The Ozark Witch Switch

The Ozark Witch Switch
Details
Air date	October 15, 1977
Chronology
Previous episode	The Spooky Case Of The Grand Prix Race
Next episode	Creepy Cruise

The Ozark Witch Switch originally aired as the first of four segments of Scooby-Doo's All-Star Laff-A-lympics, later repackaged as the sixth episode of the second season of The Scooby-Doo Show, and the twenty-second episode overall of the series.

Premise

A dark and stormy night which the gang chose to spend in the Hatfield's cabin. On such a night the Ghost of Witch McCoy appeared to turn the Hatfields into frogs. Discovering that their friends are now frogs, the gang sets out to wrap up another mystery, unmasking a witch and a zombie in the process.

Synopsis

On a dark and stormy night, the gang are headed to the Ozark River to camp and go rafting the following morning when they blow all four tires on a deserted backroad in the middle of the woods. They decide to find somewhere to stay the night. They spot an old cabin standing in the woods and knock on the door. A man appears at the door and lets the gang in reluctantly and are welcomed by a family. They introduce themselves as the Hatfield family and say that they have been staying in the old McCoy Cabin for about a year.

They tell the gang that they have been haunted by the ghost of Witch McCoy, who has been threatening to get vengence and turn the family into frogs. Apparently, Witch McCoy was hung for witchcraft 100 years ago. The witch has been trying to drive the Hatfields out of the cabin because of a feud with her kinfolk. That night, as the gang gets some sleep, Witch McCoy makes an appearance and warns the gang that if they don't leave the cabin, they are doomed and then disappears in a puff of smoke.

After hearing Ma Hatfield cry out, the gang investigates and they discover that the witch has transformed Pa Hatfield into a frog. Mystery Inc. gets to work at looking for clues. They split up and Scooby and Shaggy go into town while Fred and the girls search the woods. Scooby and Shaggy, along with the frog of Pa Hatfield, search the nearby town of Spooky Hollow for help. They find a phone in the general store but before they can call for help, the owner of the store, Aggie Wilkins, appears and scolds them. Scooby and Shaggy explain, and Aggie lets them use their phone, but it is dead. Aggie warns them to stay away from Witch McCoy and tells them about her cave on Spider Mountain. The witch, who has transformed into a cat, appears, prompting Scooby and Shaggy to flee.

Meanwhile, Fred, Daphne, and Velma discover a zombie digging for something and chase him as he tries to flee. They lose him and he vanishes into the woods. The gang reunite and Shaggy and Scooby tell the gang everything that Aggie told them about the witch. The gang decides to investigate the witch's cave. They head to Spider Mountain and find strange impressions in the ground. They split up and Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby find the witch's cave. Upon entrance, they discover the witch's lair. They find several books about witchcraft, including a spellbook that has a strange spell about nails, boards, and a string, and it sounds somewhat like directions on how to do something or where to go. The witch appears and Velma, Scooby, and Shaggy hide. They try and outsmart the witch, but it fails. The witch takes Velma, Scooby, and Shaggy hostage and tries to cook them in a stew. They escape into a nearby pond.

The gang returns to the Hatfield cabin and discover that the witch has turned all of the Hatfields into frogs. Also, they find a mound of sawdust and when they look at the strange impressions in the ground, Velma figures out it is Morse Code. Velma deduces the meaning of the spell in the book and they begin to look around the Hatfield's cabin. Using the directions in the spell, they discover the last piece to the mystery, something carved on a board.

They change the carving on the board and fool both the witch and the zombie, as they have been going after the same thing all along. They manage to trap both the witch and the zombie by pretending to be the ghosts of the Hatfields and scaring the witch into her own trap. The zombie then tries to escape, but they capture him as well.

The zombie is revealed to be Zeke Harkins, a bank robber who recently broke out of prison. The witch is revealed to be Aggie Wilkins. Aggie is Zeke's old girlfriend. Zeke had buried the money from the bank a while back. Aggie found directions to the carving on the board in the cabin, which was a map that told how to get to the money, in his old spellbook and planned to take the money for herself. But the Hatfields moved in and Aggie had to get rid of them by making up the witch legend. She used her pet cat to make them think that she could turn into a cat. Zeke broke out of prison when he learned that Aggie discovered the directions, and returned to the location of the money to try to retrieve it before Aggie could.

The Morse code in the dirt was made by the Hatfields as a clue to their location, and the sawdust in the cabin along with the Morse Code "SM" proved the Hatfields were hidden at the sawmill. Aggie and Zeke are presumably taken into custody.

Cast and characters

Actor	Character
Don Messick	Scooby-Doo Pa Hatfield Sheriff
Casey Kasem	Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker	Fred Jones
Heather North	Daphne Blake
Patricia Stevens	Velma Dinkley
Janet Waldo	Aggie Wilkins Ghost of Witch McCoy
Bob Holt	Zeke Harkins Zombie
Actor	Ma Hatfield
Actor(s)	Aggie Wilkins's cat Hatfield dog Frogs Chicken Pig Horse Goat
Non-speaking roles
Hatfield children

Villains

• Ghost of Witch McCoy/Aggie Wilkins
• Zombie/Zeke Harkins

Suspects

None

Culprits

Culprit	Reason
Aggie Wilkins as the Ghost of Witch McCoy Zeke Harkins as the Zombie	To find stolen money.

Locations

• Woods within The Ozarks (located somewhere between Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, U.S.)
  • Hatfield home
  • Spider Mountain
    • Ghost of Witch McCoy's cave
  • Sawmill
• Spooky Hollow
  • Spooky Hollow Store

Notes/trivia

• The Ozarks (also referred to as Ozarks Mountain Country, the Ozark Mountains, and the Ozark Plateau) are a physiographic, and geologic highland region of the central United States. It covers much of the southern half of Missouri and an extensive portion of northwestern and north central Arkansas. The region also extends westward into northeastern Oklahoma, and extreme southeastern Kansas.
• The Hatfield-McCoy feud which lasted between 1863 and 1891 (alluded to in this episode) involved two families of the West Virginia-Kentucky area along the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River. The Hatfields of West Virginia were led by William Anderson "Devil Anse" Hatfield while the McCoys of Kentucky were under the leadership of Randolph "Ole Ran'l" McCoy. The cause of the feud is a matter of dispute. However, during the 20th Century the feud fizzled, and relationships had been considerably more peaceful than how they were portrayed in Hollywood. The Hatfields and McCoys often intermarried, and would host community picnics with sports festivals spoofing the feud, such as "Hatfield/McCoy tug of war". In the 1980s descendants of the families appeared on a charity edition of the game show "Family Feud", and in 2003 a formal peace treaty was signed marking the official end of the feud.
• This is the last episode of The Scooby-Doo Show without a title card.
• The villains are similar in an earlier Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode, Which Witch is Which?, where the villains are a witch and a zombie.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

• None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• The episode takes place in the Ozarks yet the real Hatfields and McCoys lived in the West Virginia-Kentucky country.

Home media

• Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World compilation DVD released May 15, 2012.

Quotes

Previous episode:	Series:	Next episode:
The Spooky Case Of The Grand Prix Race	{{{series}}}	Creepy Cruise