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The Three Bears were created for the 1944 cartoon
"Bugs Bunny and The Three Bears", directed by Chuck Jones.
It featured a family of bears, but these three bears aren't cute and loving,
in fact, they are downright dysfunctional. The bears include a short
(in both height and temper) Papa bear, who wonders why he was given a family
such as his, a somewhat sad faced Mama bear who has a thing for sweet talking
rabbits, and a huge dumb Baby Bear who means good. Their first appearance
really set the mood the mood for the four cartoons that came after, each
getting more and more outrageous than the one before it. The cartoons
seem to mainly focus on Papa (named Henry) as he tries to do something,
but his wife and baby usually screw things up for him and drive him crazy,
even to the brink of attempting suicide ("Bear Feat")
No matter how hard Henry tries, he can never succeed because he is self destructive and he has to work with Junyer Bear on everything. You can almost understand why Papa Bear is so frustrated and angry all the time, how would you feel if you could never succeed, and you always got badly injured for trying? Mama Bear is stand-offish, and really quite mellow, she talks in a fairly unexcited voice and has a lumpy character design. She does occasionally get exited, but you would never know if you only looked at her face. Junyer is the dopey yet ever eager son, he tries to be helpful, but more would be accomplished if he were not around. Mama and Junyer do love Henry, it is fairly obvious in "A Bear for Punishment", but they cannot even express their love without making him miserable. The three bears were voiced by Billy Bletcher (Papa), Bea Benaderet (Mama), and Stan Freberg (Junyer). Mel Blanc would also occasionally supply Pa's voice, and Kent Rogers was the voice of Junyer in the first cartoon, "Bugs Bunny and The Three Bears". Also, like the Hubie and Bertie series, all the cartoons were written by Tedd Pierce and Michael Maltese, in the same order too (first cartoon written by Pierce, second by both Pierce and Maltese, and the rest just by Maltese, the same order as the Hubie and Bertie series).
Like the Hubie and Bertie series, the Three Bears
were retired in 1951, their last cartoon being "A Bear For Punishment",
and was their funniest appearance. I really have no clear explanation as
to why he ended the series in 1951, but it seems that he just got tired
of the characters. He had several new stars like the Roadrunner and
Pepe Le Pew emerging at about that time. He also had retired Charlie
Dog in 1951.
Chuck Jones has compared the Three Bears series to the "All In The Family" television series. Papa Bear being like Archie Bunker and Mama Bear like Edith Bunker. I'm not sure who Junyer is like, I suppose Mike Stivic/Meathead is the logical choice. I recommend both "All in The Family" and the Three Bears, they are all very funny.