To Switch a Witch

To Switch a Witch
Details
Air date	September 30, 1978
Chronology
Previous episode	A Scary Night With a Snow Beast Fright
Next episode	The Tar Monster

To Switch a Witch is the fourth episode of the third season of The Scooby-Doo Show, and the twenty-eighth episode overall in the series. It originally aired reusing the opening of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in a sense making it the twenty-ninth episode of that series.

Premise

The gang are off to visit a friend, Arlene Wilcox, on Halloween night, in the town of Salem which is being haunted by a witch. The town suspects Arlene and sets out to get a confession from her.

Synopsis

Ghost Witch of Old Salem

It is Halloween in Salem. An old caretaker is digging graves in a cemetery. Suddenly, a glowing witch appears, clad in a purple robe and green wig. The caretaker runs off screaming, "She's back!" He arrives at the house of Squire Marley (one of the town leaders) claiming the old witch of Salem, Melissa Wilcox, has risen from her grave to seek revenge after being burned at the stake over 200 years ago.

The gang is on their way to Salem to see an old friend, Arlene Wilcox, who has just inherited her family's house. When they arrive, they see Squire Marley nailing the witch's sign to one of the trees. He warns them to leave, saying that Arlene has been possessed by the witch of Salem. The gang ingores his warnings and goes inside Arlene's house to find out what is going on. She tells them that Squire Marley saw the witch and claimed she looked exactly like Arlene, knowing that Arlene is a direct descendent of Milissa Wilcox. After being shown their rooms, Shaggy and Scooby dress in their Halloween costumes. Shaggy is a peasant, and Scooby is dressed like a witch, looking very similiar to Milissa Wilcox. It is there that they first encounter the witch, who appears in their room. Before they can call for help, the witch disappears in a cloud of green smoke.

Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Arlene rush upstairs to find a terrified Shaggy and Scooby. Daphne notices a strange liquid on the ground that is eating away the carpet. As they look out the window, they see the witch running back to the graveyard. They pursue her, leaving Arlene alone at the house. The gang arrives at the graveyard just to see the witch run to her grave and disappear in another cloud of smoke. Velma goes behind the grave and finds a hot piece of wire, a clue to the mystery. After being warned again, this time by Gar Mooney, the caretaker, they gang heads to the Salem Witchcraft Museum to look through old records. There they find the Wilcox family tree, where Arlene's name is marked out and replaced by the word "Gemini" (another clue). The gang splits up, with Fred, Daphne, and Velma going back to Arlene's house, and Shaggy and Scooby trick-or-treating.

While they are trick-or-treating, Scooby is mistaken for Milissa Wilcox, and taken by Squire Marley and the town mob back to the witchcraft museum for an old fashioned confession (by repeatingly dunking him under water). Fred, Daphne, and Velma find the Wilcox house deserted and head to the graveyard, where they find Arlene. Arlene had escaped the mob after being warned by Gar Mooney. Shaggy then arrives after escaping the confession unseen, and the gang heads to the museum to rescue Scooby. They are successful, until the mob begins chasing them. The gang goes back to the graveyard to dig a hole to trap the witch in. Shaggy and Scooby foil the plan, but the witch falls into another hole, trapping herself. Squire Marley arrives just as the gang reveals what has been happening. The witch is actually Arlene's twin sister, whom Arlene had never met or known about. She was trying to scare Arlene out of town in order to steal her inheritance and estate. Fred reveals that Gar Mooney was also assisting her sister. The wire Velma found behind the grave was built by Mooney to make the witch glow. Also the acid on the carpet in Arlene's House came from the battery built from the wiring.

Marley apologizes to Arlene and escorts the unnamed Wilcox and Gar to jail.

Later at Arlene's place, Shaggy gives Scooby some chicken soup because he caught a cold from being dunked so many times, only with the chicken still left in.

Cast and characters

Actor	Character
Don Messick	Scooby-Doo
Casey Kasem	Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker	Fred Jones
Heather North	Daphne Blake
Patricia Stevens	Velma Dinkley
Janet Waldo	Arlene Wilcox Ghost Witch of Old Salem/ Arlene Wilcox's twin sister
Actor	Gar Mooney
Actor	Squire Marley

Villains

• Ghost Witch of Old Salem/Arlene Wilcox's twin sister

Suspects

Suspect	Motive/reason
Arlene Wilcox	She looks like the witch.
Squire Marley	Grumpy. He warned the gang to leave.
Gar Mooney	Strange manner. He also warned the gang to leave.

Culprits

Culprit	Motive/reason
Arlene Wilcox's twin sister as the Ghost Witch of Old Salem Gar Mooney	To frame Arlene and get the family inheritance.

Locations

• Massachusetts
  • Salem
    • Cemetery
    • Squire Marley's home
    • Wilcox home
    • City Hall
    • Witchcraft Museum

Notes/trivia

• A version of the Witch costume is in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
• It is presumed that the year takes place in 1978.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

• At the very beginning of the episode, the entrance gate to the cemetery is spelled correctly. However, later in the episode when the Scooby-Doo gang is driving towards and underneath it, the spelling changes to "cemetary".

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

• What century were the townspeople living in? Their behavior, speech and mannerisms were greatly exaggerated to resemble real Puritans from the 1600s.
• The Salem (Salem Village) where many of the supposed witches tried in the infamous 1692 trials came from renamed itself to Danvers in 1752.
• Salem Town (where the most infamous of the trials occured) has embraced its past to the point police cars have witch logos with New Age and Wiccan boutiques all over the place with witch themed attractions during Halloween.
• When the Gemnii clue is discussed an inkblot is mentioned but there is no indication to the viewer as to what this means.

Home media

• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Third Season DVD set.
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set.
• Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World DVD set released May 15, 2012.
• Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy DVD set to be released August 19, 2014.
• Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy Blu-ray Disc set to be released August 19, 2014.

Quotes

Previous episode:	Series:	Next episode:
A Scary Night With a Snow Beast Fright	{{{series}}}	The Tar Monster