Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics

Joseph Barbera and William Hanna had captured '80s and '90s the -X generation kids' minds through this very educational and very joyful cartoon series. Their cartoons from '60s and '70s gained much more attention from the TV-channel operators by means of Laff-A-Lympics featuring the most popular leading characters of the various of cartoon franchisees including Yogi Bear(my favourite), Scooby-Doo and their very own evil friends such as Frank Frankenstone and Cavemouse from Flintstones, Dread Baron from Yogi Bear Show and such.

My favourite team was Yogi Bear's team named Yogi Yahooeys. In their 3-team competition, forming up with 10-15 players with only 1 to race each game(2 for pairwise races) there were Scooby-Doobies and Really Rottens, as well; which they compete with each other through several Olympic games all over the world and all over the seasons of the year endlessly. That was good to see the most spectacular places on earth in cartoon view, and for a child that's also good to learn political geography by the way. They have gone to Pyramids in Egypt to start up a race in the desert, they went to Moscow-Russia near Kremlin Palace to find a threatful KGB agent, they went to Hawaii to jet-ski, climbed to mount.Everest, did bungee-jumping in New Zealand, dived in Madagascar, raced with Kangoroos in Australia and so much more. 4 different locations and 4 different races each episode with hard to guess who's going to win each race, who's going to break an Olympics record and for the best moment with the sum of all tournament points for the same episode: Who's gonna get golden medal, bronze medal and silver medal. I was at the age of 12-13 while watching, following and even taking notes to my notebook of the Laff-A-Lympics' Olympics records. The whole seasons of the Olympics have ended up with the top records from Yogi Yahooeys', with the most collected golden medals from Scooby-Doobies' and with the most collected bad reputation from Really Rottens in the final.

Among the whole cartoon character basis, my personal favourite is Snagglepuss, the announcer and the critic of the tournaments. I always wanted to be like him. Snagglepuss is also my personal superhero among the whole worldwide cartoons and comics ever since Disney. I copied his cool, smart, witty, cold-blooded, impressionist, dare-devilish and argumentatively judicial character to my own character. He made me laugh till I caught to cheek-stroke when he climbed to the top of the mount Everest to announce the start of the climbing race telling to the viewers that he'll be waiting with the photo-finish results to see whoever will come to the top first. Then at the finish when no one was able to climb to the top of the mountain he said to the camera, "You're lucky fellas our game is cancelled, our competitors will be racing one extra game today. But guess who the winner is? I am. I climbed here before they even started to climb". After this speech of him, my smile stayed frozen like a stroke on my cheeks at least a week. In every person's life there is a hero, an unusual hero which is easy to become like him. Snagglepuss was mine. Thanks to Daws Butler, the voice of Snagglepuss and actually thanks to his Turkish voice-over; and whoever has created him.

Laff-A-Lympics had educational value so much effectively that every time when the tournament came to its end and the show to the curtains down, he used to say things like "Don't forget to drink your milk fellas in your breakfast this morning" ./.. "Cheating is good, if no one sees you doing" ./... (Staring at the Hawaiian beach beauties)"Know the real use of sun-glasses? You can catch the best outstanding views and choose the most beautiful one on the first hand" ./.... (Before the scuba-diving contest)"Take a deep breath, it irritates fishes if they hear you breath underwater".

That was surely a top classic of the all-time cartoons. All along the year 1994-95 in Turkey, every Saturday and Sunday mornings; there was a reason to find the joy of being a secondary-school kid, increasing the volume of the telly, jumping and bouncing with the breathtaking activities and simulating whatever our cartoon heroes do.

I was disappointed in the previous "Yogi's Gang" series, but this successor cartoon, a parody of the 1976 Olympic Games, makes up for it. Again many Hanna-Barbera characters are brought back and new ones added, and they are divided into three competing sports teams, the Yogi Yahooies, the Scoobie-Doobies, and the Really Rottens, the latter composed of villainous characters who try to win by cheating.

This is not a morality play, but simply a comedy with the various teams competing in various Olympic-type events. The Really Rottens, invariably jeered by the audience, try to cheat every time, and usually fail, but sometimes they get away with it. Basically a period piece for the tykes, but still enjoyable.

If you like old cartoons, this one is is perfect for you. It features mostly all of the Hanna-Barbera characters in an "Olympic" style setting. There are 3 teams: The Yogi Bear's, the Scooby Dooby's, and the Really Rottons. Each episode, the individual teams try to win enough events to get the gold metal. The Really Rottons hardly ever win, because they mainly resort to cheating. If you like old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, check this one out. I think it may still be playing on Cartoon Network.

After Olympic fever swept the nations, especially in the United States during its bicentennial in 1976, a substitute was badly needed until the next Olympic Games in 1980. Fortunately, Hanna-Barbera provided the necessary relief in animated form with this terrific series. At least 45 of their classic cartoon characters were featured on this show competing for the gold medal. The All-Stars were divided into 3 teams. First are the Yogi Yahooeys, which featured Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, and other wacky animal characters featured in hundred of shorts that were first seen in the late 1950's to early 1960's. Second are the Scooby Doobies featuring (obviously) Scooby-Doo, his sidekicks Shaggy and Scooby-Dum, as well as their fellow crime fighters and mystery solvers (including superheroes Captain Caveman, Hong Kong Phooey, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt) whose shows debuted in the late 60's to early '70's. The Scoobys team was my personal favorite since I first saw their shows as a kid in this particular decade. Last and least, we have the Really Rottens, most of whom appeared only on this show. The only exception was team captain Mumbly, who was featured in "Mumbly, Relentless Detective", which was part of H-B's "Tom and Jerry Show" a couple of years earlier. Ironically, he was the good guy in that series, but here with the wrong crowd, Mumbly is particularly deceitful and conniving. Paired with teammate Dread Baron, they strike a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly and Muttley from "The Wacky Races". If you've seen that show, you know they were just as diabolical. As a matter of fact, I can even recall at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics where Mumbly was called Muttley. Is it possible that they're brothers (or even cousins)? They certainly have similar traits!

