Huckleberry Hound

Infobox Television
show_name = The Huckleberry Hound Show


caption = Title card for the "Huckleberry Hound" segment.
genre = Cartoon series
voices = Daws Butler
Don Messick
Doug Young
theme_music_composer = Hoyt S. Curtin
country = USA
num_seasons = 4
num_episodes = 57
producer = William Hanna
Joseph Barbera
runtime = 30 min.
network = syndication
first_aired = October 2, 1958
last_aired = April 24, 1962
preceded_by = "The Ruff & Reddy Show"
followed_by = "Quick Draw McGraw"
related = "The Yogi Bear Show"
imdb_id = 0051283
tv_com_id = 35377
company = Hanna-Barbera

Huckleberry "Huck" Hound is a fictional cartoon character created and produced by Hanna-Barbera, and the star of the 1958 syndicated animated series "The Huckleberry Hound Show", Hanna-Barbera's second series made for television after "The Ruff & Reddy Show". The show was originally distributed by Screen Gems, then by Worldvision Enterprises and then Turner Program Services, before current distributor Warner Bros. Television picked up ownership of the show following its 1996 acquisition of Turner.

"The Huckleberry Hound Show" was probably the series that truly made Hanna-Barbera a household name, thanks to Huckleberry (or "Huck" as he was sometimes nicknamed, referencing the novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn") and the two supporting segments of the show: Yogi Bear and his sidekick Boo Boo, and Pixie and Dixie, two mice who in each short found a new way to outwit the cat Mr. Jinks. After Yogi Bear was given his own show in 1961, his segment was replaced with one featuring Hokey Wolf and his sidekick Ding-a-Ling. "The Huckleberry Hound Show" won the first ever Emmy Award for an animated series in 1960.cite web|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/SHOWBIZ/TV/03/23/obit.hanna/index.html|title= Animation legend William Hanna dies at 90|date=2001-03-23|publisher=CNN.com/Entertainment|accessdate=2008-08-06]

Huckleberry Hound, the character

Voiced by Daws Butler, Huckleberry was a blue dog that spoke with a Southern drawl, with a relaxed, sweet, and well-intentioned personality. The term "Huckleberry" can be a slang synonym for a rube or an amateur, and that seems to fit Huck's personality. Most of his shorts consisted of Huck trying to perform jobs in different fields, ranging from policeman to (ironically enough) dogcatcher, with backfiring results, 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 was never in the future though, only the present (as of the show's airing) or the past. One regular villain 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. Crazy Coyote, an indian who Huck often had to defeat who was his match. And the rows, two crows with mafia accents who often annoyedfarmer huck. Another trademark of Huck was his tone deaf (as well as inaccurate) rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine," often used as a running gag. He also commonly used the phrase "and stuff like that there" in place of "etc.". This phrase showed up quite often in many Hanna-Barbera productions of this time for some reason, but Huckleberry said it more often than anyone else. One of his careers had his job position on the door listed as "TS & SLTT". When asked what it stood for, Huck said "Top secrets and stuff like that there".

Various Hanna-Barbera characters were known for frequently turning to the viewing audience to make little comments and asides (following the tradition of the Warner Bros. cartoon characters of the 1940s, and earlier by Groucho Marx). Huck took this to somewhat of an extreme, as a significant part of a typical cartoon was his running narrative to the audience about whatever he was trying to accomplish.

The inspiration for Huck's voice

Huck's voice was one that Butler had already developed and used in earlier work, such as the dog character in "The Ruff & Reddy Show", and earlier characters in the MGM cartoon library. It was said to be based on the neighbor of his wife, Myrtis; Butler would speak with said neighbor when visiting North Carolina.

