#zookeepers botch and peevly

[sohannabarberaesque]

From Kermit Schafer's "Pardon My Blooper!" collections of suspected broadcasting erratum

Once, a female contestant on an audience-participation show was asked about her husband's condition, prompting her to respond:

"My husband's nerves are always upset; he's always taking phenobarbital ..."

Making you wonder if Magilla Gorilla's antics were driving Mr. Peebles to phenobarbital. Or those of the Hair Bear Bunch sending Zookeepers Lionel Botch and Eustis Peevly thus back at the since-closed Wonderland Zoo.

And might it be stretching things to picture Ranger Smith reaching for the old phenobarbital because of Yogi Bear's seemingly endless antics in Jellystone Park's picnic and camping areas?

[summer-solo-day]

62/?? Childhood TV Shows You Should Watch

Title: Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch

Seasons: 1

Episodes: 16

Run Time: 30 Mins

Original Air Date: September 11, 1971 - January 8, 1972

Synopsis:

The series follows the Hair Bear Bunch, a group of three bear cousins who live at the Wonderland Zoo run by zoo director Mr. Peevly and zookeeper Lionel Botch. The three bears would occasionally escape their luxurious cage however, they always return to the cage before Mr. Peevly or Lionel Botch caught them. The bears had several motives for pranking and fooling Mr. Peevly and Mr. Botch, including trying to "improve their living conditions" and wanting to "embark on get-rich-quick schemes".

My Rating: 10/10

My Reasoning:

So I know this show kind of mimics other shows by Hanna Barbera such as Yogi Bear. However, I feel like it's more on the obscure side of their cartoons. I don't see many people talk about it or remember it.

I really like the characters, they're zany and lovable. I also like the voice actors too idk if that really matters to people though haha.

I think I've also made it pretty clear that I just enjoy the Hanna Barbera style of cartoons. I know a lot of them are similar but when it works, it works. So while this show is similar to a lot of their other ones it still retains a bit of uniqueness and remains enjoyable. Plus if you like the similar shows than I don't see why you wouldn't like this one too.

[thegreatallie]

So the cartoon “Help!... It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!” is a pretty typical Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Consisting of 16 episodes that aired (mostly) in 1971, the series is sometimes described as a remake of Hogan’s Heroes except a cartoon with bears. The three bears, Hair, Square, and Bubi live in the Wonderland Zoo and love sneaking out into town and generally causing trouble for the zookeeper Peevly and his assistant Botch. The premise sounds pretty solid, and there are plenty of cartoon shows and movies about animals trying to break out of the confines that humans create for them, be they zoos or their roles as housepets that can attest to that.

The thing is, though, usually when you have animals trying to break out of a zoo, it’s framed as a “what animals secretly do when humans aren’t looking” or “the secret life of X” type deal. That is, the animals look like regular animals and only start talking and walking on two legs when humans aren’t around. Except the Hair Bear Bunch, and actually EVERY animal in Wonderland Zoo talk and walk on two legs regardless of who’s around. Hair talks to Peevly all the time, usually to get himself out of trouble. All of the animals are cognizant, and really not that different mentally from the humans, except for one or two animal-ish traits (e.g., a gorilla who especially loves bananas.) It’s just that, for whatever reason, society in the Hair Bear world still puts them in the role of “animal” and it’s still perfectly normal to lock them up in zoos.

The most interesting part is that the zoo relationship appears to be symbiotic. For all his scheming and sneaking out, Hair Bear is usually cowed into behaving by Peevly threatening to send him back to the forest. So the zoo provides something he wants that nature doesn’t. It’s never stated but I assume guaranteed shelter and food, not having to forge or fight for territory in the wild. I can definitely see the appeal. It’s an interesting and weird situation and the show absolutely never touches on that. It’s just a framing device for cartoon bear hijinks.

Also one of the bears has an invisible motorcycle, and that is also never acknowledged as unusual in any way. So it’s got that going for it.

