The Funky Phantom is one of the great forgotten Hanna-Barbera shows. It aired for 17 episodes in 1971, got cancelled, then quietly haunted the syndication graveyard for decades until Jellystone! pulled it back into relevance in the 2020s.
It’s also one of the most blatant Scooby-Doo copies ever produced. Three teenagers, a dog, a wacky vehicle, masked villains every episode. The only difference is they had an actual ghost on the team, which somehow made the whole “is this real?” mystery format make even less sense.
Quick facts: The Funky Phantom aired on ABC from September 11, 1971 to May 6, 1972. One season, 17 episodes. Produced by Hanna-Barbera. Released two years after Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! debuted. The similarities are not subtle.
What Is The Funky Phantom?
The premise: three teenagers (Augie, Skip, and April) accidentally release the ghost of Jonathan “Mudsy” Muddlemore, a Revolutionary War-era spirit who had been trapped inside a grandfather clock for 200 years. They reset the clock to midnight, Mudsy pops out, and they all become best friends.
Mudsy comes with a ghost cat named Boo. The teens have a regular sheepdog named Elmo. Together, the six of them drive around in a dune buggy called the Looney Duney solving mysteries.
So yes. Hanna-Barbera looked at Scooby-Doo’s “teen detective gang with a comic-relief dog and a Mystery Machine” formula and went: “What if we add a ghost? But also keep the dog. And give them a dune buggy instead of a van. And we’ll call it new.”
The Scooby-Doo Comparison
Let’s just lay this out side by side:
Scooby-Doo (1969): Four teens + dog. Mystery Machine van. Solve mysteries involving people in masks pretending to be supernatural threats. Includes a cowardly dog as comic relief.
Funky Phantom (1971): Three teens + dog + ghost + ghost cat. Looney Duney dune buggy. Solve mysteries involving people in masks pretending to be supernatural threats. Includes a cowardly dog as comic relief.
Even the show’s villain formula was a direct copy. Every episode featured someone in a costume causing trouble for selfish reasons, and the gang would unmask them at the end. The actual ghost on the team (Mudsy) never seemed to point out that the “ghosts” they were chasing were, by definition, fake compared to him.
Mudsy: The Funky Phantom Himself
Mudsy is the show’s standout character, mostly because he was the one differentiating element. A Revolutionary War-era ghost with a tri-corner hat, frock coat, and an accent voiced by Daws Butler that was essentially Snagglepuss with the serial numbers filed off.
Mudsy was voiced by Daws Butler, who also voiced Snagglepuss, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and a long list of other Hanna-Barbera mainstays. The Snagglepuss similarity wasn’t subtle. Mudsy even used “even” as a catchphrase, the same way Snagglepuss did.
Why Mudsy works: Despite the obvious voice recycling, Mudsy is actually a charming character. He’s friendly, a bit pompous, and stuck in a world 200 years past his time. His genuine confusion about modern things (cars, electric lights, slang) gave the show its best comedic moments.
The Funky Phantom’s Teen Gang
The three teens were:
- Augie Anderson — the redheaded, slightly nerdy one. Voiced by Tommy Cook.
- Skip Gilroy — the cool blonde leader. Voiced by Micky Dolenz of The Monkees, which was a legitimately big casting at the time.
- April Stewart — the chic, smart girl who often solved the mystery. Voiced by Kristina Holland.
The Micky Dolenz casting is genuinely interesting. By 1971, The Monkees had broken up and Dolenz was looking for voice work. He brought a recognizable youthful energy to the show.
Elmo: The Almost-Scooby Dog
Elmo is The Funky Phantom’s equivalent of Scooby-Doo. He’s a sheepdog. He’s cowardly. He provides physical comedy. He cannot talk, which is the one major departure from Scooby.
The character was clearly there to fill the “comic relief dog” slot in the formula, but Elmo never developed a personality beyond “afraid of things and bumping into stuff.” He’s the Wally to Scooby’s Wally Cleaver.
Boo: The Ghost Cat
Boo is Mudsy’s ghost cat. The show’s most genuinely original character contribution, because Scooby-Doo did not have a ghost cat.
Voiced by Don Messick (who also voiced Scooby-Doo himself, which is just adding insult to injury). Boo doesn’t say much. Boo is mostly just there. But she’s the rare cat in a sea of cartoon dogs, and she gets credit for that.
Why The Funky Phantom Was Forgotten
The show ran for one season and 17 episodes before ABC pulled it. There are a few reasons it didn’t last:
- It was too obviously a Scooby-Doo copy. Even kids could tell.
- It diluted Hanna-Barbera’s own brand. Why watch Funky Phantom when Scooby-Doo was right there?
