After nearly 20 years since What's New, Scooby-Doo? began, Simple Plan has finally released a studio version of the series theme song. Despite the song only being just over a minute long, the song has become a favorite for fans of the band, in fact, so much so that they often play the theme song at concerts. The studio version of the theme song can finally be purchased for $1.29 on platforms such as iTunes and Amazon, and is also available on other music streaming sites such as Spotify, Deezer, and many more.

Over the years, there have been lots of episodes where the gang travels to other countries. For this week's fun fact, Luigi (also known as Scoobylover) is here to give us some insight into how the language and culture from the countries the gang visits gets translated back into that country's version of the episode:

"Ever wondered, when the gang goes to another country, how do the accents, culture and references portrayed in the original version get translated in that country’s dubbed version? Well, since I’m from Italy I can give you some fun insights on how my country tackled that in the “Pompeii and Circumstance” episode from “What’s New Scooby-Doo?”. As you know the episode takes place all over Italy and it features some side characters with pretty thick “Italian” accents (btw the accents are very American-Italian, not Italian, huge difference there). Well, it is a common habit of Italian voice acting to voice those characters in a Neapolitan accent. Neapolitan is the most spoken Italian regional dialect, used mainly in the Campania region but it is the second most important “language” in the country, since even “correct” Italian is in itself a regional dialect (started in Tuscany). All side characters in this episode are indeed dubbed in Neapolitan (apart from Captain Guzman) and it is important for the plot since Fred’s usual WNSD shtick is to learn the language of the country the gang is visiting, through a sketchy vocabulary. By adapting the vocabulary to an Italian-Neapolitan one (which do actually exist since not all Italians can understand Neapolitan and vice versa), Fred’s language fails, the gang misunderstanding the natives and the jokes are able to land in our translation too. Now, regardless of the spot on adaptation, we couldn’t fix unfortunately the atrocious mistakes you guys made with some of the texts displayed all around the episode. Starting with the garbage boat which was translated to “Garbaggio” which is clearly them not even trying one bit to look on a dictionary how to say trash in Italian. Garbage can either be translated to “immondizia”, “rifiuti”, “spazzatura” but…. “Garbaggio”???? Dear Lord… Then we move on to the Pompeii’s old city museum which saw the gang arguing with Ugo on whether they could visit the museum or not by reading some signs. The first sign was entirely correct, the second one however needed the definite article “di” and an accent: “Il permesso DI entrare può essere limitato” (“permission may be restricted”); while the last one is completely wrong”. “Aprasi” is a non-existent form of “to be open”, “siempre” is Spanish, not Italian, and “Publico” needs a double B. The correct translation, which was dubbed in correctly is “Sempre aperto al pubblico” (“always open to the public”). I guess this last part was more of a rant of how badly they messed up with the translations and I can’t even imagine how dirty they did other countries, but yeah this is it!"

Thanks so much again to Luigi for guest-writing today's fun fact!

Here are the final results that you do Knott want to miss from last week's Don Knotts poll:
Which of the Don Knotts appearances within Scooby-Doo was your favorite?
Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner - 39
The Spooky Fog - 18
Night of 100 Frights - 15

I'll admit, I never would have expected to review a non Scooby-Doo movie on this blog. I was inspired to watch a Don Knotts movie to review on here from a comment on here by Lance Rutt, although he suggested How to Frame a Figg which I unfortunately couldn't find anywhere. I've had a bunch of people recommend The Ghost and Mr. Chicken to me over the years, saying that it was exactly like Scooby. After watching it, this film totally had the same vibe as a Scooby-Doo episode. Given the Scooby undertones present throughout the film, and the fact that this is Knott an Ordinary Week on ScoobySnax.com, I wanted to write an article reviewing this film. I would highly recommend to any Scooby fan, because between the mystery aspect and the film being a bit comedic, this came pretty close to feeling like it could have been a Scooby episode! Besides, how can you go wrong with Don Knotts haha?

