Yogi Bear Question

[Jack]

Recently watching Yogi on Boomerang made me wonder which Yogi cartoons were originally a part of the Huckleberry Hound Show and what ones were part of Yogi's own show. I figured the easiest way to do this would be to find out how many Snagglepuss, Yakky Doodle, Huck Hound, Pixie and Dixie, and Hokey Wolf cartoons were made, but it doesn't add up...

There were 32 episodes made of both Yakky and Snagglepuss for the Yogi Bear Show, meaning there would have to be 32 Yogi cartoons to go with them. I'm not going to count the three parts of Yogi's Birthday, since they aired together in one half hour without Yakky and Snagglepuss segments to accompany them.

There were 57 Huckleberry Hound and Pixie and Dixie cartoons made, so I'll assume there were 57 episodes of the Huckleberry Hound Show. There were 29 Hokey Wolf cartoons (Hokey replaced Yogi when he got his own show), meaning there should be 28 Yogi Bear cartoons, but there are 33. Were 5 Yogi cartoons replaced by Hokey cartoons at a later date?


Jack

 

[Thad Komorowski]

I tried doing the same thing awhile ago too, but no avail...

While I don't have anything of helpfulness to add to this conversation, I'll just say this... Hokey was a VERY poor replacement for Yogi...


-Thad

 

[Jack]

I tried doing the same thing awhile ago too, but no avail...

While I don't have anything of helpfulness to add to this conversation, I'll just say this... Hokey was a VERY poor replacement for Yogi...

I wouldn't go so far as to say "VERY poor," but they probably could have thought up something better, I'd agree.

BTW, I got my cartoon figures from the Big Cartoon Database, since they didn't appear to have multiple listings for some of the cartoons like other filmographys do. They seem to have have used the same method I did to split the Yogi Bear cartoons between the Huck and Yogi shows, but they counted the three part birthday special as three separate episodes.

I was sort of surprised how few Yogi Bear Shows there were. I had always assumed that the only Yogis to appear on Huckleberry Hound were the early White-faced Yogis. There are as many Yogi Bear cartoons on the Huckleberry Hound Show as there are on Yogi's own show


Jack

 

[J Lee]

I wouldn't go so far as to say "VERY poor," but they probably could have thought up something better, I'd agree.

BTW, I got my cartoon figures from the Big Cartoon Database, since they didn't appear to have multiple listings for some of the cartoons like other filmographys do. They seem to have have used the same method I did to split the Yogi Bear cartoons between the Huck and Yogi shows, but they counted the three part birthday special as three separate episodes.

I was sort of surprised how few Yogi Bear Shows there were. I had always assumed that the only Yogis to appear on Huckleberry Hound were the early White-faced Yogis. There are as many Yogi Bear cartoons on the Huckleberry Hound Show as there are on Yogi's own show


Jack

There actually was an easy way to tell the difference between the original Yogi cartoons and the newer ones made for his own show, before the folks at H-B and Wolrdvision started mucking around with the opening music. But there's still a way to do it, when the full opening credits are run.

Back during the original run of the series, the opening title credits only consisted of the main title card page, since the writers, animators, etc. were credited in the cloosing animation at the end of the show. The Yogi shorts that were made for the Huckelberry Hound Show had their own stand-alone music, similar to that for the opening of Huck's cartoons (which is the music you hear at the end of those cartoons today). When Yogi got his own show, the music changed, and became the end of the longer, jauty instrumental version of Yogi's original theme ("Who is always on the spot, who is -- Yogi Bear"). So from 1961 through the early 1980s, the title card music was the clue to the age of the cartoon.

The way to tell now -- if the full credits run -- is to look at the Yogi image on the opening title page. The Yogis (white or brown faced) posed in basically a side profile are the ones that originally aired on the Huckleberry Hound Show. The opening title card Yogis where he's basically facing foward are the ones done for his own show (you can also besically tell after a while by listening to the cartoons themselves -- the constantly rhyming and consistantly happy Yogi is the one that evolved by the time his own show came out, and was presumably a better pitchman for the Kellogg's company that the original Yogi, who was less upbeat, and in some of the first handfl of cartoons, downright grouchy at times. That made him a more interesting cartoon character but a poorer seller of dry grain breakfast foods and ancillary special offers for the good folks of Battle Creek, Mich.)