[sohannabarberaesque]

Fanfic Prompt

No less than Zookeeper Eustis Peevly at the Wonderland Zoo chewing out his assistant, Zookeeper Lionel Botch, in an obscenity-laden tirade replete with threats to cancel Botch's requests for promotion over his Gross Ineptitude and Incompetence for failing to keep the Hair Bear Bunch in check, and repeatedly.

[sohannabarberaesque]

Postcards from Snagglepuss

What a Summer of (Ursine) Love it must've been for the Hair Bear Bunch!

CAMBRIDGE, MN: Huckleberry Hound and yours truly decided to take lunch at a modest little cafe ahead of preparations for our Braham Pie Day Character Convocation in a few day's time, mainly to discuss preparations ... when, for some reason or another, along comes no less than the Hair Bear Bunch in their Volkswagen Kombi campervan for (obviously enow) lunch. And were they stunned (and I do mean STUNNED!) by our motorhome serving as our new mobile bivouac!

"And who do we have the pleasure of crossing paths with?" saith Huckleberry Hound as we were finalising our order.

"None other than the Hair Bear Bunch!", exclaimeth Hair Bear alongside his two ursine companions, Square Bear and Bubi Bear.

To which Square Bear added, "What a surprise it must be to come across you two!"

"Heavens to Yogi Bear!" I remarked. "And I presume you're getting ready for Braham Pie Day, after quite the summer of ursine love, mating even!"

Which saw the ursine trio sit at a booth across the way from us, and striking up conversation. "To put it honestly, Snag and Huck," Hair Bear remarked, "we bears just can't help but explore the sheer magic that is obvious in the release of tensions which sex can bring on!"

"Yeah," the young whippersnapper Bubi Bear remarked, "it can't help but just feel so releasing the clyde, so much is the magic to be found!"

Huckleberry asked Hair just how long these mating season road trips had been going on with the trio, to which he remarked, "Last several years. Admittedly, it's much better than back at the Wonderland Zoo, which we could see collapsing practically before our eyes for several years!"

Square Bear picked up the story: "Even with Botch and Peevly--"

"I take it they were the zookeepers," Huck remarked.

Square continued: "Correct; Botch and Peevly kept blaming us for all the collapse which the zoo had somehow been going through when, in fact, the zookeepers' ineptitude and deferred maintenance which made things rather awful."

Hair Bear: "It was their sheer and outright mental collapse, right in front of visitors, that was practically the last straw!"

"Heavens to Hagenbeck!" was my response.

Continued Hair Bear: "Such was certainly enough to reset our lives more than anything. We began resettling close to an isolated beach out by Malibu, where we have a secret surf and dive spot ... and boy, who could resist the surfing to be had there?"

"I've heard much about the surfing out Malibu way," Huckleberry remarked.

"And boy, couldn't you get more seriously stoked on those waves?" was how Square Bear added to the converse.

"Quite the stoke indeed! Quite the riding experience, such must be the serious clyde out of Malibu--" remarked Bubi until Square Bear's forepaw shut Bubi up in a commonplace stunt whenever Bubi's remarks appeared to go over the top, prompting Square to ask impatiently, "What exactly did Bubi say just now?!"

"At any rate, guys," Hair Bear chimed in, "sensing the limitations of the Invisible Motorbike which Square is bound to rely on in getting around, some close friends gave us a Volkswagen Campervan they lovingly had rebuilt for road trips ... and soon after, we began our summer road trip tradition of going into the north country during the bear mating season and just engage in the experience of ursine sexuality!"

I was tempted to ask whether their mating antics had much success in bear cubs ensuing from their seed, to which Square Bear remarked that "I have to admit that we're not exactly sure about the numbers; after all, it's the female as brings up the cubs almost exclusively until they reach three years of age or so."

"And from there on out," Hair Bear added, "they're on their own. It's pretty much possible that we fathered a few bears from our mating escapades, and where they may happen to be ... it's practically anybody's guess. After all, what could feel more fascinating in the summer than to camp beside some lake on a mild summery night and enjoy the evening releasing yourself with some feminine ursine company through the night--"

"--bound to be followed the clyde with some moonlight swimming and diving around; wouldn't it feel wonderful, oh the clyde, the moon reflected in the waters when you've got some girlfriends along!," added Bubi, ever the whippersnapper (as it were.)

