Party Like It's 1899

Party Like It's 1899 is the eighth episode of season 1 of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!

Premise

Daphne is thrilled to go to the Annual Monster Mystery Party, but there may be a real monster on the loose—one without a head.

Synopsis

At Wuthering Manor, Lady Pipi Wuthering and her bombastic husband Lord Randolph are preparing for the Annual Monster Mystery Party, where people solve a pretend mystery. The mystery will be based on the terrible incident that happened in the manor years ago. While the kitchen maid is dusting, a headless monster appears from the mirror and drags her through it.

The gang are on their way to the manor, Daphne and Fred are looking forward to solving a mystery without real danger, but Shaggy and Scooby believe scary places are where scary things happen, and Velma is not sure considering they solve real mysteries all the time.

Upon arriving in the banquet hall, Daphne meets up with her childhood friend Bradwick Haverall. Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby try making a huge food stack to eat but after one guest places an olive on top the whole stack falls over. Lady Pipi and Lord Randolph then enter the scene, where Pipi explains they have to solve the mystery of the Headless Count, who haunts Wuthering Manor in search of a new head. Daphne portrays Queen Victoria of England, Bradwick portrays King Steve of England, Fred portrays bumbling Police Constable Jerry with big gloves, Velma portrays Flumsy the scullery maid, Shaggy portrays Wickle the chimney sweep, Scooby portrays Lady Bethabeth, and finally Colander the butler portrays Peppermill the butler. Before the game starts Lady Pipi states that everyone should pretend to be their assigned characters or else be disqualified and sent to their rooms and whoever solves the mystery will have their picture taken and hanged in the Hall of Master Sleuths

When the game starts, Fred and Velma aren't too happy about their characters. Being a bumbling police officer means Fred has to be bad at solving mysteries on purpose or he'll be disqualified. Since Velma can't break rules she can't offer any advice to Fred and sticks with her character as a scullery maid. The Headless Count appears then takes victim #1 Dame Bernice even though she fights back because she doesn't want to leave the game. Fred tries to use good detective skills to solve the mystery but Pipi reminds him that he has to act more bumbling. Meanwhile, The Headless Count who turns out to be Colander rests on a couch very unhappy about his role. Then suddenly the real Headless Count appears and takes him away, which Fred witnesses and realizes that there's a real monster on the loose.

Meanwhile, Daphne tries to play out her character and knocks down some furniture in the process. She receives praise from Lady Pipi when Fred arrives. Fred tries to warn everyone what he saw, but they all think it's part of the game. Fred then asks Daphne to help search for clues together, but she turns him down decreeing that the queen can solve the mystery herself. Fred then asks Shaggy and Scooby for help but they also turn him down. Shaggy and Scooby then find a book on the floor, which Lady Pipi declares they found the first clue, much to Fred's disappointment. Fred tries to read the book but it keeps slipping out of his hands due to his gloves, he sees that the book's titled, The Windowless Room, but Daphne decrees the real clue is the author, Carrie Wood. Fred and Daphne dispute of clues and decide to investigate clues their own ways, while Velma puts the book back on the bookshelf. After everyone leaves Shaggy and Scooby find out that the bookshelf reveals a secret passageway. Since they're pretending to be Wickle and Lady Bethabeth, they think it makes it pretend dark and scary and go through the secret passageway.

Meanwhile, Bradwick asks if he and Daphne could team-up, but Daphne still thinks she can solve the mystery herself. But when Bradwick takes her to the Hall of Master Sleuths and shows her that he had solved the Wuthering's mystery five years in a row, she changes her mind. They start with her Carrie Wood clue; one carries wood to a fireplace and believes someone tried to burn evidence, they agreed to split-up and check the fireplaces and meet back in the hall. Meanwhile, Fred thinks there's a real Headless Count in the manor since The Headless count grabbed the Butler even though Pipi said he wasn't supposed to shop up then. He then runs into a jester named Merry Jim talking to someone named Tod on his phone and later leaves. Fred then decides to visit Dame Bernice to see if everyone's following the rules. He finds her room a mess with empty jewelry boxes and strangely, Luxury Limo Rentals keys on the floor. Meanwhile, Velma continues her duties washing dishes.

Shaggy and Scooby find that the Headless Count can go anywhere in the manor with the secret passageways and think without real danger they're pretty good at solving mysteries. Then the real Headless Count shows up, but they think he's not real and began teasing him until he disappears when the other guests arrive. Scooby finds a feather that didn't come from anything in the room, to which Lady Pipi declares they have found the second clue. Fred runs into Daphne and warns her that Dame Bernice is missing and that her room has been tossed. Daphne tries to get Fred to remember the rules but Fred tells her to forget the rules claiming there is a real Headless Count on the loose. They then hear screaming and find the Headless Count taking Merry Jim the jester away while he's on the phone, but Daphne still thinks it's not real and orders him to release Merry Jim. Instead, the Count grabs a sword and swings at her, missing.

Now believing Fred, they escape the count to warn everyone, but a chase begins with everyone thinking it's part of the game. The Count then captures everyone except the gang. Fred and Daphne later find Bradwick in the Hall of Master Sleuths, since Daphne said to meet there. They agreed to split up to find everyone else with Fred searching downstairs and Daphne and Braddwick searching upstairs. Fred then decides to stop being his character and solve the mystery as himself but keeps breaking and running into things. While Daphne wasn't looking Bradwick vanished and she ends up being chased by the Count. Fred then finds Velma in the kitchen but ends up being captured as well.