 

[B Mode]

Suggestion - go to the BCDB.com and count? There are 6 catagories of Yogi Bear, likely seperated by their original airings.

 

[Jack]

Suggestion - go to the BCDB.com and count? There are 6 catagories of Yogi Bear, likely seperated by their original airings.

As I said in my previous post, that is exactly what I did do. The numbers at the Big Cartoon Database don't match up. Also, their Yogi Bear Show section needs to be fixed since they count the 3-parter Yogi's Birthday Party as three separate episodes.

I'll take J. Lee's Advice and keep an eye out for the dozen or so middle Yogis for what title cards they have. Here's hoping Boomerang will actually show classic Yogi this Friday and not a crappy 70's/80's revival series. Last week they showed a lot of good ones as well as some of the crummy late 1980's shorts. "Rah Rah Bear" was the latest of the original Yogis I saw, and I'm pretty sure it had the profile title.

And the title music is horribly messed up. At least one cartoon had shortened titles, but longer theme music that actually continued to play after the cartoon started.


Jack

 

[Steve Carras]

The Big Cartoon Database, though pretty good (I contribute a lot to it), has stock show info for such titles as Gumby and the King Features Syndicate trilogy (The Snuffy Smith and Barney Google/Krazy Kat & Ignatz Mouse/Beetle Bailey,Sgt.Snorkle trilogy of 1963), which have the show descriptions doubling as "episode summaries" (rather than individual,dedicated ones) for EVERY episode (and same for Hanna-Barbera licensed properties of the late 1960s "SINBAD" (same for the Sam SInger version of the day),"LAUREL AND HARDY",and "ABBOTT & COSTELLO"),none of which have the specific episode summaries for each,and worse,the same credits for many TV show episodes,even the FLINSTONES!

 

[Steve Carras]

There actually was an easy way to tell the difference between the original Yogi cartoons and the newer ones made for his own show, before the folks at H-B and Wolrdvision started mucking around with the opening music. But there's still a way to do it, when the full opening credits are run.

Back during the original run of the series, the opening title credits only consisted of the main title card page, since the writers, animators, etc. were credited in the cloosing animation at the end of the show. The Yogi shorts that were made for the Huckelberry Hound Show had their own stand-alone music, similar to that for the opening of Huck's cartoons (which is the music you hear at the end of those cartoons today). When Yogi got his own show, the music changed, and became the end of the longer, jauty instrumental version of Yogi's original theme ("Who is always on the spot, who is -- Yogi Bear"). So from 1961 through the early 1980s, the title card music was the clue to the age of the cartoon.

The way to tell now -- if the full credits run -- is to look at the Yogi image on the opening title page. The Yogis (white or brown faced) posed in basically a side profile are the ones that originally aired on the Huckleberry Hound Show. The opening title card Yogis where he's basically facing foward are the ones done for his own show (you can also besically tell after a while by listening to the cartoons themselves -- the constantly rhyming and consistantly happy Yogi is the one that evolved by the time his own show came out, and was presumably a better pitchman for the Kellogg's company that the original Yogi, who was less upbeat, and in some of the first handfl of cartoons, downright grouchy at times. That made him a more interesting cartoon character but a poorer seller of dry grain breakfast foods and ancillary special offers for the good folks of Battle Creek, Mich.)

Disregarding the 1988 revivals (I'll settle for the ACTUAL classics anyday, and also leaving the half hour versions and such aside), the pre-1961 ones (before he had his own show) of course had that stock production music heard on modern Spumco shorts and at the time of the originals in so many TV series from Capitol Records's own production music library (which in turn encompassed older ones going back to late 1930s radio at least!).

The ones for the 1961 series have Hoyt Curtin's music.

