'The Scooby Doo Show' is for me the second best Scooby Doo series, second only to 'Scooby Doo Where Are You?' Wasn't bowled over by every episode, some of the later ones were not great, but at its best the show was on the same level as 'Scooby Doo Where Are You?' at its best. When younger, despite it creeping me out on first viewing, "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium" was one of my favourite episodes from 'The Scooby Doo Show'.
It still is as a young adult. One might scorn about me rating a Scooby Doo episode so highly, but that doesn't bother me. And this is not blind nostalgia talking, some of my childhood favourites over the years have not held up. 'The Scooby Doo Show' and "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium" in my view have. My feelings on the episode when younger are pretty much exactly the same as they are now, except that this is one of the show's episodes that gets better with each viewing.
A few things set it apart. The setting is one of the show's, and perhaps even franchise's, creepiest. Not just the sanitarium, which is somewhere where most people do not want to spend the night, but also seeing Niagara Falls in animation on a dark and stormy night was unsettling too. "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium" boasts one of 'The Scooby Doo Show's' best and most memorable villains Dr Coffin, when it comes to the terrifying factor by Scooby Doo standards Dr Coffin from his appearance alone is right up there. He is used well too (not overused or under) and his presence is really felt in scenes where he doesn't appear even, which is the makings of a good villain. He is sinister but not too traumatising and he is not made to be an idiot either.
What also stood out was the ending. The climax had tension, it was cleverly staged and it was intriguing. "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium" is one of the few 'The Scooby Doo' episodes where the identity of the perpetrator was to me a shock, because the episode does such a great job making one think that it was somebody else. The truth about what they were really behind was also unexpected, as what led the gang to the truth is revealed relatively late into the episode. But in a way that didn't come too suddenly, so it did ring true. The mystery is a lot of fun, with some classic endearingly goofy comic relief from Shaggy and Scooby and a real creepy atmosphere. The bit with the dogs was clever and wonderfully strange.
From personal opinion, "The Harum Scarum Sanitarium" is one of the better-looking 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes. Dr Coffin looks pretty awesome and genuinely sinister and the backgrounds early on have good attention to detail and have real foreboding to them. The music doesn't jar tonally or stylistically, true in style to the original incarnation while with touches of its own. The theme song sticks in the head. The gang are on good form, Shaggy and Scooby always delight, and the writing stays true to the franchise's roots very affectionately. The voice acting is very good.
Overall, one of my favourites of the show. 10/10
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