I'll begin with an explanation of the film for those not familiar with it. The film begins with a man who is so out of it that he's saying random nonsense. When the man falls to the ground near a haunted house, the town's local reporter Luther Heggs (played by Don Knotts) believes this man has been murdered. After Luther reports the murder to the police, he is ridiculed when it's discovered the "murder" was simply the town drunk who was knocked unconscious. Word soon spreads of Luther's foolish mistake, and he is ridiculed and mocked by the townspeople.

To show people that he isn't just a laughing stock, Luther attempts to write an ambitious article about the same house where Luther believed he witnessed the so-called "murder", which is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Mr. Simmons who murdered his wife, right before he himself died too. a. According to legend, the ghost of Mr. Simmons plays a creepy old organ in the house every single night. On the 20th anniversary of the house's owner dying, Luther vows to stay one night in the house to prove he's not a chicken. While Don Knotts plays quite a comedic character, who's constantly getting scared about everything (including bumping into a tree, a record player, and even a cat), the film did a really good job incorporating this comedy with some suspense surrounding the mystery of the house, just like Scooby-Doo often does. Don's exaggerated facial expressions were also quite amusing lol.

When Luther goes in the house, he is quickly frightened away by the organ playing by itself, and when he finds pruning shears stabbed into a painting of Mrs. Simmons hanging on the wall. Luther tells everyone the story, and word eventually gets back to Nicholas Simmons - the nephew of the house's owners - who wants to tear the mansion down. Unexpectedly, Nicholas sues Luther for holding up the estate's arrangements, claiming he was making libelous statements in the article he wrote about his relatives' home. Luther is taken to court, where his grade school teacher Miss Tremaine is used as a witness, and reveals that Luther was a troublemaker when he was younger. This causes Luther's credibility to be questioned by the court, and he is accused of making up the whole story of the house being haunted so he would make himself look good as a reporter.

I won't go any more into the story as not to ruin the ending for those who want to watch it. The film did a really good job with making us feel for Luther. Though he is a goofball who does a lot of silly and foolish things, one part in particular really made me feel for him as a character - when he asks a woman he has a crush on "Do you think I'm crazy?". I never thought I'd feel a little sad from watching a Don Knotts movie, but that scene really hit me because it was so pitiful! While the viewer gets to enjoy Luther's comedic moments throughout the film, you also begin to feel for him as the film goes on, because he's constantly put in situations where his peers ridicule him despite it not really being his fault.

All the acting was on-point. Nothing felt stilted or out of place at all, it was a really genuine, funny, feel-good story. Given I was a fan of the show Bewitched when I was younger, I was super excited there was a mini Bewitched reunion in this film, with Dick Sargent and Sandra Gould both having roles in this. While I wasn't as big of a fan of The Waltons, it was fun to see Ellen Corby in a different role as Luther's teacher!

Don Knotts was truly the star of this film though. His goofy acting, his wacky karate moves (which were absolutely hilarious), and his overexaggerated reactions and facial expressions to things, were so much fun to see and I found myself laughing throughout the film. It's all very ridiculous, quirky humor that's super entertaining. I will admit, even though my political leanings aren't necessarily in line with this joke, hearing Don Knotts say "Who paid for this, a Democrat?" was really savage for the 60s lol (even if he was saying it just to get people to like him). And I pretty much never use slang except satirically, but Don Knotts is special enough to get the rare honor of me using slang to refer to his jokes haha. Wait, the youth of today still say "savage," right? There was that one Megan Thee Stallion song last year titled that, so I think I'm safe lol. Also, I should probably specify that I'm still young enough that I could probably be considered "the youth of today," given I don't want people to assume I'm super old given I just was talking about liking a 60s sitcom a paragraph above. It's a joke, y'all haha.

Overall, I would absolutely give this movie 5 stars. It's a movie you can Knott miss haha. The haunted house and the mystery aspect of this film were top-notch (or rather top-Knottch? haha), and the comedy mixed in make this film so much like a Scooby episode, and it's one I would recommend to all Scooby fans, regardless how into Scooby you are. Besides, again, it's Don freaking Knotts, how can you not like that? haha

To conclude, I just want to say thank you so, so much everyone for making our little Don Knotts Week so much fun. It's been so much fun doing a week centered around the one and only Don Knotts, and it's awesome to see people getting into it so much all the comments, and most people switching their names to Don Knotts puns in the comment section haha.

