Laff-A-Lympics is an American animated comedy television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series premiered as part of the Saturday-morning cartoon program block Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, which consists of 24 episodes, on ABC on September 10, 1977. The show is a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC primetime series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one year earlier. It featured 45 Hanna-Barbera characters organized into teams (the Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens) which competed each week for gold, silver, and bronze medals. In each episode, the Really Rottens would try in each event to cheat only to get caught by Snagglepuss each time. One season of 16 episodes was produced in 1977–78, and for the 1978–79 season, eight new episodes were added to reruns and aired under the title Scooby's All-Stars. Unlike most cartoon series produced by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, Laff-A-Lympics did not contain a laugh track. Scooby’s Laff-a-Lympics was originally owned by Taft Broadcasting; Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution currently owns the series through its two in-name-only units, Warner Bros. Family Entertainment and Turner Entertainment.
The "all-star" cast was mostly made up of characters from other Hanna-Barbera series. The "Scooby Doobies" included characters from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, Speed Buggy and Dynomutt, Dog Wonder; the "Yogi Yahooeys" had characters from The Yogi Bear Show, The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Quick Draw McGraw Show. The only original characters were some members of the Really Rottens.
In 1978, Hanna-Barbera produced another "all-star" show with a similar theme, titled Yogi's Space Race.
Format
The sporting competitions in which the characters are called upon to compete are often comical or offbeat versions of Olympic sports, races, or scavenger hunts. Each segment is set in a different location around the world. In contrast to other Hanna-Barbera sports themed shows, the settings for "Laff-A-Lympics" were real places (with the exception of Atlantis).
Episodes are presented in a format similar to an Olympic television broadcast, with an unseen announcer. Hosting duties and commentary are provided by Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf (from It's the Wolf! segments of Cattanooga Cats voiced by John Stephenson impersonating Paul Lynde). Snagglepuss and Mildew wear animated versions of the contemporary yellow jackets of ABC Sports announcers. Other Hanna-Barbera characters such as Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Jabberjaw and Peter Potamus made appearances as guest announcers and judges. Other non-competing characters include parents of contestants (interviewed by Mildew before the events) and various monsters and creatures that serve as antagonists during the events.
The "good guy" teams, consisting of the Yogi Yahooeys and the Scooby Doobies, are cooperative and loyal. The Really Rottens, however, always cheat. Typically, the Really Rottens would be poised to win before making a fatal error at the last moment, allowing one of the other two teams to end up on top. Occasionally, though, the Rottens' cheating was not actually against the rules, resulting in their winning (overall, the Scooby team dominated, winning 14 times, against seven victories for the Yahooies, two for the Rottens, and a three-way-tie in the final episode).
Only one complete season of Laff-A-Lympics episodes was produced, with eight new episodes combined with reruns for the second season of Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics (billed as Scooby's All-Stars). When it premiered in the fall of 1977,Scooby's All Star Laff-A-Lympics consisted of several segments, including Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels (which led the two-hour program and later was spun off into its own half-hour show), The Scooby-Doo Show and Dynomutt, Dog Wonder (both of which featured a small number of newly produced segments alongside repeated segments from earlier seasons), and the Laff-A-Lympics segments themselves. The show resurfaced in 1980 as a half-hour series on its own (without the Captain Caveman, Scooby-Doo and Dynomutt cartoons) simply titled Laff-A-Lympics and was later rerun on ABC in 1986. In later years, it has been frequently rerun on USA Cartoon Express, Cartoon Network and Boomerang, often during the time periods when the Summer and Winter Olympics were held (until 2014). It most recently aired on Boomerang in September 2023, and later on MeTV Toons in 2025.
Teams
The Scooby Doobies
This team drew mainly from the 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, particularly the "mystery-solving" series derived from Scooby-Doo, whose titular character served as team captain.
The early production art for the series showed Jeannie from the animated series of the same name, as well as Melody, Alexander, Alexandra and Sebastian the Cat, all from Josie and the Pussycats, as members of the Scooby Doobies. However, legal problems with Columbia Pictures Television, Screen Gems' successor, as well as Archie Comics, prevented them from appearing in the series. Although Hanna-Barbera happened to have the ownership of Jeannie character Babu, Columbia had all rights to Jeannie's image, including her cartoon form at the time. Similarly, Archie Comics held the rights to the Josie characters.
As a result of all these issues, in the actual series, Babu appeared all by himself as a member of the Scooby Doobies, while Jeannie was replaced by Hong Kong Phooey and the Josie characters were replaced by characters from Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.
Among the members of the Scooby Doobies are:
NameNoteTeam captain; Character from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The New Scooby-Doo Movies and The Scooby-Doo ShowCharacter from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, The New Scooby-Doo Movies and The Scooby-Doo ShowCharacter from The Scooby-Doo ShowCharacter from Dynomutt, Dog WonderThe Character from Captain Caveman and the Teen AngelsCharacter from Speed BuggyCharacter from JeannieCharacter from Hong Kong Phooey
The Yogi Yahooeys This team drew mainly from the 1950s and 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoons and was the only team of characters made up completely of anthropomorphic animals. Grape Ape was the only post-1962 character in the line-up.
