Never Ape an Ape Man

Never Ape an Ape Man is the seventh episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
== Premise ==
The gang take jobs as extras on the set of Daphne's uncle, John Maxwell's, movie set of The Ape Man of Forbidden Mountain. But, a real apeman has been sabotaging the movie and Mystery Inc. need to catch this ape before he causes filming to end permanently.
== Synopsis ==
Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby take jobs as extras on the movie set of The Ape Man of Forbidden Mountain, directed by Daphne's uncle, John Maxwell. Uncle John states that filming has not been going well, considering local legends say that a real apeman is haunting the grounds. During filming, the lead role, Candy Mint gets attacked by a real Ape Man who tries to throw her off of a narrow bridge. Scooby comes in and saves Candy and then after settling down, they decide to go look for the stuntman Carl, who was supposed to be playing as the Ape Man. They find Carl locked in a trunk, and he says a large hairy animal locked him in there.
Candy and Carl quit until the Ape Man is caught—Daphne and the rest of the gang offer to help her uncle find out what's really going on, and John lets them do so, but only on the condition that they be careful in their investigating. The first place Mystery Inc. look in is an old mansion for the Ape Man, where they find a half-eaten hamburger. When Daphne points out that gorillas don't eat meat, the gang takes this as their first clue. Later on the set, the gang encounters a live parrot that says "Stick 'em up! What's the password?" Then a motionless Ape Man model is hurled toward Shaggy, who demolishes it in the struggle, only stopping his panic attack once he realizes it's a stuffed dummy.
Later in the library set, Freddy winds up falling through a trapdoor (thanks to Daphne), and then the Ape Man disguises as Scooby-Doo to encounter the real Scooby at a phony "mirror." Once unmasked, Scooby manages to ward off the Ape Man, but only temporarily, before finding Freddy and the gang set up a trap. Shaggy and Scooby are sent out as bait (thanks to some Scooby Snacks and a "Shaggy Snack" made exclusively for Shaggy), and when playing billiards they discover the Ape Man posing as a hunting trophy head. They manage to lure the ape to the trap, but it backfires, with Shaggy being caught instead. So, the ape runs off into the basement and the gang follows him through a secret cave that leads back to the dressing rooms. Shaggy and Scooby enter a trailer, and Shaggy finds an old-timey camera.
They play around with masks and other costume parts, until the Ape Man enters without his mask, prompting Shaggy to snap a photo before fleeing. The two run into the rest of the gang, and before Shaggy can reveal the picture, the Ape Man chases them back to the old mansion and upstairs. Freddy flips a switch, where the stairs convert to a ramp, sending the Ape Man sliding and crashing into a pile of furniture. The picture Shaggy took reveals Carl the stuntman as the apeman.
Sometime later, Daphne's Uncle John explains that Carl was angry for not being cast as the movie's male lead, so he decided to sabotage the movie by scarring everyone away as the Ape Man. Carl pretended to be locked in the truck by the Ape Man, so no one would've suspected him. He thanks the gang for helping him, but Velma says that most of the credit should go to Shaggy, since he was the one to find out who the culprit was. But where's he got to? They find Scooby and Shaggy having some more disguise fun; Scooby in the Ape Man's head, and Shaggy wearing the Scooby-Doo mask from earlier. Being complimented for their talent, Shaggy suggests to Scooby that they ought to be in the movies, which the Great Dane agreed wholeheartedly.
== Characters ==
Main characters:
* Mystery Inc.
** Scooby-Doo
** Shaggy Rogers
** Daphne Blake
** Fred Jones
** Velma Dinkley
Supporting characters:
* John Maxwell (only appearance)
* Candy Mint (only appearance)
Villains:
* Ape Man (only appearance)(no lines)(Carl's disguise)
* Carl (only appearance)
Other characters:
* Assistant director (only appearance)
* Parrot (only appearance)
== Locations ==
* Mountain
** Bridge
** Underground tunnel
* Trailers
* Old mansion
== Objects ==
* Ape Man hair
* Half-eaten hamburger
* Script
* Scooby Snacks
* Shaggy Snack
** Cherries
** Chocolate sauce
** Pepperoni
** Pizza crust
** Sardines
* Animal head trophies
* Ape Man mask
* Cue sticks
* Cue balls
* Make-up kit
* Net
* Stuffed Ape Man
* Scooby-Doo mask
* Shaggy's wristwatch
* Spotlight
* Trunk
* Wig
* Velma's glasses
== Suspects ==
Suspect	Motive/reason
Carl 	He was wearing the Ape Man costume.
