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A Night of Fright is No Delight is the sixteenth episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Premise[]

Due to Scooby's heroics, he is included in the will of a millionaire. Along with the other heirs, he will only share in this fortune if he spends the night in the Colonel's haunted mansion. However, two green phantoms appear and attempt to frighten the heirs away.

Synopsis[]

Scooby, Shaggy, Freddy, Daphne and Velma are boating to a spooky mansion on an island. Scooby has been chosen as an heir to the late Colonel Beauregard Sanders, whom Scooby saved from drowning in a fishpond years before. It is a creepy night and there is thunder and lightning.

One of the Colonel's lawyers, Cosgood Creeps, comes to greet them and ushers them into the mansion where they meet the other four heirs: Cousin Slicker, Cousin Simple, Nephew Norble, and "Sweet" Cousin Maldahyde. Cosgood informs the heirs that his partner, Cuthbert Crawls, was unable to attend and the only instructions from the Colonel were to play a record on an old phonograph. The recording tells the heirs that they must stay the night to get the fortune and that the mansion is haunted, much to Scooby and Shaggy's horror. Should any heir leave the island before morning, they forfeit their share of the inheritance and it will be split among the remaining heirs at the mansion. The whole gang decide they'll stay with Scooby.

Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby are getting ready for the night, with the former two in the bedroom taking turns reading a book while Scooby decides to take a bath. Fred tells Scooby to hurry up, and he is scrubbing up when a ghost appears from a tile trapdoor. The bathtub slides through a secret passage and down a chute into a coal cellar with Scooby in it. While he is sitting on a pile of coal, a green, chain-rattling phantom appears, laughing. Scooby is terrified and he breaks out of the basement. He frantically tries to explain what happened to Fred and Shaggy, but after seeing the bathtub in place and bolted to the floor, they dismiss it and go to bed.

The clock chimes midnight and a green ghost goes into Cousin Simple's room and stands over his bed, laughing. The gang wakes up and finds Cousin Simple is gone. On a dusty mirror, a menacing message warns them to leave the island, signed by the Phantom Shadow.

The gang decide to rig up a dummy of Scooby-Doo to catch the ghost when he comes to grab the dummy. Scooby and Shaggy are watching from outside on the drainpipe, when suddenly the ghost pushes the drainpipe loose. Velma tries to help them, but gets pulled out of the window, too.

The drainpipe swings the three down into a cave that turns out to be a secret passage underneath the house. They find the Phantom Shadow's footprints and decide to follow them. The footprints lead to a room with a collection of Civil War memorabilia. They find a wagon full of uniforms, and one starts flying and chases them. As it corners them in an elevator and Scooby starts growling and making faces at it, the uniform fell to the ground as a duck inside of it flies away scared.

Shaggy and Scooby go up in the elevator, which takes them to a secret entrance in Cousin Slicker's room. Inside, they discover that Cousin Slicker is missing as well. The gang all meet up and realize that all of the other heirs are now missing, leaving Scooby as the only remaining heir on the island.

The gang follow the sound of an organ playing. They find the organ and then see something written down on a music book. It reads "Feed the organ, and watch the floor". Scooby begins playing the organ, but the doors lock and the walls begin to close in! Scooby starts playing as fast as he can to try and undo whatever activated the trap, eventually succeeding in making the walls stop. Velma deduces that Feed refers to the musical notes F-E-E-D. Playing the notes, a trapdoor opens and the gang climb down steps to the catacombs. There they find the other heirs inside coffins, and one more coffin that is empty and dog shaped.

Two Green Ghosts appear and Scooby faints as the gang runs away. The gang try to carry the now unconscious Scooby, but he hits the top of the doorway and falls down. Shaggy then gives him a Scooby Snack which wakes him up. Scooby is confused as the two Phantoms stand in front of him laughing. They continue running and finally hide in a chandelier, but one of the Phantoms cuts it loose and it falls to the floor. Separated, Scooby and Shaggy find a wine rack and use the corks as ammunition against the Phantoms. They then run into a closet and emerge wearing dress clothes, set up a record player, and start dancing with the Phantoms. Leading them into the organ room, Shaggy opens the trapdoor and they send the Phantoms falling into the basement.

