Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
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| Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! | |
|---|---|
 Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!'s Title Card | |
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Hanna-Barbera |
| Written by | Joel Kane Heywood Kling Howard Morgenstern Joe Ruby Ken Spears |
| Directed by | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Starring | Hair Bear Square Bear Bubie Bear |
| Voices of | Daws Butler William Callaway Paul Winchell John Stephenson Joe E. Ross |
| Composer | Ted Nichols |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 16 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer | Alex Lovy |
| Running time | 30 Minutes |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Original release | |
| Network | CBS |
| Release | September 11, 1971 – January 8, 1972 |
Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! is a Saturday morning cartoon, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1971 for CBS.
History
The series depicted three fun-loving bears — the Afroed, fast-talking Hair Bear, confusing-talking Bubi Bear, and laid-back Square Bear — who are always trying to find a way to escape the Wonderland Zoo on some sort of get-rich-quick scheme, or a wild night of fun. Trying to stop them are the constantly aggravated head zoo director, Mr. Eustace P. Peevly, and his hopelessly inadequate assistant Lionel J. Botch. Other residents of the Wonderland Zoo include Bananas the Gorilla, Furface the Lion, Fumbo the Elephant, Slicks the Fox, Hippi the Hippo, Beaks the Pelican, Arnie and Gloria the Gorillas, and Pipsqueak the Mouse.
The bears have a modern "bachelor pad"-styled den at the zoo, but they disguise it from Peevly and Botch to avoid revealing their comfortable surroundings. The bears also have an invisible motorcycle, which Square Bear can call upon when necessary by jumping in the air and kicking his leg to start it. The motorcycle is never explained, though in episode twelve, Hair Bear comments: "I don't know what he does, but I'm sure glad he does it."
The show was developed under the name The Yo Yo Bears, a title which many sources inaccurately list as its name in syndication. The show never went into syndication after CBS canceled it in 1974; it reappeared in 1984 on cable on USA Cartoon Express. The Hair Bear Bunch currently airs occasionally on Cartoon Network's sibling network Boomerang.
A series of Comic Books were put out by Gold Key Comics which were mostly drawn by Jack Manning and featured original stories, as well as a few adaptations of TV episodes. In the comics, the antagonism between the Bears and the Keepers was softened a bit, to the point that one story had the Keepers figuring since the Bears DO return to the zoo after an escape (after a wild night on the town) it'd be best just to give them weekend passes and save both parties a lot of aggravation.
Episode guide
| Episode # | Episode title | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|
| BEAR-1 | "Keep Your Keeper" | September 11, 1971 |
| BEAR-2 | "Rare Bear Bungle" | September 18, 1971 |
| BEAR-3 | "Raffle Ruckus" | September 25, 1971 |
| BEAR-4 | "Bridal Boo Boo" | October 2, 1971 |
| BEAR-5 | "No Space Like Home" | October 9, 1971 |
| BEAR-6 | "Love Bug Bungle" | October 16, 1971 |
| BEAR-7 | "I'll Zoo You Later" | October 23, 1971 |
| BEAR-8 | "Ark Lark" | October 30, 1971 |
| BEAR-9 | "Gobs of Gobaloons" | November 6, 1971 |
| BEAR-10 | "Panda Pandemonium" | November 19, 1971 |
| BEAR-11 | "Closed Circuit TV" | November 20, 1971 |
| BEAR-12 | "The Bear Who Came to Dinner" | November 27, 1971 |
| BEAR-13 | "Unbearably Peevly" | December 4, 1971 |
| BEAR-14 | Goldilocks and the Three Bears | December 11, 1971 |
| BEAR-15 | "The Diet Caper" | December 18, 1971 |
| BEAR-16 | "Kling Klong versus The Masked Marvel" | January 8, 1972 |
Cast
- Daws Butler - Hair Bear, Bananas the Gorilla
- William Callaway - Square Bear
- Paul Winchell - Bubi Bear
- John Stephenson - Eustace P. Peevly, Dr. Kneeknocker
- Joe E. Ross - Lionel J. Botch, Superintendent
- Jeannie Brown -
- Joan Gerber -
- Don Messick -
- Vic Perrin -
- Hal Smith -
- Janet Waldo -
- Lennie Weinrib -
Production credits
- Produced and Directed By: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna
- Associate Producer: Alex Lovy
- Story: Joel Kane, Woody Kling, Howard Morgenstern, Joe Ruby, Ken Spears
- Story Direction: Brad Case, Cullen Houghtaling, Earl Klein, Lew Marshall, George Singer, Paul Sommer, Warren Tufts
- Voices: Jeannie Brown, Daws Butler, Bill Callaway, Joan Gerber, Don Messick, Vic Perrin, Joe E. Ross, Hal Smith, John Stephenson, Janet Waldo, Lenny Weinrib, Paul Winchell
- Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
- Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
- Production Supervision: Victor O. Schipek
- Character Design: Jerry Eisenberg
- Layout: Roman Arambula, Jim Fletcher, Bob Givens, Jan Green, Gary Hoffman, Homer Jonas, Takashi Masunaga, Joel Seibel, Terry Slade, Grace Stanzell
- Animation: Jerry Hathcock, Frank Andrina, Ed Barge, Lee Dyer, Isadore Ellis, Hugh Fraser, Bob Goe, Ken Muse, Don Patterson, Tom Ray, Morey Reden, Veve Risto, Lloyd Vaughan, Carlo Vinci
- Backgrounds: Walt Peregoy, Fernando Arce, Daniela Bielecka, Bill Butler, Cathy Clark, Philip DeGuard, Bob Gentle, Curt Perkins, Don Watson
- Musical Director: Ted Nichols
- Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
- Ink and Paint Supervisor: Roberta Greutert
- Titles: Iraj Paran
- Xerography: Robert "Tiger" West
- Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
- Editorial Supervision: Larry Cowan
- Music Editor: Pat Foley
- Effects Editors: Earl Bennett, Wayne Hughes
- Sound Reader: Peter Aries, Jr.
- Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
- Post Production: Joed Eaton
- Camera: Charles Flekal, Marshall Valdez, Roy Wade, Norm Stainback
- A Hanna-Barbera Production
- (c) 1971 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
Other appearances
- The Hair Bear Bunch also made special guest appearances at a celebrity roast honoring Fred Flintstone in the TV special Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1977).
- Hair Bear also made an appearance in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, where he was accused of property damage and attacking customers and co-workers at a fast food restaurant.
- They also made a brief appearance in the pilot of Welcome to Eltingville.
External links
- Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! at IMDb
- Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! according to Wingnut
- Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! at the Big Cartoon DataBase
- Template:Tv.com show
- The Cartoon Scrapbook – Information and details on Help!...It's the Hair Bear Bunch!
- Articles lacking sources from February 2008
- American animated television series
- Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios series and characters
- CBS network shows
- Saturday morning programming on CBS
- 1970s American animated television series
- 1971 television series debuts
- 1974 television series endings
- Television series by Warner Bros. Television
- Television programs featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Fictional bears
- American children's television series
- USA Cartoon Express