(Of course J.K.'s "BOO BOO AND THE MAN" webtoon on www.adultswim.com features music from not only the 1958-60 ones but the later Yogi show music and even from the later era of the bad Yogi revivals, as well as the sound effects introduced (largely from UPA's "MAGOO" productions incl."CHRISATMAS CAROL","GAY PURR-EE", and "DICK TRACY" as well as the Disney originated "UNNG" sound that UAP also used as did MGM) to HB largely from 1964-66.Pretty odd juxapositions on the soudntrack there. While the Capitol (Seely-Loose/APM) music, credited on some current Miramax comedies ["BAD SANTA",and the just out "MY BABY'S DADDY:], is missing on post 1960 productions not coutniung the Spumco ones, the music from various eras was intermxied until 1972,but that's a different topic).(The "Seely' music was Phil Greeen's "COMEDY WALKER" aka "POPCORN", "COMEDY MARCH" aka "FRED KARNO's army", and "COMEY WALKER" aka "DRESSED TO KILL." Yep, Capitol/Seely had VERY generic AND reused titles! Green's music originated in England at his own EMI Phtoplay (in the BEATLES Abbey Road Stduio..imagine if the BEATLES series had used Green's music..) (Hearing Green music, which is the John Seely/Capital music for (In hanna Barbera context) the QUICK DRAW McGRAW trilogy, sounded odd (I mean, Jack Shaindlin did a lot of that Yogiu, Meece & Huckleberry H music for Seely and was licensable at http:/www.apmmusic.com at Cinemusic nee Langlois Film Music Library,"LLC"
BTW Phil's John Seely Associates piece were, according to Earl Kress, regarding their being the only ones (for QUICK DRAW, and AUGIE and DOGGIE and SNOOPER) licensable for the 1995 album RHINO'S HB PICNIC BASKET and apparently that still hed BUT Shaindlin music had been IIRC since 1980s still avaiblle through above-mentioned suppilers. Hey if they ever doa retro-Augie Doggie they (besides getting a good Jimmy Durante (yeah, ueah, Doug Young!) impersonator, to got o Carlin at http://www.apmmusic.com and licnse to keep it authenic the music of Emil Cadkin and Harry Bluestone whose needledorps were yet another section of the library which John Seely licensed!)

BTW That 1994 Rhino album should've included, (re: Earl kress's notes therein about QUICK DRAW having two theme songs,with one RURAL FOXTROT aka HICKSVILLE being included, all of which by Philip Green and lincsed by John Seely), the QUICK DRAW tune (used in WEASEL WHILE YOU WORK with Foghorn, when the big chicken's stuck Steve Martin antlers on the dog, that also helepd deinfed IIRC QUeecks Draw and Baba Booey and that was SKELTON IN CUPBOARD aka COMEDY GROTESQUE,yet again by Green--his RURAL FOXTROT, DIDDLECOMB HUNT,and FRED KARNO ARMY represtning QDMG, (BTW Hey mark the Shakr,glad to see ya on GAC) POPCORN, DRESSED TO KILL, and the WEASEL toboggan tune CUSTARD PIE CAPERS-COMEYD CIRUS repsrenting Super Snooper and Blabber Mouse, and an untitled BUSY ACTIVITY tune, OVERTURE-THE TOYLAND PARADE-and THE BIG CITY SUITE #2, part 1 and 3 for AUGIE! Too bad Shaindlin, Cadkin and Bluestone and the others in the Seely Associates serivce weren;t avaible for that RHINO PIC-A_NIC BASKET SET and that they hadda include SCOOBY DOO..

(UPDATED on December 22,2005) Hello eveyrone, no hard feelings over at GAC (very movie comedy like turn of events here for me to write this..to you all over at GAC)

 

[HombreSinNombre]

Speaking of Title Music "High Fly Guy" had none and instead opened with Yogi saying "Hey I never miss a Yogi cartoon, Save me a seat"

 

[J Lee]

Speaking of Title Music "High Fly Guy" had none and instead opened with Yogi saying "Hey I never miss a Yogi cartoon, Save me a seat"

Back in Ye Olden Days it opened with the standard 1958-60 short theme music (It's also probably the best cartoon ever featuring H-B's normally annoying little duck, and that includes all the Tom & Jerry and all the Yakky Doodle cartoons, IMHO. The irritating duck and the irritated bear fit perfectly here).

 

[Thad Komorowski]

Back in Ye Olden Days it opened with the standard 1958-60 short theme music (It's also probably the best cartoon ever featuring H-B's normally annoying little duck, and that includes all the Tom & Jerry and all the Yakky Doodle cartoons, IMHO. The irritating duck and the irritated bear fit perfectly here).

The 'guy' Yogi helps out in that one is a baby eagle, not Yakky...

Of course, the cartoons with Yogi and Yakky (particularly "Slumber Party Smarty") are often hilarious... Of course, this is coming from someone who likes the duck...

-Thad

 

[J Lee]

The 'guy' Yogi helps out in that one is a baby eagle, not Yakky...

Of course, the cartoons with Yogi and Yakky (particularly "Slumber Party Smarty") are often hilarious... Of course, this is coming from someone who likes the duck...

