Jeepers! It's the Creeper!

Jeepers, It's the Creeper is the third episode of the second season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, and the twentieth overall.
== Premise ==
A local school dance at a rural barn is disrupted by the Creeper, a zombie-like figure, who has been seen at night, robbing banks in town. The gang searches the woods and countryside for clues, while being chased by the Creeper, and encountering an eccentric old hermit who wants their company.
== Synopsis ==
A bank guard driving through the evening countryside gets blocked by a log on the road, and from out of the bushes a green-faced, monstrous figure rises and stalks him.
Meanwhile, the team is on their way to their school's barn dance. They happen upon the scene of the bank guard's accident. He has been knocked out and his car ransacked. The guard regains consciousness long enough to give a blank piece of paper at Freddy and mutter, "The flame will tell... the Creeper." The gang takes the guard to the nearby house of Mr. Carswell, the bank's president, who explains that the Creeper is a phantom who has been robbing the bank during the night, presumably by having the ability to go through walls. He agrees to look after the guard and sends the kids along to the dance.
At the barn dance, everyone's having fun until the lights go out; not wanting to dance in the spooky barn, everyone drives off to the Malt Shop, except for the team who stay behind to clean up. But as Shaggy and Scooby are taking the garbage outside they run into the Creeper, who demands the "paper" of them. The Creeper chases the kids around the countryside; Freddy, Daphne, and Velma wind up in a ditch with a horse and cart, while Scooby and Shaggy crash into a hen-house. After the Creeper leaves, Shaggy and Scooby start to go, too, but a chick hatches and immediately attaches itself to Scooby. Meanwhile, Freddy and the girls have found a car hidden in the bushes; it has no identification papers, but they find torn-up photograph negatives on the floorboards.
After running into Shaggy and Scooby (still fleeing the Creeper), they find some footprints which lead to a rope bridge, spanning over a chasm and into a cave. The cave is the home to the "hermit of the hills" (whose cooking disgusts even Shaggy and Scooby). They escape from the hermit (who is all-too-eager for their company) and make their way back to the Mystery Machine, only to find the Creeper waiting behind the wheel for them. The Creeper chases them; everyone (except Scooby) falls into the hay-bale-making machine, leaving the Creeper (and the rest of the gang) neatly bundled up. The Creeper is unmasked as Mr. Carswell, the bank president.
The sheriff arrives and arrests Carswell, saying that he found the bank guard tied up in the basement of Carswell's house. Mr. Carswell has been robbing his own bank and using the Creeper disguise to throw people off track. But unknown to Carswell, the bank guard had secretly installed an infra-red camera that caught Carswell in the act, and so Carswell had acted to silence the guard. The blank paper was actually a photograph (activated by heat) that showed Carswell looting the safe.
Back on the road, driving to the malt shop, the gang realize the chick still hasn't been returned. When Scooby returns the chick to the hen house and bids it farewell, he notices several other chicks hatching, who all see him as their mother.
== Characters ==
Main characters:
* Mystery Inc.