That's it for Knott an Ordinary Week, folks, and hopefully I made this a week that you all will Knott forget haha.

Straight from GamesRadar.com, the solicitations for all Scooby-Doo comics being released in October 2021...plus one from November as well...have been announced.

THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES VOL. 1
Writers: SHOLLY FISCH and IVAN COHEN
Artists: DARIO BRIZUELA, RANDY ELLIOTT, and SCOTT JERALDS
Cover: DARIO BRIZUELA
$12.99 | 128 PGS | 6 5/8" x 10 3/16" | Softcover
ISBN: 978-1-77951-307-6
ON SALE 11/30/21

The Dark Knight teams up with Scooby-Doo and Mystery Inc. in a series of adventures and mysteries! It all starts when Batman discovers his original purple gloves are missing—Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo will have to go back in time to solve the case! Collects The Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1-6.

On the iTunes "extras" menu for Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog, some brand new images of the film, some of which were not in the trailer, have been revealed. All the new pictures from the film can be seen below:

There comes a pivotal moment in every person's life where you can't help but pause for a moment, and think, "you know, there really needs to be another fun fact this week!" haha. Given it's Don Knotts related and this is Don Knotts Week, I mean, how could I Knott take this opportunity?

Out of all the guest stars in Scooby-Doo, all the various Don Knotts look-a-likes that appear in various Scooby films and movies would technically put Don Knotts over the edge for the guest star that has made the most appearances in Scooby.

Besides his main three appearances in "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner," "The Spooky Fog" and Night of 100 Frights, characters that look or act like Don Knotts appear in the following episodes and films:

• Mr. Claphammer from the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode "Toy Scary Boo"
• A Don Knotts look-a-like that appears from time to time in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
• The sheriff from Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire
• A Don Knotts look-a-like in Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Don Knotts also appears under one of the masks in "Bravo Dooby Doo."

I'm admittedly a little surprised they didn't get Don to voice Mr. Claphammer, given they had just gotten Don to voice the groundskeeper in Night of 100 Frights a few months prior. I thought it could have possibly been due to Don's health issues at the time, but he voiced himself in Johnny Bravo two years later, so I don't think that was the issue. Maybe the character was just a parody of him. On an amusing note though, when looking up when Don passed away, one of the auto-suggested searches was "Did Don Knotts and Andy Griffith die at the exact same time?" haha. That would be super intense if that had happened lol.

Today, Don Knotts would have been 97 years old!

​To celebrate this, and since I know people seem to enjoy reviews, I wanted to give my review of the two episodes that Don Knotts guest starred in from The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" and "The Spooky Fog."

"Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" remains one of my favorite Scooby episodes to date, likely in part due to childhood nostalgia given it was one of the first episodes I watched as a child. The episode starts off in the most typical Scooby-Doo fashion I can imagine: the gang getting lost and looking for directions, but they end up having to stop at a haunted mansion. At one point, Scooby sees Don Knotts and tells the gang, but he disappears before Scooby is able to show him to everyone. I always found this to be one of the most fascinating scenes in the episode, as it's literally the only time Don Knotts is mentioned despite him being the guest star. After this, Don is referred to as Homer Pipsqueak, a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective. The episode leaves it completely open to viewer interpretation as if Homer is just another of Don's disguises, or if Homer Pipsqueak is a real person that just looks like Don Knotts.

Speaking of disguises though, all of Don's disguises throughout the episode are amazing! They really make the episode a lot more mysterious, particularly the first mate disguise in which the gang is debating whether he poisoned the food or not. That part always had a very creepy vibe to me, despite that part of the episode being a little more comical as well with Don's goofy disguises. The fact that all of Don's other personas continually mistake the gang for Captain Moody's nieces and nephews also adds another layer to the mystery and gives the episode a spooky vibe, because you literally have no idea what's going on in this house until Don - no, make that Homer Pipsqueak - explains it all at the end.