After the gang meets up, Velma notices that Shaggy has gotten green paint on his hands. That gives Fred an idea. They devise a trap, including a fan, soap suds, a spring-loaded ironing board, and a washing machine. It backfires when Scooby turns on the fan not only too soon, but also the wrong way, sending the entire contraption airborne; however, it still manages to catch the Phantoms. The gang unmask the ghosts as the lawyers Cosgood Creeps and Cuthbert Crawls. They painted themselves to be green ghosts as part of a ploy to scare all of the heirs off of the island so they could keep the million dollar fortune for themselves. After they successfully scared the other heirs away, they added realistically painted dummies into the coffins to make them look like victims. As the only heir still on the mansion grounds, Scooby inherits all of the money. However, it is revealed it's all in worthless Confederate money, much to his disappointment. Then a floating bone materializes, but that's one thing that Scooby isn't afraid of.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

Other characters:

Locations[]

  • Beauregard Sanders' mansion
    • Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby's bedroom
      • Bathroom
    • Coal cellar
    • Cousin Simple's bedroom
    • Velma and Daphne's bedroom
    • Underground cave
    • Elevator
    • Cousin Slicker's bedroom
    • Catacombs
    • Wine cellar
    • Laundry room

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

Suspects[]

Suspect Motive/reason
Cosgood Creeps Creepy appearance.
Cousin Simple
Cousin Slicker
Cousin Maldahyde
Nephew Norble
To inherit the million alone.

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive/reason
Cosgood Creeps and Mr. Crawls as the Phantom Shadows They wanted the money in the will all to themselves.

Cast[]

Don Messick Scooby-Doo
Nephew Norble
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Col. Beauregard Sanders
Cousin Slicker
Sheriff
Frank Welker Fred Jones
Stefanianna Christopherson Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe Velma Dinkley
Hal Smith Cosgood Creeps
Green Ghosts

Full credits[]

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

Notes/trivia[]

  • This is the first episode to air in 1970 and the 1970s decade as a whole.
    • However, it is still made in 1969 according to the title card and the credits.
  • The Mystery Machine is absent.
  • A sound byte of the Westminster Palace clock tower bell (the famous "Big Ben")'s chiming is used for the grandfather clock striking the hour.
  • The message on the mirror is: "The first is gone, the rest will go. Unless you leave the island, and ROW! ROW! ROW! Signed, Phantom Shadow."
  • The Shaggy Super Sandwich sounds virtually the same as the Super Shaggy Sandwich from Hassle in the Castle, but they look quite different.
  • This is the first episode to show multiple members of the gang in pajamas, or in different costumes at all; previously only Daphne had worn a tutu in Bedlam in the Big Top.
  • Running from the ghost, Scooby-Doo crashes through a door and makes a Yogi Bear shaped hole.
  • The organ background music originated from Hanna-Barbera's 1964 action series Jonny Quest.
  • The plot of this episode is similar to Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones episode "A Haunted House is Not a Home." The only difference is that in the latter, the deceased wasn't deceased at all, but was playing a practical joke.
  • Scenes from this episode, particularly the unmasking, are used in the direct-to-video film Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy, which features Mr. Crawls in a conspiracy group of other former convicts setting up an act of highly elaborate revenge. His first name is revealed to be "Cuthbert."
  • Coincidentally, Shaggy also had an Uncle Beauregard around the same age.
  • The Supernatural episode Scoobynatural features the main characters sucked into this episode. Sam, Dean, and Castiel of Supernatural and the Scooby Gang end up battling a real ghost together, though the Winchesters make it so that for the Scooby Gang, the adventure ends (mostly) the same. Dean Winchester, who mentions that he's been a huge fan of the Scooby-Doo-franchise since he was a kid, states that "A Night of Fright is No Delight" is his favorite episode.
    • Unlike the actual episode, the mansion appears to be within driving distance of Danville as the Mystery Machine and the Winchesters Impala race from the Malt Shop to the mansion.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • Beauregard Sanders first name may be a reference to Confederate general Pierre Gustave Toutant-Beauregard; the French surname, typical of the general's native Louisiana, became popular as a given name throughout the American South in honor of the well-respected general.
  • Colonel Sanders shares his last name with real-life American businessman Harland David Sanders (who went by Colonel Sanders), the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). The fast-food restaurant chain did exist at the time this episode aired (as it was founded in 1952).
  • Shaggy says "Don't fire until you see the green of his eyes", which is based on the famous phrase in the American Revolutionary War, "Don't fire until you see the white of their eyes!" Ironically, most of the characters weren't drawn with whites in their eyes.
  • The story was loosely based on the Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None.