As our lunch came along, Huckleberry couldn't help but remark in response just how exciting bear-type love must be.

"For us, Huckleberry and Snagglepuss," Hair Bear responded, "it's bound to come rather naturally ... and bound to feel so wonderful in the end!" To which Huck added a reminder that the Braham Pie Day Convocation was coming up, and that we were expecting them there.

"Agreed" was how Hair Bear responded.

*************

@warnerbrosentertainment @railguner34 @theweekenddigest @iheartgod175 @archive-archives @thebigdingle @screamingtoosoftly @princessgalaxy505 @themineralyoucrave @thylordshipofbutts @warnerbrosent-blog @zodiacfan32 @jellystone-enjoyer @haiyis-dark-void @warnerbrosent-blog

[sohannabarberaesque]

But on the other hand, imagine the bear encountered for the sake of this meme being Yogi Bear in pursuit of the old "tourist-type goodies" in Jellystone Park, to the inevitable chagrin of Ranger Smith as much as his "little bruin buddy," Boo-Boo.

Or, alternately (and for variety's sake), the Hair Bear Bunch, perchance seeking an interesting night on the town forsaking the stifling and confining restraints of the Wonderland Zoo (which I imagine as having been closed owing to the inertia and ineptitude of Zookeepers Lionel Botch and Eustis Peevly, so aggravating deferred maintenance with detrius to the health and welfare of the animals in its supposed care).

[sohannabarberaesque]

For all the threats Zookeepers Lionel Botch and Eustis Peevly directed at the Hair Bear Bunch to "send them off to the National Forest" in response to their antics, you wonder if this would be the least of the madcap ursine trio's worries once so released:

[sohannabarberaesque]

Have zoos somehow become overrated?

Witness my fondness for imagining the likes of Zookeeper Twiddle from Wally Gator, Chief Winchley from Squiddly Diddly and Zookeepers Lionel Botch and Eustis Peevly from Help! ... It's The Hair Bear Bunch! having seriously lost their minds to the extent of the zoo in question going downhill in terms of deferred maintenance ensuing and as much the properties having to close as the zookeepers themselves having to enter sanatoriae, their minds being so far gone from Reality.

In some indirect way seeing the relevant characters become free and more themselves, more spirited even, as per Snagglepuss' parsing it.

[sohannabarberaesque]

We'd be curious to know ...

What exactly led Yogi Bear to have this fetish for "tourist-type goodies" back in Jellystone ... and the Hair Bear Bunch (perhaps cousins of Yogi, for all we know) to be quite the madcap playbear types to the annoyance of Zookeepers Botch and Peevly (at least while the Wonderland Zoo was still a going concern).

What inspired Mr. Peebles to come up with the notion of offering Magilla Gorilla as a housepet, never mind that international conventions on the trade in Endangered Species (many of which have the United States as a signatory) would now make such no longer feasable.

Whether it was health issues or just a yearning for that Warm California Sun that led Top Cat to relocate his clowder from Brooklyn to Hollywood (which could, in itself, have potential as prequel to Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats).

What sort of inline skating moves the Skatebirds would just love to try pulling off, especially the more radical such.

Whether Honey and Sis could manage to trick certain conservative-leaning prolefeeders into the Truth Tub, hoping such would reveal something as to what drove them to such paths to begin with.

What kind of Australia Day celebration Kwicky Koala could be imagined hosting, especially such avoiding the more blatantly tacky stereotypes about Vegemite on toast and shrimp on the barbie (even if Vegemite is essentially brewers' yeast extract, a highly nutritive source of B-complex vitamins) and featuring such interesting Aussie culinary delights as sausage rolls, meat and chicken pies, Coola cordial (it's basically an only-in-Australia lime and vanilla flavour), Vita-Weat crispbreads, Cherry Ripe and Violet Crumble bars and tea and scones in the Country Womens' Association style.

Any other suggestions worth kicking about, fellow Hanna-Barberians?

