Scoobypedia

The Ransom of Scooby Chief is the sixteenth and final episode of the original half-hour, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.

Premise[]

The gang heads to New York City, and drop off Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy, so they can visit Scrappy's old neighborhood. Soon Scooby and Shaggy are kidnapped, and it is up to Scrappy and his puppy friends to get him back.

Synopsis[]

The gang drives through New York towards Scrappy's old neighborhood to visit Scrappy's old gang. Fred, Daphne, and Velma drop Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy off, and drove off in the Mystery Machine. Unbeknown to the trio, two crafty men named Carl and Tony recognize Scooby and dubs him their ticket to a fortune. Arriving at Annie's place, Scrappy sounds his secret whistle which Annie recognizes, and as she tumbles her way down the fire escape with her apartment, she accidentally catapults Duke from his box, and the pair catch up with Scrappy who introduces them to Scooby. While Scrappy was telling Duke and Annie how great Scooby is, Carl and Tony, who were listening to the conversation, formed a plan to kidnap Scooby and held him for ransom.

While exploring the streets of New York, the bad guys manage to capture Scooby (walking blinded by all the groceries he was carrying) into their truck. As they drove off with Scooby, Shaggy came out of the grocery shop looking for Scooby, and he hears Scooby's cries of help and rushes to save him. Grabbing hold off the truck's rear hatch, Shaggy calls Scrappy, Duke and Annie to help them. As the trucks drives off, a crate falls out of its trailer and smashes on the road. When Scrappy tried to run after the truck, Duke stops him and tells him they need a clue to find out where the crooks have taken Shaggy and Scooby. Examining the broken pieces of China from the smashed crate, Annie piece together two pieces of it with the words "Made in Japan", and Duke reads the stamped words on the smashed saying "Paris Warehouse", that's right here in New York, just a subway away.

At the Paris Warehouse, Carl and Tony place Shaggy and Scooby in a storeroom. Tony stayed to watch them while Carl went to the phone booth outside the warehouse to make a phone call to Hollywood for a ransom demand. Meanwhile, Scrappy, Duke and Annie are waiting for someone to drop a token, which someone does. While trying to grab the runsway token, it falls down into a sewage grate, but they managed to retrieve it with some bubble gum. Disguising themselves as a man, they managed to board the subway to the Paris Warehouse. In the meantime, Scooby and Shaggy attempted to escape by using blankets as makeshift rope, and throwing a glass bottle out the window, but both methods fail and the two crooks, after catching in their attempts to escape, sealed the window with bars and tells the duo they won't let them until someone pays the ransom, depressing the pair.

When they arrived at the Paris Warehouse, Scrappy, Duke and Annie use a bow and some plungers to climb up the wall into the room where Shaggy and Scooby are hold up. At the same time, Scooby and Shaggy escape through the air vent. When Scrappy challenges the bad guys, they escaped and when Shaggy and Scooby made to the end the air vent, they fall into the back of the bad guys' truck and Carl and Tony drove off with them to the S.S. Stewart.

Following the bad guys to the pier, Scrappy and his gang climb aboard the ship and continue to try to rescue Shaggy and Scooby, but every attempt lands them right back in the cargo hold and Carl and Tony capture Scrappy, Duke and Annie with a fishing net. Shaggy and Scooby stuff a rubber life raft through a porthole, which sucks them out and flies around the harbor, landing on the crooks, who now want to be taken to jail, much to the joy of Scrappy, Duke and Annie who complement Scooby for catching the two crooks.

Fred and the girls have arrived back at Annie's place to pick up Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy. When he gives his secret whistle again for Duke and Annie, it blows out all the windows and tires of the Mystery Machine. Annie says, "Nobody does it like Scrappy!", and Shaggy agrees with her.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

  • Duke (only appearance)
  • Annie (only appearance)

Villains:

  • Carl (only appearance)
  • Tony (only appearance)

Other characters:

Locations[]

Objects[]

  • Manhole cover
  • Fire hydrant
  • Umbrella
  • Bananas
  • Telephone
  • Bubblegum machine
  • Subway "Y" token
  • Bow
  • Plunger
  • Life-raft
  • Rope
  • Net
  • Glass bottle

Vehicles[]

Cast[]

Don Messick Scooby-Doo
Lennie Weinrib Scrappy-Doo
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker Fred Jones
Duke
Heather North Kenney Daphne Blake
Marla Frumkin Velma Dinkley

Full credits[]

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


Notes/trivia[]

  • This is the series finale of the original Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo series; online streaming will show this as the first-season finale.
  • With the exception of What's New, Scooby-Doo?'s A Scooby-Doo Halloween, which was used mainly for parody, this is the final Scooby-Doo episode to use a laugh track, particularly Hanna-Barbera's custom track that was used for most of its 1970s input.
  • The title is from the O Henry story The Ransom of Red Chief, in which two kidnappers capture a boy who is so much trouble that they end up paying to give him back to his family.
  • While Velma is never seen actually speaking, Marla Frumkin's voice can be heard saying, "Have a good visit", when Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy are being dropped off at the beginning of the episode.
  • This is the first episode not to have any monsters or supernatural elements.
  • This is one of the first times it is addressed that Scooby-Doo is famous, but this is very inconsistent throughout the franchise.
  • It is revealed that Scrappy grew up in New York City.
  • The subway scenes show signs identifying real life subway lines. The token has the actual "Y" on it, like tokens did at the time.
  • This is one of the first times the Mystery Machine is badly damaged.
  • In many ways, this episode looks like it could've been a back-door pilot to how the show was revamped into short segments for the next three years (this is essentially a full-length episode of that format); which feature Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy in both supernatural and non-supernatural misadventures. This episode also greatly reduces Fred, Daphne and Velma's involvement, who were subsequently removed from the franchise, until Daphne's return three years later in The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show episode Scooby the Barbarian. Fred and Velma made guest appearances the following years, including in The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, but they did not return as series regulars until A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, and Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, respectively.

Miscellaneous[]

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • Scrappy's tail appears to grow in length when he's trying to reach for a coin in the sewer.
  • Scooby's shoulder is the color of Shaggy's sleeve when they cry on each other.
  • Shaggy's neck is too fat when the barrel lands on him.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • Why were Carl and Tony calling Hollywood and asking for ransom? Shouldn't they have called Fred, Daphne, and Velma?
    • They probably had no idea who they were (yet still somehow know who Scooby is).
  • When Carl and Tony were holding Shaggy and Scooby hostage, why didn't they think to restrain them with something?
  • Scooby and Shaggy were desperately trying to find a way to climb up to the hatch in the ship, but when they do, they don't look like they're hanging from anywhere.

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Greek Η Απαγωγή του Σκούμπι Scooby's Kidnapping

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Shaggy: Like Annie's right Scrappy nobody can do it like you.

External links[]

  • TBA


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Lock the Door, It's a Minotaur! Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (first series)
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