Laff-a-Lympics
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Laff-a-Lympics was the co-headlining segment, with Scooby-Doo, of the package Saturday morning cartoon series Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show was a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC television series Battle of the Network Stars. It featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters organized into three teams, The Scooby Doobies, The Yogi Yahooeys, and The Really Rottens, which would compete each week for gold, silver, and bronze medals. One season was produced in 1977 - 1978, which was rerun for the 1978 - 1979 season of Scooby's All Stars.
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[edit] Format
The sporting competitions that the characters would be called upon to perform in would often be comical and offbeat versions of Olympic sports and scavenger hunts. Each segment took place in a different location somewhere on the planet, including excursions to Africa, Italy, Canada, Washington D.C., and even the North Pole. Each episode was presented in a format similar to an Olympic television broadcast, with hosting/announcing duties and color commentary provided by Snagglepuss from The Yogi Bear Show and Mildew Wolf from the It's the Wolf segments of The Cattanooga Cats (though unlike It's The Wolf, Mildew was no longer voiced by Paul Lynde; he is now voiced by John Stephenson). Non-competing Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone and Jabberjaw made appearances as guest announcers. Since the show was airing on ABC, Snagglepuss and Mildew wore the then-traditional yellow jackets of ABC Sports announcers.
The Laff-a-Lympics competition was based upon a point system. Various events were worth a certain point total for the first, second, and third place winners, and the team that had the most points by the end of the half-hour--usually the Scooby Doobies--was declared the winner and received the gold medal. Points could also be subtracted for treachery and sabotage, which were the specialties of the villainous Really Rottens team.
As with most Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoons of the 1970s, the basic plot and theme of each episode was mostly generic and repetitive. The two "good guy" teams, the Scooby Doobies and the Yogi Yahooeys, were good friends and their respective team members gladly helped each other whenever they got into a jam. The Really Rottens, however, always cheated and pulled dirty tricks -- and ultimately they would wind up the losers in most episodes. Much like Dick Dastardly typically the Really Rottens would be just on the verge of winning, before they would make a fatal error at the very end that allowed one of the other two teams to end up at the top. Occasionally, though, the Rottens' cheating technique wouldn't actually be against the rules, with them actually winning in a few episodes (there was even one episode where they won through sheer chance). The final episode, climaxing on the moon, was a three-way tie.
Only one season of Laff-a-Lympics episodes was produced, which was re-run during the second season of Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics (billed as Scooby's All-Stars). The show resurfaced in 1980 as a segment of its own, and was rerun at various other points during the 1980s on ABC. It has also been frequently re-run in later years by the USA Network, the Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.
[edit] Teams
[edit] The Scoobie Doobies
This team drew mainly from the 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, particularly the "mystery-solving" series derived from Scooby-Doo, whose titular character served as team captain.
- characters from Scooby-Doo:
- Scooby-Doo (team captain)
- Norville "Shaggy" Rogers
- Scooby-Dum
- characters from Dynomutt, Dog Wonder:
- Dynomutt
- The Blue Falcon
- characters from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels:
- Captain Caveman
- Brenda Chance
- Dee Dee Sykes
- Taffy Dare
- characters from Speed Buggy:
- Speed Buggy
- Tinker
- Babu from Jeannie
- Hong Kong Phooey
[edit] The Yogi Yahooeys
This team drew mainly from the 1950s and 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and is the only team made up completely of anthropomorphic animals. Grape Ape is the only post-1962 character in the line-up.
- characters from The Huckleberry Hound Show:
- Yogi Bear (team captain)
- Huckleberry Hound
- Boo-Boo Bear
- Cindy Bear
- Hokey Wolf
- Pixie
- Dixie
- Mr. Jinks
- characters from Quick Draw McGraw:
- Quick Draw McGraw
- Snooper
- Blabber
- Augie Doggie
- Doggie Daddy
- Yakky Doodle from The Yogi Bear Show
- Wally Gator from The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series
- The Great Grape Ape from The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show
[edit] The Really Rottens
This team is made up of villain characters, and, excepting Mumbly, is comprised of original characters (though various Dalton Brothers appeared in 1950's and 1960's shorts, these particular three were new).
- Mumbly from The New Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show (team captain; he bears a strong resemblance to Muttley from Wacky Races)
- Dread Baron (he bears a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly from Wacky Races)
- The Dalton Brothers: villanous cowboys (also appeared in Quick Draw McGraw):
- Dinky
- Dirty
- Dastardly
- The Creepleys, monsters in the mold of The Munsters and the Gruesomes from The Flintstones:
- Mr. Creepley
- Mrs. Creepley
- Junior Creepley
- The Great Fondoo, an evil magician
- Magic Rabbit, the Great Fondoo's pet, who is more annoying than evil. He only said one word "Brak!"
- Daisy Mayhem, a mean-spirited hillbilly
- Sooey Pig
- Orful Octopus
[edit] Other media
In March, 1978 Marvel Comics produced a comic book series based on the cartoon. Creative staff for the comic book included Mark Evanier, Carl Gafford, Scott Shaw!, Jack Manning, Owen Fitzgerald and others. The series lasted 13 issues.