[sohannabarberaesque]

Actual incidents at the old Washintgon Park Zoo in Milwaukee that seem almost out of the playbook of Zookeepers Lionel Botch and Eustis Peevly (as per Help! ... It's The Hair Bear Bunch!) ... but then again, could you just imagine a "wrasslin' match" between Breezly Bruin (himself a polar bear) and Square Bear (obviously the most guillable of the Wonderland Zoo's madcap ursine trio)?

[sohannabarberaesque]

Hanna-Barbera characters as bottled mineral waters

Perrier: Ruff and Reddy, Mr. Jinks, Augie Doggie, Peter Potamus, Secret Squirrel, Daphne Blake (Scooby-Doo), Tina and Gilly (Goober and the Ghost Chasers), Pepper (Clue Club)

San Pellegrino: Many of the more sophisticated type characters, notably Snagglepuss, Choo-Choo and Spook from Top Cat's clowder, The Goofy Guards, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers (Scooby-Doo), April Stewart (The Funky Phantom), Crazy Claws

Apollinaris: Doggie Daddy, Touche Turtle, Freddie Jones (Scooby-Doo), CC and Larry (Clue Club)

Vichy Celestins: Lippy the Lion and Hardy Har-Har, Chopper (Yakky Doodle), Claude Pertwee (Where's Huddles?), Dick Dastardly, Autocat (Motormouse and Autocat), Mildew Wolf (It's The Wolf), Zookeepers Botch and Peevly (Help! ... It's the Hair Bear Bunch!)

Saratoga: Top Cat, Benny the Ball and Fancy-Fancy, maybe also Magilla Gorilla, Velma Dinkley (Scooby-Doo), Gilly (Goober and the Ghost Chasers) and Undercover Elephant

Mountain Valley: Pretty much the entire Southern-inspired stable, including Huckleberry Hound, Wally Gator, Penelope Pitstop, the Cattanooga Cats and the Trollkins. Not to mention, for good measure, Super Snooper and Blabbermouse, The Banana Splits, Scooby-Doo "himself," Elmo (The Funky Phantom), Woofer and Whimper (Clur Club), Beegle Beagle and The Great Grape Ape, the Skatebirds and The King's crew

Calistoga: The Hair Bear Bunch, Ted (Goober and the Ghost Chasers) and the CB Bears

Ramlosa: The Bungle Brothers

[sohannabarberaesque]

From one of Kermit Schafer's "Pardon my Blooper!" collections:

"Ladies, does your husband feel lustless--uh, listless?"

I can think of plenty of Hanna-Barbera characters falling into this category: Ranger Smith ... Officer Charles Dibble ... Bill Spacely ... Zookeepers Botch and Peevly ...

[sohannabarberaesque]

My Wild and Crazy Weekend with the Hair Bear Bunch! (part I)

N.B. Although this is written in the first person, and is in the stylee of such articles common to fan magazines such as Tiger Beat, 16, J14 and similar, this is entirely Hanna-Barbera fanfiction (Hair Bear Bunch specifically) and should be construed as such.

You won't believe what ensued that Friday afternoon just as another week of middle school bordering on ennui was winding down: My getting a message advising me not to take the usual bus home from school this evening, but to report to the school office and "await further instructions." Myself, I admit to being in a rather dysfunctional environment of foster care with the parents I have somehow blaming me for everything that has gone wrong, especially their drinking habitually and their "going into excessive debts because of my presence" ... as well as an all-consumptive desire to see my name on the Honour Roll explaining longer and longer study breaks at home at night. How was I to know such was bordering on hazing or worse?

The final bell of the week: Per the instruction, I report to the office and "await further instructions," which the receptionist explains are, in addition to my not taking the bus home that evening, that--

as an emergency measure, I have basically been removed from my current foster home with immediate effect, the county having found that the parents were Morally Unfit based on a mix of anecdotal reports and whispers on the street;

arrangements are being made to move me into a new home as soon as possible; and

for the weekend, I am to "expect a surprise" within the next few minutes.

And you wonder who made such possible, or who otherwise sensed the need on my part.

"If you'll just turn around," the receptionist explained, "facing the main door--"

How was I to know that it was going to be the Hair Bear Bunch, late of the Wonderland Zoo and now basically roaming around the country?