Episodes

# Sheriff Huckleberry
# Sir Huckleberry Hound
# Lion Hearted Huck
# Rustler Hustler Huck
# Huckleberry Hound Meets Wee Willie
# Hookey Daze
# Tricky Trapper
# Cock A Doodle Huck
# Two Corny Crows
# Freeway Patrol
# Dragon-Slayer Huck
# Fireman Huck
# Sheep Shape Sheepherder
# Skeeter Trouble
# Hokum Smokum
# Bird House Blues
# Barbecue Hound
# Postman Panic
# Lion Tamer Huck
# Ski Champ Chump
# Little Red Riding Huck
# The Tough Little Termite
# Grim Pilgrim
# Ten Pin Alley
# Jolly Roger And Out
# Notingham And Yeggs
# Somebody's Lion
# Cop And Saucer
# Pony Boy Huck
# A Bully Dog
# Huck The Giant Killer
# Pet Vet
# Picadilly Dilly
# Wiki Waki Huck
# Huck's Hack
# Spud Dud
# Legion Bound Hound
# Science Friction
# Nutts Over Mutts
# Knight School
# Huck Hound's Tale
# The Unmasked Avenger
# Hillbilly Huck
# Fast Gun Huck
# Astro-nut Huck
# Huck And Ladder
# Lawman Huck
# Cluck And Dagger
# Caveman Huck
# Huck Of The Irish
# Jungle Bungle
# Bullfighter Huck
# Ben Huck
# Huck De Paree
# Bars And Stripes
# Scrubby Brush Man
# Two For Tee Vee

DVD release

On November 15, 2005, Warner Home Video released The Huckleberry Hound Show - Vol. 1, featuring the complete first series of 26 episodes from the series on DVD. The other remaining 31 episodes are yet to be released.

Other Appearances

* After his original series ran its course, Huck continued to make appearances in other Hanna-Barbera series, mainly as a supporting character for his former costar, Yogi. Huck appeared in such series as "Yogi's Gang", "Yogi's Space Race", "Laff-A-Lympics", and "Yogi's Treasure Hunt".

* Huck was also the star of the 1980s made-for-television movie, "The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound".

* Huckleberry Hound appeared in the "Fender Bender 500" segment of "Wake, Rattle, and Roll" voiced by Greg Burson. He is paired up with Snagglepuss where they drive a monster truck called the Half Dog, Half Cat, Half Track.

* 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.

* Today, Huck's television appearances, like those of the rest of the early Hanna-Barbera characters, are rare, though his shorts can often be found on Cartoon Network's sister cable TV channel Boomerang, which are broadcast around the world. In addition, some of Huck's cartoons are also featured on various VHS and DVD MCA Universal home video releases.

* An episode of the prime-time animated TV show "The Simpsons" ("Behind the Laughter") parodies Huckleberry Hound (voiced by Karl Wiedergott), having him state, "I was so gay ... but I couldn't tell anyone."

* Huckleberry Hound appeared in the "Johnny Bravo" episode "Back on Shaq". He was the good-luck character for Seth Green who was facing off against Shaquille O'Neal and his good-luck person Johnny Bravo.

* Huckleberry Hound was key to Joel Barish's character in the movie "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". Having the memory of his girlfriend named Clementine erased caused connected memories to be lost. Due to Huck's constant singing of "Oh my darlin', Clementine", it caused him to forget who Huckleberry Hound was as well.

* Huckleberry Hound made two cameo appearances on "Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law". Admiral Mut appeared in the episode "Peanut Puberty" amongst the Board of Directors.

* Huckleberry Hound made a cameo appearance on Adult Swim's "The Brak Show"

* Huckleberry Hound appeared in the "Robot Chicken" episode "Ban on the Fun." In a segment that parodies the Laff-A-Lympics in the style of the Munich massacre, Huckleberry Hound was killed alongside his teammates.

* Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel plays a more recent Huckleberry Hound animated short that strays greatly from the animation and story style of the original. Using cutout style animation, Huck simply makes everyone in a town be quiet so he can sing "Oh my Darlin'" in peace. It didn't follow the formula of the show which always gave him a career, and it made his singing seem more important to him than it ever did on the series where it seemed to simply be a tune he sang to himself during idle time.

