ZEITGEIST-NON-SURFING Animator’s Cramp-occasioning high-concept Hanna-Barbera overreach, puzzlingly counter-topically sandwiched between 1976 Quebec Olympics and 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Key selling point was that for the purposes of unspecified sporting achievement, Bill & Joe’s entire recent history back catalogue was consolidated into one huge USA For Africa-like all-star cast of cartoon thousands, subdivided into medal-hungry competing teams – The Yogi Yahooeys (Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Pixie & Dixie in awkward non-hating-meeces-to-pieces united front with Mr Jinks, Hokey Wolf, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie & Daddy Doggie, Wally Gator, Grape Ape, and second-stringers Yakky Doodle and Snooper & Blabber); The Scooby Doobies (Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Scooby Dum, Dynomutt & The Blue Falcon, Captain Caveman & The Teen Angels, Hong Kong Phooey and Division Two tag-alongs Tinker & Speed Buggy, Babu off I Dream Of Jeannie, and, if you squint a bit, Josie & The Pussycats); and main attraction The Really Rottens (utterly anti-recognisable lineup of some cowboys from Quick Draw McGraw, Addams-infringing Creepley family, Yogi-squabbling magician The Great Fondoo and his white rabbit, moonshine-swiggin’ birds-nest-hair Southern gal Daisy Mayhem and one-eyed pig pal Sooey, and as if to put the literal top hat on it, suspiciously familiar pigeon-stopper-clone The Dread Baron and snickering hound ‘Mumbly’ – of previous Columbo/James Bond-parodying solo show memory-befuddlement – replacing the contractually unavailable Dick Dastardly and Muttley). Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf occupied the commentary box, with sub-Waldorf & Statler audience witticisms courtesy of the likes of Fred Flintstone, Jabberjaw and assorted oddly non-competing Harlem Globetrotters.
Wacky Races-like setup saw the teams compete in a different outlandish event each week, from zany long jump-variants to lunar-bound rocket races, with plaudits doled out to the winners seemingly on an everybody-forget-about-it-by-next-week basis. Usual form was for The Really Rottens to almost win via subterfuge but blow it through own inherent ‘rotten’-ness at the last minute, though even they did score a couple of middle-of-plinth moments. Overall smackage of merchandising bonanza oddly counterbalanced by lack of much in the way of merchandise, and more than likely to have been a big influence on that similarly Dread Baron-equipped one where Yogi Bear took millions of characters off for a ride in Howard Hughes’ aeroplane. This is not necessarily a positive thing.
Originally seen in the US as part of a schedule-straddling package with Captain Caveman & The Teen Angels, Dynomutt & The Blue Falcon and that dimly-recalled ‘meet the Doo folks’ recollection-fogging Scooby Doo revival. Over here it was split into four – with Laff-A-Lympics enjoying a stint as Swap Shop’s resident star animation – thereby ensuring Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning dominance for several years to come.
I KNEW I remembered this one!!
This explains why it had the same banjos and twngs closing theme that also closed Captain Caveman. They were all part of the same programme.
It seemed to be common to package cartoons together in America, often with some linking material.
When syndicated the individual cartoons would often be shown as single items.
Is it me or is this review extremely badly written? (the sentence constructions are very odd)
Yes, it is extremely badly written. One must always adhere to the pretexts, subtexts and metatexts of the linguistic conventions associated with academic rigour when trying to make jokes about a piss-poor cartoon from the late seventies.