Toon Tuesday: Scooby Doo and the Hassle in the Castle

 Scooby Doo Where Are You
The Hassle in the Castle
September 27, 1969 📺
Season One, Episode Three

One of the gems of season one, this was the third episode and would give the opening credits several of it's best video moments. 

While on a pleasure cruise ⛵, the gang gets lost in a fog bank then onto an island, 👻Haunted Isle, after Scooby finds a map with a threat on it, the gang decides to make a search of the old Vasquez pirate castle.  (Isn't it amazing that SO many amazing places are within a short drive of, Coolsville? 😆)

They aren't in the castle long before they encounter The

Phantom, who has one of those legendary laughs made famous on the show.  Of course the gang gets separated as Dafney finds a trap door, while Fred & Velma get separated from Scooby & Shaggy.

Scooby and Shaggy run into a talking skull 💀 that is nice enough to provide directions and the famous line "salright". Then Shaggy

gets a little hungry and wished he had a ham sandwich 🍔 with mustard, the ghosts provide one out of thin air, this remains one of the few times that the "ghost" provides help and "kindness" to the "pesky kids".  Looking at the rest of the series, it's kind of an unusual pair of happenings.

After being reunited, the gang see the Phantom go right through a solid wall, they start to believe this one might be real, but then find a room full of old magic equipment, where a flying carpet gives them a ride away from the Phantom.  When they finally go after the Phantom we get to see Scooby Doo's impersonation of John Wayne 💪 and some bravery....after a Scooby snack or two

In the end, the gang unmasks the Phantom to be, Bluestone the

Great, who is wanted in multiple states and was using the old pirate castle as a place to lay low from the police while searching for the Vasquez Treasure.  The unmasking of Bluestone has become one of the most used shots from the show for online meme's to show off, "the real villain" behind the mask.

It's a classic style episode the series would become famous for, with one exception at the end, the criminal seems delighted to show off to the kids how he did all his tricks in the castle.  Even in the end he's a showman wanting to give one more performance before going off to jail, a very gracious criminal, indeed. 😆

MY TAKE 😉... this episode had the opportunity to mix things up, by having the "villain" turn out not to be a villain or criminal, but just an eccentric magician living in an inherited old castle, it would have better explained how the spooks always seemed to be gracious to the kids.  This was the one thing the show lacked, a twist, they never really gave us one that went off the norm of the show and I think that was a mistake.