The Headless Horseman of Halloween

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For other uses, see Headless Horseman (disambiguation).

The Headless Horseman of Halloween
Details
Episode #	105
Air date	October 9, 1976 (ABC)
Written by	See below
Directed by	Charles A. Nichols
Chronology
Previous episode	Watt a Shocking Ghost
Next episode	Scared a Lot in Camelot

The Headless Horseman of Halloween is the fifth episode of The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, later repackaged as the fifth episode of the first season of The Scooby-Doo Show.

Premise

In Sleepy Hollow, the gang investigate the legendary Headless Horseman, when he shows up at a Halloween costume party at Crane Manor.

Synopsis

A raging Halloween party is happening at a fancy mansion. Outside, in the foggy night, a horseman rides by with a grinning pumpkin for a head! The mansion is the huge and studious Crane Manor, and Mystery Inc. has been invited by Mrs. Crane to the Halloween Party. Scooby Dum, Scooby's cousin, is also there with Mystery Inc. Fred, Daphne and Velma bob for apples and Shaggy and Scooby are hitting up the buffet table, as usual.

Scooby, Shaggy and Scooby Dum encounter the Headless Horseman outside and run back inside to tell the others. Daphne, Fred and Velma are in the library with Mrs. Crane's niece, Beth. Beth mentions her great-great grandfather was Ichabod Crane. Scooby and Shaggy run in and tell their story, and Beth fears that the Headless Horseman has come back to haunt her family, considering her grandfather Ichabod was chased by one years earlier. Back on the party floor, the Headless Horseman makes an entrance causing havoc. He claims he wants a head and scares away the guests, but not Mystery Inc.

The gang split up to look for clues. Velma, Scooby, Scooby-Dum, and Shaggy search upstairs. They start looking into rooms, but find nothing. Velma returns downstairs and Shaggy, Scooby and Scooby Dum run into the Headless Horseman who gives chase. Shaggy and the two cousins run downstairs to tell the gang, but when they all return upstairs, the Horseman is gone. Mrs. Crane is nearly grabbed by the Horseman and Mystery Inc. tries to comfort her, when a man appears and explains that the Horseman is not after her head, but is after Mrs. Crane's necklace. Beth says this is her cousin Elwood, who states that ever since Mrs. Crane brought the necklace into the house, the Horseman has been appearing. Elwood makes an exit and Daphne, Fred, Velma, Scooby, Shaggy, and Scooby Dum get to work.

Elwood takes Mrs. Crane's necklace to the bank and then after his car disappears into the fog, the gang notices Headless Horseman ride by again, now with by Elwood's head! The gang finds Elwood's car deserted and finds a small picture of Elwood with glue on one side, the ignition keys missing, and a newspaper clipping that tells about a flying saucer spotted at a beautician's convention. They bump into Tarlof, Mrs. Crane's butler. He explains that someone chopped a tree down and it fell on the power lines cutting the power to the mansion, and he was walking to the neighbor's to complain. The gang go to where the Headless Horseman is supposedly buried. Fred and Velma figure it out and race to the airport. Sure enough, the Headless Horseman is there, about to take off in a plane. Scooby and Shaggy accidentally hop on the plane with the Horseman and manage to elude him as the plane soars through the air.

Finally the plane wrecks and the Horseman is captured. The Headless Horseman turns out to be Cousin Elwood, who was after Mrs. Crane's diamond necklace all along, so he made up the Headless Horseman to trick Mrs. Crane into believing the necklace was cursed.

The clues are explained as well; Elwood grabbed the missing keys out of habit when he left the car, and the picture was a passport photo for Elwood to fly out of the country. Also, Elwood was lying when he said he called the bank, because the butler said the phone lines were down. Shaggy found the biggest clue: on the other side of the clipping, it reads that APEX, Elwood's shoe company, had filed for bankruptcy, so he tried to steal the diamonds.

Shaggy says it was the perfect crime, until the gang found the clues that made it all look fishy. Scooby Dum hears the word "clue" and start looking for more. Hearing a splash, Shaggy and Scooby Doo looks for Scooby Dum. Scooby Dum, coming out of the pond, says he found a clue. The clue is a fish, and the fish squirts water at Scooby Dum, causing everyone to laugh at this.

