Disappearing Car Caper is the 9th episode of the Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour and originally aired on November 20th, 1982. Written by Ron Sellz, this episode was almost scrapped due to it featuring a shrinking device that resembled a gun.
Writer Ron Sellz’s Memories
In 2002, I had the pleasure of communicating with Ron Sellz, the writer of The Disappearing Car Caper. Below is Ron’s memories of the episode and exclusive artwork from Ron’s personal collection. Here is my original post (courtesy of the wayback machine: http://www.execulink.com/~joelb/scooby/episodes/spete/rs/tdcc.htm
And here is Ron’s website: https://lostagepublishing.com/etheme_portfolio/ron-sellz/
Hi Joel. Thanks for your reply. A lot of interesting things came about before and after I wrote this episode. How about a tintype about ,”Disappearing Car Caper.” I believe it’s first title was, “Hot Car Caper” or The Hot Car Caper. I’d have to look at my original notes. Oh yes, I always keep everything.
My episode, which by the way, I’ve never seen except for the last few seconds and the credits was one of the six and one half cartoons which probably numbered in the hundreds. Okay, my episode was about a car thief who shrank cars down to tiny match-box bype cars with a shrinking gun. They kept saying that the car thief was a Lionel Atwill type. I pretended to know who Lionel Atwill was because he was before my time. As it turned out, I saw a picture of him and the car thief looks like him. He always played a mad scientist or something. A good bit of casting. Anyway, I wrote this episode at a time when the industry was concerned with too much violence on television. All scripts for TV series has to pass the censors . They were a bunch of jerks from UCLA who were concerned about too much violence on television. These idiots zeroes in on the shrinking gun the car thief used to make the cars small. They were upset that the car thief used a gun. I was summoned to the studio and told that the “shrinking gun” couldn’t be a gun or look like a gun. They told me to call it a shrinking device and to refer to it as such.
The animators were given the task of drawing or attempting to draw a shrinking device that didn’t look like a gun. After several drawings were turned down, I was summoned once again. The producers, “Joe Ruby and Ken Spears”, informed me that if a solution wasn’t found, the episode would be scrubbed. Afterall, we can’t have a shrinking device that resembles a gun. When I was a kid, I remembered that the toy company, “Wammo” had a device called an air blaster. It used compressed air to shoot targets., I drew a picture to show them that it couldn’t be confused as a gun, but they said that it looked like a gun, so my idea was thrown out. Back to the drawing board. Anyway, several more secret meetings ensued and a solution was reached. I was sent a drawing of the shrinking device. Would you believe, it looked like a gun! That’s right! It was truly a circle jerk. Back to square one. What a waste of everyone’s time.
I can send you a picture of the shrinking device if you like. I prefer to think of it as a gun. After all, that’s what it looks like. Lionel Atwill would be proud.
Regards
Ron
Disappearing Car Caper – Episode Review
Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy are hot on the trail of notorious car crook Pistons McGee, thanks to a tip from their friend Fearless Shagaford. Word is Pistons’ next target is Abbot’s Car Lot, so the gang decides to stake it out — undercover!
Their clever disguise? Slapping a “Van For Sale – A Real Steal” sign on the Mystery Machine and blending right in among the shiny sedans. But while they wait for Pistons to make his move, Shaggy unpacks enough snacks to feed a fleet — and soon, the trio is snoozing soundly instead of sleuthing!
That’s when Pistons McGee strikes! With a zap from his shrinking ray gun, every car on the lot — including the Mystery Machine — is reduced to toy size! The thief hauls his pocket-sized prizes back to his hideout, an abandoned gas station.
When Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy wake up, they find themselves miniature detectives in a monster-sized world! Pistons toys with the tiny trio until they make a daring getaway in their pint-sized van. But when the chase gets dangerous, they bail out — straight into the lair of a very unfriendly rat!
What follows is pure Scooby-style hijinks and chaos as the gang hides in a wedge of cheese, dodges rodent rage, and rockets out of the hole with the rat right behind them. Back in the garage, they set a trap for Pistons — a slick move involving spilled oil. One well-timed slip later, Pistons is tied up on a mechanic’s cart and towed by the miniature Mystery Machine.
They bring the shrunken cars back to Fearless Shagaford’s office to celebrate their success. But before uncle Fearless can congratulate them (he never speaks in this episode), Scooby decides to enlarge the cars with the shrinking ray… and POW! every car suddenly returns to full size, smashing straight through the office walls and out into the street!
My Review
I give this episode a 10/10. And this review is completely biased, but I was so happy to talk to Ron Sellz back in 2002, and grateful for the cool images of the shrinking ray, rat and Pistons McGee artwork. Biases aside, I feel that Pistons is a great looking villain, and the Giant Rat is kinda creepy. In addition, we get our first and last visual appearance of Uncle Fearless Shagaford.
