When the gang visits their friend Sharon Wetherby, they learn her uncle Stuart has disappeared into the old Kingston Mansion.
This episode features examples of the following tropes:
- Bat Scare: When the gang enters a crypt to look for clues, a bat flies out of the crypt among opening the door, and Shaggy figures the ghost can turn into a bat.
- Brick Joke: When the gang first encounters the ghost, he has his hand on poor Shaggy's shoulder. Later, when Shaggy and Scooby call for the ghost to lure him to the trap, Shaggy once again has the ghost's hand on his shoulder.
- Bully Bulldog: Scooby gets menaced by a bulldog sent by the ghost. Despite the fact that, as a great dane, Scooby is nearly twice its size.
- Curse: The ghost threatens to turn everyone old unless the Wetherby fortune is delivered to him.
- Damsel in Distress: Sharon after she is kidnapped by the ghost.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Of a sort. The ghost here does not use a Latex Perfection -style mask, but wears a wig and full theatrical paint makeup job that somehow manages to cover uncle Stuart's eyeglasses, and they spray him with makeup remover before wiping it off during The Reveal. Although makeup jobs like this would also be featured at times in What's New, Scooby-Doo?.
- Evil Uncle: The perpetrator turns out to be Stuart, going as far as keeping his niece Sharon prisoner when she accidentally sees through his scam.
- Faking the Dead: In the Kingston Mansion, the gang comes across a skeleton wearing Stuart's clothes, making it look like the ghost of Elias Kingston had aged him to death. It turns out to be a fake.
- Haunted House: The Kingston Mansion is heavily rumored to be one.
- Hologram: How the ghost pulled off the "flying crystal ball" trick, using a special TV camera wired to a projector. The gang uses it to turn the tables on him, recording Shaggy running on a treadmill and projecting it past the ghost, and then projecting duplicates of the ghost as he runs and then a close-up of Scooby-Doo snarling.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The gang use the same special effects trick on the ghost to capture him. As well as the fake skeleton that he used to make it look like Stuart had been killed by the ghost.
- Humiliation Conga: The gang's trap for the ghost puts him through this. First, Shaggy and Scooby trick him with a treasure chest that turns out to be a jack-in-the-box with a squirty flower, then into punching an anvil they set up behind the curtains. Then, the gang scares him by projecting duplicates of the ghost himself, and a growling Scooby made to look huge through a close-up. Finally, he runs into the room where he was holding Sharon, only to find the fake skeleton of Uncle Stuart in her place, once more scaring him into running out so the gang can drop a net onto him.
- Kilroy Was Here: For the episode's End-of-Episode Silliness, Shaggy is about to dine on some turkey, only to find a sign underneath the cover reading "Scooby-Doo Was Here".
- Monster of the Week: The Ghost of Elias Kingston.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: As part of the trap, Scooby and Shaggy pretend to give away their hiding spot behind the curtains to the ghost so they can trick him into punching an anvil they set up.
- Palate Propping: Used by Scooby to hinder a snarling bulldog. When the other dog objects to Scooby's intention to eat a large bone, Scooby stuffs it upright into his rival's mouth. It shatters the bone by sheer jaw strength, but not quickly enough to catch Scooby.
- Rapid Aging: The Ghost of Elias Kingston supposedly has the power to turn people old, then into bones.