=== Culprits ===
Culprit 	Motive/reason
Carl as the Ape Man	He was angry about not getting the lead role so he wanted to sabotage the production.
== Cast ==
Don Messick 	Scooby-Doo
John Maxwell
Casey Kasem 	Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker 	Fred Jones
Stefanianna Christopherson	Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe 	Velma Dinkley
Vic Perrin 	Ape Man
Carl
Jean Vander Pyl 	Candy Mint
== Full credits ==
The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).
Show
== Notes/trivia ==
* The scene where Fred falls backwards through a secret tunnel in the "library" is used in the first season's opening and closing sequences.
** The Mystery Inc. are running.
* This episode is notable for breaking several formulas and characteristics:
** Scooby shows a rare amount of courage when he both runs across the bridge to challenge the Ape Man, and then manages to win a verbal fight against him, causing him to back off, early in the episode.
** Daphne sets off a trap, but Fred's the one to fall victim (no pun intended).
** Carl's costume was surprisingly his own (another first in the series). He was supposed to be the Ape Man in the movie, but it turns out he was pretending to be a real apeman while disguised as one.
** The villain is not unmasked in the episode, but revealed through a photograph.
* This is the second episode without the Mystery Machine.
* Production-wise, this is the first appearance of a Shaggy Snack, although chronologically they had appeared in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo first.
* On Cartoon Network and Boomerang's airings of this episode, the 1994 Hanna-Barbera "All-Stars Action" logo at the end instead uses the soundtrack from the "All-Stars Comedy" variant of the logo, most likely due to an editing mistake.
=== Miscellaneous ===
* Disguises: None.
* Scooby Snacks bribe: 4 (possibly 5).
* "Zoinks" count: 2.
=== Cultural references ===
* Shaggy calls Scooby, "Laddie", after the son of the famous Lassie, the titular character in the 1945 MGM film, Son of Lassie.
* Shaggy sarcastically refers to himself as "King Kong in the flesh."
* The Ape Man wearing a Scooby mask, while pretending to be the latter's reflection, is a reference to the phony mirror gag made famous in the Marx Brothers' short film Duck Soup.
=== Adaptations ===
* Gold Key Comics adapted this episode into the comic book story of the same name for Scooby Doo... Where Are You! #1.
* While the events of the situation aren't clear, the montage sequence before the end of the closing credits to the live-action telefilm Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins did have Fred fall backwards in a library.
=== Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches ===
* In the first shot with Velma, her lenses are missing.
* When Mr. Maxwell's replies to Scooby's shock of seeing the Ape Man mask, he's against a trailer as if he's outside when they're actually inside Carl's trailer.
* When Velma thinks it's Shaggy trying to scare her and Scooby by saying "Stick 'em up! What's the password?", her sclera have almost disappeared and her pupils are very faint.
* When the Ape Man is looking at Scooby with the Scooby mask on in the fake mirror, when Scooby discovers the Ape Man's body, there is a frame involving them flipping positions, with the Ape Man in front of the mirror and Scooby behind it, due to incorrect cel layering.
* When Shaggy asks "Yeah, but how are you gonna get the Ape Man down in the basement?" the frame is not centered; the top edge of the animation cel can be seen near the top of the image, and Shaggy and Scooby are shifted more towards the bottom.
* When Scooby and Shaggy are playing pool, the same balls are used at opposite ends of the table, just mirror imaged.
* When the gang are looking down the wine cask tunnel, Daphne's pantyhose are missing.
* While Shaggy and Scooby fool around in the costuming trailer, Shaggy wears a 1700s peruke wig as a joke, and then he is seen placing the wig back onto a bare wig stand when he notices the old instant camera. But the next time the wig stand is visible after Shaggy snaps a couple of photos of Scooby, the wig is gone.
* When Fred pushed a button to flatten the steps, he didn't push a button at all, and his hand was in a different area to the button Daphne pressed earlier in the episode.