Among the members of the Yogi Yahooeys are:
NameNoteTeam captain;Character from The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear ShowCharacter from The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Yogi Bear ShowCharacter from The Yogi Bear ShowCharacter from The Huckleberry Hound ShowCharacter from The Quick Draw McGraw ShowCharacter from The Hanna-Barbera New Cartoon SeriesCharacter from The Great Grape Ape Show
The Really Rottens This team was composed of villainous characters that frequently cheated by either giving themselves an unfair advantage in a contest or sabotaging the other teams, often getting themselves penalized for such conducts. With the exception of Mumbly and the Dalton Brothers, all of the team members were original characters.
Originally, Muttley and Dick Dastardly were planned as the leaders of the Really Rottens; however, they could not appear as those characters were co-owned by Heatter-Quigley Productions. In their place, Hanna-Barbera used the existing character Mumbly and created the new character Dread Baron. Prior to Laff-A-Lympics, on his original show, Mumbly was a heroic detective rather than a villain. Following the character's revision as the villainous team leader, he remained a villain in Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, which was also Dread Baron's only appearance outside of Laff-A-Lympics.
The Dalton Brothers appeared in 1950s and 1960s shorts (including the 1958 short Sheriff Huckleberry Hound, which featured appearances by Dinky, Dirty, and Dastardly Dalton, as well as their other brothers Dangerous, Detestable, Desperate, and Despicable). However, they were given new character designs for the Laff-A-Lympics series. After Laff-A-Lympics, Dinky reappeared in The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound with brothers Stinky (who bore a resemblance to the Laff-A-Lympics design of Dastardly Dalton), Finky, and Pinky.
Among the members of the Really Rottens are:
NameNoteTeam captain;Character from The Mumbly Cartoon Show;Bears a strong resemblance to the Wacky Races character Muttley;Mumbly's retcon from good detective (as depicted in his preceding cartoon show) to villain was never addressed in Laff-a-LympicsOriginal character;Bears a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly (who is revealed to be his twin brother in the comic book Laff-A-Lympics #13) and the Red Max, both from Wacky RacesCharacter from The Quick Draw McGraw Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show;Towering villainous cowboy brother whose Stetson obscures his eyesCharacter from The Quick Draw McGraw Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show;Short villainous cowboy brother with mustacheCharacter from The Quick Draw McGraw Show and The Huckleberry Hound Show;Short villainous cowboy brother with blond hairMr. CreepleyOriginal character;Patriarch of villainous monster family based on The Gruesomes and Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist;His voice resembles that of Peter LorreMrs. CreepleyOriginal character;Matriarch of villainous monster family based on The Gruesomes and Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil ScientistJunior CreepleyOriginal character;Child of villainous monster family based on The Gruesomes and Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil ScientistOriginal character;Pet of the Creepleys;Villainous hybrid version of Squiddly Diddly and Occy the Octopus (pet of The Gruesomes)Original character;Evil magician whose tricks and spells hardly ever work as intended, often backfiring on his part;Bears a resemblance to Abner K. Dabra from the 1963 book Yogi Bear and the Cranky MagicianOriginal character;Pet rabbit of the Great Fondoo whose only speaking line is "Brak";Bears a resemblance to the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid like You Doing in a Place like This?Original character;Mean-spirited hillbilly with split ends in her hair;Though her name is similar to Li'l Abner character "Daisy Mae", she bears a much stronger resemblance to a lesser-known supporting character from that same comic strip: Moonbeam McSwineOriginal character;Daisy Mayhem's eyepatch-wearing pet pig
Cast Daws Butler as Yogi Bear, Augie Doggie, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, Snagglepuss, Mr. Jinks, Dixie, Hokey Wolf, Super Snooper, Blabber Mouse, Scooby-Dum, Dastardly Dalton Don Messick as Boo-Boo Bear, Pixie, Ranger Smith, Scooby-Doo, Mumbly, Dirty Dalton, Mr. Creepley, Junior Creepley, Announcer Julie Bennett as Cindy Bear John Stephenson as Doggie Daddy, Mildew Wolf, Dread Baron, The Great Fondoo Frank Welker as Jabberjaw, Yakky Doodle, Tinker, Dynomutt, Magic Rabbit, Sooey Mel Blanc as Captain Caveman, Speed Buggy, Barney Rubble Bob Holt as Grape Ape, Dinky Dalton, Orful Octopus Vernee Watson-Johnson as Dee Dee Skyes Marilyn Schreffler as Brenda Chance, Daisy Mayhem Laurel Page as Taffy Dare, Mrs. Creepley Scatman Crothers as Hong Kong Phooey Gary Owens as Blue Falcon Alan Reed as Fred Flintstone (earlier episodes) Henry Corden as Fred Flintstone (later episodes) Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers Joe Besser as Babu
Episodes Season 1 – Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977)
Season 2 – Scooby's All-Stars (1978)
Home release VHS In 1996, four VHS editions of the show were released in the US on the NTSC format, each containing two episodes for a running time of approximately 50 minutes:
Heavens to Hilarity, This Is It, Sports Fans! Yippee for the Yogi Yahooeys! On Your Marks, Get Set — Go Scoobys! Something Smells Really Rotten
At the same time a "bumper special" VHS tape was released in the UK on the PAL format containing the following episodes (these UK episodes were the US episodes divided in two, with just one location per episode):
"Grand Canyon" "Ireland" "Israel" "Swiss Alps" "Tokyo" "Acapulco" "Baghdad"