"Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner" is a Halloween-themed episode of the Hanna-Barbera animated series A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, originally aired on ABC as the tenth episode of its first season.
Synopsis[]
On Halloween night, the gang are out trick-or-treating and come upon an old house. Shaggy doesn't want to go there, cause he heard that house used to be owned by the pirate Boobeard. Daphne and Velma aren't afraid and the boys tag along to protect them, unaware that BooBeard's ghost is watching from above.
They ring the doorbell and an older couple, the Johnsons, answered. They admit they do have a real ghost, but assures them that he's friendly. This calms Shaggy and Scooby, until Boobeard emerges and orders the Johnsons to move out of his house then disappears into the cellar. The Johnsons are shocked that their ghost has turned bad. Velma finds a piece of gum where the ghost disappeared and the Johnsons handyman Jack is scared out of the cellar because of the ghost. Jack claimed to have been working in the cellar when the ghost appeared and he watched as the ghost went through the wall. The Johnsons are heartbroken that they'll have to sell the house. The gang offer their service to help, but they politely turned them down and send them away. As they leave, a mist emerges from the attic and follows them.
The gang resumed their trick-or-treating, but couldn't stop thinking about the Johnsons, even Shaggy and Scooby are sad they couldn't help. Just as they agreed to help anyway, the mist appears and scares them back to their clubhouse.
They thought they lost the mist, but a small ghost appears. Although they were scared, he assures them that he's the friendly ghost. He introduced himself as Bartholomew Byfard Boo or Mr. Boo for short and wanted to hire them to help save his home before it's sold and destroyed, making him go "poof". They agreed and headed back to the Johnsons.
After getting Scooby to go in, they searched the attic. They find many clues such as a can of white spray paint and glowing white chains. Boobeard shows up and corners them by the window.
Velma sees a wire right next to them and a pulley. They all used the pulley to get away and Boobeard attempts to follow them with a pulley as well, but Scooby shook the wire and the ghost falls and crashes into the basement. They showed the Johnsons the clues they found and a limo drives by and a woman steps out. She is really pleased the Johnsons are finally selling their house and introduced herself as Ms. Spelling, owner of the finest restaurants in Coolsville. She wanted to build a fancy new restaurant on the Johnsons land. Another limo pulls up and Mr. O'Greazy steps out and explains that he wants to build another O'Greazy restaurant on the land. Daphne shoos them away and Velma notices that Mr. O'Greazy chews the same gum as the ghost. Scooby spots a trail of fries that lead to a bucket o'fries next to a trapdoor in the shed Boobeard shows up behind them and they all went down the trapdoor.
While down there, they find plans not for a restaurant, but an office building that could make a lot of money. However, Boobeard catches up to them, resuming the chase. After losing the ghost, the Johnsons had enough and decided to sell right away. Jack wished they would find someone who wouldn't cut down the trees on the land that aren't loved so much and begins leaving, but the Johnsons offered to let Jack buy the land. Although he was reluctant at first, he accepts when they'll give him the land so he could tear down the house, get rid of the ghost and they can buy a new home. As they leave, Mr. Boo and Scooby despair on how Jack would tear down Boo's home, which will mean poof. However, Velma solves the mystery and gets a plan.
They informed Jack that the Johnsons changed their minds about selling the house, because they hired a ghost exterminator revealing that ghost hates magnets and demonstrates on Mr. Boo. They push him out of the guest house and Boobeard shows up not afraid of magnets. However, the magnet was drawn to his chains and traps him in the wall.
The Johnsons thanked the gang and Freddie goes over their suspects, that continued with people with absolutely nothing to do with the case.
Velma shows them the blueprints for the office building proving that the ghost wasn't Ms. Spelling or O'Greazy. The fries they found were planted by Boobeard to fool them and the ghost was none other than Jack. Jack pretended to be nice to the Johnsons waiting for them to move and decided to scare them out. He knew the land was worth a lot of money and also knew the Johnsons wouldn't sell to someone who would tear down the park and trees that he didn't care for anyway. After Jack was taken away, Daphne was glad Mr. Boo was safe although she still doesn't believe in ghosts and Mr. Boo thanked them and a pup named Scooby-Doo.
Notes[]
- The title is named after the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Availability[]
The episode was made available on the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: Vol. 3 DVD released by Warner Home Video on July 18, 2006. It was later included on the A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: The Complete 1st Season DVD set, released on March 18, 2008.
Cast[]
| Voice actor/actress | Character(s) |
|---|---|
| Charlie Adler | Mr. O'Greazy |
| Michael Bell | Jack BooBeard |
| Don Messick | Scooby-Doo Mr. Boo |
| Casey Kasem | Shaggy Rogers |
| Kellie Martin | Daphne Blake |
| Carl Steven | Freddy Jones |
| Christina Lange | Velma Dinkley |
| Mark Taylor | Additional voices |