As for the show, the main objective for each team was to score the highest number of points to earn the gold medal. The majority of events had the simple scoring process of 25 points for the winner, 15 for second, and 10 for third place. There were occasional 50-point bonus events which could help a team get back into the competition or pull them away depending on whoever was trailing or leading at the time. Though some events were similar to real-life Olympic events, others were pretty offbeat and quite unusual, which likely means they could only be done in cartoons like this. Among the weird events were racing on ostriches, camels, kangaroos, rickshaws and unicycles, as well as more daring events like scavenging for creatures like vampires, the Abominable Snowman, and the Loch Ness Monster. With events like these, each Laff-A-Lympic was bound to be a major adventure!

While the Scooby and Yogi teams competed with flair and determination (and crazy hilarity), the Rottens always resorted to cheating and usually sabotaged their opponents' efforts to win. However, with rules and regulations in place, they very rarely got away with their dirty deeds. In some cases, they suffered point deductions if their efforts went too far. So it was no surprise that they usually ended up as the third place bronze medalists. But unlike Dastardly and Muttley from the aforementioned Wacky Races, the Rottens actually did win at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics. It just goes to show that even the down-and-out group will eventually have their day if they keep trying.

Overall, this was a very entertaining show to watch as a kid (and even an adult). This show was the perfect venue to showcase Hanna-Barbera's All-Stars. Since the real Olympics bring the nations of the world together, "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics" brought many of H-B's characters in the same environment. Though some individual cartoons allowed for a few cameos from other characters, this was about the only show where members of Yogi's and Scooby's teams could interact with each other. This concept was nothing but pure genius from the minds of William Hanna and Joe Barbera!

I was born in 1976 so I grew up with all these crazy beloved Hanna-Barbera characters. The Laff-A-Lympics are a great show idea of mixing lots of your favorite HB characters, esp the older characters like Huckleberry Hound. The format I'd the show is a great idea AND when you factor in the "who's competing this week? You get a lot more fun. All the locations are awesome. Also it's always fun to see how the Rottens are cheating and (gasp!) are they going to get caught?!? Add to that the silliness of cartoon logic-Speed Buggy and Tinker LOSE the dune buggy race?!? Yakky Doodle is supposed to pull Grape Ape?!? And there's a 3 dog sled race, do the Scoobies strap in Scooby Doo, Scooby Dumb and Dynomutt? Nope they make the Teen Angel girls pull Captain Caveman! So for all that, this is an amazing show concept and delivers all that 5-10 year old me could want.

Now I've rewatched this as an adult and let me just say this-THESE OLYMPICS ARE RIGGED! When you're a kid-it's the Rottens, you're constantly having to keep an eye on them. But they're not the real issue-it's clear that the REAL cheaters are the Scoobies! The name of the show tells you all you need to know, the Scoobies dominate this thing, and it's not even close. Having WAY too much time on my hands, I recorded the wins. And here is the breakdown: in 24 episodes, 1st place wins, Scoobies 14, Yogis 7, the Rottens manage a measly 2 and the final episode is a 3 way tie. Where do I begin? The Yogis are CLEARLY the better team, have more team members, a lot more diversity of talent and a 40 foot gorilla! But time and time again they suffer losses from the no good Scoobies. Tell me how Quick Draw McGraw (the FASTEST draw in the West) loses ANYTHING?!? What about Yogi? He is LITERALLY smarter than the average bear!! But he's taking a loss to Shaggy?!? Get out of here with that nonsense. If the Great Fondue does bad magic, the Rottens get minus 50 points-but if Babu "yapple dapples" it's gold, baby, it's gold for the Scoobies all day. Disgusting.

The opening is your first tip off- every show intro focuses on Scooby, Dynomutt and Captain Caveman who are ALL on Team Scooby. Bias much?!? Sure, there's plenty to like in Team Scooby and they've got 4 solid super heroes (Caveman, B Falcon, Dynomutt AND Hong Kong Phooey!) but the lopsided refereeing is shameless. When the Scoobies win 8 of the first 10 episodes, it's pretty clear the fix is in and the Rottens are just a red herring.

Watching this as adult, my real beef isn't with the Rottens-Daisy Mayhem is going to Daisy Mayhem. I EXPECT that. But I tell you what hurts the most, what really cuts: Snagglepuss. That cat got his start on Yogis show in 1961! That's 60 years of friendship. Does Snagglepuss do the right thing? Does he keep the games on the up and up? Oh heck no! He's clearly been bought and paid for by the Scoobies. Seeing this betrayal is hard. It's embarrassing seeing Snaggiepuss just sitting there, with all his authority, watching this miscarriage of justice and just punking over his old friend. Snag needs to "exit: stage fraudulent."