The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo

I'm a huge Scooby-Doo fan. Looking back as an adult, my love for the franchise as a whole makes a lot of sense. I love anthologies and monster of the week series, and I've always liked the spooky/goofy/flower power aesthetic (someone once called me a bohemian goth, my husband calls me a hippie witch). 60's-70's-ish era Scooby are your classic "meddling kids" episodes. 90's-00's is what most people my age remember, when movies like Zombie Island, The Witch's Ghost, Cyber Chase, and Alien Invaders came out. This time, the monsters were real and these were feature length films that breathed new life into the franchise. To be clear, those are FANTASTIC movies but the notion of "oh, this spooky-scary is for real-for real, huh?" in Scooby-Doo installments came along way earlier than most realize.

There was a weird and long segue in between those two eras, its peak happening in the mid 80's. Budgeting issues and waning popularity resulted in storylines that followed Scooby, Shaggy and maybe only one other member of the gang, and this is when we start to see writers play around with different concepts, including ones where the monster is more than just a bad guy in a mask. We got The Boo Brothers, Ghoul School, The Reluctant Werewolf, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, and a thirteen episode series called The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. The first three are also favorites of mine, but 13 Ghosts really stood out to me.

Simply explained, Shaggy and Scooby team up with Daphne, Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo, a child con artist named Flim-Flam, and a warlock named Vincent van Ghoul (voiced by Vincent Price) to try and capture thirteen ancient demons that Scooby and Shaggy accidentally released from an enchanted chest that had imprisoned these spirits for centuries. Because of course they did. The crew then travels around the world chasing down demons and meeting all sorts of creepy characters along the way. Shenanigans ensue. I've always taken an interest in paranormal horror, and this was a very light segue into the series and films I would come to love as I got older. It's a limited series (love that) and each episode really leans into each demon's personality and power. The 80's was a fun time for animation in general, and you can tell the creators of this series enjoyed themselves. Technically, the thirteenth ghost is never found though this is debated. A straight to video movie intended to complete the series was released a few years ago, but I haven't seen it.

I could write endlessly about the Scooby-Doo timeline and what series and movies are my favorites but I'm gonna reel it in because this is a lot already.