The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and the seventh incarnation of the studio's Scooby-Doo franchise.[1] It premiered on September 7, 1985, and ran for one season on ABC as a half-hour program. Thirteen episodes of the show were made in 1985. It replaced The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries and aired alongside Scooby's Mystery Funhouse, a repackaging of earlier shows.[2]
The series also aired in reruns on USA Network in the 1990s, on Cartoon Network, and currently on Boomerang. With 13 episodes, it is currently the shortest-running series in the Scooby-Doo franchise. A follow-up film from a different creative team, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, released in 2019, featured the previously unseen 13th ghost and ended the series. Additionally, the entire series is accessible via the streaming services Boomerang and Tubi.
This is a warning to all living mortals that whosoever opens this Chest of Demons will release 13 of the most terrifying ghosts upon of the face of the Earth! Only you can return the demons to the chest...because you let them out!
— Vincent Van Ghoul, in the original opening title sequence
In the initial episode, the gang are thrown off course on a trip to Honolulu in Daphne's plane, landing instead in Himalayas. While inside a temple, Scooby and Shaggy are tricked by two bumbling ghosts named Weerd and Bogel into opening the Chest of Demons, a magical artifact that houses the 13 most terrifying and powerful ghosts and demons ever to walk the face of the Earth. As the ghosts can only be returned to the chest by those who originally set them free, Scooby and Shaggy, accompanied by Daphne, Scrappy-Doo, and a young boy named Flim Flam, embark on a worldwide quest to recapture them before they wreak irreversible havoc upon the world.
Assisting them is Flim Flam's friend, a warlock named Vincent Van Ghoul (based upon and voiced by Vincent Price), who contacts the gang using his crystal ball and often employs magic and witchcraft to assist them. The 13 escaped ghosts, meanwhile, each attempt to do away with the gang lest they are returned to the chest, often employing Weerd and Bogel as lackeys.
Fred Jones and Velma Dinkley were both absent in this incarnation. In Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, it is revealed that they were away at summer camp.
The series was created and produced by Mitch Schauer. Tom Ruegger was associate producer and story editor, the irreverent, fourth wall-breaking humor found in each episode resurfaced in his later works, among them A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Animaniacs.[3] Of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, Ruegger recalls not being fond of the Flim-Flam character[3] or the other added characters in the cast.[3] As with most of the other early-1980s Scooby-Doo entries, original characters Fred Jones and Velma Dinkley do not appear, and the enemies were real (within the context of the series) ghosts and not simply humans in costume. 13 Ghosts ended its run after 13 episodes and was replaced by reruns of Laff-a-Lympics in March 1986, before the end of the season.
After a hiatus, Ruegger and ABC decided that they would overhaul the series entirely, developing A Pup Named Scooby-Doo in 1988.[3] At the time of the cancellation, eleven of the thirteen ghosts were recaptured in the chest of demons with the show stopping production before the last ghost could be found. To date, it is the last Scooby-Doo running series to have featured Scrappy-Doo, who was removed as a regular character after the three Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 movies in 1987-8.
A direct-to-video film released in 2019, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, resolves the open ending of the original and features the entire gang helping Vincent Van Ghoul in capturing the last ghost.[4]
Shaggy and Daphne were both present and were both given new uniforms, Daphne's being more of an 80s style that was fairly similar to that of Charlie's Angels, the headband was removed and she was given bangs. Shaggy had the same clothes, except his color scheme changed to a red T-shirt, baggy blue jeans and brown shoes. A reason for this color change has to this day, not been specified. He would only wear this outfit four more times in the more than three decades since it was introduced, the last appearance being in 2001s Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase as part of the gang's digital counterparts. Hints that this style may be coming back were implied in 2019's Scooby-Doo Return to Zombie Island, where Shaggy is seen wearing a red floral shirt while laying out on a boat.
On June 29, 2010, Warner Home Video (via Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo: The Complete Series on DVD in Region 1.[5]
The series was heavily profiled in the Christian fundamentalist documentary Deception of a Generation as an example of alleged occult influences on children's entertainment.[6]
35 years after the series ended, a movie was created based on the series called Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost to give it a symbolic end.