** Scooby-Doo
** Shaggy Rogers
** Fred Jones
** Daphne Blake
** Velma Dinkley
Supporting characters:
* Bank guard (only appearance)
* Chick (only appearance)
* Hermit of the Hills (only appearance)
* Sheriff (only appearance)
Villains:
* Creeper (only appearance)(Mr. Carswell's disguise)
* Mr. Carswell (only appearance)
Other characters:
* Party goers (only appearance)(miscellaneous speaking)
* Hens in barn (only appearance)(no lines)
* Pig (only appearance)(no lines)
* Horse 1 (only appearance)(no lines)
* Horse 2 (only appearance)(no lines)
* Hens in chicken coop (only appearance)(no lines)
* Chicks (only appearance)(no lines)
* Woman outside bank (only appearance)(flashback only)(no lines)
== Locations ==
* Mr. Carswell's mansion
* Farm
** Barn
** Farmhouse
** Chicken coop
* Hermit of the Hills's cave
* Bank (flashback only)
== Objects ==
* Fallen tree
* Blank paper
* Torn negatives
* Corn on the cob
* Chocolate syrup
* Scooby Snack
* Squirrel stew (mentioned)
* Pickled bat wings (mentioned)
* Crab grass roots (mentioned)
* Scooby's dressing room mirror
* Scooby's bowtie
* Scooby's cologne
* Scooby's comb
* Bank guard's blanket
* Mr. Carswell's telephone
* Paper plates
* Cardboard box
* Velma's glasses
* Hay
* Rake
* Rubber glove
* Chick eggs
* Rope and plank bridge
* Hermit of the Hills's wooden spoon
* Pitchfork
* Barrel
* Ladder
* Safe (flashback only)
* Dollar bills (flashback only)(photograph)
* Security camera (flashback only)
* Mr. Carswell's briefcase (flashback only)(photograph)
* Hay bales
== Vehicles ==
* Bank guard's car
* Party goers' cars
* The Mystery Machine
* Horse-drawn carts (destroyed)
* Hidden car
* Hay bale-making tractor
* Sheriff's police car
== Suspects ==
Suspect 	Motive/Reason
Hermit of the Hills	The gang believed the track of footprints they were following which led to the Hermit of the Hills's cave belonged to the Creeper.
=== Culprits ===
Culprit 	Motive/Reason
Mr. Carswell as the Creeper	To steal money from his bank without anyone knowing his identity
== Cast ==
Don Messick 	Scooby-Doo
Hermit of the Hills
Chick
Chicks
Casey Kasem 	Shaggy Rogers
Mr. Carswell
Sheriff
Frank Welker 	Fred Jones
Heather North 	Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe 	Velma Dinkley
John Stephenson	Creeper
== Songs ==
Song 	Credits 	Performed by
"Daydreamin'"	Written by Danny Janssen and Sue Steward	George A. Robertson, Jr.
== Full credits ==
The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).
Show
== Notes/Trivia ==
* This episode is shown to have the most physical violence in the series:
** The Creeper/Mr. Carswell attacks the bank guard (off-screen) and leaves him unconscious in the middle of the road (only to later tie him up and dump him in the basement).
** During the school dance in the barn, Shaggy accidentally stomps Velma's left foot multiple times.
** Shaggy and Scooby accidentally knock Velma to the ground.
** As the gang runs from the Creeper for the first time (enveloped in a big mound of hay), they jump through and crash a house's window.
*** After crashing through the window, the gang (still inside the hay mound) blindly runs face-first into the outer wall of the barn's entrance, and the Creeper goes into the same wall as well.
** Scooby kicks the Creeper twice.
*** Right after Scooby kicks the Creeper for the first time, Shaggy whacks his head on a wooden pole of the barn's hayloft.
** Velma kicks the Creeper in the knee when he snatches her glasses.
** Shaggy, Scooby and the Creeper all hit themselves on the rake in the barn.
** The wagon Fred and the girls are in crashes down a cliff and the wagon lands on top of them.
*** Just after the wagon disconnects, the unruly horse violently throws Shaggy and Scooby over the cliff, and they harshly land on the entrance of a nearby chicken coop.
** Fred, Daphne and Velma are hiding when they get the jump on Shaggy and Scooby, thinking that they're the Creeper.
** While being chased by the Creeper, Fred trips and falls on his stomach, and the Creeper trips on his feet as well.
** And last but not least, the gang and the Creeper fight inside the hay before Scooby bounds them into hay bales.
* In this episode, Scooby unmasks the villain; the previous being in Decoy for a Dognapper.
* The world's first computer virus, The Creeper, was named after this episode in 1971 (one year after the episode had aired).
* This episode was one of four Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes (the other three being A Clue for Scooby Doo, Hassle in the Castle, and The Backstage Rage), that were selected for the 1998 VHS Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries by being voted "Most Popular" by the fans.
