Happy New Year's Eve! I hope everyone is having an enjoyable holiday season. Our final poll of the year is a bit of an unorthodox one, but it comes with a bit of a story related to the holidays.

For those who don't know, Cartoon Network released a number of Scooby-Doo VHS tapes following the success of the re-runs on their channel. Most of these were Where Are You episodes, but there were four tapes they released in 1996 that had rare Scrappy-Doo episodes that, at least at the time, hadn't been released on DVD (Wedding Bell Boos and Halloween Hassle still aren't on DVD). My parents got three of these tapes for me when I was a kid, those being "Wedding Bell Boos," "A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle" and "The Nutcracker Scoob." The fourth tape, featuring "The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly," was one that my parents were never able to find. I always thought of those four as a set, so when I was younger, it always bothered me that I never managed to acquire the fourth VHS in the set.

​Although it wasn't a part of this Cartoon Network set, another rare Scrappy VHS I've wanted for the longest time is Scooby-Doo in: Swamp Witch. The VHS features four Scrappy shorts - "Swamp Witch," "Scooby's Desert Dilemma," "Mummy's the Word" and "Scooby at the Center of the World." An alternate "double feature" version of this VHS also had it paired with "A Haunted House Is Not a Home." Even though the Scrappy shorts are far from my favorite series, for some reason this VHS has always appealed to me, probably because it has my favorite Flintstones episode on it, and I really like the art. I feel the cover is much more detailed than most of the Scooby VHS covers, considering most of them just have a stock art image of Scooby on a solid-colored background. There's also the added bonus that the tape features "Scooby at the Center of the World," which is a very odd case of an episode that got a VHS release but has never been released to DVD to this day.

As many of my friends in the fandom know, I've wanted both of these VHS tapes for a long time. I've thought about getting them in adulthood, but I've never ended up doing it. After years of wanting these, I'm excited to share I finally got these two VHS tapes as presents this Christmas! I'm so happy to finally own them, considering they've been my most sought-after pieces of Scooby merch since I was little.

After finally acquiring the last of the rare Scrappy VHS tapes, I thought it would be a fun poll idea to see which episode is the favorite of those four. Note that I'm not including "Swamp Witch" in the poll, since it isn't part of the Cartoon Network series (I'd just mentioned it since it was the other Scooby VHS tape I most wanted).

Also, coming up next week, I'm excited to share that we'll be doing another short poll series that was recommended by a friend and longtime commenter on the blog, so look forward to that!

Last week's poll results ended up being super close! Our top 3 were each just one vote apart from each other.

What is your favorite ski lodge episode?
There's No Creature Like Snow Creature - 17
That's Snow Ghost - 16
The Ghost of Bigfoot - 15
Watt a Shocking Ghost - 11
Be Cold, Scooby-Doo! - 7
Rocky Mountain Yiiiii! - 4
Scooby's Swiss Miss - 1
Snow Place Like Home - 1

In Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays, one of the angry Santa Claus actor's mutterings as he storms off is "I studied under the great Sunderman!" This is a reference to Collette Sunderman, who was the casting and voice director for a large number of Scooby-Doo series and films, beginning with being the casting director in Zombie Island.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to everybody celebrating today!

Happy holidays! Around this time of year, we typically do a poll about what people's favorite thing in the franchise this year was. However, I've decided to not do one of those polls this year, since Krypto Too would be an obvious winner, considering it would be between that and Velma lol. Instead, since it's the holiday season, I decided to do a winter-themed poll this week. We've already done polls in previous years for best winter and Christmas-themed episodes/films and villains, so I thought this would be the next best thing! Note that I didn't count "Doom Service," since even though it's a hotel in a snowy region, it's not ever said to be a ski lodge and we don't see anybody doing any winter sports.

