Laff-A-Lympics

Laff-A-Lympics is an American animated comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series premiered as part of the Saturday morning cartoon program block, Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, on ABC in 1977. The show is a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC primetime series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one year earlier. It featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters organized into the teams (the Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens) which would compete each week for gold, silver, and bronze medals. One season of 16 episodes was produced in 1977–78, and eight new episodes combined with reruns for the 1978–79 season as Scooby's All-Stars. Unlike most cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, Laff-A-Lympics did not contain a laugh track. Scooby’s Laff-a-Lympics was originally owned by Taft Broadcasting, Warner Bros. Television Distribution currently owns the series thru its two in-name-only units, Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and Turner Entertainment.

Format
The sporting competitions in which the characters are called upon to compete is often a comical or offbeat version of Olympic sports, races, or scavenger hunts. Each segment is set in a different location around the world.

Episodes are presented in a format similar to an Olympic television broadcast, with an unseen announcer. Hosting duties and commentary are provided by Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf from the It's the Wolf! segments of Cattanooga Cats (voiced by John Stephenson rather than Paul Lynde). Snagglepuss and Mildew wear animated versions of the contemporary yellow jackets of ABC Sports announcers. Other Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Jabberjaw and Peter Potamus made appearances as guest announcers and judges. Other non-competing characters include parents of contestants (interviewed by Mildew before events) and various monsters and creatures that serve as antagonists during events.

The "good guy" teams, consisting of the Yogi Yahooeys and the Scooby Doobies, are cooperative and loyal. The Really Rottens, however, always cheat. Typically the Really Rottens will be poised to win before making a fatal error at the last moment, allowing one of the other two teams to end up on top. Occasionally, though, the Rottens' cheating was not actually against the rules, resulting in their winning. (Overall, the Scooby team dominated, winning 14 times, against 7 victories for the Yahooies, 2 for the Rottens, and a three-way-tie in the final episode.)

Only one complete season of Laff-A-Lympics episodes was produced, with eight new episodes combined with reruns for the second season of Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics (billed as Scooby's All-Stars). When it premiered in the fall of 1977, the series consisted of several segments, including "Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels" (which led the two-hour program and later was spun-off into its own half-hour show), "The Scooby-Doo Show" and "Dynomutt" (both of which featured a small number of newly produced segments alongside repeated segments from earlier seasons) and the "Laff-A-Lympics" segments themselves. The show resurfaced in 1980 as a half-hour series on its own (without the "Captain Caveman", "Scooby-Doo" and "Dynomutt" cartoons) simply titled Laff-A-Lympics and was later rerun on ABC in 1986. In later years it has been frequently rerun on USA Cartoon Express, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, often during the time periods when the Summer and Winter Olympics were held (until 2014).

The Scooby 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. The early production art for the series showed Jeannie from the Jeannie series and Melody, Alexander, Alexandra, and Sebastian the Cat from Josie and the Pussycats as members of the "Scooby Doobies" team. However, legal problems with Columbia Pictures Television, Screen Gems' successor, prevented this. Hanna-Barbera owned Babu, but Columbia controlled all rights to Jeannie's image. As a result, Babu appeared alone as a member of the "Scooby Doobies". Similarly, Archie Comics held the rights to the Josie characters. In the actual series, Jeannie is replaced by Hong Kong Phooey and the Josie characters were replaced by characters from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.

Among the members of the Scooby Doobies are:

The Yogi Yahooeys
This team drew mainly from the 1950s and 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons and is the only team of characters made up completely of anthropomorphic animals. Grape Ape is the only post-1962 character in the line-up.

