In most of his cartoons he has different jobs, with results that backfire, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow persistence or sheer luck. He has been a Roman gladiator, a medieval knight, a dogcatcher, a policeman and a rocket scientist. He also appears in futuristic cartoons, as an intergalactic space policeman, alongside other Hanna-Barbera characters. His off-key and inaccurate rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine" was often used as a running gag.[11]
Concept and creation
In 1953, Tex Avery created a character known as the Southern Wolf (later Dixie Wolf in The Tom & Jerry Show) for his MGM cartoonsThe Three Little Pups and Billy Boy.[citation needed] Introduced as an antagonist to Droopy, the wolf had a southern drawl and laid-back mannerisms provided by Daws Butler.[citation needed] The most memorable trait of the character was that whenever something painful or unpleasant happened to him, the Wolf never lost his cool; instead, he calmly talked to the audience or kept whistling the song "Year of Jubilo".[citation needed] After Avery left MGM, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera produced two more shorts with the character.[citation needed] 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 had only in Billy Boy.[citation needed]Sheep Wrecked was the wolf's final appearance.[citation needed]
He was voiced in the original cartoons in 1958 by Daws Butler, who had given a similar voice and characterization to the dog characters Reddy in The Ruff and Reddy Show and Smedley in Walter Lantz's Chilly Willy shorts. The voice for Huck was actually inspired by a neighbor of Butler's wife, Myrtis Martin, in her hometown Albemarle, North Carolina. 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 remembered it when it came time to voice Huck.[13][11] 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 this rumor.[12]
Role in later productions
Following The Huckleberry Hound Show Huck appeared in The Yogi Bear Show episode "Yogi's Birthday Party" where he and the others help celebrate Yogi Bear's birthday.[14] He later made a cameo in the Top Cat episode "King for a Day", in a comic cover along with Yogi.[15] Following a decade hiatus, Huck reunites with Yogi, Boo-Boo, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Magilla Gorilla and others traveling around America in the half-hour series Yogi's Gang. Debuting in 1973, the characters traveled in a ship called Yogi's Ark, which resembles Noah's Ark with a helicopter propeller added, solving problems including Mr. Waste's pollution, Mr. Bigot's bigotry, and other various issues.[16][12]
Huckleberry appeared as a member of "The Yogi Yahooeys" team on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics from 1977 to 1979.[17] 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 Huck and Yogi, traveling through space to multiple planets in a race throughout the galaxy. The one episode of Yogi's Space Race also reveals Huck's origin in Memphis, Tennessee.[18] The series soon split off to its own half-hour program where Huck, Yogi, Scare Bear, and Quack-Up are bumbling intergalactic police officers.[16][12]
On June 11, 2000, Cartoon Network aired a short film called "Sound Hound" as part of a series of short animations called "Cartoon Network Shorties" that would eventually be moved with the short musical animations known as "Cartoon Network Groovies" to its other channel devoted to old classics, Boomerang. The short features Huckleberry as the lead character. Attempting to sing his signature song "Oh My Darling, Clementine", he is repeatedly interrupted by the sounds of New York City, like car horns, jackhammers, and birds, and a visibly irritated Huckleberry zips a radio host's mouth closed, interrupts a man and woman's phone calls, and silences two teenagers rocking in a car, all rendered with cutout animation. As he finally begins to sing, all the people he silenced begin to scream in agony, due to his singing being so terribly loud.[25]
In terms of guest appearances, Huck made a cameo appearance in the Animaniacs segment "Suffragette City",[29] and in 2000, appeared in The Simpsons episode "Behind the Laughter", voiced by Karl Wiedergott.[30] Near the end of the episode, he confesses: "I was so gay, but I couldn't tell anyone".[31] Huck briefly appeared in a MetLife commercial that aired in 2012,[32] and in 2023, made several cameos in the Teen Titans Go! episode "Warner Bros. 100th Anniversary".
In other media
Huckleberry is the singing narrator of a parody recording of Lorne Greene's song, "Ringo", called "Bingo, Ringo" where the hound meets a man who appears to resemble The Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr, punctuated with considerable percussion.[33]
Huckleberry Hound in Hollywood Capers is a 1993 computer game for MS-DOS, Amiga, and Atari ST, released only in Europe. It was adapted from an earlier game, Dino Jr. in Canyon Capers.[34]
↑"HB Screen Gems Emmys". Variety. Screen Gems: 38. June 1, 1960. Retrieved November 10, 2015. Outstanding program achievement in the field of children's programming
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