The Fall Dog is the first half of the tenth episode of The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and originally aired on November 5, 1983. With a story by Cynthia Friedlob and John Semper, this episode features a movie set being sabotaged by a gremlin.
The Fall Dog – Episode Review
The episode begins on the set of the Amazing Wonder car where movie director Bobby Mogul is requesting his stuntman named Terry Lee to perform a car stunt where it jumps across a canyon, go through a loop-de-loop and then finish by driving through a brick wall. Terry Lee pops on his helmet and starts to drive, but before he even gets to the edge of the canyon, the car stops with smoke coming out of the hood. A message is spray painted on the hood interior that says “Stop Filming This Movie Or Else The Gremlin”
We then see the Gremlin on top of a barn shout out with glee, causing Terry to walk off the set and quit.
We then cut to the Mystery Machine with the gang excited to visit the set. The Mystery Machine has some car troubles with their brakes and then performs the exact stunt the wonder car was supposed to have performed.
Bobby greets the gang and hires them instantly as his stunt drives. We also meet Mickey Hack, the script writer for the film. We also meet Erick Von Stronghand the movie’s villain where Bobby warns the gang that Erick also takes care of ‘Snoopy Reporters’. Finally we meet the lead actor C Majors and lead actress Anna Delicious.
Changing into their flashy stunt outfits to avoid being caught as reporters, we then move on to the next stunt that involves Shaggy driving the wonder car into the chasm where the parachute will safely land the vehicle. The stunt nearly goes off as plan until the gremlin throws a grappling hook and rips the parachute, causing the wonder car to plummet. Fortunately Scrappy rescues the gang by using a helicopter’s hook.
Daphne and Scrappy split up from the gang to investigate raising the suspicions of Mickey Hack that they are reporters.
We then cut to the final stunt where the Gremlin spills a barrel of oil to make the wonder car slip. Daphne is driving and she ends up crashing it into a huge robot called the Cybernaut. The Cybernaut goes wonky and attacks the gang but fortunately Scooby saves the day by rolling a barrel of oil at it.
The Gremlin slips on some oil and Scooby falls on the Gremlin where Daphne unmasks him as Mickey Hack. Mickey felt his movie sucked as the film was supposed to be a love story. As Erick drags Mickey off to the police station, Bobby Mogul offers the Scooby gang a job, where they respectively say no thanks and drive off the way they came.
My Score
I give this episode a 7 out of 10. The gremlin was a cool looking villain, we had a bit of a mystery, and there’s a lot of fun to be had here. I do wish this one was a bit longer to build up some atmosphere, but I’ll take what I can get I suppose.
I must say, Daphne looks beautiful in her flashy stunt outfit that of turquoise and white high-heel boots, white gloves, a cyan leotard with a turquoise pull over, a turquoise vest and cyan tank crop top, and a turquoise and white stripe helmet as a stunt double for the lead female, and also at the first Wonder Car scene, Scooby grabs Daphne’s legs and falls down (because her boots slip off her feet due to Scooby’s weight), she wears her light blue stockings, but when the camera pans to Scooby in a shallow creek beneath them, Daphne’s light blue stockings disappear showing her bare legs and feet.
Here’s a short clip of that to show you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytfgRXprZl8