Yogi Bear

Yogi Bear is a family cartoon character, created by Hanna-Barbera Productions, who has appeared in numerous comic books, animated television shows and films. He made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in The Huckleberry Hound Show. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by Hanna-Barbera and was eventually more popular than Huckleberry Hound. In January 1961, he was given his own show, The Yogi Bear Show, sponsored by Kellogg's, which included the segments Snagglepuss and Yakky Doodle. Hokey Wolf replaced his segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show. A musical animated feature film, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, was produced in 1964. Yogi was one of several Hanna-Barbera characters to have a collar. This allowed animators to keep his body static, redrawing only his head in each frame when he spoke. This reduced the number of drawings needed for a seven-minute cartoon from around 14,000 to around 2,000.

Personality


Like many Hanna-Barbera characters, Yogi's personality and mannerisms were based on a popular celebrity of the time. Art Carney's Ed Norton character on The Honeymooners was said to be Yogi's inspiration; his voice mannerisms broadly mimic Carney as Norton. Norton, in turn, received influence from Borscht Belt and comedians of vaudeville.

Yogi's name was similar to that of contemporary baseball star Yogi Berra, who was known for his amusing quotes such as "half the lies they tell about me aren't true." Berra sued Hanna-Barbera for defamation but their management claimed that the similarity of the names was just a coincidence. Berra withdrew his suit but the defence was considered implausible and sources now report that Berra was the inspiration for the name. Hanna-Barbera also had a contemporary character Augie Doggie whose name bore similarity to baseball umpire Augie Donatelli.

The plot of most of Yogi's cartoons centered on his antics in the fictional Jellystone Park, a takeoff on the famous Yellowstone National Park. Yogi, accompanied by his constant companion Boo-Boo Bear, would often try to steal picnic baskets from campers in the park, much to the displeasure of Park Ranger Smith. Yogi's girlfriend, Cindy Bear, sometimes appeared and usually disapproved of Yogi's antics.

Catchphrases
Besides often speaking in rhyme, Yogi Bear had a number of catchphrases, including his pet name for picnic baskets ("pic-a-nic baskets") and his favorite self-promotion ("I'm smarter than the av-er-age bear!"), although he often overestimates his own cleverness. Another characteristic of Yogi was his deep and silly voice. He often greets the ranger with a cordial, "Hello, Mr. Ranger, sir!" and "Hey there, Boo Boo!" as his preferred greeting to his sidekick, Boo Boo. Yogi would also often use puns in his speech, and have a habit of pronouncing large words with a long vocal flourish.

Portrayers
From the time of the character's debut until 1988, Yogi was voiced by voice actor Daws Butler. Butler died in 1988; his last performance as Yogi was in the television film Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears. After Butler's death, Greg Burson stepped in to perform the role (Butler had taught Burson personally how to voice Yogi as well as his other characters). Greg Burson died in 2008. Jeff Bergman also performed the character throughout the 1990s for various Cartoon Network commercials and bumpers. In the Yogi Bear film, the character is voiced by actor Dan Aykroyd. In the animated stop motion sketch comedy show Robot Chicken created by Seth Green, Dan Milano voiced Yogi Bear.

Various series

 * The Yogi Bear Show (1961)
 * Yogi Bear & Friends, a syndicated animated series that aired between 1967 and 1968
 * Yogi's Gang (1973)
 * Laff-A-Lympics, where he captained the Yogi Yahooeys team from 1977 to 1979 on ABC
 * Yogi's Space Race (1978–1979)
 * Galaxy Goof-Ups (1978–1979)
 * Yogi's Treasure Hunt (1985–1986)
 * The New Yogi Bear Show (1988), a 30-minute weekday animated series which aired in first-run syndication
 * Wake, Rattle, and Roll (1990–1991) (Fender Bender 500 segment)
 * Yo Yogi! (1991)

Films and specials

 * Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!, a 1964 animated feature released by Columbia Pictures
 * Yogi's Ark Lark, a 1972 made-for TV movie for The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie
 * Casper's First Christmas, a 1979 TV special which had the characters from Casper and the Angels meeting Yogi and his gang
 * Yogi's First Christmas, a 1980 made-for-TV movie for syndication
 * Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper, a 1982 television special starring Yogi and friends
 * Yogi's Great Escape, a 1987 made-for-TV movie for syndication
 * Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, a 1987 made-for-TV movie for syndication
 * Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears, a 1988 made-for-TV movie for syndication
 * Yogi the Easter Bear, a 1994 TV special for first-run syndication
 * Arabian Nights, a 1994 TV special for TBS (Aladdin segment)
 * Boo Boo Runs Wild and A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith, Back-to-back 1999 TV specials for Cartoon Network created by John Kricfalusi and his company Spumco.
 * Yogi Bear, a live-action/animated film released in 3-D on December 17, 2010, starring Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Yogi.