Adaptations[]

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • The table with the phonograph disappears.
  • When Shaggy takes out his sandwich, the fishbowl beside him is completely empty, no water or fish. But a few seconds later, when he grabs the box of fish food, the bowl has water and a goldfish that bares teeth and snaps at Shaggy! The fishbowl is empty once again when Shaggy repeats back to Scooby about the bathtub being dropped into the basement.
  • During the scene where Scooby is trying to tell Shag and Fred about the bathtub tipping into the basement, Fred is wearing his regular clothes, when he tells them to look in the bathroom instead of his pajamas. Also at this time, the front of the fish food box has no writing.
  • Fred is also wearing his normal clothes and not his pajamas when the gang peeks out their rooms after they hear spooky noises coming from Cousin Simple's room.
  • When Velma says how Shaggy and Scooby are watching on the drainpipe, one of her arms is missing.
  • When the drainpipe is falling towards the ocean, the pipe hits the ocean like it is glass. There is no splash!
  • When Velma tells Shaggy to follow the Phantom Shadow's footprints, her glasses have no lenses or the tint is missing from them.
  • In the scene where Velma figures out that the "Feed the organ" riddle on the music sheet is musical notes, the maestro tail coat Scooby is wearing disappears briefly before he is shown with it again in the next scene after the secret passage in the floor is revealed.
  • When the uniform is chasing Shaggy, Scooby and Velma, the shoulder strap changes shoulder whenever the uniform changes direction, even though it should remain on the same shoulder as the uniform is always seen from the front.
  • The Green Ghosts' chains often switch from arm to arm, and sometimes vanish altogether.
  • When Shaggy and Scooby pull the corks from wine bottles, the racks hold four bottles in each row but in the next shot, they hold three bottles per row.
  • Velma asks Shaggy, "How'd you get that green stuff on your hands?", but there is no visible "green stuff".
  • When Fred, Daphne and Velma are looking to the left upon hearing the Green Ghosts about to enter the trap, Daphne's pantyhose are missing.
  • The door on the washing machine has a right-hand opening swing when the trap is being set, but when Shaggy and Scooby catch the Green Ghosts, the door swings shut the other way. The hinges in the close up shot afterward, however, continue to indicate which way the door should swing.