Daphne finds Shaggy and Scooby and tells them the Headless Count got everyone else, but they ask where the Wutherings' store the cleaning supplies since they found residue on the feather which is a common household cleaner. She answers the cleaning supplies would be in the basement pantry but changes the subject warning them that the games over, but they took it as a vote of confidence and leave to solve the mystery while Daphne gets captured trying to warn them.

While looking in the basement, Shaggy and Scooby declared that Colander is the culprit, but find him tied up and gagged along with Merry Jim, Dame Bernice and everyone else who was captured by the Headless Count. They realize now that the Headless Count is real and are chased up into the kitchen when he arrives, where Velma easily traps the Count by spilling a bucket of water on the floor causing him to slip into the pantry and get captured. Velma congratulates Shaggy and Scooby for solving the pretend mystery even though there was a real Headless Count and goes to free everyone tied up in the basement.

After everyone is freed the Headless Count is arrested and revealed to be Bradwick Haverall. Bradwick used the legend of the Headless Count as his real costume, he secretly read the master mystery book so he'd know where everyone was supposed to be and could control the game, which explains how he was master sleuth for all those years in a row. Bradwick knew the mystery ended in the basement pantry so that would be the last place anyone would go, except the kitchen maid so he got rid of her. To make sure he was the only Headless Count in the game he also took Colander out along with anyone else in his way. The reason why was for money, Bradwick blew through his fortune, so he was robbing everyone's rooms while they were playing the game. The first clue was the empty jewelry boxes, but the real clue was the rented limousine keys he dropped while robbing Dame Bernice. Since Bradwick couldn't afford a driver he drove himself to hide the fact that he was having money problems. After Bradwick is taken to jail, Fred's glad he saved the reputation of Constable Jerry, while Shaggy and Scooby realized that they were right, to begin with, which was scary places are where scary things happen. Daphne will tell her mother to shred the invitations next year, but Velma admitted that she actually had fun. Consequently, the gang's portrait is hung in the Hall of Master Sleuths.

Characters

Main characters:

• Gang
  • Scooby-Doo
  • Shaggy Rogers
  • Fred Jones
  • Daphne Blake
  • Velma Dinkley

Supporting characters:

• Pipi Wuthering (single appearance)
• Randolph Wuthering (single appearance)
• Colander (single appearance)

Villains:

• Headless Count (single appearance)(no lines)(Bradwick Haverall's disguise)
• Bradwick Haverall (single appearance)

Other characters:

• Maids (single appearance)(no lines)
• Miscellaneous servants (single appearance)(no lines)
• Count Albrecht Warheim (unnamed)(single appearance)(portrait)(deceased)
• Miscellaneous guests (single appearance)(miscellaneous speaking)
  • Dame Bernice (single appearance)
  • Merry Jim (single appearance)
• Queen Victoria (only time mentioned)
• Todd (only time mentioned)
• Police officer 1 (single appearance)
• Police officer 2 (single appearance)(no lines)
• Mrs. Blake (first mentioned)

Locations

• Wuthering Manor
  • Dinner hall
  • Hall of Master Sleuths
  • Basement pantry

Objects

• Master Mystery Book

Vehicles

• Carriages
• Bradwick Haverall's limo

Suspects

Culprits

Cast

Songs

Notes/trivia

• Outside of the US, this episode was the second to air, taking the place of Game of Chicken.^{[citation needed]}
• This episode is a reimagining of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode, Haunted House Hang-Up.
• The Mystery Machine is absent.
• In earlier drafts of the script, the Count's name, Albrecht Warheim, and backstory are revealed,^[2] who was a guest in 1890, and lost his head while having a late night snack.^[3]
• This is the first episode not to feature the Mystery Machine.
• Daphne's wealthy background is revealed.
• Velma makes a small reference to how they always seem to run into monsters for some reason.
• This is the second episode when one of the gang has had a crush, after Poodle Justice.
• This is the first episode to have a gang member's parent mentioned.

Miscellaneous

• Disguises: There are no real disguises, but the gang dress up in Victorian era costumes.
• Daphne Du Jour: Role-playing as Queen Victoria and decreeing anything she wants. (After being assigned the role as part of the game.)

Cultural references

• The title is a pun on the saying, "party like it's 1999."
• Daphne plays Queen Victoria in the Murder Mystery Game. Queen Victoria ruled Great Britain (including England) from 1837 to 1901, a period known as the Victorian Era. She ruled in her own right, with no King. Her husband was Prince Albert. No British monarch has been named "Steve".

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

• The way the maid is kidnapped in the flashback is different.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• Despite Daphne being rich, she had a falling out with dolphins in All Paws on Deck, because she couldn't pay them back fifteen dollars.
• When the guests arrive, which included Bradwick, the attic flashes to reveal the Headless Count. It's possible that this was either an unmentioned holographic effect or the Headless Count is real.
• Daphne said she thought she wet her pants, when she wasn't wearing any. She doesn't even wear pants with her regular clothes. It is possible that she meant her underwear.  In England, the term "pants" refers to underwear.
• Merry Jim, in his court jester costume, was referred to as a "circus clown". He's also credited as "Vic".
• The maid the Headless Count took in the opening was referred to as the "kitchen maid", yet the first thing she did was dust a mirror.

In other languages

Home media

• Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!: Season 1, Part 1 - Spooky Kooky Fun! DVD set released by Warner Home Video on February 23, 2016.
• Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!: Season One, Part Two DVD set released by Warner Home Video on October 10, 2016.
• Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!: Season One, Part One DVD set released by Warner Home Video on May 11, 2016.

Quotes

References

External links

• Buy from iTunes (US)
• Buy from iTunes (UK)