Video games

 * Yogi's Frustration (Intellivision) (1983)
 * Yogi Bear (Commodore 64) (1987)
 * Yogi Bear & Friends in The Greed Monster (Commodore 64) (1989)
 * Yogi's Great Escape (Amiga) (1990)
 * Yogi Bear's Math Adventures (DOS) (1990)
 * Yogi's Big Clean Up (Amiga) (1992)
 * Adventures of Yogi Bear (Super NES), (1994)
 * Yogi Bear's Gold Rush (Game Boy) (1994)
 * Yogi Bear: Great Balloon Blast (Game Boy Color) (2000)
 * Yogi Bear: The Video Game (Wii, Nintendo DS), (2010)

Albums

 * Yogi Bear and the Three Stooges Meet the Mad, Mad, Mad Dr. No-No, a 1966 comedy album

Live action feature film
A live-action/animated film titled Yogi Bear was released by Warner Bros. in December 2010. The movie featured Dan Aykroyd as the voice of Yogi Bear. The film, adapting the television series, follows the adventures of Yogi Bear and his pal Boo-Boo in Jellystone Park, as they avoid Ranger Smith who is trying to stop Yogi from stealing picnic baskets.

Songs
"Yogi" by the Ivy Three (1960), sung in a voice mimicking Yogi Bear. The song reached no. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100

Spümcø Ranger Smith and Boo Boo shorts
In 1999, animator John Kricfalusi's Spümcø company created and directed two Yogi cartoons, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith and Boo Boo Runs Wild. Both shorts aired that year on the Cartoon Network as part of a Yogi Bear special. "Boo Boo Runs Wild" features a fight between Yogi and Ranger Smith, which was edited heavily for broadcast for both violence and torture situations.

In 2003, Spümcø created another Boo Boo cartoon, Boo Boo and the Man, which was made with Macromedia Flash and released on Cartoon Network's website.

A music video (known as a "Cartoon Groovie") for Yogi Bear airs on The Cartoon Network and Boomerang. It showcases clips of Yogi and Boo Boo stealing picnic baskets and annoying Ranger Smith.

Broadcasts
Yogi Bear is currently aired by Cartoon Network's sister channel, Boomerang.

In the Hanna-Barbera Personal Favorites video, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera picked their favorite Yogi Bear episodes, including the very first one, "Yogi Bear's Big Break", and Yogi meeting some storybook friends: The Three Little Pigs, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Little Red Riding Hood.

Comic books
Over the years, several publishers have released Yogi Bear comic books.
 * Gold Key Comics was first, with a title that ran 33 issues from 1962–70.
 * Charlton Comics then did a title for 35 issues from 1970–77.
 * Marvel Comics did a title for 9 issues in 1977.
 * Harvey Comics then did several titles for a total of 10 issues in 1992–94.
 * Archie Comics regularly featured Yogi Bear stories in the anthology comics Hanna-Barbera All-Stars and Hanna-Barbera Presents. After the cancellation of both titles, Archie Comics put out one issue of a Yogi Bear comic
 * DC Comics semi-regularly featured Yogi in Cartoon Network Presents.

From 1961 until 1988, there was also a Yogi Bear comic strip, created by Gene Hazelton and distributed by the McNaught Syndicate.

Hanna-Barbera produced an instructional comic book on earthquake preparedness called Yogi's Quakey Shakey Van.

DVD release
On November 15, 2005, Warner Home Video released the complete series on DVD R1.

In popular culture

 * Yogi Bear appears in an episode of MAD called "Law & Ogre", where HE is revealed to be the culprit at the end. He is also in another episode titled "Here Comes Yogi Boo Boo" where he and Boo-Boo star in a parody of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.
 * Homer Simpson and Bart Simpson portray Yogi and Boo Boo in the Simpsons episode "When You Dish Upon a Star".
 * Yogi and Boo Boo cameo on an episode of The Flintstones, stealing Fred and Wilma's "pic-a-nic basket".
 * In the first Jimmy Timmy Power Hour television special, when Jimmy Neutron tries to convince everyone he is who he says he is, not Timmy Turner, Sanjay replies "And I am Yogi Bear! I am smarter than the average bear!"

Licensing

 * Yogi Bear lends his name to a chain of recreational vehicle and camping parks ("Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp Resorts" ), with the first opening in 1969 in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. As of 2011, over 70  locations have hosted the parks.
 * There is also one restaurant remaining from the chain bearing Yogi's name, "Yogi Bear's Honey Fried Chicken," in Hartsville, South Carolina.