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Clue Club
General Tropes
- Animal Talk: Woofer and Wimper only talk to themselves and other animals.
- Big Friendly Dog: Woofer and Wimper are obedient to Larry, D.D. and Pepper, but they adore Dotty. As Woofer opines in "The Amazing Heist":Woofer: (dreamy-eyed toward Dotty) Oh, it just breaks my heart that she's a human.Wimper: How come, Woofer?Woofer: Can you imagine the sensational lady bloodhound she'd made?
- Cold Touch Surprise:
- On more than one occasion, D.D. and Pepper have entered a dark room or hallway, with one of them, usually Pepper, requesting they hold hands for safety. Both will complain that the other's hands feel cold or be like ice, only to reveal that the Monster of the Week has somehow got between them.
- In "The Real Gone Gondola", Woofer and Wimper are warming themselves by a heater in the clubhouse after having been buried in snow. Woofer is in front of the heater, and Wimper's back feet are still blue with cold. Wimper shoves them under Woofer to warm them more quickly, causing Woofer to leap several feet into the air.
- The Family That Slays Together: Pepper and Dotty are sisters, and even though Dotty disobeys orders to stay at home base, Pepper still loves her. Also falls under the Two Girls to a Team arena.
- Gadget Watch: The Club's watches have a pager function.
- Girlish Pigtails: Dotty has a pigtail on either side of her head.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Parodied. In one episode, Dotty remarks that if her computer tells her "Insufficient data" one more time, she'll recycle it into a beer can. This from a 13-year-old girl.
- Kid Detective: All the Club are teenagers, but at 13, Dotty is usually considered too young for field work. In the two comic book appearances—Dotty joins everyone else on the cases.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: In "The Walking House Caper", Larry, Pepper and D.D. are locked in a house by a creature (a fake, natch). Larry signals Dotty via his ring communicator in hopes she'll call the police. Instead, Dotty, Woofer and Wimper take it upon themselves to lure the creature away so they can rescue the team. And Dotty does have the foresight to call the police as well.
- Let's Split Up, Gang!: Usually and uniformly, D.D. gets paired with Pepper, Larry goes it solo, interrogating possible suspects, Woofer and Wimper sometimes go with Larry, but get themselves in trouble when by themselves, and Dotty stays at home where she uses computer technology (for 1976) and her own forensic science savvy to troubleshoot for the rest of the gang.
- Scooby Stack: Dotty, Woofer and Wimper do this in "The Walking House Caper" when they see a sasquatch as they affect a rescue of the others who are locked inside a house.
- Spoofy-Doo: Basically a Scooby-Doo expy, just with two dogs.
- Talking Animals: Woofer and Wimper, but only between themselves or with other animals.
- Video Phone: The Club's car is equipped with one, which is connected by their Gadget Watch pager functions.
- Weirdness Magnet: It's the thing to be as a Hanna-Barbera meddling kid.
- Why Are You Looking at Me Like That?: Dotty pulls this with Woofer and Wimper in "The Real Gone Gondola" in order to join the others.Woofer: Uh oh...the kid's got that look in her eyes.
Wimper: Yeah. Last time we got the blame for it. - You Need a Breath Mint: One episode had D.D. and Pepper chased by a vampire, so they eat cloves of garlic and then say "H-h-h-h-h-hi!" to him. The vampire wilts and runs away. As a gag, Pepper does this to Woofer and Wimper, causing them to melt to the ground in repulsion.
Larry
Larry
Voiced by: David Jolliffe
- Bavarian Fire Drill: Larry pulls one in "The Green Thumb Caper", after being told that no one was being admitted to the crime scene unless it was an emergency. Larry and co. then pretend to be "Tree Doctors" responding to an emergency.
- Bubblegum Popping: Larry blows at least one bubble in every episode.
- Character Tics: Larry did have something of a trademark gesture. When contemplating clues, he would blow a bubble with his gum, then deflate it.
- The Leader: Leads the group and always figures out who the culprit is.
- The Nicknamer: Mostly Larry to Dotty, with a variety of affectionate diminutive nicknames, "Little one", "Small fry", "Pipsqueak", "Shorty", "Short stuff", etc.
Pepper
Pepper
Voiced by: Patricia Stich
- Butt-Monkey: Along with D.D., she's always targeted by the masked fiend.
- Deadpan Snarker: Can be quite sarcastic, especially towards D.D.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Pepper has long blonde hair and is a dedicated member of the club.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The girly girl to her younger sister Dotty's tomboy.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: With D.D. Despite being quite snarky towards him, Pepper does care for his wellbeing.
D.D.
D.D.
Voiced by: Bob Hastings
- Actually Pretty Funny: Towards the end of the series, D.D. began to listen to Dotty's excuses to join the group for the reveal with open amusement.
- Butt-Monkey: Both he and Pepper are always pursued by the villain in disguise.
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: D.D often tries to act smart, but he's no match for Dotty's intelligence. Occasionally, he does tell a brilliant fact, but it usually turns out to be something Dotty told him.