What is your favorite episode taking place in a swamp?
Which Witch Is Which? - 22
The Gruesome Game of the Gator Ghoul - 12
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island - 11
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School - 6
Saga of the Swamp Beast - 6
The Ghostly Creep from the Deep - 3
Swamp Witch - 2
Soggy Bog Scooby - 1
The Wizard of Ooze - 0

There was quite a bit of bad news last week between Kate's lung cancer diagnosis and Andre Braugher's passing, but we finally have some good news! Kate Micucci shared on her TikTok account that the lung cancer surgery was successful, and she is now completely cancer-free. 

“Hey everyone! I just wanted to thank you all so much for the good wishes and all the love that I have received this past week. It meant so much to me and really came at a time that I really needed it so thank you. I have great news, which is that I am cancer free!” Micucci announced on a TikTok video.

You can check out the full video where she talks about her recovery here.

The family that appears at the beginning of "The Creeping Creatures," "Night Terrors" and "Stand and Deliver" parodies the Griswold Family, from the famous National Lampoon's Vacation franchise of films. In "Creeping Creatures," the wife is voiced by Beverly D'Angelo, the same person who played the wife Ellen in this franchise. You also may remember from Fun Fact #373 that Beverly D'Angelo began her career painting animation cels for Hanna-Barbera.

I know you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting to know the answer to this question, and now, you'll finally know the answer to this age-old question: what is the best monkey episode?

Never Ape an Ape Man - 20
Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers - 13
The No-Faced Zombie Chase Case - 11
Night of the Upsetting Shorts - 6
The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro! - 5
Scooby-Doo 2000 - 2
Scooby's Trip to Ahz - 1
Space Ape at the Cape - 1
​The Hodag of Horror - 1
Stuntman Scooby - 0
Scooby of the Jungle - 0

GamesRadar+ has just shared the cover art, release date and description for The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #3. This will be the only comic released in March 2024. Here's the description:

THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES #3
Written by IVAN COHEN
Art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA
$2.99 US | 32 pages
ON SALE 3/5/24
Catwoman won’t stand by and be blamed for another string of robberies in Gotham—she’ll turn herself in first! Batman is on her side, but will Mystery Inc. fall for her innocent act? Could this all be part of an even deeper scheme?!

You may have heard the sad news earlier in the week that Andre Braugher passed away. Tony Cervone posted a commemoration of Andre on his Instagram page, revealing that Andre voiced Chef Dave in the Scoob! Holiday Haunt. Andre passed away at 61 due to lung cancer. Tony shared the following message about Andre on Instagram:

Andre Braugher played our beloved Chef Dave in “SCOOB Holiday Haunt”. When we met he asked us to tell him a little bit about our movie and ourselves. After ten minutes he said, “I’ve always had a soft spot for Scooby-Doo, I’m in.” We were so happy he was. He was an extremely talented, kind, funny gentleman who performed his role as a cartoon chef with the same dignity he would Shakespeare. We were lucky to spend time with him. I am truly sorry his work went the way of a tax write off. 
​
Scoob! director Michael Kurinsky also made a post on his Instagram in remembrance of Andre.

I had the good fortune to be able to work with the great Andre Brauer on SCOOB Holiday Haunt. He masterfully played the character of Chef Dave, taking the role as serious as if we were doing Shakespeare. He will be missed.

Tony and Michael also shared a few images of Andre's character from the movie. RIP to Andre!

Some sad news today that the voice of Velma, Kate Micucci, was diagnosed with lung cancer. Kate shared on TikTok that she was recently hospitalized, and underwent surgery to remove the cancer. Thankfully, the doctors were able to catch the lung cancer early and were able to remove the cancerous matter from her body. Kate noted in the video that she is currently recovering from the surgery, and hopes to be out of the hospital within a few weeks. Here's hoping that Kate has a speedy recovery!

The original television airing of LEGO Scooby-Doo! Knight Time Terror did not have "LEGO" in the title card (it was just titled Scooby-Doo! Knight Time Terror). The title card was later changed for the Haunted Hollywood DVD release.