A younger Yogi not as thrilled by Cindy's advances. |
Hanna-Barbera’s final
attempt at the babyfication craze was also their final attempt at a Yogi Bear
series. Yo Yogi! Was Yogi Bear’s
(Greg Burson) third ensemble series with him as the title character, following Yogi’s
Gang and Yogi’s
Space Race. It reunited him with Boo Boo (Don Messick) and Cindy (Kath
Soucie) as well as frequent co-stars Huckleberry Hound (Greg Berg) and
Snagglepuss (Burson). Dick Dastardly (Rob Paulsen) and Muttley (Messick) also
returned as frequent series villains to plague them once again. The big
difference? All the characters were younger than when audiences came to know
them.
The characters of Yo Yogi! from the show's press kit. |
Portrayed as 14-year-olds (Dastardly
and Muttley a bit younger than that), the characters were all given a very 90s
clothing make-over (in that most of them started wearing clothing). Yogi’s hat
and tie were turned purple, and he was given matching sneakers, a green vest,
and a green and yellow jacket with the sleeves rolled up. Boo Boo’s bowtie was
joined by a blue and yellow ball cap, white shorts and a red and yellow long
t-shirt. Cindy wore a white dress and matching boots with pink leggings and a
pink jacket. Huck had a backwards orange ball cap and a blue shirt over another
orange shirt with an up-turned collar. Snagglepuss had a yellow shirt, baseball
jacket and jeans with rolled up cuffs with a pair of sunglasses with flip-up
lenses. Dastdardly’s wardrobe closely resembled what he wore in Dastardly
and Muttley in their Flying Machines, however he was sans his
trademarked mustache due to the character’s age. He did ride a bicycle that
bore a resemblance to the Mean Machine he drove in Wacky Races.
Promotional art of Jellystone Mall from the Yo Yogi! press kit. |
The action was moved from Jellystone Park to the new Jellystone Mall in
Jellystone Town in the country of Jellystone (okay, that last one was a fake to
keep the theme rolling). The mall was owned by other Hanna-Barbera stalwart “Diamond”
Doggie Daddy (John Stephenson) and featured a lot of natural elements amongst
all its stores, such as a large tree in the center of it all where Huck liked
to relax. Yogi’s gang all worked there as members of the Lost and Found
Detective Agency under the supervision of Officer Smith (Burson). Yogi and his
gang would be involved with solving mysteries and stopping crimes in and around
the mall, while also dealing with mischief caused by Dastardly and Muttley and
new character Roxey Bear (Gail Matthius); a green bear who wore punk rocker
attire and served as Cindy’s primary rival.
Behind the scenes from Yogi Bear Magazine. |
Many stores were featured in the
mall, and all of them either employing or owned by other Hanna-Barbera
characters; many of which were still in adult form, unlike the series stars.
Yogi’s favorite hangout was the Picnic Basket Food Court run by Loopy De Loop,
which looked like a giant picnic basket on a blanket; Peter Potamus’ Plant
palace run by Peter
Potamus (Frank Welker) and So So (Messick); Crooks ‘N’ Books bookstore run
by Blabber
Mouse; and The Invention Dimension, a computer store run by Secret Squirrel’s
(Soucie) uncle, Uncle Undercover (Burson). Other stories included Boot Borough,
a shoe store, Aunt Annie’s Antique Aquarium, an antique store, Imovieplex, a
movie theater, and The Broccoli Republic, a supermarket and a play on the name
of The Banana Republic. A cheese cottage was also owned by Mr. Jinks
(Stephenson) and was inhabited by cheese-stealing Pixie (Messick) and Dixie
(Patric Zimmerman).
Yogi, at any age, still answers to a Smith. |
Other Hanna-Barbera characters would
come by the mall for guest appearances, including younger versions of Top Cat
(Arte Johnson), Squiddly Diddly,
Hardy Har Har (Paulsen), Wally Gator (Burson), and the still-adult Magilla Gorilla
(Allan Melvin), Quick Draw McGraw
(Burson) and Baba
Looey (Henry Polic II). Hokey Wolf (Matt Hurwitz) served as the
mayor of Jellystone Town. The unique feature of the show was that Hanna-Barbera
partnered with Kellogg’s
Rice Krispies to present parts of episodes in 3D. Special 3D glasses
would come included with the cereal, and Yogi would spin his hat around to
signal the audience when to don them.
The back of a box of Rice Krispies. |
Yo Yogi! premiered on September 14, 1991 on NBC. It was written by Gordon Bressack,
David Ehrman,
Charles M.
Howell IV, Earl
Kress, Bob
Kushell, Sindy
McKay, Sean
Roche and Steve
Smith, with music by Jonathan
Wolff. It performed as abysmally in the ratings as the last NBC Yogi
series, Yogi’s Space Race. It, along with the rest of NBC’s Saturday
morning cartoon offerings, were cancelled by 1992 in order for NBC to channel
the success of their Saved by the Bell series into a dedicated block of
teenage sitcoms called Teen NBC,
as well as launch the Saturday edition of The Today Show. The series was rerun
in syndication as part of The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.
Yo Yogi! Happy Meal bag. |
NBC released a promotional comic through Toys
R Us to promote their line-up for that season. Published by Harvey Comics, NBC Saturday Morning Comics featured several short strips with
their all-new shows, which included an adaptation of Yo Yogi! episode “Super Duper Snag.” Promotional tie-ins for
the show featured stamps available inside boxes of Kellogg’s Honey
Smacks and fruit
snacks in the shape of the show’s characters. Plastic
wind-up toys featuring Yogi, Huck, Cindy and Snagglepuss were available, as
well as bendable
figures from JusToys. Capri Sun included
the characters on their packaging.
In 1992, Tiger
Electronics produced a handheld game
while McDonald’s featured four toys
in their Happy Meals: Yogi, Huck, Cindy and Boo Boo each riding a different
vehicle. A VHS collection
of several episodes was released, featuring a pair of 3D glasses.
Yogi is harder than the average video game! |
Yogi’s career would be relegated to direct-to-video movies and TV
specials, as well as video games, for the next decade. In 1994, there was Yogi the Easter Bear and
Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights.
He starred in the games Yogi’s Big Clean-Up on
the Amiga, Adventures of Yogi Bear on
the Super
Nintendo Entertainment System, Yogi Bear’s Gold Rush on
Nintendo Game Boy, and Yogi Bear: Great Balloon Blast on Game Boy Color. In 1999,
John Kricfalusi and his company, Spümcø, produced two specials that aired on Cartoon Network in 1999. Throughout
the 90s, Yogi also appeared in various commercials and bumpers for Cartoon
Network voiced by Jeff Bergman.
In 2010, Warner Bros. released Yogi’s
first live-action/CGI theatrical movie, Yogi Bear, starring Dan Aykroyd in the title role.
1 comment:
Cool stuff you have and you keep overhaul every one of us. occhiali michael kors
Post a Comment