Tooniversary: The Case of the Lighthouse Mouse (Clue Club, 1976)

CBS got the jump on everyone else 40 years ago this month with the launch of Clue Club. In this writer's opinion, Clue Club cannot be considered a knockoff of Scooby-Doo, whom the Club was ironically replacing on the CBS roster.

Clue Club was launched early due to the US Open tennis tournament, which CBS held the rights to at the time, and would otherwise hold back the start of their children's lineup for a week or two. While this was a novel idea, it was never duplicated, due to the simple fact that Clue Club was not renewed for another season. As we've documented before, the series was reworked into edited reruns under the title, Woofer & Whimper, Dog Detectives, as part of Skatebirds the following year, before reverting back to the original title and 30 minute format in 1978.

In "The Case of the Lighthouse Mouse", the Club has to clear their Uncle Salty (Paul Winchell, also the voice of Woofer) of the theft of some priceless jewels.

Edit, 9/17/23: Had to change the video. We have just this short excerpt.

At least we know both of the boys, Larry (David Jolliffe) and D. D. (Bob Hastings) were old enough to drive. Not sure about Pepper.

The biggest difference between Clue Club and Scooby-Doo was that this was more of a procedural crime drama, with the dogs acting as comedy relief. Should it surprise anyone that Whimper (Jim McGeorge) was actually smarter than Woofer ever gave him credit for?

Rating: A-.