* When Velma says, "Oh no, not again!", Daphne's pantyhose are once again missing.
=== Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities ===
* John Maxwell is mainly either called Uncle John or Mr. Maxwell, but the assistant director refers to him as J.J. It's unknown what the second "J" is supposed to stand for, presumably it would at least be the first initial of his middle name.
* If a real mountain bridge was being used instead of a set then, logically, a stunt person should have taken the place of Candy.
* The force of the Ape Man vigorously trying to shake Candy off of the bridge should have surely sent her falling off as she wasn't holding onto anything. Even though her reactions are close-up, she doesn't seem to even wobble. Perhaps the shaking of the screen was supposed to emulate that.
* Though Carl, as the Ape Man, falls off the cliff, he is unhurt.
* Scooby bounces straight up and down near the far cliff face, but on his last bounce, he somehow ends up next to the near cliff face.
* After Scooby knocks Carl (as the Ape Man) off the cliff, the gang then goes to investigate his trailer. In the time it took them to reach his trailer he has somehow managed to scale the cliff again, get into his trailer, and lock himself inside a box.
* Epi-Center Film Company was already implied to be the film's production company, but Starbright Films appears on a board outside the mansion set. They possibly could be providing the sets, including the mansion, at the very least.
* Shaggy tries to open the door while holding it closed with his foot.
* If the parrot is indeed a trained animal in the film (as opposed to someone just seemingly leaving it there for no apparent reason) then what it's saying may be its line in the film, although this is not revealed.
* Why would the film crew leave a live parrot on the set after they had quit working on the movie? Hopefully someone remembered to feed it.
* It's unknown if Scooby got that bonus snack.
* When Velma was prepared to pull down the trap switch, it was the middle one. After Scooby got off her, she reached for the middle one again, but it was the light switch. Furthermore, Fred said he would shine a spotlight on the Ape Man to stun him, but the room is pitch black when Velma hits the switch and turns the light off.
* Where did Carl get a rubber Scooby-Doo mask? It is likely he may have had it made by a professional make-up artist on the set, but creating a latex mask can take quite a while (sometimes a few days).
* When Shaggy and Scooby are playing pool, the 6 ball appears in two different locations on the table without being touched.
* Upon seeing a hamburger eaten with claw marks, and therefore concluding that the Ape Man eats meat, Daphne remarks that apes don't eat meat, and therefore a clue. However, in the wild, apes (chimpanzees in particular), do eat meat, such as small animals or even monkeys. The logical explanation is that during the same time as the production period, Jane Goodall had not observed apes eating meat yet. Although, the Ape Man resembles a gorilla, which do not.
* There is no mention of a male lead character in the film, even though Maxwell explains that Carl was angry at not being cast in the lead role, and had mentioned earlier that actress Candy Mint was the film's star. Perhaps what Maxwell meant was that Carl wanted to be the main Ape Man actor, but was instead cast as the Ape Man's stunt double.
* Athough the gang find claw marks on an eaten hamburger, apes of all species do not have claws.
== In other languages ==
Language 	Name 	Meaning
Brazilian Portuguese	Não Macaqueie o Macaco 	Do Not Ape the Ape
French 	Malin comme un singe 	Clever as a Monkey
German 	Der Menschenaffe vom verlorenen Berg	The Ape of the Lost Mountain
Greek 	Ο Πιθηκάνθρωπος 	The Apeman
Hungarian 	Ne majmold a majmot! 	Do Not Ape the Ape
== Home media ==
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 16, 2004.
* 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!: Volume 2 - Bump in the Night DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 5, 2009.
* Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series (limited edition) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010.
* 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 12, 2012.
* Scooby-Doo! and the Movie Monsters DVD released on November 20, 2012.
* Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 20, 2013.
* Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright Blu-ray Disc released by Warner Home Video on August 20, 2013.
* Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 20, 2013.
== Quotes ==
John Maxwell: We've had three reports that the Ape Man has been seen up here at night.
Fred: They've seen a real ape man?
Scooby: Real ape man? (gulps)
Shaggy: (looks at his wrist watch) I just remembered a dental appointment back in town.
Shaggy: Here's the clue that ends all clues. (Holds up a developed photo) Would you look at our ape man.