Scoobsie is the second half of the seventh episode of The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and originally aired on October 8, 1983. Written by Cynthia Friedlob and John Semper, Scoobsie takes place on the set of a popular soap opera set.
Scoobsie – Episode Review
The episode begins with the gang at the KZZZ-TV studio at studio 13 where a recording is in progress for Genuine Hospital. During the filming of a scene, a phantom swings down from the rafters of the set and kidnaps Genuine Hospital’s leading star, Victoria Sensible.
Fortunately Daphne, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are on the scene as Daphne is writing an article about the Phantom. It doesn’t take very long at all for Scooby to run into the Phantom where he does a very good job of miming the character to the rest of the gang.
Daphne and Scrappy split up to go look for the Phantom while Shaggy and Scooby are enamored with some rubber food props.
Following a bouncing rubber turkey, the gang run into an angry security guard. Meanwhile Daphne and Scrappy interview Mr. Danny Divine, the so-called-star of Genuine Hospital. Scrappy takes a picture of Mr. Divine which I’m sure will be important later on. And oh yeah, the flash from the bulb momentarily blinds Mr. Divine and we hear him walk into a wall or a piece of furniture off screen.
Scooby and Shaggy disguise themselves as a blonde nurse and patient in a cast respectively in order to escape the tv set’s security guard as they have run off with the rubber turkey. A casting director digs the look of Scooby’s blonde hair and casts Scooby in the next scene. Before he’s about to go on, Scrappy takes Scooby’s picture and the flash causes some sudden blindness in Scooby.
We get a great scene with Scooby being mistaken for saying that Shaggy has Swallowed a Beaver, however the scene is soon cut short by the Phantom drenching the tv studio with a hose. (not very safe I imagine with all the electrical cords most likely laying around)
The Phantom then blasts the television studio with a fan that blows things away, even mixing in some soap flakes for extra dramatic effect for a snow storm.
Scrappy swings down from the rafters to clobber the Phantom, but his tiny weight is no match for the fan. Instead he floods the studio after holding on to the water meter lever to prevent himself from being blown away.
The Phantom makes his escape, but then reappears and attempts to kidnap Scooby, unfortunately, he slips on some water and crashes into the laundry room where he had been holding Victoria Sensible hostage.
Daphne unmasks the Phantom and reveals that it is Danny Divine. Danny realized he was about to be taken out of the show so he haunted the television set to ruin everything. Daphne knew it was Danny as both the Phantom and Danny Divine wore the same skull ring.
The episode ends with Scoobie being declared a star, until a burst hose blasts Scooby’s disguise away, revealing that he is a dog (and not an actress)
My Score
I give this episode a 6 out 10. I dug it, and the cross-dressing Scooby as a Nurse play on the film Tootsie was cute. Plus we get a take on the soap General Hospital and actress Victoria Principal with Genuine Hospital and Victoria Sensible.
In addition, the phantom looked cool, although he never looked dangerous, he just seemed to be having a good time haunting the movie set.
My only complaint, and this goes for a lot of the run of this series is the blurry scenes we get on occasion. For 75% of the episode the scenes are crisp, but if you look at some of the screen shots above, some are washed out and blurry. I don’t know what’s going on there, maybe they used two animation studios or something.
Hey Professor Joel, Daphne is also missing her pink pantyhose, showing her bare legs instead.
However, Daphne with her bare legs would also happen in “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo” when she sometimes wears a long sleeved purple dress with two lilac belts, hoops at each shoulder and lilac boots or a purple coat over a short sleeved lilac dress with a purple belt and purple high heels and in “Be Cool, Scooby-Doo” as well.
I just thought that i’d tell you anyway.
Thanks Michael, that is some neat trivia!
I remember the Phantom of the Soaps when I first watched Scoobsie when I was probably in elementary school and the only parts that I remember this episode is when the Phantom kidnapped Victoria Sensible which the time I didn’t remember her name, I remember he was trying to kidnap Daphne and to my annoyance is Scrappy pulled off a gary-stu move by rescuing her too quickly and I remember Daphne unmasked the Phantom. After I’ve rewatched Scoosie almost a year ago, I realized Victoria Sensible is based off of Victoria Principle who played Pamela Barns Ewing from Dallas and Pam and Bobby Ewing were my favorite characters and my favorite pairing. Now, the episode of Scoobsie should have been either 30 minutes or an hour long to fill in the blanks and make the episode breathe but I do find it strange that Victoria didn’t leave the room when the door is wide open when she’s not tied up. I asked John Semper if Danny Divine was interested in Daphne and what he was going to do with her, but I didn’t get any response from him, if that was the case then Shaggy, Daphne and Danny would have made an interesting love triangle and I wanted Shaggy to rescue Daphne to further their love for each other after the Phantom kidnapped her or she saves herself from him. I just don’t see Scrappy is capable of single handedly go against the Phantom and he could have accidentally sprayed Daphne. Scrappy just doesn’t fit in the story because he prevents the main characters to grow. And by the way, I just find the Phantom/Danny cute, mysterious, funny, interesting and very memorable and I see him being associated with Batman and Robin to be the anti-hero type instead of a villain of the week. They shouldn’t have shown Danny as himself before the unmasked scene because it was very easy to figure out who the Phantom is, because of his clothes, hair and his eyes that are shown, they could have pulled off another character like the Ghost Clown that it didn’t show his face yet. I never watched General Hospital, the only soaps I watched are Dallas, All My Children and One Life to Live because my mom watched Dallas and All My Children that I got into it even I hate Soap Operas that we finally quit watching them and my older brother got into Dallas that I rather not be ready to rewatch them again. Sorry for the long review since Scoobsie is one of my favorite fun episodes from Scooby Doo except for the parts where Scrappy rescuing and solving quickly and him acting like annoying big shot by throwing a hose around and running off scenes. Scoobsie had potential on being an awesome story for a Scooby Doo special and the Phantom of the Soaps did steal the show after all in my point of view. I never seen the movie Tootsie yet.
Thank-you for your review, I very much enjoyed reading it. I agree, I wish this one was at least 30 minutes, they could have had a lot more fun with it and given it some more atmosphere. I’m glad you enjoyed this episode, it, along with a lot of Scrappy episodes, are rarely talked about!
You’re welcome and thank you so much, probably because they’re not officially released on DVDs yet and I’m surprised no one has made fan art of the Phantom of the Soaps yet, but I might be the first one to upload them if I get the chance of finishing them first. Have you ever watched Knots Landing? I first heard of it just around two days ago when my brother wanted to watch it in my room and it’s a spin-off of Dallas.
That would be pretty cool if you made fan art for Phantom of the Soaps! I know on Instagram there’s the title card thread happening and they did the first season of Scooby and Scrappy episodes but I they are a few years away from this season. I’m was aware of Knots Landing but I never did watch it when it aired. I don’t think I would have enjoyed it in the 80s as I was too young, but I would probably love it now. Have you and your brother gotten around to watching it. Are you enjoying it if you have watched it?
We’ve gotten to watch it together, but he had to go back to his place since he lives an hour and 40 minutes away, William Devane is in Knots Landing and my guess is Danny’s last name Divine is based on Devane, if it weren’t for my brother introducing to me to this show then I wouldn’t figure out who Danny Divine is based off of, I figured he should. Do you have any art site account?
Oh cool, no art site account for me. I have an instagram account here https://www.instagram.com/scoobstats/ where I can see posted art.
Okay, I might link my art through your message if I get the chance to draw them and I have to admit my first comment is mostly copy pasted from youtube even I changed a few sentences in my paragraph.
Cool Cool!
Or I might link it here whichever works best.