The Hard Luck Bears

The Hard Luck Bears was a predecessor show to The Rock-afire Explosion that was created in 1979 and was shown at IAAPA. It was a successor to the Bear Country Jubilee, and featured what would inspire the 3-Stage.

The last operating show was at Fantasilandia, Chile under the name "Show De Osos," but has since been retrofitted to become “The Robotoons”, and their original cosmetics and body shells have been destroyed as of 2020. Gooney Bird was put in storage along with his mask.

Summary
"This is the debut year for the Hard Luck Bears as they begin their tour of the world with their dear sweet mother, Mama Granbags, spreading their own interpretation of 'culture' and decency. In this hilarious first performance our bears tend to stretch the definition of country music to include lovers of rock and classical styles in their mischievous antics behind Mama's back." - Entertainment 1980 Brochure

Locations
The show was installed in numerous theme parks around the world between 1980 and the late 90's. The documented places are:


 * Carowinds in Charlotte, NC (May - October 1980; Space occupied by "Boo Blasters on Boo Hill")
 * Knoebels in Elysburg, PA (May 1980 - 95; Replaced with "Lazer Runner")
 * Blackpool Pleasure Beach in Lancashire, England (1980 - 94; Moved to Frontierland Morecambe)
 * Calaway Park in Alberta, Canada (1982 - unknown year)
 * Universal Studios Hollywood (1986, closing during the summer of same year.) Replaced with an American Tail Theater and Fievel's Play Land.
 * Frontierland, Morecambe in Lancashire, England (1994/95 - 99; Park closure)
 * Mundo Mágico in Lo Prado, Santiago, Chile (1983 - 2000; Moved to Fantasilandia)
 * Playcenter in São Paulo, Brazil (1981 - 98; Replaced with "Castelo dos Horrores" - 2021 moved to parque do palhacinho chocolate e sua turma penha santa Catarina brazil)
 * Fantasilandia in Santiago de Chile (2000 - Present; Currently the "Robotoons")

Characters

 * Billy Wilbur - A bear who played the guitar and would later become the Rock-afire's Billy Bob.
 * Billy Bill - A bear who played the piano.
 * Billy Boy - A bear who played the drums.
 * Billy Bob - A bear who played the washtub bass.
 * Choo-Choo - A baby bear who bounced to the music in a wash basket.
 * Pete and Repeat Thornsberry - Two brother bears that worked at Smitty's Super Service Station on Stage Right.
 * Mama Granbags - The mother of Billy Wilbur, Billy Bill, Billy Boy, and Billy Bob. She was located on Stage Left.
 * Gooney Bird - A bird hiding in a wooden barrel who would later become the Rock-afire's Looney Bird. He was located on Stage Left.

Trivia

 * This show seems to be very similar to Disney's Country Bear Jamboree.
 * The opening theme sung by Mama Granbags was parodied by Uncle Klunk (sung by Jeff Howell) in the first Uncle Klunk Abombination showtape (1983).
 * Billy Wilbur's guitar design has been switched to that of Billy Bob's from the Rock-afire, as seen in sets installed after mid-1980.
 * Carowinds' Country Bear Show, ran for one season and was a retrofit known by many as the "Honey Bear (Bunch) Family Reunion". For a long time, there was no information behind this show other than pictures from showbizpizza.com, of which the location was not known. That was, until February 2021 when Instagram user rockafire_moon posted three new pictures that were sourced from a newspaper article stating the location as Charlotte, NC's Carowinds theme park.
 * U.S.-based food company General Mills sponsored this show as the "Big G" logo and small text with the company name was printed on Billy Boy's kick drum front. It can be seen on the picture from the aforementioned news article, but strangely, not in the SP.Com photos. In this case, it could be assumed that the sponsorship didn't last long and mentions of GMI were removed shortly after.
 * The names of the characters include Ma Bell (Billy Wilbur), Pa Bell (Billy Bill), Na Bob (Billy Boy), Billy Bob, Granny Bell (Mama Granbags), Samantha (Gooney Bird), Aunt Lullabelle, (Repeat Thornsberry) and Uncle Jinglebell (Pete Thornsberry).
 * Knoebels' Hard Luck Bears was originally named "Country Bear Jubilee" (not to be confused with Bear Country Jubilee) and first ran in May 1980. However, due to a threat by Disney, it was changed to "Country Bear Show".
 * Two showtapes were made exclusive to the park (but were not made by Creative Engineering themselves). These showtapes were "Country Bear Picnic" and "Rockin' Billy Wilbur & the Bearcats".
 * Instead of working for Smitty's like in the original showtape, Pete & Repeat now work for "Golden Arches Burgers," in "Country Bear Picnic" (a reference to McDonald's).
 * For "Rockin' Billy Wilbur & the Bearcats", all the characters had costume changes to match the 1950's theme of Rock N' Roll. This was the last showtape they played before being put into storage in 1995.
 * Outside the theater, an animatronic of the "stupid gorilla" (Fats Gorilla) could be seen in a working display. A special Mama Granbags head would pop her head out of the piano often. It's unknown if separate showtapes were made for the duo. The bots currently reside in CEI.
 * Creative Engineering has made official documented instructions in the mid-late 80's about how to retrofit the Rock-afire Explosion into a Hard Luck Bears show, with new parts being made for it by CEI themselves. No client has ever commissioned it, leading to this never actually happening in RAE history.
 * The "Show Dos Ursos" installation of the show at Brazil's (now closed) theme park, Playcenter São Paulo is notable for many things.
 * It opened in early 1981, and was one of the first international Hard Luck Bears shows in operation.
 * The Brazillian-Portuguese names of the characters go as follows:
 * Mamãe Úrsula (Mama Granbags)
 * Papagaio Respondão (Gooney Bird)
 * Tiburso (Billy Wilbur)
 * Murso (Billy Bob)
 * Dudu Urso (Billy Boy)
 * Laurso (Billy Bill)
 * Nhõ Pita (Pete Thornsberry)
 * Repita (Repeat Thornsberry)
 * Ursinho Bebê (Choo Choo)
 * Several props are exclusive to the stage, such as different curtains, backdrops, and some instruments excluding Billy Wilbur's guitar and Billy Boy's drums.
 * In the Brazillian-Portuguese dub, the concept of Smitty's Super Service Station has been phased out, leading to the Super Service Station song topic being changed to chicken omelettes.
 * Despite this, a gas pump can be seen on stage reading "Alcohol."
 * Despite Mama Grandbags' preference of civilized, softer music over honky tonk (or rock in this case) being the same, the main ecological moral is stated as "do not mistreat the animals."
 * Pete & Repeat are now cousins of the bears in this dub.
 * Some product placements could be seen on Stage Left and Right in some pictures, although these were phased out for unknown reasons prior to the attraction's closure in 1998.
 * Pete Thornsberry later went on to be known as "Oso Willy" for Chilean audiences and was one of the main mascots of Mundo Mágico (Fantasilandia later on after that park closed), with a walkaround character made for him. Mama Granbags and Repeat Thornsberry also appeared in costume form occasionally but have since been discontinued.