Yo Yogi!

A group of teenagers Yogi Bear (Greg Burson), Boo-Boo Bear (Don Messick), Huckleberry Hound (Greg Berg), Snagglepuss (Greg Burson), and Cindy Bear (Kathie Soucie) solve various crimes, capers, and mysterious within and around the Jellystone Mall as the mall's Lost and Found or L. A. F. (pronounced "laff") Squad under the direction of security officer Smith (Greg Burson).

Yo Yogi is a 1991 Saturday Morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera produced for NBC during the network's final year of Saturday morning content aimed at children before NBC scrapped their Saturday morning line-up and rebranded the programming block as a teen block with TNBC and building it around the one show that survived the shakeup, Saved by the Bell. Yo Yogi would be the final Yogi Bear TV show produced (not counting some one off guest appearances and TV specials) until 2021's Jellystone nearly 20 years later. Yo Yogi was not well received upon initial release with the series feeling very played out and labored especially with the advent of the 90s giving way to series such as Tiny Toons Adventures that had more ambition in the writing and animation. Even those affiliated with the show like executive producer William Hanna reportedly hated Yo Yogi in particular comparing Yogi's redesign to a "whoremonger" (allegedly, I had trouble finding a credible trace on that story). Yo Yogi has in hindsight become the butt jokes for filtering Hanna-Barbera's cartoon stable through the lens of "90s 'tude" with the show's opening and color palette evoking more than a few stylistic comparisons to Saved by the Bell or Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. There is kind of a novelty to how garishly 90s Yo Yogi is trying to be, but underneath that garish coat of paint is the same formula Hanna-Barbera ran into the ground throughout the 70s.

Yo Yogi is often lumped in with other "Kid" versions of Hanna-Barbera properties like Flintstones Kids, Tom & Jerry Kids, or A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, but in truth the characters are only de-aged down to about the age of High School students (I think, they make a one off mention on how Lost and Found is an after school job but we never see them at school). Despite now sporting late 80s/early 90s fashions in their redesigns, Yogi and the rest of the Laff Squad are pretty similar personality wise to their 60s and 70s counterparts with Snagglepuss still "theatrical", Huckleberry Hound still relaxed to a fault and singing "Clementine", and Yogi and Boo-Boo more or less how you remember them minus Yogi's food stealing schemes with the schemes now replaced with a drive to solve mysteries. On occasion you'll get something jaw-droppingly outrageous like Magilla Gorilla repurposed as a music superstar named, no joke, Magilla Ice, but aside from humorously dated detours like Magilla Ice most of the 90s aesthetic is incidental and this concept really could've been done anywhere and without the redesign to the characters. I'm not sure if I should commend or condemn the show for trying to make Yogi Bear "Cool" because it's a pretty halfhearted attempt. Sure they give Boo-Boo a skateboard and wardrobe similar to Bart Simpson, but they never really use any outdated slang and aside from a surreal section where Snagglepuss dresses in visual references to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or He-Man (I'm as surprised as you are) most of the plots revolve around one dimensional villains like Howie Cheatum, Grant Larceny, and P. R. Flack who all kind of blend together in terms of characters, plots, and motivation. But "creativity" aside, Yo Yogi's underlying issue is that it's just not that funny or interesting. Sometimes the show will get an unintentional laugh from how crazy or ridiculous a plot is (like two surfer dudes trying to melt a mountain to surf a tsunami, don't ask) but most of the actual humor is more corny than funny. Even the appearance of Dick Dastardly (who's now ten years-old and named Dickie) doesn't work because since he's a child we can't allow anything "too serious" to befall him as punishment for his schemes so why even have him here?

Whatever dated 90s relic you're hoping for Yo Yogi to be, I guarantee you whatever you're imagining is a more entertainingly dumb show than the reality. While on occasion the Show gives us something memorably embarrassing like Magilla Ice most of the time it just goes through bland Saturday morning sitcom plots that are slowly delivered with no punch or surprise factor.

In the late 80's and early 90's, Hannah-Barbara was making cartoons, still, but one of the main cartoons from them at the time was taking classic cartoon characters they invented and re-imagining them as kids, starting with The Flintstone Kids and continuing with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Yo Yogi! is the fourth one of the series, the third being Tom and Jerry Kids, which debut a year before this, and it has gone on to become proof that not every cartoon character should be turned into a kid.

So, basically, the show has Yogi turned into a teen who works in Jellystone Mall's Lost and Found Department with friends Boo-Boo, Cindy, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry Hound, who have also been turned into kids. Every episode, they have to deal with a mystery that is causing problems in the mall, but little Dickie Dastardly and Muttley are there to get in the way.

Yeah, the show basically turns Yogi and friends into a near-copy of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, only it does everything the latter show knew not to do: rely too much on gimmicks. The shows tries to attract kids by being "radical and hip", with episodes even referencing what was hip back then (one episode had Magilla Gorilla as Magilla Ice, which was meant to be a parody of Vanilla Ice, and even using slang that teens in the 90's use. While it sounds good, the cartoon uses it too much to the point where it stops being fresh and becomes annoying. Another gimmick is the use of 3D. Back then, Kellogg's, the cereal company, sponsored this show, so they gave out 3D glasses in one of their cereals for use. For this, when Yogi spins his hat, the series cuts to 3D. This makes the cartoon more of a product placement.

This show was basically a failure, only lasting 13 episodes before it was cancelled, and it often cited as one of the reasons why NBC would stop Saturday Morning cartoons in favor of TNBC. Avoid this show at all costs.