Help!...It's the Hair Bear Bunch is one of the more unique names for a cartoon I'm familiar with. It debuted Saturday mornings on CBS in the fall of 1971 and I'd best describe it as what if Sgt. Bilko was the star of Hogan's Heroes instead of Col. Hogan, and they were bears in a zoo? Of course, I didn't know anything about those shows when I was a kid and came across this show as part of the USA Cartoon Express in the 1980s, but cartoon characters being created to sound like famous real life people is nothing new.
Yogi Bear was basically Art Carney in Ursidae form. The Ant & the Aardvark was just Jackie Mason chasing Dean Martin (why that was never a real show I'll never know, pally). Fred Flinstone is just an animated Jackie Gleason, not surprising since The Flinstones are just the prehistoric Honeymooners. We even already talked about characters like Bogey from the Shirt Tales who was basically Humphrey Bogape and The Simpsons' Chief Wiggum sounds a lot like Edward G. Robinson. Hell, everyone knows Mickey Mouse was created to sound like Mike Tyson.
Help!... told the tale of three bear cousins who were constantly trying to escape their lavish cave without getting caught by the zookeepers, often times in an attempt of their last get-rich scheme before returning to their domicile. Their leader was Hair Bear, Jackie Moon in bearform, voiced by Daws Butler to sound like Sgt. Bilko himself, Phil Silvers. Paul Winchell, who voiced many Hanna-Barbera characters over the years, voiced Bubi Bear, the smallest of the three and often fell into bafflegab. And finally, there was Square Bear, the most laidback and dim of the trio. Together they would often try to escape on Square Bears invisble motorcycle (purchased at the same dealer as Diana's invisible jet, no doubt).
The zookeepers were Mr. Peevly, who was originally going to be voiced by McHale's Navy actor Joe Flynn, but reportedly Joe Barbera was unimpressed by his audition (it was said he commented that "Joe Flynn didn't sound enough like Joe Flynn."), so the role of the short-tempered zookeeper went to veteran H&B voice actor John Stepehenson who voiced the character to sound like Joe Flynn. Weird. The second zookeeper was bumbling Lionel Botch, who often uttered "Ooh! Ooh!" and sounded like The Phil Silvers' Show and Car 54, Where Are You? actor Joe E. Ross because he was voiced by The Phil Silvers Show and Car 54, Where Are You? actor Joe E. Ross. I never really watched Car 54, though I remember it airing early in Nick at Nite's infancy when Nick at Nite was actually a thing (someday I'll unload with my 80's sitcom Nick at Nite rant, but not today). My aunt used to sing the theme all the time because it must've been on the cave walls of her dwelling when she was younger. We used to quiz each other on sitcom songs and she knew a lot older songs like The Patty Duke Show, whereas I was more adept at shows like Gimme a Break! and Just the Ten of Us ("Doing it the best I can...").
Ross played the role of Officer Toody alongside a Herman Munster makeupless Fred Gwynne, who would later play Judge Chamberlain Haller in the greatest movie ever put to reel:
I never really got into black and white shows. They were almost a no-go for me once they hit Nickelodeon it was time to see what else was on. I did watch a lot of Bewitched though, but I also had a crush on Elizabeth Montgomery when I was younger so that probably was an incentive to watch. (Dick York > Dick Sargent). Coincidentally enough, the intro to Bewitched was animated by Hanna-Barbera, which also led to Samantha guest-starring in a season 6 episode of The Flinstones.
Joe E. Ross would go on a few years later to also voice the character of Sgt. Flint in the Hanna-Barbera karate cartoon, Hong Kong Phooey (number one superguy!). Joe E. Ross was so well-known for his "ooh! ooh!" that he even released a not-so great song of it:
Why the bears ever wanted to leave their luxurious cave is anyone's guess. I mean, look at it. I'm pretty certain if you did some excavating you might find the bones of two men and their butler. Should've brought that bear repellent, Bruce.
While Help!...It's the Hair Bear Bunch only lasted one 16 episode season, it also spawned a thirteen issue Gold Key Comics series (maybe Webs has some issues in his store?) retitled simply The Hair Bear Bunch:
There were rumors that The Hair Bear Bunch were going to be redevloped as middle segment of 2 Stupid Dogs! but that never came to fruition. They did make a rather surprising comeback in the short-lived Adultswim cartoon Welcome to Eltngville:
At least it wasn't The Completely Mental Misadventures of Ed Grimley, quite possibly the worst cartoon in the history of the known universe--trust me, and some of the shows that aired in the Sirius system are real dogs (that's space humor---Bob).
Help!... like many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, is available on DVD as part of the Hanna-Barbera Classics line. While it wasn't the greatest show, the song was pretty catchy, and it left enough of a mark on me from it's airings on the Cartoon Express, that I still think of it fondly.
Interestingly enough, there is an episode where the bears scheme to win $500 by entering a zoo gorilla named Bananas as a masked-wrestler named Kling Klong in an effort to defeat professional wrestler, the Masked Marvel. But when the Marvel comes down with the measels, Botch fills in for him.
While I can't find any proof, it made me curious if the wrestling term 'botch' (to mess up a move) preceded this show. Surely it must have, but I couldn't find any definitive first use of the word, but whatever the case, it's an interesting chicken or the egg question I've left myself to delve into deeper to see whether the term and the episode are related, but isn't it pretty to think so?
What is the origin of that animated likeness...do you know 
