The Frickert Fracas

Premise[]

When the gang volunteer to drive Jonathan Winters to his friend Maude Frickert's farmhouse, they run into two shady people skulking around and a living scarecrow. It appears that Maude's secret formula, which turns a rooster into a giant, is the cause of the brouhaha.

Synopsis[]

The gang were driving through the countryside when they started to run low on gas, so they stopped at a gas station. There they meet Jonathan Winters, who invites them to come with him to Maude Frickert's farm. Daphne noted what a nice change it was going to be from the haunted houses, gloomy mansions, and spooky characters they had been running into; nobody noticed that a strange scarecrow was watching them drive by. When they arrived on the farm, they witnessed two men on a motorcycle being chased off by Maude's handyman, Vernon Crow.

Vernon mistakes the gang for trespassers and tells them to get lost, but Jonathan does his impression of Maude to fool him into letting them in the house. Maude told them about a secret chicken feed formula hidden on the farm that could make chickens giant. That explained the two men from earlier and Vernon's initial attempt to send the gang away; apparently, people had been trying to steal the formula. Maude's banker, Simon Shakey, visited the house to discuss a bank loan, but the discussion turned sour and she showed him to the door. Jonathan, feeling bad for his old friend, offers to give Maude the money she needs to start her chicken restaurants--but Maude, while certainly appreciative of the offer, politely turns him down, explaining that she'd rather come up with the money on her own.

The two suspicious men showed up again, and when spotted, fled in different directions. Everyone splits up to chase them. Vernon, Jonathan, Shaggy, and Scooby went down by the creek to find the red-haired one, while the rest searched the wheatfield for the brown-haired one.

Shaggy, Scooby, and Jonathan arrived at a mill where they thought the red-haired man was hiding. Jonathan came up with the idea to sneak in through the window, but when Shaggy attempted it, he got caught on the waterwheel, which kept dunking him as well as Scooby when he tried to rescue him. After the accident was over, the red-haired man went back to the farm.

Meanwhile, Maude, Fred, Daphne, and Velma were searching the wheatfield for the other suspicious guy. They had split into pairs, with Fred and Maude searching one section of the wheatfield and Daphne and Velma searching another. When Fred asked the girls to confirm their location, Daphne claimed that they were by the scarecrow. This confused Fred and Maude, since the scarecrow was right next to them a minute ago; it had somehow moved. Fred realized that the scarecrow was actually a person in disguise and told Daphne and Velma to grab him. The scarecrow promptly bolted. While the girls were chasing him, he noticed Fred and Maude coming the other way and was forced to flee in a different direction. He ran toward the farmyard and escaped.

Eventually, the two suspicious men are caught and revealed to be completely innocent—they knew nothing about the secret formula and simply wanted to ask Mrs. Frickert if they could rent out her farmland to hold a rock music festival (something similar to Woodstock), but they never got the chance because Vernon kept chasing them off every time they would try to ask her. The men also reveal that they had nothing to do with the scarecrow in the wheatfield—the brown-haired man explains that he was already hiding in the haystack when he got frightened by the scarecrow jumping into it. With the scarecrow confirmed to still be at large and Vernon now mysteriously missing, Maude lets the men spend the night in her house (telling them that they can discuss the details for the rock festival in the morning) while she and the rest of the gang continue their search for the scarecrow, now suspecting Vernon to be the culprit.

Once the coast was clear, the scarecrow appeared and started digging for the secret formula. Shaggy and Scooby ended up running back to the farmyard after hearing voices in the cornfield (it was only Fred, but they didn't realize this) and discovered the scarecrow digging. They got scared and fled, which lured the rest of the gang back to the farmyard. Unfortunately for them, the scarecrow got away before they arrived.

Shaggy and Scooby continued to attempt to avoid the scarecrow, but their efforts proved fruitless as they kept running into him anyway. Eventually, they along with Jonathan decided to hide in a stable. Worried that the scarecrow may be in there as well, Jonathan decided to do some impressions of police officers to flush him out, so the others could capture him. The scarecrow caught on to the routine and scared them away.

The scarecrow was next seen running into a grain silo. All but Shaggy and Scooby followed him in, who decided to hide in a chicken coop instead. Inside the coop, they discovered samples of the secret chicken feed formula buried underground in a metal box. One of the chickens ate it all and grew so large that it destroyed the coop. The massive chicken proceeded to chase Shaggy and Scooby around the farm.

Meanwhile, the rest of the gang were in the silo, searching for the scarecrow. The scarecrow tried to sneak up on Jonathan but tripped over a hammer and fell into the grain. Jonathan accidentally hit the grain release switch, causing the grain along with the scarecrow to pour out of the silo and land right on top of Shaggy, Scooby, and the giant chicken. The chicken burst out of the grain pile and ran away with Scooby and the scarecrow involuntarily riding it. Maude tried to stop the chicken by grabbing one of its tail feathers, but it just dragged her around until the feather broke off. The gang got in the Mystery Machine and followed the giant chicken until it eventually shrank back to normal size due to the formula wearing off. They headed off the scarecrow at a railroad crossing and captured him.

Maude proceeded to scold "Vernon" since not only did he try to steal the formula, he left the chicken coop open. However, the scarecrow replied "Vernon? How dare you mistake me for Vernon!" It turned out the scarecrow was really Simon Shakey, Maude's banker. He wanted to steal the formula and so he could start his own line of chicken restaurants. Vernon soon shows up with the Sheriff, explaining to his boss that things were getting way too crazy, so he decided to go get the police — Maude notes that this is probably the smartest thing he's ever done. The police arrest Simon and take him away; even though the formula Maude's husband left technically works, Maude decides to scrap the idea of starting a line of chicken restaurants, since the effects of the formula are only temporary. However, she still chooses to go ahead with having a rock music festival on her land, much to the delight of the two rock music businessmen.

