The Many Bears of Yogi

If I say “Yogi Bear” to you, you’ll likely think of pic-a-nic baskets and “The ranger won’t like it, Yogi.” But that isn’t how Yogi started out.

Warren Foster came to Hanna-Barbera in 1959 to take over writing The Huckleberry Hound Show in its second season. Because all the players are dead, we don’t how it specifically happened, but there seems to have been a conscious decision to calcify the Foster stories into the bear-vs-ranger template.

Yet it was different in the first season. By various accounts, Joe Barbera himself came up with the storylines, fleshed out by writer Charlie Shows, with Barbera’s old Van Beuren studio buddy Dan Gordon sketching out the story (though Shows could draw). Their versions of Yogi were a little different. Frankly, I find them appealing. TV audiences must have too, as the following year, Yogi found his way into the closing animation on the Huck show, and a costumed Yogi joined a costumed Huck on personal appearances. And there were Yogi clubs in addition to Huck clubs.

What kinds of Yogi did they come up with?

1. The Helpful Bear. In a number of cartoons, Yogi altruistically aided less fortunate creatures. He saved a little fox from a hunter and clever dog Yowp in Foxy Hound-Dog and a duckling from the same pair in Duck in Luck.



He reluctantly gave a home to the same duck in Slumber Party Smarty and tried to teach a little eaglet to fly in High Fly Guy. .



Yogi assisted larger animals in distress, like the escaped circus elephant in Hide and Go Peek.



He rescued children as well, such as Li’l Tom-Tom in The Brave Little Brave and a toddling boy in Daffy Daddy.



Boo Boo is absent in all of these, which makes for a cleaner plot.

2. The Hungry Bear. This is one aspect Foster carried over. The very first Yogi cartoon put into production deals with the subject as he tries to get past a guarding dog in Pie-Pirates and a bull to taste some honey in Big Bad Bully. Closer to his behaviour with Ranger Smith, he feigns illness to get food from the home of a Professor Gizmo (of Ruff and Reddy) lookalike in Tally Ho Ho Ho.



3. The Spot Gag Bear. In a couple of cute cartoons, Yogi loses against an adversary in spot gag cartoons. One involves a wily fish in The Stout Trout and the other is against semi-humanised cars in Baffled Bear. Both have humorous narration by Don Messick, but no Boo Boo. I really wish more of these kinds of cartoons had been made.



4. The Disobedient Bear. Foster’s Yogi found convenient ways to get around Ranger Smith’s rules. Various generic rangers appeared in the first season as Yogi did what he felt like and suffered the consequences. He stole a motorised scooter in Scooter Looter and a helicopter in The Buzzin’ Bear. In both, generic rangers try to stop Yogi before he causes much more damage. He tries to get past a ranger and escape from Jellystone in Yogi Bear’s Big Break, where he learned things weren’t great on the outside.



At least one cartoon goes in the direction Foster would head. In Robin Hood Yogi, our hero endeavours to steal “goodies,” including a picnic basket. This cartoon has two rangers, one of whom Yogi cons into pretending to be Friar Tuck.



There were other Yogi cartoons in that first season, but this gives you an idea of the variety of plots. I think this made him a stronger character, but the studio disagreed, and Yogi went on to become one of the A-listers at Hanna-Barbera, even eclipsing poor old, Tex Avery-inspired, Huckleberry Hound.