"Uh, Zach--" (It was Hair Bear, the leader of the ursine trio, addressing me there.)

"However did you know my name, for starters?"

"We've been asked to have you join us for the weekend."

"Yeah," chimed in the somewhat dopey-sounding Square Bear. "At least it'll be different than what you've been going through."

"And what more the clyde could there turn out being when all is said and done"? asked Bubi, whom Hair Bear explained as "not all that bright a bulb, but still, he's rather crazy, fun-loving and talkative!"

I admit being stupified at the sight of such an unlikely set of what could best be called surrogates. I didn't quite know what to say in the confines of the school office under the circumstances to hand ... but moving to their rebuilt Volkswagen minibus, serving as something of a mobile bivouac in their exercises in fun, parked on the street out front, things started getting a little more excitable.

"So, Zach," Hair Bear exclaimed as he got into the driver's seat, me riding shotgun, with Square and Bubi riding in the back, "believe you me, this is certain to be quite the game-changer on your end! Having heard word about what your foster parents were driving you through emotionally, it somehow came about naturally that you needed a little change in your life!"

"I just hope you have swim trunks along" said I, to which Square remarked that "We usually like to just wear ourselves, you might say, when we go swimming, diving and surfing!" To which I exclaimed like an excited young boy, "You mean--you actually go swimming NAKED?!!"

"Why not?" Hair Bear added. "It just feels natural and all the more comfortable!"

"I assume you've got a decent bunk for me in this camper van," remarked I.

"Trust me" was all Hair Bear could remark as we pulled in to a rather cool-looking pizza place that Square Bear in particular admitted that the ursine trio was fond of "instead of all those chain joints, which can get to be predictably dull!" Whereupon Bubi, with his usual incomprehensible energy, added "Sometimes, you have to seriously discover the different sort of the clyde, the places which must get different, which must get fascinating!"

"Fascinating" was perhaps the ideal word to describe the night at that particular pizza place. Unpretentiously moody-looking, though not exactly Scooby-Doo-type moody, and believe you me, the evening couldn't have been even more irresistable, nursing an evening over what you might describe as the greatest sort of meat-lover's pizza on a Chicago-style pan crust. And rather substantially sized, considering the appetites of such an ursine trio fond of the old joie de vivre even back at the Wonderland Zoo ("Yet for some reason, even with us getting the blame, you could sense the zoo was falling apart--gross ineptitude aggravated by warped pride of those two most inept zookeepers, Botch and Peevly ... but be thankful that the zoo's shock closing amounted to a discovery on our part, an epiphanic sort of discovery, you might say, that we were fun-loving bears whose desire couldn't be suppressed even with a dry moat and a pipe fence with the inevitable 'Do Not Feed or Tease The Bears' warning outside our pseudo-den!"--Hair Bear).

Believe you me, even with such an exceptional meat-lover's pizza and what seemed like gallons of Dr Pepper (believe you me, I can't resist Dr Pepper), I coluld sense that I was beginning to change as much inside as outside. I couldn't help but sense the sheer giddiness coming upon me, being relased from utterly unfeeling foster parents who saw me only as Jack Armstrong, The All-American Boy deliberately suppressing the will and desire towards such an end.

"So what else are we going to enjoy this weekend exactly?"

"Such, you might say," Hair Bear was quick to explain, "will evolve all along."

"Yeah," Square Bear added; "the whole is sure to be a great big surprise, one exciting thing after another like you never experienced!"

The possibilities seeming to multiply even as we were driving into the night, the satellite radio playing a steady stream of '70's popdisks such as I could not help but resisting their catchiness ... and with the night outside seeming a bit chilly, Hair turned on the heater, accented somewhat with air freshener having the aroma of the seaside ... could I be in heaven, even if it's but for a weekend's release from abusive foster parents?

Stay tuned for next week's exciting conclusion, when more interesting detail of such an interesting weekend will be revealed!

