Ranger Smith

**Ranger Smith** (known as **Mr. Ranger** by Yogi Bear or **Mr. Smith** and **President Smith** in *Jellystone!*) is the head ranger of Jellystone Park, Yogi's rival and friend and one of the main fictional characters of the *Yogi Bear* franchise.

## Development

In the original *Yogi Bear* shorts on *The Huckleberry Hound Show*, a different and unnamed character that would evolve into Ranger Smith had a much different appearance, looking older, and with a white mustache, though his voice was the same (this character model was eventually used for Smith's boss in later specials), and other rangers also served as the authority figures in early episodes.

Even after his trademark appearance had been established, Ranger Smith's design was notably inconsistently drawn throughout each episode of *The Yogi Bear Show*. In one episode, he appears as his young self, but this may be his first actual encounter with Yogi, as he does not appear to recognize him and refers to Yogi as "that bear".

### **Reception and Significance**

Ranger Smith, together with similar children's characters such as Ranger Rick and J. Audubon Woodlore by Disney has become a stereotype of the American park ranger. This had led to some complaints from the park rangers about their job being misunderstood and not treated seriously by the public, which due to those stereotypes fails to recognize park rangers are law enforcement officers.

## Background

A former US Army soldier, he is the strict, serious and stern head ranger of Jellystone Park, in contrast to Yogi's troublesome antics, and he greatly disapproves of his picnic basket thievery, mainly because it repels parkgoers and creates extra work for him.

### **Personality**

Smith is hardworking, works by the book, and is strait-laced, and wants nothing more than for Yogi to do what bears should be doing by not harassing the park visitors by stealing their food. He doesn't completely hate Yogi, it's just that he's always an overbearing exhaustion for Smith to handle. Sometimes he will threaten to send Yogi to other places around the country, or even other parts of the world, like Siberia for example.

He gets along fine with Boo-Boo since he likes him because, unlike Yogi, he always tries to stay out of trouble, and Cindy, because they abide by the rules, or at least better than Yogi manages to.

He seemed to join the group, Yogi's Treasure Hunters in *Yogi's Treasure Hunt*, to simply keep track of Yogi, because if he wasn't keeping to his job, he would send Yogi back to Jellystone Park.

### **Physical Appearance**

Ranger Smith is a tall, slender and middle-aged man with fair skin, black hair (blonde in *Yogi's Gang*), a bulbous nose, black eyes (blue in the 2010 live-action film), and black eyebrows. When he was a security guard at Jellystone Mall from *Yo Yogi!*, he had freckles on his cheeks.

### **Fashion**

As a ranger for the *Yogi Bear* franchise, he wears a variously dark-green colored ranger's outfit, including a long-sleeved collar shirt with a yellow shoulder patch, and a black tie, long pants with a black belt with a gold buckle and dark brown or black shoes and a campaign hat.

When he was a security guard at Jellystone Mall from *Yo Yogi!*, he wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt with a pocket, a white name tag, a blue shoulder badge, a blue tie, blue pants with a black belt and a gold buckle, a light blue hat with a gold oval on the center and a blue visor, and black shoes.

## History

### **Early Life**

He had an evil twin brother, Slippery Smith.

## Appearances

### **Television series**

* *The Huckleberry Hound Show* (1958-1960)
* *The Yogi Bear Show* (1961-1962)
* *Yogi's Gang* (1973)
	+ "*Mr. Prankster*"
	+ "*The Gossipy Witch*"
	+ "*Lotta Litter*"
* *Laff-a-Lympics* (1977)
	+ "*Quebec and Baghdad*"
* *Yogi's Treasure Hunt* (1985-88)
* *The New Yogi Bear Show* (1988)
* *Yo Yogi!* (1991)
* *Jellystone!*
	+ "*Must Be Jelly*"
	+ "*A Town Video: Welcome to Jellystone*" (no lines)
	+ "*Boo-Boo and Benny: Little Buddy Trouble*" (no lines)
	+ "*The Box Thief*"
	+ "*Jailcation*" (no lines)