* In one episode of Head of the Class, Arvid was so sad for the loss of his dog he answered "Huckleberry Hound" when asked a question whose correct answer was Huckleberry Finn.

yndication

Alphabetized by city.
*WSB-TV / Channel 2 at the time* Atlanta, Georgia
*WKBG-TV / Channel 56• Boston, Massachusetts
*WBTV-TV / Channel 3• Charlotte, North Carolina
*WTVC-TV / Channel 9• Chattanooga, Tennessee
*WGN-TV / Channel 9• Chicago, Illinois
*KHSL-TV / Channel 12• Chico, California
*WCPO-TV / Channel 9• Cincinnati, Ohio
*KYW-TV / Channel 3• Cleveland, Ohio
*WEWS-TV / Channel 5• Cleveland, Ohio
*WKBF-TV / Channel 61• Cleveland, Ohio
*KFJZ-TV / Channel 11• Dallas, Texas
*KTVC-TV / Channel 6• Ensign, Kansas
*WFMY-TV / Channel 2• Greensboro, North Carolina
*WFBC-TV / Channel 4• Greenville, North Carolina
*KTRK-TV / Channel 13• Houston, Texas
*KMBC-TV / Channel 9• Kansas City, Missouri
*WATE-TV / Channel 6• Knoxville, Tennessee
*WGAL-TV / Channel 8• Lancaster, Pennsylvania
*KTTV-TV / Channel 11• Los Angeles, California
*WAVE-TV / Channel 3• Louisville, Kentucky
*WMAZ-TV / Channel 13• Macon, Georgia
*WNEW-TV / Channel 5• New York, New York
*WPIX-TV / Channel 11• New York, New York
*KTVU-TV / Channel 2• Oakland, California
*KPHO-TV / Channel 5• Phoenix, Arizona
*KDKA-TV / Channel 2• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
*WIIC-TV / Channel 11• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
*WRAL-TV / Channel 5• Raleigh, North Carolina
*WEYI-TV / Channel 25• Saginaw, Michigan
*WRGB-TV / Channel 6• Schenectady, New York
*WNEP-TV / Channel 16• Scranton, Pennsylvania
*KREM-TV / Channel 2• Spokane, Washington
*KPLR-TV / Channel 11• St. Louis, Missouri
*WSYR-TV / Channel 3• Syracuse, New York
*WTOL-TV / Channel 11• Toledo, Ohio
*KVOA-TV / Channel 4• Tucson, Arizona

* The name for Rock et Belles Oreilles, a Québécois comedy group popular during the 1980s, was a pun on the name of Huckleberry Hound ("Roquet Belles Oreilles" in French).

References

"Huckleberry Hound" in other languages

*Brazilian Portuguese: "Dom Pixote"
*Portuguese: "Dom Quixote"
*Spanish: similar to English
*Dutch: "Huckleberry Hond"
*German: "Hucky"
*Italian: "Braccobaldo Bau"
*French: "Roquet Belles-Oreilles"
*Finnish: "Hakki-koira"
*Hungarian: "Foxi Maxi"
*Japanese: 珍犬ハックル "(Chin-ken Hakkuru)"
*Czech: "Pes Filipes"
*Polish: "Pies Huckleberry"
*Swedish: "Huckleberry Hund / Blåbärsjycken"
*Turkish: "Akıllı Bıdık"
*Croatian: "Hucky i Prijatelji"
*Bulgarian: "Хъкълбери Хрътката"

External links

*imdb title|id=0051283|title=The Huckleberry Hound Show
*Tv.com show|id=35377|title=The Huckleberry Hound Show
* [http://www.wingnuttoons.com/HuckleHound.html List of "Huckleberry Hound" episodes]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/huckle.htm Huckleberry Hound's Toonopedia entry]
* [http://www.toontracker.com/huck/huck.htm "The Huckleberry Hound Show" at Toon Tracker]