View source for A Bum Steer for Scooby

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'''''A Bum Steer for Scooby''''' is the eleventh episode of ''The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour'', later repackaged as the eleventh episode of the first season of ''The Scooby-Doo Show''.

== Premise ==
Mystery Inc. is on their way to a cattle ranch to visit Daphne's Uncle Matt. But things go awry when a phantom bull and a ghostly Indian show up. Things get worse when Uncle Matt goes missing and the gang must go up into the cliffs to solve this Western caper.

== Synopsis ==
Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby are driving through a desert to Daphne's Uncle Matt's ranch. Suddenly, a flying, ghost bull streaks across the sky, forcing the Mystery Machine to swerve off the road and drive through the desert. They eventually lose the bull and arrive at the ranch, telling Uncle Matt about the ghost bull. A local rancher, Sam Farren declares that many cattle have gone missing from the ranch. Uncle Matt tells about a flying bull named Tamuka that guards the burial grounds of an ancient cliff-dwelling tribe. Scooby and Shaggy are spooked by a ghostly sheet, but realize it is only the ranch's cook, Lenny. A car pulls up and a ranch foreman informs everybody that more cattle have gone missing. Shaggy, Scooby and Uncle Matt head off to the Sheriff's station, while Velma, Daphne and Fred decide to investigate the pasture where the cows went missing.

While driving for town, Shaggy, Scooby and Uncle Matt drive through a tunnel in a cliff and when they exit, Uncle Matt is gone! Calling for him, they receive no response so Shaggy gets at the wheel and turn around to return to the ranch and tell the others. Fred and the girls find the fence was cut open with wire cutters and there are no tracks anywhere. The ghost bull arrives and the threesome flee. Shaggy and Scooby also encounter the ghost bull and races back to the ranch, which is deserted. Shaggy and Scooby go looking and after a close call with a REAL mad bull in the barn, Fred, Daphne and Velma arrive and Shaggy and Scooby hurriedly inform the gang about Uncle Matt. So, the five decide to venture into the desert to where they first saw the flying bull, much to Scooby and Shaggy's chagrin. A little ways out on the dirt road, the gang find tire tracks and follow them to an Indian burial ground built into a cliff. They follow another set of tire tracks to a hidden pasture full of the stolen cows. But a ranch foreman arrives and tells them to scat and not to trespass, as they mistakenly happened upon Sam Farren's ranch. So they head back to the burial grounds. Fred, Daphne and Velma enter while Shaggy and Scooby, scared as they are, stand guard. Inside, Velma loses her glasses and while looking, they stumble upon a skeleton. Back outside, a ghostly Indian appears at the top of a ledge on the burial grounds, performing a ritual dance. Shaggy and Scooby run inside and tell the gang as the skeleton crumbles into pieces. Tamuka appears inside and the gang flee into the burial grounds and get separated. Shag and Scoob run into the Indian ghost and they hide, prompting the Indian ghost to give up and retreat, while Velma, Fred and Daphne get sealed in a room.

Shaggy and Scooby happen upon a nest and an eagle appears and defends her nest and they run away. Fred, Velma and Daphne keep escaping after short encounters with the Indian. Scooby and Shaggy get chased by the Indian ghost and they happen upon an exit while Velma, Fred and Daphne find a robotic bull suit with helicopter rotors, and they deduce how there is a flying bull around. They watch as the Indian ghost hops into the bull about to take off. The three set a trap and it succeeds and then they find Shaggy and Scooby in a cowhide. Turns out the cowhide is a clue. The cow rustlers hid inside the cowhide to steal the cattle and used Tamuka as the reason the cows were disappearing. So, Shaggy and Scooby get in the cowhide and go into the herd to see who is stealing them and where. Shaggy and Scooby get taken up in a truck up to the mountains and Fred. Daphne and Velma follow and save them, but they are captured by the foreman that told them to scat at that hidden pasture. But, Uncle Matt arrives and traps the foreman. In the car, is the captured Indian ghost.

Uncle Matt explains he was yanked off by a rope in the tunnel and that the cow rustler would brand another marking to make it look like they weren't stolen. They unmask the Indian ghost and it is Lenny, the cook, and the man in the cow suit is Sam Farren.

Fred, Daphne and Velma then mistake a real cow for Scooby and Shaggy, but Scooby and Shaggy manage to arrive and tell the rest of the gang that they were eating carrots while they were in the cowhide the whole time as the episode ends with them eating carrots and Scooby says his catchphrase.

