TV Trickery

TV Trickery
First page of the story.
INDUCKS	I TL 397-A
Other Titles	Zio Paperone e il Telescrocco
Writer(s)	Luciano Bottaro
Artist(s)	Luciano Bottaro
Dates	July the 7th, 1963 (release date)

TV Trickery, originally printed as Zio Paperone e il Telescrocco (which translates as Uncle Scrooge and the Telecrookery), is a comic story written and drawn by Bottaro. It features Witch Hazel, Beelzebub, Scrooge McDuck, Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck, Gyro Gearloose, the Little Helper, and, in their debuts, Will Woofer, Mr Bupkis and Babul Beezmeer.

Plot

Witch Hazel keeps spying on Scrooge McDuck's TV set, as the rules of the Witches' Union forbid her from buying her own. After he finds her out, Scrooge promises to give her her very own set if and only if she manages to create a successful TV program of her own for one of his channels!

References

• One of Scrooge McDuck's companies is launching a new product, the Dazzledent Automatic Toothbrush.
• The Witches' Union forbids witches from owning mortal money. Witch Hazel has been a member of the Witches' Union for over two and a half centuries.
• Scrooge McDuck has made a routine of watching television on the top floor of McDuck Tower No. 38.
• A business chart hanging in McDuck Tower unambiguously establishes the story to take place in 1963. 
• Answer This, broadcast by the channel "QBC" (Quack Broadcasting Company), is hosted by Will Woofer and is reportedly QBC's #1 game show.
• Witch Hazel has been single for several centuries by the time the story starts.

Continuity

• Scrooge McDuck had previously tangled with Witch Hazel in Luciano Bottaro's earlier Donald Duck and the Enchanted Vacuum Cleaner (1956).
• Witch Hazel ends the story looking for a way to sell two billion Automatic Dazzledent Toothbrushes. The 1969 story Prologue to Paperallegria showed Hazel leaving for the southern isles to sell Toothbrushes there. She later encountered the Duck family there, bridging the events of TV Trickery with those of the 1964 Donald and the Wagers (which showed the Ducks independently going to this same location).
• This story introduces McDuck Tower No. 38; Don Rosa's 1991 Incident at McDuck Tower would later introduce the first and greatest McDuck Tower.

Behind the scenes

This story was first published in Italy in its original version in Topolino #397. It was printed in English in Disney Masters #2 with localization by Thad Komorowski.