-Thad

You're right Thad. Not seeing the cartoon in about 20 years obviously left me foggy about the main character (and you're also right that Yogi's grouchier earlier personality worked well in "Slumber Party Smarty," even if Yogi did end up having to go south for the winter to escape Yakky)

 

[Cartoon King]

Hey guys. Maybe I can help.



For the 1958-59 season of Huckleberry Hound:



01) Yogi Bear’s Big Breakout

02) Slumber Party Smarty

03) Pie Pirates

04) Big Bad Bully

05) Foxy Hound Dog

06) Big Brave Bear

07) Tally Ho-Ho-Ho

08) High Fly Guy

09) Baffled Bear

10) The Brave Little Brave

11) The Stout Trout

12) Buzzin’ Bear

13) Runaway Bear

14) Be My Guest Pest

15) Duck in Luck

16) Bear on a Picnic

17) Prize Fight Fright

18) Brainy Bear

19) Robin Hood Yogi

20) Daffy Daddy

21) Scooter Looter

22) Hide and Go Peek



For the 1959-60 Season:



23) Show Biz Bear

24) Lullabye Bear

25) Bare Face Bear

26) Papa Yogi

27) Stranger Ranger

28) Rah Rah Bear

29) Bear for Punishment

30) Nowhere Bear

31) Wound-Up Bear

32) Bewitched Bear

33) Hoodwinked Bear

34) Snow White Bear

35) Space Bear



For the 1960-61 season of Yogi Bear:



36) Oinks and Boinks

37) Booby Trapped Bear

38) Gleesome Threesome

39) A Bear Pear

40) Spy Guy

41) Do Or Diet

42) Bears and Bees

43) Biggest Showoff on Earth

44) Genial Genie

45) Cub Scout Boo Boo

46) Home Sweet Jellystone

47) Love Bugged Bear

48) Bear Faced Disguise

49) Slaphappy Birthday

50) A Bear Living

51) Disguise and Gals

52) Touch and Go-Go-Go

53) Acrobatty Yogi

54) Picnic Basket (aka Yogi’s Lion’s Busy)

55) Iron Hand Jones

56) Yogi’s Pest Guest (won’t see on Boomerang because of stereotypes)

57) Missile Bound Yogi

58) Locomotive Yogi

59) Missile Bound Bear

60) A Wooin’ Bruin

61) Yogi in the City

62) Queen Bee for a Day

63) Batty Bear

64) Droop-A-Long Yogi





For the 1961-62 season:



65) Threadbare Bear

66) Ice Box Raider

67) Bear Foot Soldiers

68) Yogi Bear’s Birthday Party, Part 1

69) Yogi Bear’s Birthday Party, Part 2

70) Yogi Bear’s Birthday Party, Part 3



Hope this helps!

 

[Jack]

Hey guys. Maybe I can help.

Hope this helps!

That helps a lot! Now we know where the deviding point is. The only mystery now is the six extra Hokey Wolf cartoons. Maybe several Huck and Pixie and Pixie cartoons were repeated in later episodes.

 

[David Gerstein]

(Jack, I just thought I'd go a little more public with the discussion we two have been having...)
Does anyone have an authoritative lyric sheet to the Huckleberry Hound version of Yogi's theme song? Jack's .sig has

Who is always on the spot? Who is? Yogi Bear!
Who keeps cool when things are hot? Who does? Yogi Bear!
Who believes the world he dreams and falls for some fantastic scheme
But always winds up on the beam? Yogi Bear!

Evidently Hanna-Barbera, architects of "through the courtesy of Fred's two feet", were aces when it came to incomprehensible songs.
Until recently, I never understood "and falls for some fantastic scheme", though I've finally got it now (thanks, Jack).
But I'm still not entirely certain about "the world he dreams". I see what it would mean, but it isn't quite grammatical— nor does "dreams" (plural) rhyme exactly with "scheme" or "beam" (singular).
After listening very closely, I think the phrase could actually be "a wacky dream" (singular), with "wacky" pronounced so it sounds a little more like "whalcky".

Anyone think I might be right, or have a real song sheet to clear this up?

 

[Jack]

Re-listening ot it, it almost sounds like "Who believes a wild day dream," which makes a little more sense than wacky pronounced "walky." No matter how many times I hear it there is definately a "d" sound in there, but it may be due to years and years of interpretting it as "world he dreams."

