There's a Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark is the twelfth episode of the The Scooby-Doo Dynomutt Hour, later repackaged as the twelfth episode of the first season of The Scooby-Doo Show.
Summary[]
On a stormy night, two men from India have flown across the ocean, and landed at an airport. The men are carrying a suitcase full of valuable pearls destined for the County Museum and also a shark frozen in a block of ice for Aqualand. Later that night, when the airport is locked up, the ice encasing the shark begins to melt.
The gang is out water-skiing one afternoon. Scooby and Shaggy are out on the water, and Fred, Daphne, and Velma are in the boat. They turn the radio on, and a news broadcast reports that two million dollars' worth of pearls were stolen from the airport. Velma is baffled because the doors to the storage room were locked tight, and the only one in there was the shark. Suddenly, a real shark begins to chase the gang, and they crash into a rocky cliff. They climb up the rocks for help to discover they are at Aqualand, a cliff-side aquarium.
Upon entrance, they run into a bipedal shark monster! The gang flees and loses him. The gang heads to the manager's office and meet the manager of Aqualand, Mr. Dreyfus. He explains that he believes their scientist, Prof. Beaker, brought the shark back to life when it was transported to Aqualand. He tells them Prof. Beaker has some kind of spell book. They go to the lab and talk with Prof. Beaker, and he explains that he did no such thing. He shows them the encased shark, and the shark is still there-frozen in ice. Prof. Beaker claims he hasn't seen the spell book. The gang goes to talk with Mr. Wells, the manager's assistant. They become separated, and Shaggy and Scooby are chased by the demon shark. Velma, Daphne, and Fred run into Mr. Wells, who says he's never seen the shark. He also tells Fred and the girls he is interested in cabinet-work and is skilled in making false bottoms and secret compartments.
Shaggy and Scooby visit the restaurants and find the spell book and the demon shark. They quickly flee. Meanwhile, Fred and the girls search Prof. Beaker's laboratory, finding a pile of oyster boxes from a fish market. Then they search Mr. Dreyfuss' office and find a brochure of a pearl exhibit at the museum, the same pearls that were nabbed from the airport. They also find a shipping receipt for the oysters. Mr. Dreyfuss is looking suspicious. Scooby and Shaggy lose the shark but accidentally drop the spell book into the crab tank. They scuba dive into the pond, retrieve the book, and run into Fred and the girls, who discover the book they found is only a cookbook.
The shark appears and steals the oysters that Scooby and Shaggy unintentionally fished out of the tank. The gang set a trap, with Scooby acting as bait. It backfires, but the shark is trapped anyway. They find valuable pearls inside the oysters, the stolen pearls from the airport. The shark is unmasked as Mr. Wells. Professor Beaker still didn't understand how they figured out the mystery Fred explained that the real demon shark is still frozen in his lab, but Wells used a costume to pose as the demon shark to make it seem that it had been brought back to life, Because he wanted to scare the manager Mr. Dreyfus off the job, in order to answer that they started with the crime while he was in India dredging up the demon and read about the pearl shipment, He arranged to have the demon and the pearls to be shipped on the same plane. Then he used his expert skill at cabinet-making to make a secret compartment under the ice shark. He hid in the compartment and shipped himself back to U.S.A. When the shark and pearls were locked up in the airport, Wells snuck out, stole the pearls, and hid back inside the compartment to be delivered back to Aqualand. He put the pearls inside some frozen oysters from Sam's Fish Market and then he put them in the tank with the live oysters intending to ship them out of the state to another Aqualand in Florida where he could pick them up later, it was the only way to get them past all police roadblocks, but Mr. Dreyfus would not permit the shipment so he had to scare him off with the demon shark costume. Then Wells could take over the manager's job and authorize the shipment himself. Wells also bluffed about the book of spells to confuse everyone. But the gang showed up just in time to foul up Mr. Wells plan.
Scooby goes back to skiing, but this time in a knight costume to keep protected from sharks.
