After Olympic fever swept the nations, especially in the United States during its bicentennial in 1976, a substitute was badly needed until the next Olympic Games in 1980. Fortunately, Hanna-Barbera provided the necessary relief in animated form with this terrific series. At least 45 of their classic cartoon characters were featured on this show competing for the gold medal. The All-Stars were divided into 3 teams. First are the Yogi Yahooeys, which featured Yogi Bear, Boo Boo, Huckleberry Hound, and other wacky animal characters featured in hundred of shorts that were first seen in the late 1950's to early 1960's. Second are the Scooby Doobies featuring (obviously) Scooby-Doo, his sidekicks Shaggy and Scooby-Dum, as well as their fellow crime fighters and mystery solvers (including superheroes Captain Caveman, Hong Kong Phooey, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt) whose shows debuted in the late 60's to early '70's. The Scoobys team was my personal favorite since I first saw their shows as a kid in this particular decade. Last and least, we have the Really Rottens, most of whom appeared only on this show. The only exception was team captain Mumbly, who was featured in "Mumbly, Relentless Detective", which was part of H-B's "Tom and Jerry Show" a couple of years earlier. Ironically, he was the good guy in that series, but here with the wrong crowd, Mumbly is particularly deceitful and conniving. Paired with teammate Dread Baron, they strike a strong resemblance to Dick Dastardly and Muttley from "The Wacky Races". If you've seen that show, you know they were just as diabolical. As a matter of fact, I can even recall at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics where Mumbly was called Muttley. Is it possible that they're brothers (or even cousins)? They certainly have similar traits!
As for the show, the main objective for each team was to score the highest number of points to earn the gold medal. The majority of events had the simple scoring process of 25 points for the winner, 15 for second, and 10 for third place. There were occasional 50-point bonus events which could help a team get back into the competition or pull them away depending on whoever was trailing or leading at the time. Though some events were similar to real-life Olympic events, others were pretty offbeat and quite unusual, which likely means they could only be done in cartoons like this. Among the weird events were racing on ostriches, camels, kangaroos, rickshaws and unicycles, as well as more daring events like scavenging for creatures like vampires, the Abominable Snowman, and the Loch Ness Monster. With events like these, each Laff-A-Lympic was bound to be a major adventure!
While the Scooby and Yogi teams competed with flair and determination (and crazy hilarity), the Rottens always resorted to cheating and usually sabotaged their opponents' efforts to win. However, with rules and regulations in place, they very rarely got away with their dirty deeds. In some cases, they suffered point deductions if their efforts went too far. So it was no surprise that they usually ended up as the third place bronze medalists. But unlike Dastardly and Muttley from the aforementioned Wacky Races, the Rottens actually did win at least a couple of Laff-A-Lympics. It just goes to show that even the down-and-out group will eventually have their day if they keep trying.
Overall, this was a very entertaining show to watch as a kid (and even an adult). This show was the perfect venue to showcase Hanna-Barbera's All-Stars. Since the real Olympics bring the nations of the world together, "Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics" brought many of H-B's characters in the same environment. Though some individual cartoons allowed for a few cameos from other characters, this was about the only show where members of Yogi's and Scooby's teams could interact with each other. This concept was nothing but pure genius from the minds of William Hanna and Joe Barbera!