The sun rose, but the roosters didn't crow, so Scooby decided to crow himself.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Mystery Inc.
- Scooby-Doo
- Shaggy Rogers
- Fred Jones
- Daphne Blake
- Velma Dinkley
Jonathan Winters ^{(only appearance)}

Supporting characters:

Maude Frickert ^{(only appearance)}
Vernon Crow ^{(only appearance)}
Rock festival businessmen ^{(only appearance)}

Villains:

Scarecrow ^{(only appearance)(Simon Shakey's disguise)}
Simon Shakey ^{(only appearance)}

Other characters:

Chickens ^{(only appearance)(no lines)}
Richard Nixon ^(mentioned)
Sheriff ^{(only appearance)(no lines)}

Locations[]

Gas station
Frickert Farm

Objects[]

TBA

Vehicles[]

The Mystery Machine

Suspects[]

Suspect	Motive/reason
Rock festival businessmen	Suspicious sneaking around.
Vernon Crow	Once the two businessmen were cleared of suspicion, he mysteriously disappeared.
Simon Shakey	He was trying to prevent Maude Frickert from opening her chicken stand.

Culprits[]

Culprit	Motive/reason
Simon Shakey as the Scarecrow	To steal Maude's secret formula so he could open his own chicken stand.

Cast[]

Don Messick	Scooby-Doo Rock festival businessman (red hair)
Casey Kasem	Shaggy Rogers Rock festival businessman (brown hair)
Frank Welker	Fred Jones
Heather North	Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe	Velma Dinkley
Jonathan Winters	Himself Maude Frickert
John Stephenson	Vernon Crow Simon Shakey Scarecrow

Full credits[]

The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).

Show

Notes/trivia[]

Jonathan Winters is the first celebrity to voice himself in Scooby-Doo media.
Maude Frickert is actually a character Winters developed for comedy albums, so he played both himself and her.
Winters had played a character who gets at cross-purposes with another Scarecrow in The Land of Oz (1960) episode of Shirley Temple's Storybook.
This episode marks the first time Daphne whistles on-screen. This episode also marks the second time Velma whistles on-screen, but the first time she whistles with her lips on-screen; she had previously whistled with her fingers in the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode Spooky Space Kook.
When aired on Cartoon Network, the scene where Shaggy, Scooby and Winters are by the old mill is shortened.
The real Jonathan Winters passed away on April 11, 2013.
This episode is actually the first time Velma uttered her popular catchphrase "jinkies"! (When Vernon is chasing the motorcycles, and Daphne asks where are Shaggy and Scooby, who jumped into hiding places. Velma responds "Jinkies, they've disappeared!" She next says it after Maude has thrown out the bank president, and Velma asks "Jinkies; would it help if we could find those chicken feed samples?" And then, when the grain has trapped the scarecrow. "Oh, jinkies! What do we do now, dig him out?", and finally, when the gang is heading off the giant chicken, "Jinkies, I think the chicken's getting smaller!"). Shaggy actually was the first to utter the term, in The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair.

Miscellaneous[]

Disguises:
Traps:
Scooby Snacks bribe:
"Zoinks" count: 10 (9 from Shaggy, 1 from Jonathan Winters).
"Ruh-roh" count: 5.
"Jeepers" count: 2.
"Creepers" count: 2. (Fred)
"Jinkies" count: 4. (First times ever for Velma)

Cultural references[]

Shaggy does an impression of then President of the United States Richard Nixon.

Adaptations[]

In a flashback case, the Vengeful Scarecrow haunted Old Man Frickert's farm in the live-action TV film Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster. Jonathan Winters was even cast as Old Man Frickert, and filmed his scene, but it was cut as it was deemed too gratuitous.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

The Scarecrow doesn't dive into a pile of hay as Velma stated.
When Fred asks Jonathan to "fill it up", his lips don't move.
When Shaggy makes his joke about the rock festival his laugh is actually Daphne's laugh

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

When the gang and Mrs. Frickert were talking to the rock music businessmen, the two men were dripping with water, but in the next scene, they immediately stopped dripping.
Shaggy refers to Mrs. Frickert as 'he' at one point. The actor may be male, but the character is female.
Velma says the scarecrow dove into the haystack and the brown haired man confirms that this is what scared him out of it, but the scarecrow was never shown diving into the hay. (This omission could have been a later edit, or a story error).

In other languages[]

Language	Name	Meaning
Greek	Η Φασαρία του Φρίκερτ	The Frickert Fracas
Hungarian	Pitvar perpatvar	The porch fracas

Home media[]

The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 22, 2005.
The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: Volume 1 DVD released by Warner Home Video on April 2, 2007.
The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.
The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.

Quotes[]

(Shaggy flips one of Jonathan's quarters to decide who goes into the mill, but it doesn't come back down)

Shaggy: I think I flipped it pretty high.

Jonathan: I think I see it. Going into orbit around the moon. Look, fella. You owe me a quarter.

Shaggy: Zoinks! Oh, what hit me?

Fred: Only about twenty tons of grain.

Shaggy: Where's the giant chicken?

Daphne: Giant chicken?

Jonathan: Whew, I think the grain sprained his brain.

Daphne: Look, someone else is coming out!

(The giant chicken bursts out of the grain)

Jonathan: That chicken is almost as big as this chicken. Bye!

Maude: Well, snap my garters. It's the banker, Simon Shakey. Now why did you go and cause all this to do, Simon?

Simon: To prevent you from opening your chicken stands, Maude! I was going to find the secret formula and open my own chicken stands! But those dern kids came along and threw a monkey wrench into my plans!