Elsa Frankenteen from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School was named after Elsa Sullivan Winchester, the first-ever actress who played the Bride of Frankenstein.

Happy Halloween! We've already done quite a few Halloween-related polls in previous years, as well as a Headless Horseman poll back in 2021, but I still wanted to do a Halloween-themed poll. Note that Witch's Ghost is ineligible for this poll as the living pumpkins only appear in a very brief scene. Goblin King also is not included as the Headless Horseman only shows up for the scene, and his pumpkin head was Jack, who wasn't a villain.

Here are the results for last week's poll:
Make a Beeline Away from That Feline - 27
The New York Underground! - 11
Worst in Show - 9
Mission Un-Doo-Able - 4
Chefs of Steel - 2
New York and Turkey - 1
The Ransom of Scooby Chief - 1
Mayhem of the Moving Mollusk - 1
Go East, Young Pardner - 0

Amazon has just revealed that volume 4 of Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries will be released on June 18, 2024. The volume collects #7-12 of the first reboot of Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries. Here's the official description:

The Dark Knight teams up with Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc. in a series of adventures and mysteries! It all starts when Alfred's old friend from butler school is in town, and he's brought along his charges: Daphne and Scooby-Doo! When Scooby and his pal Ace are dog-napped, the humans will have to rescue them without giving away any family secrets. Collects The Batman & Scooby Doo Mysteries #7-12.

Many fans have long awaited a crossover between Scooby-Doo and Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry, and now, both crossovers finally happening in an upcoming Halloween picture book. Scooby-Doo and Friends: A Halloween Mystery! features a haunted house-decorating contest between a number of Warner Brothers characters, including Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, DC Superheroes (including Batman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls, and possibly more). Daphne and Velma will be the only main characters here from the gang according to the book's description, but based on the cover, Scooby will appear as well. The book will release on July 2, 2024 as a Little Golden Book. The book is now available to pre-order for $5.99 on Amazon here.

Here is the official description of the book:

Celebrate Halloween with Mystery Inc., the DC Super Heroes, Tom & Jerry, and the Looney Tunes in this Little Golden Book cross over event that brings all of Warner Bros.’ most iconic characters together!

It’s Halloween night, and everyone’s favorite Warner Bros. characters are having a haunted house decorating competition! But when the houses get sabotaged, can super sleuths Daphne and Velma get to the bottom of the mystery before it’s time for the judging?

For the first time, iconic Warner Bros. and DC characters such as the DC Super Heroes, Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc., the Looney Tunes, Tom & Jerry, and more are interacting together in this fun Halloween Little Golden Book—perfect for kids ages 2 to 5 and Warner Bros., DC, and Hanna-Barbera fans of all ages!

"The Vampire Strikes Back" from What's New, Scooby-Doo? had a special WB Halloween "Unsolved Mystery" promotion attached to the episode. As the episode aired on October 18, 2003, viewers were asked to go on KidsWB's website to guess the culprit. Anyone who correctly guessed would be entered in a sweepstakes to win a free copy of Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights​ for X-Box. Six winners were chosen, five of them winning a copy of the game. The remaining winner was given the grand prize, which was a copy of the game and a free X-Box.

I am not clear whether or not the villain was revealed the same day, or if they didn't air the ending of the episode until the next week when the winner was revealed on October 25, 2003. The press release for this special promotion from 2003 can be found here.

Thanks so much to Jacob Staggs for suggesting this week's poll! It was a very close race between Witch's Ghost and "A Night of Fright Is No Delight," the latter of which actually being in the lead for the entire week. At the very last minute yesterday evening, Witch's Ghost got two additional votes that allowed it to overtake "A Night of Fright Is No Delight." That means Witch's Ghost wins the title of best ghost episode/film! Here are the full results:

Witch's Ghost - 17
A Night of Fright Is No Delight - 16
Boo Brothers - 11
Cyber Chase - 8
Camp Scare - 4
I Put a Hex on You! - 3

The adult animated show American Dad will be airing a special Scooby-Doo themed episode this year for Halloween. A recent AWN interview with American Dad creator and showrunner Matt Weitzman revealed that the episode will feature the family dressing up as Scooby-Doo characters whilst trying to find Stan, who has gone missing. Here's the full quote from the interview:

"We have a fantastic Halloween episode, where the family dresses up in Scooby-Doo outfits and ends up discovering that Stan is missing. And so, as the Scooby-Doo gang, they try to find him. Klaus is Scooby and Jeff is Shaggy and Steve is Velma. They look so good and we did wonderful music that sounds so much like the Scooby-Doo score. We recorded it in mono. It's really going to be fun for the audience."

The episode will be titled "Z.O.I.N.C.S." and will air Monday, October 30 at 9:00pm CST on TBS, according to The Futon Critic.

An early alternate storyboard animatic of the opening credits for Moon Monster Madness reveals that the film was originally titled Scooby-Doo and the Space Menace in early stages of production. You can watch the storyboard animatic of the alternate opening on the Vimeo page for the writer and director of the film, Paul McEvoy.

Some sad news today from The Guardian that the writer of Scooby Apocalypse, Keith Giffen, has passed away as of Monday, October 9. Keith was 70 years old, and had a fatal stroke at his home in Virginia. Keith had started writing for Marvel Comics in the 1970s, but later got a job at DC Comics in the 1980s and 1990s. Beginning in 2016, Keith wrote the Scooby Apocalypse comic series. RIP to Keith!

You've all been voting for the past six weeks on your favorite ghost episode from each decade, and now, it is time to pit all of the winning episodes of each decade against each other to determine the overall best ghost episode! This poll also marks a big milestone: it is our 200th week of doing polls on the blog!

Here are the final results from the 2020s ghost poll last week:
I Put a Hex on You! - 12
Scooby-Doo and Krypto, Too! - 10
A Haunt of a Thousand Voices! - 8
The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall! - 5
The Legend of the Gold Microphone! - 4
The Last Inmate! - 3
A Fashion Nightmare! - 3
The Movieland Monsters! - 3
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You Now - 3
Hollywood Knights! - 2
Dance Matron of Mayhem! - 2
The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag! - 2
The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U! - 1

0 votes: The Phantom The Talking Dog and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!, The Internet on Haunted House Hill!