This has bothered me forever, and I cannot find what it was. This is mainly due to my limited memory of plot and characters. However, what I do remember:

It centered around a bear and a man.
They were in space (i believe...)
I think the bear shot polka dots. or something to do with that.

I know this is a long shot, but I would appreciate this reference greatly.

From what I can recall, the show I believe your thinking of is SuperTed. He had a robot sidekick, who was spotted, who also shot out some sort of bubbles. I guess thats what you would call them anyhow. They traveled thru space to different places helping kids out of trouble. The show was on in the 80's and there are not a lot of other options. That was one of the only shows that had both a bear and a spotted character in it at the time. Go into the shows section and find the SuperTed intro and see if thats it or not, but I believe it to be.

you have just made my year. thank you so much.