"I'm smarter than the av-a-rage bear!"
—Yogi Bear
Originally a supporting character on
The Huckleberry Hound Show, Yogi Bear was one of the most popular early
Hanna-Barbera characters. Most episodes revolved around Yogi's attempts to do things that other Jellystone Park bears didn't do (or weren't allowed to do): make money, fly, dodge hibernation, escape—or simply relieve tourists of their pic-a-nic baskets. Yogi's sidekick, Boo Boo, would often warn Yogi that "the ranger isn't going to like this!" Indeed, Yogi would invariably be scolded by Ranger Smith.
Basically, the premise was that Yogi and Boo Boo would steal picnic baskets from visitors to Jellystone National Park, and
hilarity would ensue.
Supporting segments on
The Yogi Bear Show featured Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle. In 1964, Hanna-Barbera released its first animated feature,
Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, through Columbia Pictures. In the 1970s and 1980s, Yogi and his contemporaries appeared in the following series:
- Yogi's Gang
- Laff-a-Lympics, in which Yogi and Scooby Doo led two of the three teams
- Yogi's Space Race
- Yogi's Treasure Hunt
- The New Yogi Bear Show
- Yo Yogi!
Warner Bros. announced a live action/CGI
Yogi Bear feature film for release in 2010.
This series provides examples of:
- A Day In The Limelight (Ranger Smith starred in two cartoon shorts in the late 1990s, though the second one focuses more on Boo-Boo.)
- An Aesop (Yogi's Gang only)
- Animated Series
- Bottle Episode
- Camp Gay (Snagglepuss. No, don't deny it.)
- Cartoon Crossovers
- Catch Phrase ("Smarter than the average bear")
- Depending On The Artist: In the original series, Ranger Smith's design changed frequently between episodes; they eventually decided upon his permanent design in Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!.
- As it that weren't enough, though, his appearance on Yogi's Gang gave him blond hair.
- This is parodied in a sequence from "A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith", where Smith suffers an Art Shift every time he passes by a tree, from prior Ranger Smith models to the more John Kricfalusi-esque designs (John K directed this cartoon, after all), accompanied with increasingly bizarre walk cycles in Limited Animation.
- Deranged Animation: (Boo Boo Runs Wild)
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every episode of Yogi's Gang was named after the Villain Of The Week.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Yogi's voice was based on Art Carney's character on The Honeymooners; further, Yogi Bear's offbeat philosophy (and name) was meant to remind people of baseball star Yogi Berra. Snagglepuss' voice was based on Bert Lahr, who played the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard Of Oz.
- Phrase Catcher: In Yo Yogi!, whenever Yogi finishes kicking ass or his friends come to the rescue, his friends exclaim, "Yo Yogi!"
- Punny Name: Jellystone Park, an obvious pun on Yellowstone National Park
.
- Spin Off Babies (
D'oh! Yo Yogi!)
- Talking Animal
- Talking To Himself: If you're watching an old Yogi Bear cartoon and there are no female voices in it, chances are all the voices were performed by Daws Butler and Don Messick.
- We Are Still Relevant Dammit (
D'oh! Yo Yogi!)