** What's more, Jeepers, It's the Creeper is the only season 2 episode on the VHS, with the other three episodes being from the first season.
* This is the first time the culprit uses blasted and meddling kids instead of one.
* Although it aired as the 20th episode, it should be noted that this episode was produced as the 21st.
* A clip from this episode was featured in "The Big Time" (season 3, episode 8) of S#xand the City, where Miranda's boyfriend, Steve is watching it on TV.
* The gang told their friend, Eric Staufer, about this case, and he used the Creeper in his computer game, as seen in the direct-to-video film, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.
=== Miscellaneous ===
* Disguises: Scooby as a hen.
* Traps:
* Clues:
* Scooby Snacks bribe: 1 (eaten by the chick).
* "Zoinks" count: 3.
=== Cultural references ===
* The episode's title is a play on the popular 1938 jazz-song, "Jeepers Creepers".
* Shaggy calls the chick 'Chicken Little' at one point. Chicken Little originated as a European fairy tale in the early nineteenth century and has been made into a number of films. In some versions the character is called "Henny Penny" and "Chicken Licken". Typically in these stories, an acorn falls on chicken Little's head and he then thinks that the sky is falling.
=== Adaptations ===
* There was an adaptation from Little Golden Books called Scooby-Doo! Jeepers, It's the Creeper!
* The Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode The Legend of Alice May has its own version of this episode.
* This episode inspired the first commercial from State Farm. In the same rural setting, the Creeper jumps out in the middle of the road, causing the Mystery Machine to have an accident. An agent pops up from nowhere to help them out, including unmasking the caught Creeper to reveal Mr. Carswell underneath.
=== Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches ===
* When Mr. Carswell is telling the gang about how the Creeper is a phantom and walks through walls, Daphne's pantyhose are missing.
* Right before unmasking the Creeper, part of Scooby's neck turns the same shade of blue as his collar.
* Fred's entire line of how the case is over and now they can go to the Malt Shop has two mistakes; in the first half of his line, his mouth doesn't move, and in the second and final half, Daphne's scarf is purple instead of green.
* When Daphne asks Velma if she is okay (after Shaggy and Scooby knock her down) her pantyhose are missing.
* When Daphne talks about Carswell going after the guard to get the incriminating pictures and Fred showing the picture, the background is in a house instead of outside. It changes back outside when the shot moves to the sheriff and Carswell when Fred says, "He must've figured out what it was."
=== Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities ===
* The bank guard says he better move the tree, then begins trying to roll it further along the road -- to move it, he would either need to lift it, or push it in another direction, and not from the middle of the trunk.
* During the dance, the Creeper shuts off the power in the barn. However, when the gang returns to the barn (all grouped together in a hay stack), the power is shown to be on.
* This episode is poorly executed:
** Why would the bank guard have Mr. Carswell's personal address? In case he needs it? It's possible he saw the evidence on the photo of him stealing the money and he hastily rushed straight to Mr. Carswell's to confront him about it, which would leave him in a vulnerable position due to Mr. Carswell's violent temperament (and proved true when he ended up locking him in the basement), instead of going straight to police. But if he had just found out that the security camera took a picture and wanted to tell Mr. Carswell right away it would have still left him in the same danger.
** Mr. Carswell's address also seems to have been written in to get the gang there to create the mystery otherwise they would've just had to wait for the guard to come to and reveal it himself, with the police just going to his home and arresting him there.
** The guard must have some serious trust issues if he didn't tell the bank president about setting up the security camera. Either that or he had forgot to say or wasn't his top priority which still makes him unreliable. If he had been told immediately, Mr. Carswell could've worn his Creeper costume from the start and avoided the whole situation although he might've still been caught changing and doing it during the night would've have made him harder to find. (Also, the bank guard may well have suspected the President too.)