- Only Known by Initials: Is always called D.D. It has never been revealed what his initials stood for.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: With Pepper. Despite their snarky comments towards each other, they always pair up and look out for each other.
Dotty
Dotty
Voiced by: Tara Talboy
- Adorably Precocious Child: Dotty is smart and adorable. What keeps her from the nerd category is that she's as hip as any 13-year-old girl in 1976 and is into rock and roll music ("The Amazing Heist" demonstrates this).
- Beware the Nice Ones: Dotty. "Hold it, fuzzy face. You clobber my dogs with that hose, and I'll turn you into a monkey stew!"
- Blatant Lies: Dotty's excuses to join the group for the climax. Larry often sees right through them, but lets her stay anyway, in part because her antics have him amused, and in part because he relies on her for forensic analysis of clues.Dotty: I think they [the dogs] have laryngitis.D.D.: Personally, I think she's sensational.Dotty: Go ahead, bark fellas.Woofer and Wimper: (bark weakly)Larry: Uh-huh. Laryngitis. Would you guys like a couple of dog biscuits?Woofer and Wimper: (enthusiastic barking)Larry: That's an amazing recovery.Dotty: I think it's a miracle.
- The Lab Rat: Dotty does any forensic and computer research work the club needs. This is her official spot in the club, but she refuses to stay in the lab.
- Mission Control: Where Dotty is usually relegated to handle research and forensic tests, not that it stops her from getting into the field each episode...
- Once an Episode: Dotty will show up at The Reveal, despite being told otherwise by the other club members, with a "perfectly good excuse" why she's there.
- Photographic Memory: Dotty is repeatedly stated throughout the series to have a photographic memory. Her older sister, Pepper, notes that once Dotty has read something, it's forever trapped in Dotty's "steel-trap mind". She can easily cite facts, figures, and statistics to anyone who asks... provided she's read about them beforehand. For example, in "Who's to Blame for the Empty Frame", when D.D. and Pepper are wondering about the value of the art collection in the museum, Dotty recites it to the penny, stating she'd read it in a magazine.
- The Smart Girl: She doesn't let anyone forget it either.
- Tag Along Kid: What Dotty wants to be, but Larry always tells her to stay in the lab, for her safety, since she is just a kid, something she keeps finding a way to get around.
- Teen Genius: Dotty. She's so smart she can program her computer to play gin rummy with her. Only she loses thanks to Woofer's kibitzing.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The tomboy to her older sister Pepper's girly girl, respectively.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Pepper describes hot dogs as "Dotty's favorite fruit". In another episode, when going to a circus, Dotty has calculated the budget they'd need for snacks. She's assigned five hot dogs for herself in that budget, and when the mystery breaks out and she is sent home, she complains that she's only had four hotdogs.
Woofer and Wimper
Woofer and Wimper
Voiced by: Paul Winchell (Woofer) and Jim MacGeorge
- Butt-Monkey: Woofer, mainly due to how much he gets chased, humiliated, and not taken seriously. He usually deserves this treatment, though.
- Defective Detective: Woofer. Yet at the end of every crime he crows to Wimper of how he solved it. D.D. and Pepper may also count since, while they will usually find valuable clues, they also stumble onto the episode's villain and get chased a lot.
- Glory Seeker: Woofer would often try to (unsuccessfully) take credit for Wimper's work.
- Instant Messenger Pigeon: Messenger dogs, really. It's usually Woofer and Wimper's job to deliver clues and coded messages to Dotty.
- Knew It All Along: Woofer. Or at least that's what he claims at the end of each mystery.Wimper: Clue Club solves the crime!Woofer: I knew it all the time!
- Know-Nothing Know-It-All: Woofer, who always claims to know who the culprit is. When the real culprit is revealed - and it's almost never anyone Woofer suspects - Woofer will claim he knew it was them all along.
- Lovable Coward: Neither of the two dogs are very courageous, but are dependable and loyal to their human owners, especially Dotty.
- Miles Gloriosus: Woofer talks big and acts brave, but the moment a terrifying masked character appears, he flees for his life.
- The Smart Guy: Wimper is clearly the smartest of the two dogs as he often comes up with clever solutions, outsmarts Woofer, and stumble upon clues for the Clue Clubbers.
- Team Pet: Both dogs are this for the Club Clubbers.
- Vitriolic Best Friends: Woofer and Wimper are paired together and have a strong bond despite how much Woofer throws his weight around and how much Woofer can feel threatened by Wimper's (relatively) greater intelligence.
Misc.
Sheriff Bagley
Sheriff Bagley
Voiced by: John Stephenson
- Adults Are Useless: Zig-zagged. Sheriff Bagley will oblige the Clue Club by gathering suspects together, and tip his hat to the team when they solve a mystery. He also spots and captures a fleeing member of the criminal gang in "The Weird Seaweed Caper". However, he almost never seems to have the correct suspect on his own, and while he is seen looking for evidence or taking in people for questioning himself, he does far less legwork and searching than the kids themselves do.