Among the members of the Yogi Yahooeys are:

The Really Rottens
This team is composed of villainous characters that frequently cheated by either giving themselves an unfair advantage in a contest or sabotaging the other teams (and usually had points deducted from their score as a result). With the exception of Mumbly and the Dalton Brothers, all of the members are original characters, many of whom are based on various characters that appeared in cartoons and comics prior to Laff-A-Lympics. Originally, Muttley and Dick Dastardly were planned as the leaders of the Really Rottens; however, they could not appear as those characters were co-owned by Heatter-Quigley Productions. In their place, Hanna-Barbera used the existing character Mumbly and created the new character Dread Baron. Prior to Laff-A-Lympics, on his original show, Mumbly was a heroic detective rather than a villain. Following the character's revision as the villainous team leader, he remained a villain in Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, which is also Dread Baron's only other role. The Dalton Brothers appeared in 1950s and 1960s shorts (including the 1958 short Sheriff Huckleberry Hound, which featured appearances by Dinky, Dirty, and Dastardly Dalton, as well as their other brothers Dangerous, Detestable, Desperate, and Despicable). However, they were given new character designs for the Laff-A-Lympics series. After Laff-A-Lympics, Dinky reappears in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound with brothers Stinky (who bears a resemblance to Dastardly Dalton from Laff-A-Lympics), Finky, and Pinky.

Among the members of the Really Rottens are:

Main

 * Julie Bennett – Cindy Bear
 * Joe Besser – Babu
 * Mel Blanc – Barney Rubble, Captain Caveman, Speed Buggy
 * Daws Butler – Yogi Bear, Augie Doggie, Blabber, Dirty Dalton, Dixie, Hokey Wolf, Huckleberry Hound, Mr. Jinks, Quick Draw McGraw, Scooby-Dum, Snagglepuss, Snooper, Wally Gator
 * Scatman Crothers – Hong Kong Phooey
 * Bob Holt – Dinky Dalton, Grape Ape, Orful Octopus
 * Casey Kasem – Shaggy Rogers
 * Don Messick – Scooby-Doo, Mumbly, the show's Announcer, Boo Boo Bear, Junior Creepley, Mr. Creepley, Dastardly Dalton, Pixie
 * Gary Owens – Blue Falcon
 * Laurel Page – Mrs. Creepley, Taffy Dare
 * Marilyn Schreffler – Brenda Chance, Daisy Mayhem
 * John Stephenson – Doggie Daddy, Dread Baron, Mildew Wolf, The Great Fondoo
 * Vernee Watson – Dee Dee Sykes
 * Frank Welker – Dynomutt, Jabberjaw, Magic Rabbit, Sooey Pig, Tinker, Yakky Doodle

Special guest stars

 * Alan Reed – Fred Flintstone (first appearance)
 * Henry Corden – Fred Flintstone (replaced Alan Reed after his death)

VHS
In 1996, four VHS editions of the show were released in the US on the NTSC format, each containing two episodes for a running time of approximately 50 minutes:
 * Yippee for the Yogi Yahooeys!
 * On Your Marks, Get Set—Go Scoobys!
 * Something Smells Really Rotten
 * Heavens to Hilarity, This is it, Sports Fans!

At the same time a "bumper special" VHS tape was released in UK on the PAL format containing the following episodes (These UK episodes were the US episodes divided in two, with just one location per episode):
 * Grand Canyon
 * Ireland
 * Israel
 * Swiss Alps
 * Tokyo
 * Acapulco
 * Bagdad
 * Florida
 * China
 * Italy
 * Kitty Hawk

DVD
Warner Home Video (via Hanna-Barbera Productions and Warner Bros. Family Entertainment) released episodes 1–4 on Region 1 DVD on January 19, 2010, as Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics - Volume 1. Episodes 5–9 were on a second DVD titled Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics - Volume 2, released the same day by Target and by other stores on October 19, 2010. A two-disc DVD set entitled ''Scooby-Doo! Laff-A-Lympics: Spooky Games'' was released on July 17, 2012. The set contains an all-new Scooby Doo special, "Spooky Games", plus 12 episodes of Laff-a-Lympics – including episodes 9–16, which complete the first season, plus 4 earlier first-season episodes which appear on Volume 1 and 2. The set also includes an UltraViolet digital copy of the 12 contained episodes. Later in the year Warner Brothers shop renamed this release Laff-a-Lympics: The Complete First Collection.

