Yogi Bear 101: A Primer

For 52 years, Yogi Bear has been a staple of television's animated universe. With intelligence higher than that of the average bear, a trusty compatriot named Boo-Boo and an addiction to pick-a-nick baskets, the confident Yogi has been a favorite of kids, their parents and their grandparents for generations.

With the release of the 'Yogi Bear' movie on Dec.17, a new generation of viewers were introduced to the character, now animated in glorious CGI. For those not familiar with Yogi, Jellystone Park or Ranger Smith, here is a primer for you.

Origins
Yogi Bear first appeared in 1958 as a secondary feature in Hanna-Barbera's syndicated 'The Huckleberry Hound Show.' Eventually, Yogi became more popular than the show's lead. In 1961, he was promoted as lead of his own syndicated series 'The Yogi Bear Show.'

Yogi
Like many characters Hanna-Barbera studios produced during its glory days in the late 1950s, early 1960s, Yogi was patterned after a live-action television star of those days. In this case, his voice and mannerisms were patterned after Ed Norton of 'The Honeymooners.'

Yogi had two passions: stealing picnic baskets (pronounced 'pick-a-nick') from unsuspecting visitors at Jellystone Park and making life difficult for Ranger Smith. Touting the fact that he was 'smarter than the average bear,' Yogi would normally get involved in one hair-brained scheme or another. However, unlike many other anthropomorphic animated creatures at the time, like Bugs Bunny or Woody Woodpecker, Yogi tended to get hoisted by his own petard in many cases.


Cast of Characters
Yogi's trusted companion is Boo-Boo, a small, orange bear who wears a bow tie. Boo-Boo was normally the verbal conscience for Yogi, telling him that various wacky schemes wasn't such a good idea. Unfortunately, Yogi would rarely listen to him and it would eventually come down to Boo-Boo saving his life from one peril or another.

The authority figure in Yogi's life was Park Ranger Smith. A stern and serious figure, Ranger Smith high disapproved of Yogi's theft of picnic baskets. However, many attempts to thwart the burglaries normally resulted in something happening to the Ranger or Yogi being able to make a swift getaway. Despite this, there was some type of mutual friendship that was buried deep down between Yogi and the Ranger.

Yogi's girlfriend, Cindy Bear, was introduced on 'The Yogi Bear Show' in 1961. Though in love with the roguish Yogi, Cindy also disapproved of many of her boyfriends schemes and ploys to steal picnic baskets.


Television Appearances
As characters like Fred Flintstone and Scooby-Doo after him, Yogi has appeared in numerous television incarnations over the last five decades. After 'The Yogi Bear Show' was canceled in the early 1960s, Yogi didn't return to a new series until 1972 when he starred in 'Yogi's Ark Lark' on 'The Saturday Superstar Movie.'

Featuring Yogi as a skipper of a flying ark that was trying to find a perfect for him and other Hannah-Barbera characters of the 60s to reside, the movie became the series 'Yogi's Gang,' which ran on the ABC Saturday morning schedule from 1973 to 1975. After that, Yogi appeared as the captain of the Yogi Yahooeys on 'Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics' and as one of the competitors in 'Yogi's Space Race.'

In the mid-1980s, Yogi joined once again with a number of classic Hanna-Barbera characters in 'Yogi's Treasure Hunt.' Later that decade, Yogi returned to Jellystone Park in the syndicated 'The New Yogi Bear Show.' In 1991, Yogi made his last series appearance in 'Yo Yogi!' -- a show where he, Boo-Boo, Snagglepus and Huckleberry Hound were transformed into teenagers hanging out in Jellystone Town.

Movie Appearances
In 1964, Hanna-Barbera and Columbia Pictures released 'Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!' to movie theaters. The full-length animated musical was the first to be produced by the animation studio, as well as the first based on a television cartoon character. Featuring a story where Yogi and Boo-Boo must rescue Cindy Bear from the San Diego Zoo, 'Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!' became a mild success for Hanna-Barbera.

The Future
With mixed reviews of the current 'Yogi Bear' movie, the future is uncertain if the tie-wearing bear will be returning to television any time soon. If he does, there's a better chance that he'll appear on a network like Boomerang, which focuses on classic cartoons, than on one of the other children's outlets.