Now Let’s See Who the Coolest ‘Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!’ Villain REALLY Is!
The Hanna-Barbera cartoons I watched as a kid could be pretty hit-or-miss in terms of quality, both in storytelling and in art. And that includes some of the many entries in the Scooby-Doo franchise.
But the first Scooby-Doo series — Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! — was one of the studio’s better efforts, especially when it came to delivering some spooky fun when I watched reruns of the show’s original two seasons after school in the ’70s. (That initial run was on CBS and began on Sept. 13, 1969, and ended — fittingly for a show highlighted by ghosts and monsters — on Halloween 1970, when I was just about six months old.)
There was a Season 3 revival that came to ABC in Fall 1978 that I watched on Saturday mornings during the episodes’ original airings, and they were cool in their own way, but something then and now always drew me back more to the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! seasons, and particularly to the 17 episodes of Season 1.
I was — and still kind of am — mesmerized by some of the background paintings on the show that featured everything from creepy old castles to creepy old abandoned airbases, and more, to set the mood. You can see some of those cool backgrounds at this link.
Of course, there were also the “ghosts” that those meddling kids always ran into, and some of those featured on the original show actually had a creepy aura about them, even if they only ended up being a shady local businessman in disguise.
A few of my favorites among the early ghosts were Captain Cutler, the guy in the old-time diving suit with a supernatural glow of Episode 2, “A Clue for Scooby-Doo”; the circus clown ghost of Episode 10, “Bedlam in the Big Top”; and the giggling green ghosts of Episode 16, “A Night of Fright Is No Delight.”
But my all-time favorite, and hands-down the creepiest, Scooby-Doo ghost came in Episode 15, a ghost so cool-looking that he was one of the few villains to have his episode named after him:
© 1969 Hanna Barbera Productions, Inc.
You can see and hear the Spooky Space Kook a bit in the below TikTok video. It features the first few seconds of the episode, which wastes no time getting right to the Kook (and his creepy-looking derelict spacecraft), and the setting, an abandoned military airfield where Scooby and gang eventually meet him.
@delgadosaurus Again, the Space Kook was one of the best designs of all those classic SCOOBY DOO ghosts. Cool spaceship as well! Also liked that jingle of music and animation over the title card:) #scoobydoo #scoobydoowhereareyou #ghost #design #animation #hannabarbera #saturdaymorningcartoons ♬ original sound – Ricardo Delgado
If I ran into that guy stomping down a lonely country road and laughing like that, I think I would follow in Shaggy’s footsteps and emit a pretty audible “Zoinks!”
Something about dark and gloomy ambiance of the lonely airfield has always stuck with me from this episode, especially when coupled with the cool look and sound (not just the sound of his memorable laugh, but also that spacey “Wooooo” that seems emanates from him like his eerie glow) of the Kook, who, at first, looks impressively like the actual ghost of some crashed alien being, dressed in astronaut-like attire with a helmet covering a visible skull.
Of course, the inside of that helmet lights up an eerie red whenever the Kook utters his trademark sound — an eerie, otherworldly laugh, courtesy of voice actor legend Don Messick, who also voiced Scooby (in fact, his Kook laugh kind of sounds like a higher pitched Scooby laugh in spots).
It doesn’t matter now, and it certainly didn’t 40-plus years ago, that I know very well by the end of the episode, this chilling Space Kook is going to turn out to be some run-of-the-mill dude faking the ghost to scare people away from whatever shady dealings he’s up to. The Kook is pulled off impressively enough, animation-wise, to captivate viewers and even offer some genuine chills to younger (and perhaps older) viewers.
The Kook reminds me a little of one of my favorite Spider-Man villains, Mysterio, both in his look and in the optical illusions and effects that the guy running the phony haunting is able to pull off.
SPOILER ALERT: Don’t Watch the Video Below Unless You Want to Find Out Who the Spooky Space Kook REALLY Is!
Henry Bascombe, the guy wearing the Spooky Space Kook costume — and most of the other criminals posing as ghosts and monsters throughout all the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes, for that matter — probably could have found much more financial success if they had only put their considerable creative talents to more legitimate pursuits. These folks used some impressive effects to work their hoaxes, and I’m sure they could have been special effects artists in Hollywood, or maybe operated some pretty cool haunted houses at Halloweentime.
But, alas, poor Bascombe is, at the end, left to merely ruefully reflect on, as so many others like him have, how “I’d a-done it, too, if you kids hadn’t a-come along.”
Remind I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who appreciates the Kook and consider him a favorite Scooby-Doo villain. On the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! IMDb entry, the “Spooky Space Kook” episode is ranked second-best among users, with a rating of 8.3/10, just behind the 8.5/10 for the No. 1 ranked episode, “A Night of Fright Is No Delight,” which, as I mentioned earlier, is a solid choice.
I’ve also seen people affectionately talk about the episode in YouTube videos or writeups in blogs; there are GIFs of the Kook walking and laughing; clips from the episode on YouTube and elsewhere; fan-made art of the Kook; and collectibles and toys featuring his likeness.
Some college students even tried re-creating the alien ghost for a Practical Special Effects course, as seen in the below video. Their results are okay, I guess; certainly not on par with their animated inspiration, but it’s still nice to see younger generations are able to appreciate the Kook.
I’ll leave you with a little more Kook-iness:
Remind