Characters

Main characters:

• Mystery Inc.
  • Scooby-Doo
  • Shaggy Rogers
  • Fred Jones
  • Daphne Blake
  • Velma Dinkley
• Scooby-Dum

Supporting characters:

• Gertrude Crane ^{(only appearance)}
• Beth Crane ^{(only appearance)}
• Tarlof ^{(only appearance)}

Villains:

• Headless Horseman ^{(only appearance)(Elwood Crane's disguise)}
• Elwood Crane ^{(only appearance)}

Other characters:

• Headless Horseman's horse ^{(only appearance)(no lines)}
• Party guests ^{(only appearance)(miscellaneous speaking)}
• Ichabod Crane ^{(only appearance)(portrait)(deceased)}
• Sheriff ^{(only appearance)}

Locations

• Sleepy Hollow
  • Crane Manor
  • Cemetery
  • Airport
    • Waiting room

Objects

• Elwood's passport picture
• Newspaper clipping

Vehicles

• The Mystery Machine
• Elwood Crane's car
• Elwood Crane's plane

Suspects

Suspect	Motive/reason
Tarlof	His hands were ghostly white, just like the Headless Horseman's.
Elwood Crane	He told his aunt that the Headless Horseman was after her necklace.

Culprits

Culprit	Motive/reason
Elwood Crane as the Headless Horseman	To steal his aunt's diamond necklace when his company went bankrupt.

Cast

Don Messick	Scooby-Doo
Casey Kasem	Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker	Fred Jones
Heather North	Daphne Blake
Pat Stevens	Velma Dinkley
Alan Oppenheimer	Scooby-Dum Tarlof
John Stephenson	Elwood Crane Headless Horseman
Janet Waldo	Beth Crane Gertrude Crane

Full credits

The following credits reflect as closely as possible to how they are seen on-screen.

• Executive Producers: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
• Director: Charles A. Nichols
• Creative Producer: Iwao Takamoto
• Associate Producer: Alex Lovy
• Storyboard Direction: Jan Green, Cullen Houghtaling, Don Sheppard, Paul Sommer
• Recording Director: Alex Lovy
• Story Editor: Ray Parker
• Story: Larz Bourne, Haskell Barkin, Dick Conway, Tom Dagenais, Willie Gilbert, Tony DiMarco, Duane Poole, Dave Ketchum, Norman Maurer, Dick Robbins, Dalton Sandifer
• Voices: Bob Holt, Allan Melvin, Casey Kasem, Don Messick, Pat Stevens, Janet Waldo, Mickey Dolenz, Linda Hutson, Virginia Gregg, Hettie Lynn Hurtes, Shirley Mitchell, Heather North, Alan Oppenheimer, John Stephenson, Lennie Weinrib, Frank Welker
• Production Design: Bob Singer
• Character Design: Alex Toth
• Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
• Graphics: Iraj Paran
• Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
• Musical Direction: Paul DeKorte
• Layout: Mike Arens, Hak Ficq, Jack Huber, Ray Jacobs, Tony Rivera, Jim Mueller, Tony Sgroi, Terry Slade, Owen Fitzgerald, C.L. Hartman, Alex Ignatiev, Ziggy Jablecki, Homer Jonas, Warren Marshall, Steve Nakagawa, Bob Singer, Linda Rowley, Adam Szwejkowski, Wendell Washer, Al Wilson, George Wheeler
• Unit Director: Bill Keil
• Animation: Ed Barge, Bob Goe, Bill Hutten, Tony Love, O.E. Callahan, Lars Calonius, Rudy Cataldi, Steve Clark, Hugh Fraser, Bob Hathcock, Jerry Hathcock, Volus Jones, Ken Muse, Rod Parkes, Veve Risto, Jay Sarbry, Xenia, Margaret Nichols, Don Patterson, Morey Reden, Ed Soloman, Ken Southworth, Dave Tendlar, Dick Thompson, Carlo Vinci, Russ Von Neida
• Backgrounds: Fernando Arce, Dennis Durrell, Al Gmuer, Richard Khim, Fernando Montealegre, Marilyn Shimokochi, Dennis Venizelos
• Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
• Checking and Scene Planning: Evelyn Sherwood
• Ink and Paint Supervisor: Billie Kerns
• Xerography: Star Wirth
• Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
• Supervising Film Editors: Chip Yaras
• Music Editors: Larry Cowan, Pat Foley, Joe Sandusky
• Effects Editors: Richard Allen, Tom Gleason, Terry Moore
• Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
• Post Production Supervisor: Joed Eaton
• Camera: George Epperson, Curt Hall, Ron Jackson, Norman Stainback, Roy Wade
• Production Manager: Jayne Barbera
• A Hanna-Barbera Production
• © 1976 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
• RCA Sound Recording
• Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.

Continuity

• The gang previously met Scooby-Dum in The Gruesome Game of the Gator Ghoul.
• This episode inspired a set in the LEGO Scooby-Doo! line called Mystery Plane Adventures. The set includes minifigures of Shaggy, Scooby, the Headless Horseman, and his horse. It also includes a small airplane in the Mystery Machine's color scheme.

