GALAXY GOOF-UPS

GALAXY GOOF-UPS

(NBC, November 4-December 2, 1978)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Daws Butler – Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, various

Joe Besser – Scare Bear

Mel Blanc – Quack-Up

John Stephenson – Captain Snerdley, General Blowhard, various

For the history of Yogi Bear, check out the post here.

            Yogi’s Space Race was a 90-minute program featuring the titular Yogi Bear (Daws Butler) and a cast of returning and all-new Hanna-Barbera characters. The program was comprised of four unrelated segments that shared some of those characters. It failed to perform on the struggling NBC and was cancelled halfway through its sole season. In order to make it more maneuverable on their schedule, all of the segments were broken up into three separate programs.

The Goof-Ups: Yogi, Huckleberry, Quack-Up and Scare Bear.

            Galaxy Goof-Ups featured Yogi reunited with his old pal Huckleberry Hound (Butler) in the future as intergalactic patrolmen known as the Galaxy Guardians (although this particular group was just called the Galaxy Goof-Ups). Joining them were the new characters carried over from the Space Race segment, the eternally-frightened Scare Bear (Joe Besser) and the crazy Quack-Up (Mel Blanc), as their partners. Exclusive to the series was Captain Snerdley (John Stephenson, impersonating Joe Flynn) as their commanding officer, and his superior, General Blowhard (also Stephenson). Yogi and his friends were the ineptest officers on the force and often slacked off on the job (particularly by engaging in disco-infused dance numbers); much to the chagrin of Snerdley who often bore the brunt of their foul-ups from Blowhard. However, things always managed to go their way in the end and the criminals ended up in the clink.

The Goof-Ups crash to the rescue.

            Galaxy Goof-Ups debuted with the rest of Space Race on NBC September 9, 1978. As it was the most popular segment out of the four, it was the first to be broken off into its own program when NBC cancelled Space Race, debuting on November 4^th. It was written by Haskell Barkin, Chuck Couch, Mark Fink, Ray Parker and Jim Ryan, with Parker serving as story editor. Music was composed by Hoyt Curtin and Paul DeKorte, with character designs by Willie Ito.

General Blowhard and Captain Snerdley.

            Despite its popularity, Goof-Ups was the second portion of the Space Race bunch to leave the air; with fellow spin-off Buford and the Galloping Ghost lasting until the new season schedule that September. In the following years, it has been seen in reruns on USA Cartoon Express, Nickelodeon, TNT, Cartoon Network and Boomerang. Clips from the show were also available on Boomerang’s YouTube channel, and it returned to television in 2024 on retro animation network MeTV Toons in rotation with other Yogi programs. Beyond that, Scare Bear and Quack-Up have largely disappeared from the Hanna-Barbera stable except for brief cameos in the series Jellystone!

EPISODE GUIDE:

“The Purloined Princess” (9/9/78) – A princess is kidnapped and used as bait to trap the Goof-Ups, but it ends up backfiring on the villains instead.

 

“Defective Protectives” (9/16/78) – The Goof-Ups set out to capture the Space Spider so that the General can get a good night’s sleep to present the plans for foiling the Spider’s plots.

 

“Whose Zoo?” (9/23/78) – Sagar the hunter wants the Goof-Ups for display in his interplanetary zoo.

 

“The Space Pirates” (9/30/78) – The Goof-Ups are tricked into handing over the gold they’re transporting to space pirates.

 

“The Clone Ranger” (10/7/78) – Tacky Cat wants revenge against Snerdley, so he steals a cloning machine and kidnaps Snerdley to operate it.

 

“The Dopey Defenders” (10/14/78) – Zangra tricks the Goof-Ups into loading top-secret equipment onto her ship, but then they accidentally take off with her ship.

 

“Tacky Cat Strikes Again” (10/21/78) – Constantly being nagged by his wife because of how they live, Tacky ends up abandoning their evil plan and surrendering to the Goof-Ups.

 

“Space Station USA” (10/28/78) – The Goof-Ups are assigned to bring an ancient ship to the museum, but the richest man in the galaxy will stop at nothing to make it part of his collection.

 

“Hai, King Yogi!” (11/4/78) – Investigating a new jungle planet leads to Yogi being worshipped—and courted by their queen.

 

“Dyno-Mite!” (11/11/78) – Tiny space villain Dyno-Mite steals a new weapon, the Stretch-Shrink Ray.

 

“Vampire of Space” (11/18/78) – Count Vampula plans to take over the galaxy and decides to turn Snerdley into his slave to trap the Goof-Ups.

 

“The Treasure of Congo-Bongo” (11/25/78) – The Goof-Ups race a pair of villains to retrieve a crashed computer that can produce precious metals and gems.

 

“Captain Snerdley Goes Bananas” (12/2/78) – Lozar disguises himself as a doctor to poke around Snerdley’s mind when the General sends him to a sanitarium.

Originally posed in 2020. Updated in 2025.