Characters[]
Main characters:
Supporting characters:
- M. Dreyfus (only appearance)
- Professor Beaker (only appearance)
Villains:
- Demon Shark (only appearance)(no lines)(Mr. Wells' disguise)
- Mr. Wells (only appearance)
Other characters:
- Indian men (only appearance)(no lines)
- Customs agent (only appearance)
- Shark (only appearance)(no lines)
- Dolphins (only appearance)(no lines)
- Crabs (only appearance)(no lines)
- Police officer (only appearance)
Locations[]
- East Indian Airline
- United States
- Airport
- U.S. Customs
- County Museum (mentioned)
- Beach
- Aqualand
- Mr. Dreyfus's office
- Aqualand Laboratory
- Mr. Wells' office
- Pie in the Sky
- Scuba gear locker room
- Airport
- India (mentioned)
Objects[]
- Pearls
- Secret Spells of Gastronomy
- Oysters
Vehicles[]
- East Indian Airline
- The Mystery Machine
Suspects[]
| Suspect | Motive/reason |
|---|---|
| M. Dreyfus | Had a brochure of a pearl exhibit in his office, the same pearls that were stolen. |
| Professor Beaker | Mr. Dreyfus claimed that Prof. Beaker brought the Demon Shark back to life. |
| Mr. Wells | Laughs sinisterly when the gang left his office. |
Culprits[]
| Culprit | Motive/reason |
|---|---|
| Mr. Wells as the Demon Shark | To get away with stolen pearls. |
Cast[]
| Don Messick | Scooby-Doo M. Dreyfus |
|---|---|
| Casey Kasem | Shaggy Rogers Man on radio |
| Frank Welker | Fred Jones Professor Beaker Dolphins |
| Heather North | Daphne Blake |
| Pat Stevens | Velma Dinkley |
| John Stephenson | Mr. Wells Customs agent Demon Shark |
| Alan Oppenheimer | Police officer |
Notes/trivia[]
- This episode originally aired on Thanksgiving morning as part of ABC's Thanksgiving Funshine Festival children's block for the 1976-77 season.
- Scooby's water ski chase with the shark is edited into the series' title montage.
- Like in "The Ghost of the Bad Humor Man", the Police Officer is reused from the Sheriff from "A Night of Fright is No Delight". Considering it's the same show, these 2 episodes may happen in the same locality or town.
- This Episode's Plot is Very Similar To The Scooby-Doo Where Are You Episode Scooby's Night With a Frozen Fright
Miscellaneous[]
- "Zoinks" count: 7.
- "Jeepers" count: 1.
- "Jinkies" count: 2.
Cultural references[]
- The East Indian Airline plane resembles a De Havilland DH 106 Comet, a British-made plane, and one of the first commercial jetliners. It operated from 1949 until 1997.
- M. Dreyfus' name may be a reference to the then-recent blockbuster movie Jaws (1975), where actor Richard Dreyfuss played a scientist who specialized in sharks.
- Hinduism isn't commonly known for magic, though the ancient Vedas do contain mantras recited by tantric and mantric healers.
Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]
- The East Indian Airlines plane changes its shape 3 times at the start. When in the air it resembles a De Havilland DH 106 Comet, but when we see it land it somewhat resembles a Lockheed L1011 Tristar (An American made plane first introduced in 1972) but then when the cargo is being off-loaded it slightly resembles a Boeing 707 or Douglas DC8 (2 American made planes with 4 engines mounted under the wings)
- Mr. Wells is talking to the gang at the same time he is chasing Shaggy and Scooby when he is dressed as the Demon Shark.
- However, this may not be happening concurrently; just like in the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode, Go Away Ghost Ship, when Redbeard both accosts Shaggy and Scooby and then is immediately seen walking alone past Fred, Daphne and Velma, before returning to Shaggy and Scooby.
Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]
- Mr. Wells must have incredible stamina and resilience, as he was able to hide in a secret compartment for an entire possibly ten (or more) hour flight from India, and then hide in a customs warehouse at the airport for a whole night before arriving at Aqualand in the morning. He may have been able to get out and stretch his legs when nobody was there, but this would still be very mentally taxing.
- How could Shaggy not see that the book he was holding did not have "magical spells", but recipes (he did after all open it up and looked at it briefly). It is understandable that Shaggy may not have known what gastronomy was (but he probably would've known what recipes looked like).
- Why would a revolving restaurant have a "fast" setting?
- The Indian Ocean is the world's warmest ocean so it seems odd that a block of ice containing the demon shark would be found there especially near India.
- The book should have disintegrated underwater.
Availability[]
- The Scooby-Doo Dynomutt Hour: The Complete Series DVD set released 7 March 2006 by Warner Home Video.
Quotes[]
| Daphne: What's a ghost gonna do with all those oysters?
Shaggy: I don't know about him. But if it was me, I'd fry them in butter, sprinkle a little salt on him. Velma: Will you stop thinking about food for five seconds? |
Gallery[]
