Mark McDermott 4937 Stanley Ave., Downers Grove, IL 60515 Markm @ MarkMcDermott . com Yogi Bear and his smaller bear-buddy Boo Boo were among the favorites in the crop of cartoons characters created for television in the 1950s. The conniving Yogi ("Smarter than the average bear!") has held his appeal through several revival series. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera had been executive producers of MGM's cartoon unit for less than two years when it shut down in 1957. The two immediately went into television production, trading on their reputations as directors of the Tom and Jerry cartoons. Their first series was The Ruff and Ready Show, an adventure serial about a dog and cat team sold to NBC. In 1958, Hanna-Barbera produced its first syndicated series, "The Huckleberry Hound Show," distributed by Columbia Pictures' Screen Gems arm and sponsored by Kellogg's Cereal. The slow-talking, "Clementine"-mangling bloodhound hosted, supported by two other segments: "Pixie and Dixie," a rehash of the Tom and Jerry formula, and "Yogi Bear." The show won the 1959 Emmy award for children's programming, the first for an animated series, and drew up to 16 million viewers around the world. Yogi spun off into his own syndicated anthology, "The Yogi Bear Show," in 1961, supported by "Snagglepuss" ("Exit, Stage left") and "Yakky Doodle." The premise of most Yogi Bear plots can be said to have some appeal to adults as well as children. Yogi (voiced by Daws Butler) was a nonconformist, driven by his simple desire for tourists' picnic baskets. Boo Boo (Don Messick) played Yogi's conscience ("I don't think the Ranger will like that, Yogi"), while Ranger John Smith (also Don Messick) tried to keep Yogi from turning Jellystone National Park upside down ("Why can't you eat nuts and berries like the nice bears?" "Nuts and berries? Sheesh!"). Yankee catcher Yogi Berra thought the name constituted defamation of character, but Hanna-Barbera steadfastly claimed the similarity of names was sheer coincidence. Yogi's popularity, like that of most cartoon shows, was supported by a well-oiled publicity machine. Kellogg's sponsorship put Hanna-Barbera characters in their commercials and on the boxes: Yogi plugged Kellogg's OK's (just like Cheerios, but with a letter K added). Yogi and Boo Boo appeared on toys, comic books, and strips, and those ubiquitous Kenner Giv-a-Show Projectors. The most manifest tie-in came with the opening of a chain of Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park campgrounds, many of which are still in operation today. "The Yogi Bear Show" was in production for two years, then repeated for years afterward. In 1964, Yogi starred in Hanna-Barbera's first theatrical feature, "Hey There, It's Yogi Bear." Yogi was revived in 1973 as leader of "Yogi's Gang" (ABC), where he and Boo Boo teamed with other characters from Quick Draw McGraw to Atom Ant to battle pollution and other "relevant" evils from a flying ark. The team-up formula was repeated in "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics" (1977-80, ABC) and "Yogi's Space Race" (1978-79, NBC). Yogi returned to Jellystone Park for a new syndicated series in 1988; and in 1992, the Hanna-Barbera gang was featured as hip-hopping youngsters in "Yo, Yogi" (ABC). Bibliography Brasch, Walter M. Cartoon Monickers: An insight into the Animation Industry. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State U. Popular Press, 1983. Lenburg, Jeff. The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Rev. ed. New York: Facts on File, 1991. Mark McDermott See also Children's Network Programming from: The Guide to United States Popular Culture, Ray B. Brown & Pat Browne, editors Copyright 2001 © Bowling Green State University Popular Press