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 M.D.O.D.: I have to 'Laff' docsontheweb.blogspot.com |
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 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.
[edit] FormatThe 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, apart from one event in the last episode, which occurred on the Moon as a climactic ending (and a twist to the usual, more down-to-earth - literally - events), after a rocket race to the moon was held as the previous event. 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 (actor)). Non-competing Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble 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 (usually 25, 15, and 10 respectively, but the last event usually was worth either double points or a larger point bonus for the winner), and the team that had the most points by the end of the half-hour—usually the Scooby Doobies or Yogi Yahooeys—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. 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 complete season of Laff-A-Lympics episodes were 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 off the two-hour program and later was spun off onto its own half-hour show), "Scooby-Doo" 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 (sans the "Captain Caveman," "Scooby-Doo" and "Dynomutt" cartoons) and titled Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics, and was rerun at various other points during the 1980s on ABC. It has also been frequently re-run in later years as Laff-A-Lympics on USA Cartoon Express, Cartoon Network and Boomerang. [edit] Teams[edit] 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. Among its members are:
[edit] The Yogi YahooeysThis 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. Among its members are:
[edit] The Really Rottens This team is made up of villain characters, and, except Mumbly, is composed of original characters (though various Dalton Brothers appeared in 1950s and 1960s shorts, these particular three were new). Mumbly was also a good-guy detective rather than a villain on his original show but remained a villain in Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose which was also Dread Baron's only other role. Among its members are:
[edit] Episodes[edit] Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977-78)SDLA-1. The Swiss Alps and Tokyo, Japan (September 10, 1977)
SDLA-2. Acapulco and England (September 17, 1977)
SDLA-3. Florida and China (September 24, 1977)
SDLA-4. The Sahara Desert and Scotland (October 1, 1977)
SDLA-5. France and Australia (October 8, 1977)
SDLA-6. Athens, Greece and the Ozarks (October 15, 1977)
SDLA-7. Italy and Kitty Hawk, North Carolina (October 22, 1977)
SDLA-8. Egypt and Sherwood Forest (October 29, 1977)
SDLA-9. Spain and the Himalayas (November 5, 1977)
SDLA-10. India and Israel (November 12, 1977)
SDLA-11. Africa and San Francisco (November 19, 1977)
SDLA-12. The Grand Canyon and Ireland (November 26, 1977)
SDLA-13. Hawaii and Norway (December 3, 1977)
SDLA-14. North Pole and Tahiti (December 10, 1977)
SDLA-15. Arizona and Holland (December 17, 1977)
SDLA-16. Quebec and Baghdad (December 24, 1977)
[edit] Scooby's All-Stars (1978-79)
Overall standings: The Scooby Doobies 14 wins, The Yogi Yahooeys 7 wins, The Really Rottens 2 wins and 1 three way tie. [edit] Cast
[edit] Other mediaIn 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. In 1996, four VHS editions of the show were released: Yippee for the Yogi Yahooeys!, On Your Marks, Get Set - Go Scoobys!, Something Smells Really Rotten and Heavens to Hilarity, This is it, Sports Fans!. Each edition contains two episodes for a running time of approximately 50 minutes. The first four episodes will be released on DVD on January 19, 2010, as Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, Volume 1. Laff-A-Lympics was parodied on an episode of the Adult Swim show Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law entitled "Grape Juiced" where Grape Ape was accused of taking steroids. In an episode of Robot Chicken titled Ban on the Fun, the Laff-a-Lympics is parodied along with the 1972 Munich massacre in a sketch in which the Yogi Yahooeys are taken hostage and murdered by the Really Rottens. In retaliation, the Scooby Doobies arm themselves and kill the Really Rottens. The sketch itself lampoons the theatrical trailer for Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich. [edit] External links
Categories: Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios series and characters | Television spin-offs | Scooby-Doo television series | Crossover anime and manga | 1970s American television series | 1977 television series debuts | 1979 television series endings | American Broadcasting Company network shows | American animated television series | USA Cartoon Express | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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