting characters:
 * Mr. Wetherby
 * Sharon Wetherby
 * Swami customer

Villains:
 * Ghost of Elias Kingston /
 * Stuart Wetherby

Other characters:
 * Bulldog
 * Swami (Scooby-Doo)
 * Crystal Nerdlinger
 * Sheriff

Locations

 * Wetherby Estate
 * Kingston Mansion
 * Kingston Mausoleum
 * Swami shop

Objects

 * Book on crystalomacy
 * Fan-like motor
 * Make-up kit
 * Portable closed-circuit TV camera
 * Bone
 * Chicken legs
 * Enormous burger
 * Scooby Snacks
 * Crystal ball
 * Jack-in-the-box
 * Make-up remover
 * Shaggy's roller skates
 * Suitcases
 * Telephone
 * Trumpet
 * Velma's fingerprinting kit

Vehicles

 * The Mystery Machine

Suspects

 * None

Full credits
The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).


 * Produced and Directed by: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
 * Associate Producer: Lew Marshall
 * Story: Ken Spears, Joe Ruby, Bill Lutz
 * Story Direction: Howard Swift
 * Voices: Nicole Jaffe, Hal Smith, Casey Kasem, John Stephenson, Don Messick, Jean Vander Pyl, Vic Perrin, Frank Welker, Stefanianna Christopherson
 * Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
 * Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
 * Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
 * Layout: Bob Singer, Alvaro Arce, Paul Gruwell, Mike Arens, Alex Ignatiev, Ric Gonzales, Bill Lignante
 * Animation: Bill Keil, George Rowley, Oliver E. Callahan, Ed Love, Rudy Cataldi, Bill Nunes, Zdenko Gasparovic, Joan Orbison, Bob Goe, Jay Sarbry, Hicks Lokey, Ken Southworth, Lloyd Vaughan
 * Background Styling: Walt Peregoy
 * Backgrounds: Ron Dias, Gary Niblett, Daniela Bielecka, Rolly Oliva
 * Title Design: Bill Perez
 * Titles: Robert Schaefer
 * Musical Director: Ted Nichols
 * Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
 * Ink and Paint Supervisor: Roberta Greutert
 * Xerography: Robert "Tiger" West
 * Sound Direction: Richard Olson
 * Film Editing: Gregory V. Watson, Jr., Ted Baker, Chip Yaras
 * Camera: Dick Blundell, Bill Kotler, George Epperson, Cliff Shirpser, Charles Flekal, Roy Wade
 * A Hanna-Barbera Production
 * © 1969 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
 * a hanna-barbera production
 * A Taft Broadcasting Company

Notes/trivia

 * The episode title is a play on the expression, "What the heck's going on?".
 * Apparently this needed to be clarified or there was a misunderstanding, as some sources, such as the Region 2 DVD, refer to this episode as "What the Hex is Going On?"
 * The following scenes are used in the first season's opening and closing sequences:
 * The outside shot of the Kingston Mansion.
 * Shaggy losing control on his roller skates, and crashing into a shower tub, setting it off.
 * The gang walk past the bookshelf which opens up and the ghost of Elias Kingston looks out. (However in the credits the ghost appears chalky white and Sharon isn't shown in the background.)


 * This is the second time, after the previous episode, that Shaggy swipes Scooby's Scooby Snacks.

Miscellaneous

 * Disguises: Scooby as a swami.
 * Scooby Snacks bribe: 4.
 * "Zoinks" count: 3.
 * "Jeepers" count: 1.

Cultural references

 * Before using the fingerprinting kit which was supposed to be for the mausoleum doorknob (but ends up being Velma's hand due to confusion), Shaggy says he'll give it the "old Sherlock Holmes touch."

Adaptations

 * The premiere episode of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, Mystery 101, is a reimagining of this episode.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * As the gang drive to the Wetherby Estate, and Velma comments on how nice it is to be invited, Daphne has white sclera.
 * When Scooby laughs after Shaggy uses the fingerprinting kit on Velma's hand instead of the doorknob of the Kingston Mausoleum, the door itself is missing.
 * In the establishing wide shot of the Mystery Machine driving to the swami shop, Shaggy is holding a map.
 * After the levitating table crashes, the gang find packed suitcases. Velma's mouth moves to the words "Maybe somebody must moved in" but Daphne's voice is coming from Velma's mouth instead
 * When Uncle Stuart is unmasked, Daphne says "And with a clever use of make-up, he made himself look old", but Velma's mouth moves to those words.

Inconstitencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Whilst this episode refers to the practice of crystal-gazing as cystalomacy, the actual term is crystallomancy.
 * Much of the action takes place in either the Wetherby Estate, or the Kingston Mansion. Unfortunately, the backgrounds for the two are sometimes mixed up, unless the Wetherby Estate is really full of cobwebs.
 * The clock in the background is set at 8:00 throughout the episode.
 * The lights are on in the Kingston Mansion, even when Stuart is not in there.
 * Daphne says Uncle Stuart is going into the mansion when he walks right past the front door.
 * Shaggy said that Uncle Stuart was wearing a blue suit, red tie, and tennis shoes. He was actually wearing a brown suit, black tie, and dress shoes.
 * For some reason, the skeleton is not wearing Uncle Stuart's glasses.
 * The ghost threatens the gang and walks away. Curiously, they don't even try to follow him.
 * The fact that Velma brings out the fingerprinting kit out of nowhere is likely toon physics. Also, using one looks quite professional of them, but the fact that they only use it this one time when they could've used it at any time would've been useful (which is most of the time), it just looks too convenient. Although perhaps using only once was intentional as it probably would be less fun to keep relying on it even if it does look odd only using it once.
 * When the Ghost of Elias Kingston walked into the mausoleum it was actually already open so it would've been more obvious to do that, although perhaps they were assuming he would've opened and closed before. Of course, they would also have to assume he'd be the only one to touch it (which would probably be justified by it looking like it had been abandoned).
 * Fred tells Shaggy for whatever reason to use the kit, instead of doing it himself or just asking Velma to use her own kit. He is considered leader after all.
 * Once they get the ghost's fingerprints, they could've tried matching it with suspects to learn his identity. Although this would've taken more time than they had, but then again Stuart expects to get the entire family fortune on the spot.
 * While trapped in the mausoleum, Daphne passes a window with bars that only go partway up. It certainly looks like they could squeeze through there.
 * Just how far is it from the Wetherby Estate to the Kingston Mansion? Stuart travels the distance on foot while the gang travels it using the Mystery Machine.
 * It is shown that Uncle Stuart wore make-up to disguise himself as the ghost, somehow hiding his glasses and beard, which should've been at least partially visible.
 * How does Sharon end up on the top deck suddenly, after being tightly tied up and gagged? Does the ghost let her go or something? It is likely that the gang found and rescued her off-screen.
 * Although Sharon admits that she saw Uncle Stuart's wig blow off, she is still shocked when the gang unmask the ghost.
 * Though it's revealed Uncle Stuart wore makeup to disguise himself as an old man, it's not revealed how he somehow managed to make his head look taller.

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 Classic Scooby-Doo!: Mystery Mask Mix-Up VHS released by Turner Home Entertainment on April 13, 1999.
 * Scooby-Doo!: Volume 1 VHS released by Warner Home Video in 2000.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 16, 2004.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 20, 2005.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Volume 2 - Bump in the Night DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 5, 2009.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series (limited edition) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2011.
 * Scooby-Doo! and the Haunted House DVD released on October 23, 2012.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 13, 2012.