How many of you out there plan on watching the
2012 Summer Olympics?
The Olympics are probably one of the most watched
sporting events in the entire world. As
many as one billion people worldwide are expected to tune in to watch at least
one of the Olympic events being showcased.
Thousands of athletes representing 200 different countries compete in a
variety of events, all with the goal of winning a bronze, silver, or gold
medal. This year, the Olympic ceremonies
are being held in London, the third time that the city has hosted the Summer
Olympics (the other two years were 1908 and 1948) since the modern Olympic
Games were first held in Athens, Greece in 1896.
All eyes will be focused on London, as the nations
participating in the games will be cheering on their athletes in the quest for
gold. I know that I will be wishing all
of my fellow Canadians the best of luck in the Olympic Games, and hope that
they bring home the gold.
Traditionally speaking, Canada hasn’t done so hot
in regards to gold medals won...at least in the Summer Olympics. The highest amount of gold medals won by a
Canadian team was ten, back in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles,
California. Coincidentally, the 1984
Games also had the highest amount of medals won in total by a Canadian team
with 44. As far as other gold medal
counts go for Canada, we ended up winning seven gold medals in Barcelona 1992 and
four in both St. Louis 1904 and Amsterdam 1928.
Embarrassingly enough, one of the most
disappointing performances by a Canadian team in the Summer Olympics was in the
very year Canada hosted the games. The
1976 Montreal games were a disaster for Canada.
Not only was the Canadian team shut out of winning a gold medal (we
ended up winning eleven medals total though), but the debt was so massive that
it took three decades to pay it off!
Thankfully in the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, we had our best gold
medal performance ever for the Olympic Games with 14 won!
Go Canada!
You know, all this talk about the Olympic Games
makes me think about a Saturday morning cartoon show that I vaguely remember
watching as a kid. It was a show that
also had an Olympic themed setting.
Although the series aired in between the 1976 and 1980 Summer Olympics,
the show did show everyone the hilarity that could occur if some of our
favourite cartoon characters competed in some of the events that some of our
celebrated athletes won medals for.
Today, we’re going to look back on the short-lived
Hanna-Barbera cartoon “Laff-A-Lympics”.
“Laff-A-Lympics” only managed to run for two
seasons during ABC’s Saturday Morning cartoon block. It debuted on September 10, 1977, and ran for
24 episodes, which were rerun on the station until July 31, 1979. The television show was loosely based on
events that were featured in both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, but also
ended up having elements from “Battle of the Network Stars” thrown in for good
measure.
The premise of the show was simple. A total of 45 characters from various
Hanna-Barbera cartoons were divided up into three different teams. Each episode featured these three teams
competing against each other in various events.
Now, unlike the real Olympic Games, in which cheating is strongly discouraged,
in Laff-A-Lympics, it’s quite normal to have strange things happen on an
Olympic course.
The Laff-A-Lympics were hosted by Snagglepuss and
Mildew Wolf, and because the show aired on ABC, both characters were outfitted
with bright yellow sportsjackets (which all ABC sportscasters wore back in the
late 1970s). The show also had guest
characters serving as judges and commentators which included Jabberjaw, Peter
Potamus, Fred Flintstone, and Barney Rubble.
I suppose that you want to know what the three
teams are in Laff-A-Lympics, don’t you?
Well, here they are, written entirely in their team colours.
THE SCOOBY-DOOBIES
SCOOBY-DOO - Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Dum, Shaggy Rogers
DYNOMUTT, DOG WONDER – Dynomutt, Blue Falcon
CAPTAIN CAVEMAN – Captain Caveman, Brenda Chance, Taffy Dare,
Dee Dee Skyes
SPEED BUGGY – Speed Buggy, Tinker
JEANNIE – Babu
HONG KONG PHOOEY – Hong Kong Phooey
THE YOGI YAHOOEYS
YOGI BEAR – Yogi Bear, Boo-Boo Bear, Cindy Bear, Huckleberry
Hound, Pixie, Dixie, Mr. Jinks, Hokey Wolf, Yakky Doodle
QUICK DRAW McGRAW – Quick Draw McGraw, Snooper, Blabber, Augie
Doggie, Doggie Daddy
HANNA-BARBERA NEW CARTOON SERIES – Wally Gator
GREAT GRAPE APE SHOW – Grape Ape
THE REALLY ROTTENS
Mumbly, Dread Baron, Dinky Dalton, Dirty Dalton, Dastardly
Dalton, Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, Junior Creepley, Orful Octopus, The Great
Fondoo, Magic Rabbit, Daisy Mayhem, Sooey
TRIVIA: Originally, the
Scooby-Doobies were supposed to have different characters. It was originally planned to have Jeannie
from “Jeannie” on the team, as well as Melody, Alexander, Alexandra, and Sebastian
the Cat from Josie and the Pussycats.
But due to trademark rights held by Columbia Pictures Television and
Archie Comics, the characters weren’t able to be used. Jeannie was replaced with Hong Kong Phooey,
and the Pussycats characters were replaced with the cast from Captain Caveman. However, since Babu was an original
Hanna-Barbera creation, he was allowed to be a part of the show.
EVEN MORE TRIVIA: With
the exception of the Daltons from Quick Draw McGraw, and Mumbly from “Grape Ape”,
the people on the Really Rottens were original creations.
Here’s the fun
part though. Although the Scooby-Doobies
and Yogi Yahooies were two separate teams, they ended up working together very
well. They were all friends, and when
one member of the team got into a sticky situation, the other team would help
him/her to safety. The Really Rottens on
the other hand really lived up to their name.
They would often play dirty tricks on the other two teams all in the
name of getting an advantage in the games.
They only cared about one thing.
Winning.
And just how did
teams win? Well, after each event, they
were given a set of points. In almost
all cases, the first place team would score 25 points, second place team would
score 15 points, and the last place team would get 10. In the last event, the point totals would be
doubled, or teams would get added bonus points.
At the end of the episode, the team with the most points, ended up with
the gold medal.
But what the
Really Rottens didn’t realize was that points could also be deducted from
totals if any of the people on the team were found guilty of sabotaging events,
they could lose points. And those lost
points could mean the difference between winning and losing!
In fact, over the
24 episodes of the series, I can tell you that one team won the gold medal
fourteen times. Another team only won it
twice. And the final team won the gold
medal seven times.
But, wait...that’s
only a total of 23 medals. What about
the missing medal?
I could tell
you. But wouldn’t it be more fun to
watch it yourself? I couldn’t find the
episode online, but if you watch the episode “Siam and the Moon”, the answer
behind the missing medal is found there.
On that note, I’ll
end this note by wishing all athletes competing in London the very best of
luck, and may all of your Olympic dreams come true.
And if they don’t,
there’s always Rio de Janeiro in 2016!
No comments:
Post a Comment