Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics

Scooby's All-Star Laff-a-Lympics was a Saturday morning cartoon produced by Hanna-Barbera for ABC in 1977. A parody of the Olympic Games, the cartoon featured three teams of H-B characters: the Yogi Yahooeys (led by Yogi Bear and Boo Boo), the Scooby Doobies (led by Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers) and the Really Rottens (led by Mumbly and Dread Baron). Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf acted as commentators.

In January 2010, Warner Home Video released a DVD set of the first four episodes of the series.

Premise

The sporting competitions 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 Earth, including excursions to Africa; Italy; Canada; Washington, D.C., and even the North Pole. However, the final episode had events occurred on the moon as a climactic ending 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 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, Barney Rubble, Jabberjaw and Peter Potamus made appearances as guest announcers and judges. 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 "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.

Broadcasting

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. Boomerang often runs the series during the time period when either the Summer or Winter Olympics are being held.

Teams

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 and Josie and the Pussycats as members of the "Scooby Doobies" team, but legal problems with Columbia Pictures Television, Screen Gems' successor, prevented it. 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". Among its members are:

**The Scooby Doobies members and their voice actors**
Member	Voiced by	Shows came from
Scooby-Doo (team captain)	Don Messick	Scooby-Doo
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers	Casey Kasem	Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Dum	Daws Butler	The Scooby-Doo Show
Dynomutt	Frank Welker	Dynomutt Dog Wonder
Blue Falcon	Gary Owens	Dynomutt Dog Wonder
Captain Caveman	Mel Blanc	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Brenda Chance	Marilyn Schreffler	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Dee Dee Sykes	Vernee Watson-Johnson	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Taffy Dare	Laurel Page	Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels
Speed Buggy	Mel Blanc	Speed Buggy
Tinker	Frank Welker	Speed Buggy
Jeannie	Julie McWhirter	Jeannie
Babu	Joe Besser	Jeannie
Hong Kong Phooey	Scatman Crothers	Hong Kong Phooey

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. Among its members are:

**The Yogi Yahooeys members and their voice actors**
Member	Voiced by	Shows came from
Yogi Bear (team captain)	Daws Butler	The Yogi Bear Show
Boo Boo	Don Messick	The Yogi Bear Show
Cindy Bear	Julie Bennett	The Yogi Bear Show
Huckleberry Hound	Daws Butler	The Huckleberry Hound Show
Pixie	Don Messick	The Huckleberry Hound Show (Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks)
Dixie	Daws Butler	The Huckleberry Hound Show (Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks)
Mr. Jinks	Daws Butler	The Huckleberry Hound Show (Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks)
Hokey Wolf	Daws Butler	The Huckleberry Hound Show
Yakky Doodle	Frank Welker	The Yogi Bear Show
Quick Draw McGraw	Daws Butler	Quick Draw McGraw
Snooper and Blabber	Daws Butler	Quick Draw McGraw
Augie Doggie	Daws Butler	Quick Draw McGraw
Doggie Daddy	John Stephenson	Quick Draw McGraw
Wally Gator	Daws Butler	The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon Series
The Great Grape Ape	Bob Holt	The Great Grape Ape Show

The Really Rottens

This team is composed of villainous characters. With the exception of Mumbly, all of the members are original characters, many of whom are based on various characters that appeared in cartoons and comics before Laff-A-Lympics. Although the Dalton Brothers appeared in 1950s and 1960s shorts, these particular three characters were new. Before Laff-a-Lympics, Mumbly was a heroic detective rather than a villain on his original show. After 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 was also Dread Baron's only other role. Among its members are:

**The Really Rottens members and their voice actors**
Member	Voiced by	Notes
Mumbly (team captain, from The Tom & Jerry/Grape Ape/Mumbly Show)	Don Messick	He bears a strong resemblance to Muttley.
Dread Baron	John Stephenson	He bears a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly.
Dinky Dalton	Bob Holt	The giant Dalton whose Stetson obscures his eyes.
Dirty Dalton	Daws Butler	The moustached Dalton.
Dastardly Dalton	Don Messick	The blond Dalton. No relation to Dick Dastardly despite the name.
Mr. Creepley	Don Messick	The dad of the Creepleys, with a moustache and whose hair obscures his eyes.
Mrs. Creepley	Laurel Page	Mr. Creepley's wife; being different in appearance from the two male Creepleys, only her eyes are shown.
Junior Creepley		Son of the Creepleys. He shares the trait with his dad that his hair obscures his eyes.
Orful Octopus	Bob Holt	Pet of the Creepleys; he is a villainous version of Squiddly Diddly and Occy the Octopus, who was the pet of the Gruesomes.
The Great Fondoo	John Stephenson	An evil magician whose tricks and spells never work as intended and always backfired.
Magic Rabbit	Frank Welker	The Great Fondoo's pet, who is more annoying than evil and only said one word, "Brak!", although he talks properly in the Laff-a-Lympics comic books.
Daisy Mayhem	Marilyn Schreffler	A mean-spirited hillbilly with split ends in her hair and bare feet. She bears a strong resemblance to the Li'l Abner character Moonbeam McSwine.
Sooey Pig	Frank Welker	Daisy Mayhem's pet/sidekick, with a patch-eye.

Other characters

Snagglepuss (voiced by Daws Butler)
Mildew Wolf (voiced by John Stephenson)
Fred Flintstone (voiced by Alan Reed)
Barney Rubble (voiced by Mel Blanc)
Jabberjaw (voiced by Frank Welker)
Peter Potamus
The Show's Announcer (voiced by Don Messick)

Episodes