AND THEN THERE WAS THE TIME JOE FLYNN’S VOICE WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH TO BE
JOE FLYNN …

HELP! IT’S THE HAIR BEACH BUNCH!
THE COMPLETE ANIMATED SERIES
NEWLY REMASTERED & AVAILABLE ON DVD
FROM THE WARNER ARCHIVE COLLECTION


Seeing may be believing. But hearing can be a little trickier.

So goes the tale of voice casting for Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!,
the 1971 gem from Hanna-Barbera Studios now newly remastered and
available on DVD from The Warner Archive Collection.

In the Wonderland Zoo, there are the certain bears who stay at home
every night and never quarrel or fight – and then there’s the Hair
Bear Bunch, the heppest, savviest and silliest ursines to ever crash
out of a zoo. Their bear cave transforms from stone and straw to a
swinging, scientific bachelor bear pad at the touch of a button - and
that's just the tip of the iceberg. Quick-talking Hair (voiced by Daws
Butler), befuddling curlicue talker Bubi (Paul Winchell) and master of
the invisible motorcycle, the zen-drawling Square Bear (William
Callaway) are more than a match for their "keepers" – Mr. Eustace P.
Peevly (John Stephenson) and Botch (Joe E. Ross). And that’s even
before the other delightful denizens of Wonderland Zoo are always
ready to help the Bears in their bigger-than-the-zoo schemes.

This two-disc, 16-episode collection contains all the mod bears’
madcap extra-zoohicular adventures.

Joe Ruby and Ken Spears produced Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch! for
Hanna-Barbera Studios – one of more than 40 series the duo has been
responsible for bringing to animated fruition. The team started as
sound editors at Hanna-Barbera, branched out into writing, and
eventually went on to create the landmark series, Scooby-Doo, Where
Are You! Eventually, the pair would open their own company –
Ruby-Spears Productions. The result was some of the most popular
animated series on television, including Alvin and the Chipmunks and
Superman. Ruby-Spears continues to be a creative force in the industry
today.

On Help! It’s the Hair Bear Bunch!, Ruby and Spears put the show
together and wrote the first script. Things went well with just one
“minor” bump in an otherwise smooth production road – the casting of
the series’ key voice talent.

“The main character was supposed to be a take-off on Joe Flynn’s
character in McHale's Navy,” Spears recalls. “That was a big deal, so
we went out and recruited Joe Flynn to do the voice. Only problem was
that it just didn’t work.

“Joe obviously knew the character, but he was one of those guys that
you really had to see him do the role. It didn’t translate to the
voice in the animation. So we had to get somebody to impersonate Joe
Flynn to play the Joe Flynn role.”

The call went to John Stephenson, a versatile actor who stands today
as the last living principle member of The Flintstones voice cast (he
voiced Mr. Slate). It’s Stephenson, and not the oft-assumed Joe Flynn,
that provides the voice of Mr. Peevly.

“John did a ton of voice work – he was like the villain of the week
for cartoons,” Spears says. “He was always playing the bad guy or
someone under suspicion. He was a great character actor and, while he
didn’t have a big range in his voice, he did a lot of work for
Hanna-Barbera.”

For easy ordering:
http://shop.warnerarchive.com/product/help+its+the+hair+bear+bunch+the+complete+series+1000383806.do