On July 4, 2016, Volume 1 and Volume 2 were released separately in Region 2, as was a 'Gold Edition' with the previously released Spooky Games DVD; this Region 2 version of the ''Scooby-Doo! Laff-A-Lympics: Spooky Games'' DVD is only a separate version of the first disc from the R1 set, containing "Spooky Games" and four further episodes; therefore, only twelve episodes are currently available in R2, as of July 2016.

Region 4 received Volume 1 and 2 in July 2010.

United States

 * ABC (1977–1979: 1986)
 * USA Cartoon Express (1982–1994)
 * Cartoon Network (1994–2005: 2007)
 * WMBC-TV Kids (2000–2007)
 * Boomerang (2001–2014)
 * Jetix (2004–2007)

United Kingdom

 * Boomerang (2000–2014)

Comic books
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. A Laff-A-Lympics comic book was also published in Australia in 1978 by Sydney-based K.G. Murray Publishing Company. From 1980 to 1982, various Laff-A-Lympics stories were reprinted in Laff-A-Lympics Annual hardback books in the United Kingdom by Fleetway.

An updated Laff-A-Lympics called the "Superstar Olympics" appeared in Hanna-Barbera Presents #6 in 1996. The Superstar Olympics featured Atom Ant, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, Barney Rubble, Betty Rubble, Boo Boo Bear, Chopper, Cindy Bear, Dick Dastardly, Fred Flintstone, Grape Ape, Hokey Wolf, Huckleberry Hound, Jabberjaw, Magilla Gorilla, Muttley, Peter Potamus, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Quick Draw McGraw, Ranger Smith, Secret Squirrel, Snagglepuss, Snooper and Blabber, Squiddly Diddly, Top Cat, Touché Turtle, Wally Gator, Wilma Flintstone, and Yogi Bear.

Games
A Laff-A-Lympics hand-held pinball game was released in 1978. The game featured Scooby-Doo, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Blue Falcon, Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Grape Ape, Mumbly, Dread Baron, Mr. Creepley, Dalton Brothers, Snagglepuss, and Mildew Wolf.

In 1979, Hanna-Barbera released a Laff-A-Lympics Old Maid card game that included Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers, Dynomutt, Blue Falcon, Hong Kong Phooey, Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Grape Ape, Quick Draw McGraw, Pixie and Dixie, Yakky Doodle, Mumbly, Dread Baron, Snagglepuss, and Mildew Wolf.

Cultural references

 * Laff-A-Lympics was parodied in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun". In a segment that parodies Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the 1972 Munich massacre, the Yogi Yahooeys are taken hostage and murdered by the Really Rottens. In retaliation, the Scooby Doobies alongside Snooper and Blabber arm themselves and kill the Really Rottens. The sketch itself lampoons the theatrical trailer for Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich. The sketch featured Blue Falcon, Boo-Boo Bear, Captain Caveman, Daisy Mayhem, Dinky and Dirty Dalton, Doggie Daddy, Dread Baron, Dynomutt, The Great Fondoo, Hong Kong Phooey, Huckleberry Hound, Mumbly, Quick Draw McGraw (as El Kabong), Snagglepuss, Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Dum, Scrappy-Doo (who was never a member of the Scooby Doobies), Shaggy Rogers, Snooper and Blabber, Wally Gator, and Yogi Bear.
 * The series was also parodied in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Grape Juiced" with Grape Ape voiced by John Michael Higgins and Beegle Beagle voiced by Doug Preis. In that episode, Grape Ape is accused of using steroids at the recent Laff-A-Lympics event. Yakky Doodle, Grape Ape's teammate from the Yogi Yahooeys, also makes a cameo appearance as a witness during Grape Ape's trial. The Magic Rabbit makes a cameo in the episode "SPF" as a victim of CyberSquatting.
 * The Really Rottens (consisting of Mumbly, Daisy Mayhem, Mr. Creepley, Orville Octopus, and the Dalton Brothers) made a cameo appearance in The Cleveland Show episode "Ship'rect". In the episode, Mumbly is the captain of a boat crewed by the Really Rottens in a Floaterboat Race.