Yogi Bear

**Yogi Bear** (voiced by Jeff Bergman) is a brown bear who is a doctor at Jellystone Hospital. He is self-assured, though a goofball. His first love is food, and crazy schemes will sometimes come into play in order to get his paws on some goodies. He was originally from *The Huckleberry Hound Show* and *his namesake show.*

## Development

Created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera of Hanna-Barbera Productions, he made his debut in 1958 as a supporting character in *The Huckleberry Hound Show*. Yogi Bear was the first breakout character created by the duo and was eventually more popular than Huckleberry Hound. In January 1961, he was given his own show, *The Yogi Bear Show*, sponsored by Kellogg's, which included the segments *Snagglepuss* and *Yakky Doodle*. *Hokey Wolf* replaced his segment on *The Huckleberry Hound Show*.

During character development, several names such as Bumpkin Bear, Yucca Bear and Huckleberry Bear were considered, but didn't quite click with either Hanna or Barbera--until the name of New York Yankees star Lawrence "Yogi" Berra, who was known for his amusing quotes, such as "half the lies they talk about me aren't true", came up; in time, such would be adopted.

Berra sued Hanna-Barbera for defamation, but their management claimed the similarity was just coincidence. Berra withdrew his suit, but the defense was considered implausible. At the time Yogi Bear first hit TV screens, Yogi Berra was a household name. Journalist Walter Brasch once wrote that "whether coincidence or not, it is difficult to find anyone else in the animation industry who believes it.

Yogi was one of several Hanna-Barbera characters to have a collar. This allowed animators to keep his body relatively static, redrawing only his head in each frame when he spoke – one of the ways Hanna-Barbera cut costs, reducing the number of drawings needed for a seven-minute cartoon from around 14,000 to around 2,000.

## Background

### **Personality**

Like many Hanna-Barbera characters, Yogi's personality and mannerisms were based on a popular celebrity of the time. Art Carney's Ed Norton character on *The Honeymooners* was said to be Yogi's inspiration; his voice mannerisms broadly mimic Carney as Norton. Norton, in turn, received influence from Borscht Belt and comedians of vaudeville.

The plot of most of Yogi's cartoons centered on his antics in Jellystone Park. Yogi, accompanied by his constant companion Boo-Boo Bear, would often try to steal picnic baskets from campers in the park, much to the displeasure of Park Ranger Smith. Yogi's girlfriend, Cindy Bear, sometimes appeared and usually disapproved of Yogi's antics.

### **Catchphrases**

Besides often speaking in rhyme, Yogi Bear had a number of catchphrases, including his hypocorism for picnic baskets ("pic-a-nic baskets") and his favorite self-promotion ("I'm smarter than the av-er-age bear!"), although he often overestimates his own cleverness. Another characteristic of Yogi was his deep and silly voice. He often greets Ranger Smith with a cordial, "Hello, Mr. Ranger, sir!" and "Hey there, Boo-Boo!" as his preferred greeting to his sidekick, Boo-Boo. Yogi would also often use puns in his speech and had a habit of pronouncing large words with a long vocal flourish.

### **Physical Appearance**

Yogi is a big, tall and full-sized anthropomorphic bear with brown fur, a black nose, black eyes, black eyebrows and a tan muzzle. His unique features include a trademark green porkpie hat with a black center and a white collar with a green necktie.

## Notes/Trivia

* Yogi's freeloading characteristics were roughly copied from Humphrey the Bear by Disney.
* Yogi is mentioned at the end of the Hanna-Barbera-produced *Sinbad Jr. and his Magic Belt* short "*Mad, Mad Movies*", in which the director pleads with Sinbad to not go and tells him he would make him bigger Yogi.

## External Links

* Yogi Bear at Hanna-Barbera Wiki
* Yogi Bear at Laff-a-Lympics Wiki
* Yogi Bear at Yogi Bear Wiki