- The Mudsy character was the only differentiator, and one character can’t carry a whole show.
- The early 70s were a brutal era for Saturday morning cartoons. A lot of shows from this period didn’t survive.
The bigger context: Hanna-Barbera made a LOT of Scooby-Doo formula shows in the 1970s. Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Speed Buggy, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Jabberjaw, Clue Club — all of them used variations of the “teen gang + animal + mystery” template. Most of them were forgotten just like The Funky Phantom. Scooby-Doo was the one that stuck.
The Funky Phantom Comics
Gold Key Comics and Western Publishing released Funky Phantom comic adaptations in the 1970s. The comics were actually a little more inventive than the TV show. Some storylines featured real colonial-era ghost villains (instead of the show’s masked-human-of-the-week formula).
One memorable comic arc sent the gang back in time to colonial America via a broken time machine, where the teens became the ghosts and Mudsy got his body back. The comics also introduced Priscilla Atwater, a flirtatious ghost from Mudsy’s era who served as a romantic interest. Material that would’ve made a great second season the show never got.
In 2018, the Funky Phantom got an unexpected DC cameo in Black Lightning/Hong Kong Phooey Special #1, where Mudsy was summoned by Jason Blood to comment on the Second Amendment. Genuinely the most 2018 thing that ever happened.
Mudsy in Jellystone!
The Funky Phantom got a proper modern revival in HBO Max’s Jellystone! (2021-present), the meta Hanna-Barbera mashup show. Mudsy and Boo show up as recurring characters, voiced by Paul F. Tompkins.
The Jellystone version of Mudsy is reimagined as a former pro wrestler who got banned for using his ghost powers to cheat. He now runs an avocado arrangement business. It’s a completely chaotic reinvention, and it works. Tompkins’s voice performance is intentionally NOT a Bert Lahr / Snagglepuss imitation, which fixes one of the original character’s bigger criticisms.
Mudsy Also Appeared on Mystery Incorporated
The crossover: Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010-2013) included a cameo from Mudsy in one episode. The show that he ripped off generously gave him a guest spot. That’s just classy of Scooby.
The Funky Phantom Episodes
For completionists, the full 17-episode run:
- Don’t Fool with a Phantom
- Heir Scare
- I’ll Haunt You Later
- Who’s Chicken
- The Headless Horseman
- Spirit Spooked
- Ghost Town Ghost
- We Saw a Sea Serpent
- Haunt in Inn
- Mudsy Joins the Circus
- Pigskin Predicament
- The Liberty Bell Caper
- April’s Foolish Day
- The Forest’s Prime-Evil
- The Hairy Scarey Houndman
- Mudsy and Muddlemore Manor
- Ghost Grabbers
The episode titles tell you exactly what you’re getting. “Heir Scare.” “Haunt in Inn.” “Pigskin Predicament.” It’s pure 70s Saturday morning cartoon naming.
The Funky Phantom Voice Cast
Original voice cast:
Daws Butler — Mudsy
Don Messick — Boo (also voiced Scooby-Doo)
Tommy Cook — Augie Anderson
Micky Dolenz — Skip Gilroy
Kristina Holland — April Stewart
Jerry Dexter — Elmo
Daws Butler and Don Messick were the two most prolific voice actors in Hanna-Barbera’s stable. Between them, they voiced about 80% of every show the studio made between 1960 and 1990.
Where to Watch The Funky Phantom
As of 2026, The Funky Phantom is available on the DVD release Warner Archive put out in 2010 (it’s an on-demand title from Amazon or the Warner store). It also occasionally surfaces on streaming through Boomerang or as part of Max’s Hanna-Barbera classic catalog.
If you want to see Mudsy active in modern continuity, watch Jellystone! on HBO Max. That’s where he lives now.
The Funky Phantom Legacy
My honest take: The Funky Phantom is the kind of show that’s easy to mock and surprisingly fun to actually watch. The Scooby-Doo copy critique is fair, but if you go in expecting a charming and slightly cheap 70s Saturday morning cartoon, you’ll have a good time. Mudsy is a genuinely likable character. The Looney Duney is a great name for a vehicle. And the 17-episode run gives it just enough material to be worth a weekend binge.
It’s not Scooby-Doo. It was never going to be. But it deserved better than to be a forgotten footnote, and Jellystone! has done it the service of keeping the character alive for a new generation.
So, did you ever actually watch The Funky Phantom growing up, or is this your first time hearing about it? Bonus points if you can name another Hanna-Barbera Scooby-Doo clone from the same era. Goober and the Ghost Chasers, anyone?