I've modified my signature until the mystery is solved

 

[angilbas]

Re-listening ot it, it almost sounds like "Who believes a wild day dream," which makes a little more sense than wacky pronounced "walky." No matter how many times I hear it there is definately a "d" sound in there, but it may be due to years and years of interpretting it as "world he dreams."

I've modified my signature until the mystery is solved

As presented on Teletoon last summer, almost all Yogi shorts had an abbreviated version of the title song, as follows:

Who keeps cool when things are hot? Yogi bear!
Who believes his wildest dreams
But always ends up on the beam? Yogi Bear!


-Tony

 

[David Gerstein]

Re-listening ot it, it almost sounds like "Who believes a wild day dream," which makes a little more sense than wacky pronounced "walky."

Agreed. The more I listen to it, the more I'm damn near certain you're right.
Tony suggests that the shorter version of the song (minus "falls for some fantastic scheme") changed the lyrics. Take another listen, Tony— forgetting the two-syllable W-word in the middle, do you hear "a" or "the", "dream" or "dreams"? (I'm not doubting you, I just don't have a copy of the song to listen myself.)

I'm half sure I remember one early Yogi short where instead of the chorus singing Yogi's name after the opening two questions, a bunch of kids shout it instead. My memory might be playing tricks on me, though; does anyone else remember this? Might it be RAH RAH BEAR?

 

[Jack]

BTW, here's the version David and I have been listening to. Jon made it a while back. Were these theme songs usually performed for each short, did they just record it once and use that for various cartoons?


Jack

 

[Howard Fein]

Hey guys. Maybe I can help.

Thank you for the definitive list, King. According to various sources, it was January 1961, i.e. halfway through the 1960-61 season that Yogi got his own series. Episode 49, "Slap Happy Birthday" was the first to have underscore by Hoyt Curtin, so it's fair to assume that's the first short in the 'starring' series. The previous 48, spread out as 'supporting' Yogi segments over three seasons of Huck's show had the classic 'Seely/Capital' underscore. It looks like 16 'Curtin' episodes were made for the abbreviated 'first season', then six new ones for 1961-62 (actually three if you don't count the "Birthday Party" three-parter).

So that makes 22 new Yogi shorts, combined with 32 Snagglepuss and Yakky shorts, spread out over two seasons. One would imagine that after the 22 Yogis ran their cycles, older episodes were rerun to fill out the half-hour slot.

The Huck and Meeces shorts ran over the same time frame as co-tenant Yogi. Having been an infant at the time, it seems safe to assume that in January '61- or maybe September '61- Hokey was introduced as a supporting segment on Huck's show to replace the departed Yogi. On top of that, we were treated to nine new 'Curtin' episodes each of Huck and the Meeces.

The distribution of the Quick Draw/Snooper&Blabber/Doggies trilogy was much less confusing. The first, 1959-60 season saw 26 episodes of each segment. There were 13 new episodes of each for 1960-61, and six new 'Curtin' episodes for 1961-62.

It still amazes me that Mike Maltese, after nearly two decades at WB, is credited as writer for every single episode for the trilogy. That's 145 episodes! Maltese apparently wrote all 32 Snagglepusses as well. Warren Foster is reported to have written virtually every Yogi, Huck and Meece short made after the 1958-59 season on top of his scripting many first-season FLINSTONE episodes. However, a storyboard I saw on exhibit for a 'Curtin' Huck short implicates Tony Benedict, who would be a mainstay in H-B's story department through 1966, as the writer. In rare instances when full credits are shown for Hokey or Yakky, Benedict is the credited writer.

There's no way to dismiss the travesty that time and syndication has done to the original credits for the early H-B shorts. Again, the Quick Draw trilogy has been the best at preserving the opening, theatrical-style credit sequences for each segment (Unfortunately, CN edited down Quick Draw's opening so we can't see the specific episode credits anymore). They ran in their entireties over syndicated packages for years. But very few- if any- Yogi, Huck, Meece, Snag, Yakky or Hokey segments were introduced by a simple title card under (frequently) the wrong theme. F'rinstance, I grew up thinking the opening Meece theme was the same as Quick Draw's closing theme. I'd never even heard "Who gets cool when things are hot-" preceding the 'Capital' Yogi shorts until the advent of CN- just the jazzy trumpet riff over the title card.