Huckleberry Hound

Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character, a blue anthropomorphic dog that speaks with a Southern drawl and has a relaxed, sweet, and well-intentioned personality. He first appeared in the series The Huckleberry Hound Show. The cartoon was one of six TV shows to win an Emmy Award in 1960^[1] as an "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Children's Programming";^[2] the first animated series to receive such an award.^[3]

Most of his short films consisted of Huck trying to perform jobs in different fields, ranging from policeman to dogcatcher, with results that backfired, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow persistence or sheer luck. Huck did not seem to exist in a specific time period as he has also been a Roman gladiator, a medieval knight, and a rocket scientist. He never appeared in futuristic cartoons, only those set in the present or the past.

One regular antagonist in the series was "Powerful Pierre", a tall and muscular unshaven character with a French accent. Another regular villain was "Dinky Dalton", a rough and tough western outlaw that Huck usually has to capture, and Crazy Coyote, an Indian who Huck often had to defeat who was his match. There were also two crows with Mafia accents who often annoyed Farmer Huck. Another trademark of Huck was his tone deaf and inaccurate rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine", often used as a running gag.

Concept and creation

Huckleberry Finn, as depicted by E. W. Kemble in the original 1884 edition of the book.

In 1953, Tex Avery created a character named Southern Wolf for his MGM cartoons The Three Little Pups and Billy Boy. Introduced as an antagonist to Droopy, the wolf had a southern drawl and laid back mannerisms provided by Daws Butler. The most memorable trait of the character was that whenever something painful or unpleasant happened to him he never lost his cool, instead he calmly talked to the audience or kept whistling the song 'Year of Jubilo'. After Avery left MGM, Hanna and Barbera produced two more shorts with the character. In two of his cartoons (Billy Boy and Blackboard Jumble) the wolf plays a role that was exactly like a usual Huckleberry Hound short, aside from his frequent use of slang, and the echo-like repetition of words he only had in Billy Boy. While Sheep Wrecked was the wolf's final appearance, Huckleberry can be considered his reincarnation.

Huckleberry's name is a reference to classic American novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, written by Mark Twain. Hanna and Barbera almost named Yogi Bear "Huckleberry Bear".^[4]

He was voiced in the original cartoons in 1957 by Daws Butler, who had given a similar voice and characterization to the dog character in Ruff and Reddy. The voice for Huck was actually inspired by a neighbor of Butler's wife, Myrtis Martin, in Albemarle, North Carolina, her hometown. Butler would visit Myrtis and her family, and would talk to the neighbor who was a veterinarian. Butler found the man's voice amusing, and would remember it when it came time to voice Huck.^[5] The voice bore similarities to that of Andy Griffith, who likewise based his character accent on a rural North Carolina town (in Griffith's case, Mount Airy), and Hanna-Barbera was known for its characters' voices being parodies of known celebrities; Butler, who had been using the accent for about a decade before Griffith became famous, denied using Griffith as an inspiration.^[4]

Episodes

Role in later productions

• Yogi, Boo Boo, Quick Draw McGraw, Magilla Gorilla, Snagglepuss, and Huckleberry traveled around America in the half-hour series Yogi's Gang. Debuting in 1973, the characters traveled in Ark Lark, a hot air balloon. They solved problems including Mr. Waste and pollution, Mr. Bigot's bigotry, and other various issues.^[4]

• Huckleberry Hound appeared as a member of "The Yogi Yahooeys" team on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics / Scooby's All-Stars from 1977–1979.

• The Galaxy Goof-Ups segment of the 1978 series Yogi's Space Race featured new characters Captain Snerdley, Scare Bear, and Quack-Up the Duck with returnees Huckleberry and Yogi, traveling through space to multiple planets in a race throughout the galaxy. The series soon split off to its own half-hour program where Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, Scare Bear, and Quack-Up are bumbling intergalactic police officers.^[4]

• Syndicated series The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera included a segment in 1985 called Yogi's Treasure Hunt; Huckleberry appeared alongside characters including Yogi and Boo Boo, Snagglepuss, Dick Dastardly and Muttley, and Top Cat.^[4] In 1987, he appeared in Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose, traveling around the world, saving animals and fending off the Dread Baron and Mumbley.^[4]

• Yogi's First Christmas featured Huckleberry and others helping Yogi Bear prevent Jellystone Lodge's owner from tearing it down.^[4]

• His main comeback was in the television film The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound released in 1988.^[4]
• Huckleberry Hound appeared as a teenager in the series Yo Yogi! voiced by Greg Berg. Wee Willie was also featured as a teenager with his vocal effects done by Rob Paulsen.

• Sound Hound featured Huckleberry hates loud noises in New York City like horn Cars, jackhammer with birds, zips the singing man's voice, interrupts man and woman's phone calls, and rocking Two Teenagers in car, so he can sing "Oh My Darling, Clementine" peace and quiet.^[4]

• Huckleberry Hound made a non-speaking cameo in the Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Droopy Botox".

• Huckleberry Hound appeared in the Wacky Races (2017 TV series) episode Hong Kong Screwy as Peter Perfect's stunt double.

• Huckleberry Hound appeared as Snagglepuss' friend and Quick Draw McGraw's lover in the 6-issue comic book miniseries Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles.^[6]

In other languages

See also

• The Huckleberry Hound Show
  • List of The Huckleberry Hound Show episodes
• List of Hanna-Barbera characters

References

External links

• The Huckleberry Hound Show on IMDb
• The Huckleberry Hound Show at TV.com