Broadcast in 1972 as part of "The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie" series, "Yogi's Ark Lark" was an animated Hanna-Barbera made-for-TV movie intended to raise ecological awareness. It also served as the pilot for the cartoon series "Yogi's Gang." This one-hour feature was later turned into a two-part series finale of "Yogi's Gang" with new intro and concluding sequences created for each episode. To fit the feature into these new time frames, some of its sequences were shortened or edited out. Aside from its environmental message, "Yogi's Ark Lark" marked a milestone in Hanna-Barbera's history: a wide range of the studio’s characters were united in one story for the first time. This set the tone for future series and specials, such as "Laff-a-Lympics" and "Yogi’s First Christmas."