I also really liked the scene where the gang is trying to escape from the house by going through all the secret passages and such. It has a very Scooby-Doo haunted house-ish vibe to me, despite it not really being a traditional Scooby haunted house given we don't actually see any ghosts until near the end of the episode. The setting of this entire episode just screams "Scooby-Doo" to me, in the sense that this type of setting is exactly what I would want when it comes to Scooby. The gigantic house with all the different creepy rooms really enhanced this episode atmospherically.

I enjoyed the ghosts quite a bit, though my one minor complaint about this episode is that I really wish we could have seen more of them. It felt like the ghosts kinda barely were a part of the first 3/4 of the episode, and were just crammed in at the end. However, I loved the scene where Don dresses up as the ghost of Captain Moody, even if we never really do get to find out how he switches back and forth between the captain and a more ghostly form. The only logical explanation is that Don is immortal! lol

Overall, I feel like the setting and Don's presence are really the stars of this episode. The atmosphere of Moody Manor is exactly what I want from a Scooby-Doo episode, and Don's antics dressing up as all the different characters was so much fun. The only thing I would change is that I wish the ghosts were more of a part of this episode. They spent a little too much time with all of Don's disguises, and it felt like the ghosts (who had really cool designs) barely appeared before a sort of rushed ending where they got caught. In this case, I would say that this episode could have benefited from a slightly longer runtime, maybe even DTV-length?

Moving on to "The Spooky Fog," another one of my favorites from the series. While I like "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" a little better, this was still a very solid episode. I think I probably would have benefited from watching an episode or two of The Andy Griffith Show before seeing this episode, given the beginning of this episode is basically just a parody of that show, even down to the town's name (the town was called Mayberry in the show, whereas this town is named Juneberry) and the sheriff's name (Sheriff Dandy Griffith is a parody of Sheriff Andy Taylor, played by Andy Griffith in the show). One minor detail that's always amused me is that one of the restaurants is named El Taco, which just seems like a very silly, lazy name for a taco restaurant, given El Taco literally just means "The Taco" in Spanish lol. (You can read more about a real restaurant named this in Fun Fact #215 from November 2018).

While the beginning of the episode was quite enjoyable and entertaining (especially the ghostly giggling part in the jail at night, which was super creepy), I felt like the episode really picked up when the gang got to the cemetery. I'm a huge fan of episodes that have lots of different villains, which is one of the reasons why The New Scooby-Doo Movies is so high on my list of favorite series. In this particular case, I thought some of the villains were so good that they should have gotten their own episodes, including: the lady ghost (though I guess we got a redesigned version of her in "Mystery of Haunted Island" very briefly, the three-eyed ghost, and that skull carriage driver.

While the scene where Shaggy and Scooby are trapped in the cave dragged on a bit, there were still bits I enjoyed, and the dragging on wasn't as pronounced as it was in some other episodes of the show, such as "The Ghost of the Red Baron." It felt like the two of them were in some pretty real danger of being trapped down there forever, so all the different ways of them trying to get out, all of which ended up failing, amped up the suspense level for me.

As a brief aside, as a kid, I always found Velma giving the difference of "stalactites" and "stalagmites" to be super helpful. I still remember the difference because of Velma's explanation in that episode to this day haha.

Overall, "The Spooky Fog" was another really enjoyable episode, and despite being a little slow to start off, the action-packed bits in the cemetery were very entertaining and creepy. Because of how long the beginning drags on, I wouldn't say it was one of my favorite episodes, but the second-half really brings this episode's rating up by a lot for me.

Don will always be one of the most memorable Scooby-Doo guest stars to me, because he fit in so well with the gang that it felt like he could have been a temporary sixth member. I really hope you enjoyed the reviews! Even though Don is gone, he will Knott be forgotten haha.

Scooby-Doo is the first animated show that Don Knotts ever provided a voice for. Don wouldn't go on to do any more voice acting work until 1987's The Little Troll Prince, where he played an evil professor who taught his students to "cause disorder and inflict pain." Don also only voiced himself in one other animated work, in the 2004 Johnny Bravo episode "Johnny Makeover."

Here are the results from last week's poll:
Which of the Guess Who "sequel" episodes is your favorite?
The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll and Hyde! - 38
Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea! - 36