** It's unknown how long Mr. Carswell robbed from his bank. It was apparently long enough to get the story out of it, but exposition at the end neither implies the one day (which might make it slightly more plausible for Mr. Carswell not knowing about the camera and hastily having the need to violently knock him out and ransack his car) or more.
** Mr. Carswell should have been more alert to the mysterious paper that the guard was so concerned about. If he had he could've asked for the paper from the gang because it was of the bank's matter, but of course that would've removed them from the mystery.
** If the bank had been robbed for a few days one would wonder if they had more guards on duty at night. That's if they wanted to be there when a so-called phantom would be.
*** Following on from that, if the public was already aware of the Creeper then it makes one wonder what the woman was doing just standing alone outside the bank at night. Even if she hadn't heard reports of it, when she does see the Creeper, she's barely alarmed and just watches him walk away. Granted it's from the back, but that doesn't hide the features from the back of a creepy-looking hunchbacked figure.
* When the outside of the barn is first seen there are no cars parked, but the next time it is when the teens prepare to leave for the malt shop the Mystery Machine and three other cars are parked right at the front, facing away from the barn.
* Due to its size the incriminating photograph is always referred to as "paper".
* When the photo reveals Mr. Carswell stealing from the safe, Fred calls him the Creeper. While that's true it's still not who's shown. (He is phrasing it in the context of the riddle)
* The Sheriff seems to know exactly where to find Carswell and the Gang after being unable to find him at his house- presumably the "message" the gang left was the one when they phoned at the beginning of the episode, when they were told he was out of town. It is not explained how he found the barn–the bank guard may have informed him, however he was barely conscious when last seen.
* With the case wrapped up, the gang are ready to join their friends at the malt shop (and if the episode went any longer it would've been shown), but they're a little presumptuous that they would still be there since it was already dark when the party at the barn started and it would've been even later by the time they got there as the case would've at least taken a couple of hours. There's nothing to say that the party didn't go on for hours after; especially if Daylight Savings are involved. The gang seem to have no concept of time anyway as they're usually always at the malt shop in the evenings, like in the next episode, Scooby's Night with a Frozen Fright, and in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo -- they can spend all night solving a mystery as in The Sludge Monster from the Earth's Core and Night of the Living Burger (although in the latter Pup episode, Scooby did feel tired and yawn at one point).
* None of the gang ever seem to figure out that the Creeper merely shut down the power to the lights in the barn.
* There seems to be no chaperones despite it being a school dance. 
== In other languages ==
Language 	Name 	Meaning
Greek 	Αχ, το Τέρας
Βοήθεια, ο Ανατριχίλας!	Oh, the Monster!
Help, the Creeper!
Hungarian	Tapír papír 	Creeper's paper
Polish 	Tajemniczy złodziej w banku	The Mysterious Thief in the Bank
== Home media ==
* Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries VHS released by Warner Home Video on April 13, 1999.
* Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 6, 2003.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 16, 2004. For undisclosed reasons this episode is switched with the previous episode and the mistake is carried over onto the complete series set listed below, fortunately the series lacks any continuity between, so no real harm is done.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 20, 2005.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You: The Complete Series (limited edition) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010.
* Scooby-Doo! and the Ghosts DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 30, 2011.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2011.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 13, 2012.
* Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Scooby-Doo! DVD set released by Warner Home Video on August 13, 2019.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series Blu-ray set released by Warner Home Video on September 9, 2019.
== Gallery ==
File:What's That.png
File:It's The Creeper.png
== Quotes ==
Daphne: We got him, we got the Creeper!
(dust clears and Fred, Daphne, and Velma have wrestled Shaggy and Scooby to the ground)
Velma: Correction, we've got Shaggy and Scooby.
Shaggy: (still stunned from the attack) I know who's back you're on, but whose side are you on?
Shaggy: Like, who do you think we're running from, this baby chick?
Shaggy: Oh, no! Scooby's become a mother hen all over again.