### **Films and specials**

* *Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!* (1964)
* *Yogi's First Christmas* (1980)
* *Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper* (1982)
* *Yogi's Great Escape* (1987)
* *Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears* (1988)
* *Yogi the Easter Bear* (1994)
* *Lullabye-Bye Bear (2001)*
* *Yogi Bear* (2010)

### **Video games**

* *Yogi's Frustration* (1983), by Mattel for Intellivision
* *Yogi Bear* (1987)
* *Yogi's Great Escape*
* *Yogi Bear's Math Adventures*
* *Yogi Bear visits... the National Parks*
* *Yogi's Big Clean Up* (1992)
* *Yogi Bear's Gold Rush* (1994)
* *Yogi Bear: Great Balloon Blast*
* *Yogi Bear: The Video Game* (2010)

### **Publications**

* *Yogi Bear (comic strips)* (1961-1981)
* *Yogi Bear (Dell Comics)*
* *Yogi Bear (Gold Key Comics)*
* *Yogi Bear (Charlton Comics)* and *Harvey*
* *The Flintstones (Marvel Comics)*
* *Yogi Bear (Marvel Comics)*
* *Yogi Bear (Archie Comics)* (Hanna-Barbera All-Stars, Hanna-Barbera Presents and Yogi Bear #1)
* *Cartoon Network Presents*
* "*Bear-ly Scared*" (*Scooby-Doo! Team-Up* #35)
* *Deathstroke/Yogi Bear Special #1*

## Portrayals

* **Don Messick** (1959-1994)
	+ *The Huckleberry Hound Show* (1959-1960)
	+ *The Yogi Bear Show* (1961-1962)
	+ *Yogi's Gang* (1973)
	+ *Laff-a-Lympics* (1977)
	+ *Yogi's First Christmas (1980)*
	+ *Yogi Bear's All-Star Comedy Christmas Caper* (1982)
	+ *Yogi's Treasure Hunt* (1985-1988)
	+ *Yogi's Great Escape* (1987)
	+ *Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears* (1988)
	+ *Yogi the Easter Bear* (1994)
* **Corey Burton** (1999)
	+ *Boo Boo Runs Wild*
	+ *A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith*
* **Jeff Bergman** (2001, 2018, 2021-present)
	+ *Lullabye-Bye Bear*
	+ *Yogi Bear* slot machine
	+ *Jellystone!*

### **Other**

* Daws Butler (1958-1959)
* Frank Milano
	+ *Songs of Yogi Bear and his Pals* (1961)
	+ *Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!* (1964)
* Mike Stewart - *How to Be a Better-Than-the Average Child Without Really Trying!* (1962)
* Billy West (Cartoon Network, 1990s commercials)
* Greg Burson - *Yo Yogi!* (1991)
* Tom Cavanagh (*Yogi Bear* (2010) and *Yogi Bear: The Video Game*)
* Eric Bauza (Quicken Loans commercial) and The VeggieTales Show

## Notes/Trivia

* Ranger Smith's appearances grew larger in the second season of *The Huckleberry Hound Show*, although he still wasn't so important that he couldn't be replaced with a nameless lookalike stand-in now and then.
* In the theatrical film, *Hey There, It's Yogi Bear!*, his first name was revealed to be **John**, but later in the comic strips, he was called **Bill** and *The New Yogi Bear Show* short "*Predaterminator*", he was called **Francis**.
* In *Yogi's Gang*, he inexplicably had blonde hair.
* Don Messick voiced both Ranger Smith and Boo-Boo.
* In the live-action film, and unlike his animated counterpart, Ranger Smith isn't completely enraged by Yogi's antics, instead being a lot calmer (perhaps for realism) in dealing with the latter. Although he did act a little madder at the end of the film.