When It Comes to Great ’70s Sports Dynasties, Don’t Forget the Scooby Doobies’ Domination of Hanna-Barbera’s ‘Laff-a-Lympics’
When recalling sports team dynasties of the 1970s, some notable names stand out: The Cincinnati Reds in Major League Baseball. The Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League. The Montreal Canadiens in the National Hockey League.
And, of course, there were the Scooby Doobies in the Laff-a-Lympics.
© Hanna-Barbera/Screenshot from youtube.com/@hewey1972
Debuting as part of ABC’s Saturday morning lineup in Fall 1977, Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics (aka Scooby’s All-Star Laff-a-Lympics) was produced by good old Hanna-Barbera and co-created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who also created the Scooby-Doo franchise, among other animated favorites (and who left Hanna-Barbera to form their own renowned cartoon production company, Ruby-Spears, later in the ’70s).
The show had a similar premise to ABC’s Battle of the Network Stars, which had premiered the previous year. Only here, instead of live-action TV stars competing in various Olympic-like feats of athleticism and strength, there was a large roster of legendary (and some not-so-legendary) established Hanna-Barbera characters, along with several original creations, who were divided into three teams to compete in events at various international locales.
Wacky situations were guaranteed once the Laff-a-Lympics got underway on any given week, and — Heavens to Murgatroyd! — Snagglepuss (along with Mildew Wolf) was on hand to comment on all the action.
© Hanna Barbera/screenshot from youtube.com/@hewey1972
Two of the teams — the Scooby Doobies and the Yogi Yahooeys — were made up of “good guys” who played fair and displayed good sportsmanship. The third team, however, lived up to their name — the Really Rottens — and were always scheming and cheating, with (mostly) unsuccessful results.
The Scooby Doobies primarily featured characters who were relatively new — and mostly still popular on Saturday mornings in some cases — at the time this show premiered; most of them had premiered earlier in the ’70s, and I think the oldest one was the team captain, Scooby-Doo, whose first show debuted in 1969.
The Yogi Yahooeys, on the other hand, were comprised of characters who were sort of seen as more “classic” and somewhat old — at least in the minds of those of us who were kids watching this in ’77-’78 — but still entertaining, as they lived on in syndication. These were characters who had been around since the late ’50s/early ’60s, like team captain Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound. For some reason, Grape Ape was on the Yogi Yahooeys; he seems like he would have been a better fit on the Scooby Doobies, as his show had aired in 1975.
Remind The Really Rottens were largely made up of original characters seen for the first time in this show. A notable exception was their captain, Mumbly — not to be confused with the similar Hanna-Barbera cartoon dog with a hoarse laugh named Muttley, though you would be more than forgiven if you were confused. Not quite sure why Muttley wasn’t here, along with his partner, Dastardly; seems like there might have been some ownership issues with the characters.
Occasionally, there would be appearances by Hanna-Barbera creations that weren’t regulars on any team in other roles, like guest announcers or judges. Characters like Jabberjaw, Peter Potamus and even Fred Flintstone, for example.
Just as enjoyable as seeing all of these beloved familiar characters was hearing many of the beloved and familiar voice actors returning to speak their lines (or shout, or laugh, or whatever) — Daws Butler, Don Messick, Frank Welker and Mel Blanc among them.
Here’s a look at who were usually the main members on each Laff-a-Lympics team:
THE SCOOBY DOOBIES (Team Captain: Scooby-Doo)
Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Scooby-Dum from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-70) and The Scooby-Doo Show (1976-78)
The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt from Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (1976-77)
Captain Caveman, Brenda, Taffy and Dee Dee from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (this actually premiered the same day as Laff-a-Lympics, on Sept. 10, 1977, and ran until 1980)
Speed Buggy and Tinker from Speed Buggy (1973)
Babu, the genie-in-training from Jeannie, Hanna-Barbera’s short-lived 1973 animated follow-up to the live-action sitcom I Dream of Jeannie
The titular martial artist mutt from Hong Kong Phooey, voiced by Scatman Crothers
THE YOGI YAHOOEYS (Team Captain: Yogi Bear)
Yogi, Boo-Boo Bear, Cindy Bear and Yakky Doodle from The Yogi Bear Show (1961-62)
Huckleberry Hound, Pixie, Dixie, Mr. Jinks and Hokey Wolf from The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958-61)
Quick Draw McGraw, Snooper, Blabber, Auggie Doggie and Doggie Daddy from The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959-61)
Wally Gator from his self-titled series (1962-63)
Grape Ape from The Great Grape Ape Show (1975)
THE REALLY ROTTENS (Team Captain: Mumbly)
Mumbly from The Mumbly Cartoon Show (1976-77)
Dread Baron (original character)
Dinky Dalton, Dirty Dalton and Dastardly Dalton from Quick Draw McGraw and Huckleberry Hound
The Creepley Family (Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, Junior Creepley and their pet, Orful Octopus; original characters)
The Great Fondoo (original character)
Magic Rabbit (original character)
Daisy Mayhem and her pet pig, Sooey (original characters)
You can see a full episode of the teams in action at the Internet Archive video just below:
So, back to all that “dynasty” talk regarding the Scooby Doobies’ dominance at the Laff-a-Lympics.
Laff-a-Lympics ran for two seasons. Season 1 had 16 episodes; Season 2, which was called Scooby’s All-Stars, had eight. Most episodes had one team winner, and I think the numbers below speak for themselves:
LAFF-A-LYMPICS/SCOOBY’S ALL-STARS TOTAL VICTORIES BY TEAM (out of 24 episodes over two seasons)
Scooby Doobies — 14 wins (12 out of 16 contests in Laff-a-Lympics; 2 out of 8 contests in All-Stars)
Yogi Yahooeys — 7 wins (4 in Laff-a-Lympics; 3 in All-Stars)
Really Rottens — 2 wins (both in All-Stars)
(Three-Way Tie in final episode)
I’m not surprised the Really Rottens were given very little chance at glory by the show’s creators; it wouldn’t be a good look for a Saturday morning kids cartoon to show cheaters prospering on a regular basis.
And I guess I’m not too surprised that Scooby-Doo’s team won most of the events, given he was probably the most popular Hanna-Barbera character at the time, with the third show in the Scooby franchise having recently launched. Fortunately, Scooby’s obnoxious nephew, Scrappy-Doo, had not yet been introduced, so he was not part of Laff-a-Lympics.
Also fortunate, for the Scooby Doobies, at least, is that there apparently was no testing for “enhanced substances” at the Laff-a-Lympics. Otherwise, Shaggy likely would have been thrown out of the competition right off the bat.
Remind