== Characters ==
'''Main characters:'''

* Mystery Inc.
** Scooby-Doo
** Shaggy Rogers
** Fred Jones
** Daphne Blake
** Velma Dinkley

'''Supporting characters:'''

* Matt Blake <small>'''''(only appearance)'''''</small>

'''Villains:'''

* Tamuka the Ghost Bull <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)(disguised helicopter)'''''</small>
* Medicine Man Ghost <small>'''''(only appearance)(Lenny's disguise)'''''</small>
* Sam Farren <small>'''''(only appearance)'''''</small>
* Lenny <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)'''''</small>
* Sam Farren's foreman <small>'''''(only appearance)'''''</small>
* Talking bull <small>'''''(only appearance)(Sam Farren's disguise)'''''</small>

'''Other characters:'''

* Matt Blake's foreman <small>'''''(only appearance)'''''</small>
* Prairie dog <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)'''''</small>
* Cattle <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)'''''</small>
* Owl <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)'''''</small>
* Sheriff <small>'''''(only appearance)(no lines)'''''</small>

== Locations ==

* Texas
** Lazy S Ranch
** Hidden Valley
** Sam Farren's ranch

== Objects ==

* Carrots

== Vehicles ==

* The Mystery Machine

== Suspects ==
{| class="fandom-table"
!Suspect
!Motive/reason
|-
|Sam Farren's foreman
|Warned the gang to leave and laughs sinisterly when they left.
|}

=== Culprits ===
{| class="fandom-table"
!Culprit
!Motive/reason
|-
|Sam Farren's foreman
Lenny as the Medicine Man Ghost
A disguised helicopter as Tamuka the Ghost Bull
Sam Farren and an unrevealed back-end accomplice as the Talking Bull
|To steal cattle.
|}

== Cast ==
{| class="fandom-table"
!Don Messick
|Scooby-Doo
|-
!Casey Kasem
|Shaggy Rogers
Sam Farren
Sam Farren's foreman
|-
!Frank Welker
|Fred Jones
Matt Blake's foreman
Medicine Man Ghost
Tamuka the Ghost Bull
|-
!Heather North
|Daphne Blake
|-
!Pat Stevens
|Velma Dinkley
|-
!John Stephenson
|Matt Blake
|}

== Full credits ==
The following credits reflect closely as possible to how they are seen on-screen.

Show

== Notes/trivia ==

* Matt Blake's surname is later retconned as Daphne's own surname/family name, in the ''The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show'' episode ''No Sharking Zone'' nearly 10 years later.
* There are three cliff dwellings located in Texas, of the three, two are in ruins: "Firecracker" and "Hot Well"; both are located near El Paso, and were built by the Mogollon people sometime between 150 and 1450 CE.

=== Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches ===

* When Shaggy and Scooby turned around to see the giant eagle, Scooby's nose turned brown for a split-second.
* When the gang get caught in the rope by the foreman, Daphne's mouth briefly disappears.

=== Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities ===

* While Sam Farren states that the Ghost Bull was guarding thousand-year-old ruins from c. 976 according to an Indian legend, modern cattle were only introduced to Texas from the 1520s onward.
** It may be that he misstated the date, or the "legend" was simply made up by Farren and his co-conspirators.
* The Ghost Bull does maneuvers that would be impossible for a helicopter to do such as gallop in the sky.
** The legs are mechanical and not necessary for flight, so it might be possible to build them to gallop mechanically. However, the lack of visible helicopter blades in the early scenes is a serious problem. However, it's also possible that a projector was used in the early scenes.
* The foreman drops a rope only on Velma, Shaggy and Scooby, but a moment later, Fred and Daphne are caught in the same rope, too.
* There must be an accomplice running the back end of the talking bull, but he is completely ignored and never unmasked on-screen.
* Velma said she heard Daphne scream, but she actually gasped.
* The rope around the gang remains taut even after the ranch foreman has dropped the rope end.

== Home media ==

* ''The Scooby-Doo!/Dynomutt Hour: The Complete Series'' DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 7, 2006.

== Quotes ==
{| class="fandom-table"
|
|}

== External links ==

* Buy from Amazon (US)
* Buy from Amazon (UK)
* Buy from iTunes (US)
* Buy from iTunes (CA)
* Buy from iTunes (UK)
* Buy from VUDU

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths="185">
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</gallery>


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[[Category:TV Episodes]]
[[Category:Scooby-Doo]]
[[Category:The Scooby-Doo Show]]
[[Category:The Scooby-Doo Show episodes]]
[[Category:The Funtastic Index]]