Help!... It's the Hair Bear Bunch! | Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday… Show! 71

 

Before We Bare Bears, there were these three bears.

These three bears are the life of the party at the zoo, but two patrolmen do their best to snuff the soiree (well, one does his best, the other barely keeps his uniform on and tidy)

It’s time to shout… Help!... It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!

 where a large assortment of animals live, eat, entertain visitors and occasionally cause chaos. Chaos caused usually by the bears. But on the other side of the zoo are

Taking place at the fictional Wonderland Zoo, adventures and misadventures are abound of three bears -- Hair Bear, Bubi Bear and Square Bear. They live the life of luxury in a specially-marked cave in the zoo in that they hooked up with amazing amenities you wished you had in your home today and do their best to sneak out to do whatever they wanted and desired. But in their midst are two workers

The Characters:

- The Bunch: They’re bear cousins who share a cave at Wonderland. 
-- Hair Bear (voiced by Daws Butler [yep, the voice of another bear - Yogi Bear]) (and yes, his name is Hair. Just look at his Hair), the trio’s loud, lively, large-lipped leader and the creator of clever schemes to benefit themselves temporarily escape from and help the other animals within Wonderland. (Yep, Hair's pretty much a more lively, bombastic version of Yogi)
-- Bubi Bear (voiced by Paul Winchell), the benevolent but babbling, blabbering busybody, and
-- Square Bear (voiced by William Calloway), a lanky lummox -- probably named so because his brain is a weak square peg stuck inside his damp, round hole of a head. At least he can operate an invisible motorcycle.

(These guys are so awesome. They act like kings in their castle (well, their cave), they’re well-loved across the land (uhh, zoo) and always defeat the evil wizard and his slow-witted henchman (make that zoo director and his assistant). Their antics always get a wide grin and a laugh out of me, and seeing them screw over Peevly and Botch at the end, while predictable, is refreshing.
The bears themselves and the show reminded me of Yogi Bear. Both are fun, cheery, goodtime shows about walking, talking bears getting one over presiding authority to get whatever they desire; they wear clothes and hats; and the leader (like Yogi) is voiced by Daws Butler. Differing though, Bunch takes place at and live in a fabulously furnished cave pad Wonderland Zoo, while Yogi’s in a normal cave Jellystone Park - a national forest; The Bear Bunch wears shirts (well, Hair wears a vest and an ascot) and hats while Yogi and Boo-Boo wear ties; the Bunch’s rivals are evil zoo workers, while Yogi’s is a sensible park ranger. Both are great and fun cartoons though.)

- Eustace P. Peevly (voiced by John Stephenson), the head zookeeper at Wonderland. He’s mean, he’s grumpy, he’s uptight and he rules the Zoo with an iron fist, making it anything but a Wonderland. But, he may be in for a bigger battle than he thinks with the Bear Bunch against him (and his deputy...).
--I’d like to think Peevly is one of Hanna-Barbera’s biggest villains. Because of his self-serving, mightier-than-thou attitude and authoritarian mindset over the Zoo and overly strict rulings over his inhabitants - who are animals (boy would PETA pick him apart these days), and appearing in all episodes, Eustace would hold up with some of the most evil -- H-B has ever had in its bad guy arsenal. For goodness sakes, he forced the animals to build him a damn pool in one episode! And when he commits another borderline criminal affair, it feels so good when he gets his comeuppance at the end of the episode (Ironically, I consider Peevly one of John Stephenson’s greatest voice acting roles - which is funny because he had many.)

-Lionel J. Botch, Mr. Peevly’s assistant.  He’s scary strong, but he’s sloppy, silly and superbly stupid. He tries his best to reign in the Bunch, but is thwarted by either the Bunch of his own volition. He also desperately wants a promotion but is turned down by Peevly every time he asks (mostly because he's barely doing his current job).
-- I feel sorry for Lionel; he’s in the middle of a dangerous situation. On one side, he has a skinny but screeching and self-serving supervisor who demands he do some dangerous and embarrassing tasks he chooses not to do just for his respect - which he rarely if ever gets, insults him on the daily, and openly sees him as inferior. On the other hand, you have three bears who see him as a joke and a plaything, tricking him to advance their schemes and tossing him aside for him to deal with Peevly after yet another failure. He can be good at his job and just wants a promotion, but Peev-edoff-ly denies him every time. Too bad he’s really dumb too.

Both the Bear Bunch and Peevly & Botch contrast incredibly well. The Bears want to live the life of luxury and liberation, but Peevly (and Botch) is mostly the wall that stands between the two. Meanwhile, it is his job; Peevly wants Wonderland Zoo to run under his vision: an tight authoritarian ship while the animals' purpose is to eat and entertain visitors - and nothing else. The very opposite of a Land of Wonder. (With Botch along for the ride, just as he wants a promotion). But the Bear Bunch do their best to enlighten their friends and make life in Wonderland just that. And each episode shows that contrast in many entertaining ways. 

The Animation:

The ink-and-paint of the series is totally on-par with Hanna-Barbera's output in 1971. What I mean is, like The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and - to a lesser extent - The Funky Phantom, it features bright, cheerful backgrounds; mixes of vibrant colors, cutesy animal characters and human characters with the right balance of realistic and cartoonish (see Peevly's nose and Botch's 

The Writing:

I'd like to think the writing in HBB is decidedly solid and smooth. 

-- Peevly's dialogue toward the Bears sounds genuinely menacing

One of the series' running gags is Botch repeating parts of a threat or something menacing that Peevly just said; Peevly isn't having it and shuts him down quick. It's repetitive and you expect it a lot, but it's always funny.

Laugh Track:
There is one. But a version of the series appears on digital platforms without one. I've watched the series without the laugh track, and it feels like a breath of fresh air, with no intentions of even trying.

Random Thought:
According to author ,  the bears wore clothes that reflected the counterculture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Seeing what they wore, no wonder it got cancelled. I really wouldn’t want to be caught dead wearing Hair’s outfit. Bubi and Square’s outfit I could see rocking in the summertime though. 

-- Here's something fascinating. According to TVTropes, Stephenson was chosen to voice Peevly because he sounded like actor Joe Flynn from McHale's Navy (a sitcom starring Ernest Borgnine -- best known, depending on who you ask, as either Marty or Mermaid Man). Flynn even auditioned for Peevly (on suggestion by Stephenson), but - ironically -  Flynn was passed... for Stephenson. Joseph thought JF didn't sound quite right as Peevly, while JS did.

The Opinion:
Help! ...It's the Hair Bear Bunch! is a fun, breezy, goofy and hilarious cartoon. It's written sharp, the jokes land smoothly, the performance by the voice actors is amazing,