@warnerarchive @hanna-barbera-land @warnerbrosentertainment @moonrock1973 @hanna-barbera-blog @wherearethememesonmyplate @themineralyoucrave @screamingtoosoftly @jg376 @cottoncandy-wannabe @hanna-barberians

[sohannabarberaesque]

I’d be hard-pressed to imagine such being more in Yukayuka’s line (as a gag item) than as one for Super Snooper and Blabbermouse and/or Undercover Elephant and Loudmouse. Let alone Zookeepers Botch and Peevly.

@warnerarchive @hanna-barbera-land @warnerbrosentertainment @themineralyoucrave @hanna-barberians @dinobirdy @hanna-barbera-blog @screamingtoosoftly

[sohannabarberaesque]

Moth Mondays with the Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera: Zookeeper Eustis Peevly from Help! ... It's The Hair Bear Bunch!

Oft accused by the rather hilarious ursine trio of the Wonderland Zoo of only causing trouble for same (especially on a par with his partner, Lionel Botch), it turns out, judging by the following, there may be some validity in the Hair Bears' charges. And it may be because the zookeepers' incompetence, as we learn:

It's obvious that the design of the Wonderland Zoo's display areas is intended to be more representative of the natural habitat of the animals so exhibited, in line with prevailing zoological thinking. Which, naturally, explains provision of a dry moat as part of certain exhibit areas, notably the bear den, to discourage escape attempts on the part of zoo animals. But how was I to know that such a design concept was to turn out being an unlikely aid to escape, as the trio of Hair, Square and Bubi are wont to do on occasion?

I do wish to acknowledge that I am partly to blame for the topic of this very story ... and that part of the blame could be laid down to as unlikely as cause as awful television programming. Mind you, this was obviously before cable or satellite TV came around ... and that the whole came about on a rather dull Saturday afternoon as saw some rather heavy rain and gray skies pass through, cutting into zoo attendance, obviously. Yet how was I to know that the skies would clear up as afternoon segued into evening, and a somewhat magical evening (or so some would assume)?

At any rate, yours truly was in the zookeepers' quarters alongside my companion in this respect, the somewhat aptly-named Lionel Botch, as much waiting things out as trying to decide what to watch on the TV. Mind you, the remote control was rather crude and primitive, and even then, you couldn't help but sense where the shows on were just getting to be dull, boring and predictable. (And this was when stations didn't carry a suppertime newscast on Saturdays.) Probably because of as much the rain as the part of town where the zoo was, reception issues got rather predictable, not to mention the shows being a little mindless to begin with ... and at any rate, I switched off the TV and decided to switch to a shortwave radio we sometimes listen to as backup. And imagine the very name of our shortwave: "Zenith Trans-Oceanic."

Which may sound like the name of a high-class ocean liner, yet still, even as Botch decided to use the chaos to hand to fix up some sandwiches, I was trying to get some decent shortwave listening in for some variety ... yet out of the ensuing ur-chaos, who could have noticed that the Hair Bear trio was skipping out of the zoo and seeking a "wild night on the town", even succeeding in getting over the moat around their display area (never mind how they managed to get their quarters done up in Playboy moderne under our noses, and adopting human habits rivalling a certain Yogi Bear) as the visitors were few for the most part because of the rain? Anyhow, blame my twiddling around of the shortwave dial on a seldom-used-otherwise shortwave radio for my not noticing another Hair Bear Bunch Escape Attempt actually being successful ... and no warning to the community being issued.

All because of my picking up bits and pieces of shortwave from world capitals like Moscow, London, Rio, even Melbourne for all we know just because the TV wasn't showing anything worthwhile....

(I suppose you're wondering how the Hair Bears "themselves" made out: From what I was able to gather, they headed over to a beachside boardwalk area and, in the Luscious Glory of its seediness, "managed to find a good time." Including some rather substantial cheeseburgers as much as people-watching.)

"... and that's the story from The Moth"

(The preceding is an independent fanfic feature having no official connexion or association with The Moth. For more information, please to visit their website ... and tune in to The Moth Radio Hour weekends on your local public radio station; check your local radio listings for the day and time.)  

[sohannabarberaesque]

By contrast, the Hair Bear Bunch played the deadpan approach with Zookeepers Botch and Peevly.

(Video on site may contain disturbing content)