Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers is a television special produced 1988 by Hanna-Barbera for the Superstars 10 series. Scooby Doo, Shaggy and Scrappy-Doo head down south to the Beauregard Mansion. The owner of the plantation, Colonel Beauregard, has passed away, and left everything to Shaggy. There, they learn that hidden somewhere on the property is a 'king's ransom' worth of treasures. However, like all old houses, the estate is haunted! Scrappy decides to hire some ghost exterminators. What our heroes get are the Boo Brothers: Straight Man Freako, wise-cracking Shrieko, and the aptly named Meeko.

If that wasn't enough, there are other perils on the treasure hunt: an escaped circus ape wandering around, hillbilly neighbors the Scroggins; overly affectionate Sadie Mae and her gun-totin' brother Billy Bob, debatably loyal butler Farquard, and Sheriff Rufus Buzby.

Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy have to all this to deal with and more as they track down the treasure, following clues left behind by the colonel.


Tropes used in Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers include:
  • Abhorrent Admirer: Sadie May Scroggins. She's perfectly pretty and makes sure her brother doesn't shoot Shaggy, but she comes on so strong that Shaggy is soon more scared of her than the ghosts.
  • American Accents: Several southerns ones, with the sheriff's being more gentlemanly and the Scroggins sibling having more of a hillbilly vibe. The ghost of Shaggy's uncle uses a stronger drawl and speaks more slowly. Farquard instead uses more of a "creepy" voice with a slight European-ish accent.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Several things menace Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy in this one. There's the ghost of Shaggy's uncle, the walking skeleton, a headless horseman, an escaped gorilla (though he's more freaked out than anything), a large bear at one point, and Billy-Bob Scroggins. It ends up the sheriff's brother TJ was behind the ghostly uncle, the skeleton, and the horseman. And with the gorilla not meaning to be scary, and Billy-Bob nothing more than a dangerous annoyance, it's really just a single Big Bad.
  • Big Damn Heroes: For all of their messing around, the Boo Brothers do help Scooby's group out of some jams.
  • Civil War: Shaggy's uncle apparently served, since he wears a Confederate uniform (that is oddly blue). But even if we assume this movie takes place in the 1970s, Shaggy's uncle is described to have known him in his first riddle, and so would have been at least 150 years old (if he was 20 during the war).
  • Closed Circle: Because Shaggy's jeep sinks into the mud, the phone lines do not work, and Billy-Bob is prowling around in the woods.
  • Cute Bruiser: Sadie Mae Scroggins, who can twist her brother's gun around his neck- or in knots.
    • Scrappy has his moments, including tussling with Farquad for a diamond off screen. And standing up to the gorilla.
  • Everything's Better with Monkeys: An escaped circus ape wandering around the grounds scares Shaggy and Scooby, but as Scrappy points out, isn't that bad a guy.
  • Feuding Families: Apparently the Beauregards and the Scroggins have been feuding for years, which is why Billy-Bob Scroggins wants to fill Shaggy full of lead.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: The first thing the Boo Brothers do to the Civil War ghost is slingshot Meako onto him. The Colonel responds in kind.
  • Hunter of His Own Kind: The Boo Brothers are ghost exterminators- who are ghosts. When Shaggy brings this up, their retort is;

Freako: It takes one to catch one, don't it?
Shrieko: Except in our case, it takes three, nyuk nyuk!

  • The Millstone: While they do have some Big Damn Heroes moments, the Boo Brothers do not help with the mystery and largely serve as comic relief.
  • Monster Sob Story: The Boo Brothers do this to talk Shaggy into rehiring them again, complete with playing sad music on a violin.
  • Overly Long Gag: Shaggy spends almost a minute and a half walking through the woods, talking about how paranoid he's getting with the ghosts while her knows there's really no one following him. The whole time, Sadie May and Billy Bob are following him, tackling each other to try to get an advantage at hugging or shooting him, respectively.
  • Police Are Useless: Sheriff Buzby, who comes around only to be the victim of slapstick. Turns out this guy isn't really the sheriff, but his twin brother, TJ.
  • Power Trio: Besides Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy, there's the Boo Brothers.
  • Pungeon Master: Shrieko, who gets a Dope Slap from Freako in return.
    • Also Shaggy's deceased uncle--many of his riddles are solved with puns. The house's knee, for example? The chim-ney.
  • Scooby-Doo Hoax: It turns out that the 'ghosts' scaring Scooby and company were the result of one of these. Shaggy begins to suspect as much when they find trapdoors and such all over the plantation grounds.
  • Super Strength: Sadie May Scroggins ties her brother's rifles into knots several times. Her brother's so mad she "took that mail order muscle course!"
  • The Starscream: Farquard, who while doesn't make any attempts on Shaggy himself, shows no real concern for Shaggy's welfare and giddily enjoys the prospect of his leaving. He makes it quite clear that he doesn't enjoy being left out of the will after working for sixty-odd years.
    • Throw the Dog a Bone: Shaggy lets him keep a diamond he stole from Scrappy, if only because that way he won't think about the riddle they have. Farquard later serves them a nice dinner at the end, presumably appeased.
  • Trigger Happy: Billy Bob Scroggins' first reaction to finding out that Shaggy's "Kin folk to the Beauregards, who us Scroggins' have been a-feudin' with for over a hundred and forty-five years" is to try to shoot him, and continues to do so throughout the course of the special. Thankfully his sister won't let him succeed.
  • Verbal Tic: Shrieko's 'Nyuk nyuk'.
  • Vinyl Shatters: Shaggy stops the Boo Brothers' party by grabbing the record off a phonograph and breaking it on the ground as it makes the sound of glass breaking.