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

  • It is very unlikely that Beauregard Sanders could actually have taken part in the Civil War, which ended in 1865, 105 years before the episode aired (the last verified Confederate veteran died in 1951 at the age of 104). However, many Southerners then and now have been obsessed with the Civil War, and Beauregard might very well have had himself painted in a Confederate uniform without having actually been a Confederate officer.
  • None of Beauregard's relatives have a problem competing with a dog, or at least aren't very vocal about it. (This, again, could be part of the deliberate eccentricity of Southern American culture.)
  • Beauregard must have already known what order the four heirs and Scooby were sitting in, that's why he says the names of all five of them in the correct order in which they were sitting.
  • Since the gang did not come with any luggage, it's unknown where Shaggy and Fred got their pajamas from.
  • The goldfish in Beauregard's home should've been removed after his passing, yet still remains in one of the (presumable) guest rooms. After the scene, it's completely forgotten as is typically the case.
  • The first time a Phantom Shadow appears, just before the bath tips, it isn't a shadow. This isn't supposed to be known until later in the episode.
    • The Phantom Shadow is also not a shadow when he knocks the drain pipe that Shaggy and Scooby are on.
  • Although the boys wear pajamas for bed, the girls remain unchanged. It's unclear where the former got theirs from, or why the latter isn't changed.
  • Velma claims that the dummy Scooby looks just like the real one when it very evidently does not. The only resemblance is the shape of the dummy.
  • When the Gang finds the coffins, Fred says, "The cousins!", when one of them was a nephew, rather than a cousin.
  • When running away from the Green Ghosts, after Scooby faints, the Gang runs to the left through a doorway, dropping Scooby. Shaggy leans back through to wake Scooby up and is then chased by the Green Ghosts, who float through the doorway from the left. Next, the Green Ghosts are in front of them, running to the left again.
  • When priming the wine bottles to fire them at the Phantom, Shaggy says, "Don't fire till you see the green of his eyes," yet the Phantom's eyes are red/orange.
  • How did the cousins escape the island? There were no boats, or any form of transportation for that matter, at least insight, in the scene that overviewed the mansion at the start of the episode, aside from the gang's. The supposed boats may have been docked behind the mansion or out of sight elsewhere, but this seems unlikely since the wooden dock that should have been and is typically used as shown in front of the house, completely unused, in the aforementioned scene.
  • When Velma is running from one of the Green Ghosts, a phone rings and she picks it up. Why would anybody be calling the mansion if nobody lives there anymore? (Perhaps it was a nuisance caller, or, as it sounded, one of the phantoms.)
  • When "flying" on the washing machine, Shaggy proclaims, "I can't steer this crazy machine!", followed immediately by, "We'll take the shortcut", which implies a level of control.
  • Given Colonel Sanders' attorneys should have known the money was Confederate and only worth something as a collectible, their behavior in trying to keep control of the "fortune" makes no sense.
  • Beginning in the late 1980s, Confederate money started being sought after by collectors so Velma's "worthless" comment might puzzle modern viewers of this episode.
  • The flying bone isn't explained. One can only imagine that the mansion really is haunted.
  • It is never established what would happen to the house and it's furniture.
  • When the gang presents the ghosts to the supposed sheriff, his attire clearly indicates that he is a municipal police officer, rather than a county sheriff.

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Greek Μια Νύχτα Τρόμου Δεν Είναι Ωραία A Night of Terror Is Not Nice
Hungarian Örökölni nem öröm Inheritance is no delight
Polish Milion w spadku po upiornym dziadku A million in inheritance after a scary grandfather
Latin America Spanish Una noche de espanto causa quebranto
Una noche de terror, no es un primor
A night of fright causes brokenness
A night of terror is not a babe

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Cosgood Creeps: Attention everybody! As you all know, I am Cosgood Creeps, attorney of the late, Colonel Sanders. My partner, Mr. Crawls, couldn't make it tonight.
Shaggy: Creeps and Crawls! They sure picked the right lawyers for this job.


Velma: All but Shaggy and Scooby, they've decided to play it safe and watch this show from outside on the drainpipe.
Shaggy: I can't think of a safer place.


(after the trio have fallen into an underground cave) Velma: I told you I'd save you.
Shaggy: Great, but next time, please don't do me any favours.
Scooby-Doo: Reah, no ravours. Reah.


Fred: Four missing heirs, a haunted house, and a phantom shadow.
Shaggy: Like, all that's missing is a spooky organ.
(creepy organ music starts playing)
Velma: It's not missing anymore!

External links[]


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Spooky Space Kook Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Season 1
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