Cultural references

• The episode is based on Washington Irving's novella "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" (1819), published in his anthology The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. which has often been adapted for film and television. The Scoobyverse has done multiple projects based on the story, starting with The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode The Spooky Fog of Juneberry.
  • In Irving's story, Ichabod Crane never returned to Sleepy Hollow after being frightened away by prankster Brom Bones, who dressed up like the headless horseman in order to scare Ichabod Crane away (as Elwood Crane does in the episode as cover for a robbery). Crane did not start a family before he disappeared; he failed to marry the woman he was courting. In the context of this episode, Crane must have started a family in Sleepy Hollow, because he had descendants who still live there.
  • In this episode, the Headless Horseman wears a jack-o-lantern for a head. In Irving's story, Brom Bones used a regular pumpkin to simulate a head, that he later threw at Crane across the bridge. In Walt Disney's popular 1949 short film adaptation, to make it more dramatic, the regular pumpkin was changed to a flaming jack-o-lantern. Most subsequent depictions of the horseman have copied Disney's idea.
• Tarlof resembles Lurch, the butler for the Addams Family, especially in the way he says "You rang?" His name suggests 1930s-40s horror actor Boris Karloff.

Notes/trivia

• Mystery Inc. all are wearing different Halloween costumes:
  • Velma: Witch
  • Fred: Pirate
  • Daphne: Fairy princess
  • Shaggy: Vampire
  • Scooby and Scooby-Dum: Horse
• At the time this episode aired, Sleepy Hollow did not exist geographically. The village of Sleepy Hollow, located in Westchester County, New York, was then known as North Tarrytown. The name was changed in 1996.
• The closest airport to Sleepy Hollow, NY is the Westchester County Airport in White Plains.
• Modern day viewers will be puzzled about the phone call clue, as they will likely think, "But he could have used a cell phone to call the bank." The first commercially available cell phone didn't became available until 1983, five years after this episode was first aired.
• The conventional "unmasking" scene is inverted, as the culprit uses his own face as the "mask," hiding in plain sight.
• The version of this episode released on the Blu-Ray of LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood Blu-Ray is in 720p high definition.

Miscellaneous

• Traps: Parachute that drops down.
• "Zoinks" count: 10.
• "Rikes" count: 2.
• "Ruh-roh" count: 1.
• "Jeepers" count: 1.
• "Jinkies" count: 0.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

• In one of the early scenes of the episode where Shaggy comments on Scooby sounding like a real horse, the latter is shown to have 3 eyes.
• In the shot where the gang is at the car accident site and Beth says, "The Headless Horseman took Elwood to the grave with him," Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Dum have switched bodies.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• Shaggy tells Mrs. Crane that Scooby-Dum is Scooby-Doo's brother, although this was corrected when he later referred to them as cousins. It had already been established in a previous episode that Dum and Doo are cousins, and most henceforth episodes agree on this.
• When Shaggy shrugs while saying, "Hasn't worked since the day I got it," he isn't holding his candle. It's returned in the next shot as the Headless Horseman takes a swing at him.
• After Velma says that Shaggy found the most important clue, Shaggy says, "Yeah" in his normal voice, and then says, "I did?" in another voice.
• Sleepy Hollow looks nothing like it does in the episode, though large mansions like the one seen in the episode do exist in that part of Westchester County.
• Beth was completely absent at the end of the episode after the gang had solved the mystery and recapped all that had happened, even though her voice was heard saying, "How did you know it was my cousin Elwood?"

Home media

• Scooby Doo: Volume 3 VHS released by Kids Klassics in 1986.
• Scooby-Doo: The Headless Horseman of Halloween VHS released by Turner Home Entertainment on September 10, 1996.
• Scooby-Doo's Spookiest Tales DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 21, 2001.
• The Scooby-Doo!/Dynomutt Hour: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 7, 2006.
• Scooby-Doo! Favorite Frights DVD released as a Walmart exclusive on September 15, 2015.
• LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 10, 2016.
• LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood Blu-Ray/DVD combo released by Warner Home Video on May 10, 2016.
• Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Scooby-Doo! DVD set released by Warner Home Video on August 13, 2019.
• Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! DVD released by Warner Home Video on October 18, 2022.
• Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! DVD released by Warner Home Video on October 19, 2022.

Quotes

Headless Horseman: I want a head!

External links

• Buy from Amazon (US)
• Buy from Amazon (UK)
• Buy from iTunes (US)
• Buy from iTunes (CA)
• Buy from iTunes (UK)
• Buy from VUDU

Previous episode:	Series:	Next episode:
Watt a Shocking Ghost	The Scooby-Doo Show Season 1	Scared a Lot in Camelot