Most of his short films consist of Huck trying to perform jobs in different fields, ranging from policeman to dogcatcher, with results that backfire, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow persistence or sheer luck. Huck does 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 also appears in futuristic cartoons, as an intergalactic space policeman, alongside other Hanna-Barbera characters. His tone-deaf and inaccurate rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine" was often used as a running gag.[13]
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. 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, the Wolf never lost his cool; instead, he calmly talked to the audience or kept whistling the song "Year of Jubilo". After Avery left MGM, William Hanna and Joseph 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 had only in Billy Boy. Sheep Wrecked was the wolf's final appearance.
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.[15][13] 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.[14]
Role in later productions
Huckleberry appeared in The Yogi Bear Show episode "Yogi's Birthday Party" where he and the others help celebrate Yogi Bear's birthday.[16]
Huck makes a cameo in the Top Cat episode "King for a Day", in a comic cover along with Yogi.[17]
Huckleberry, Yogi, Boo-Boo, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Magilla Gorilla and the others traveled around America in the half-hour series Yogi's Gang. Debuting in 1973, the characters traveled in a ship called Yogi's Ark, which looks like Noah's Ark, but with a helicopter propeller. They solved problems including Mr. Waste's pollution, Mr. Bigot's bigotry, and other various issues.[18][14]
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 one episode of Yogi's Space Race also reveals Huck's origin in Memphis, Tennessee.[9] 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.[18][14]
In the Wake, Rattle, and Roll (1990) segment, Fender Bender 500, Huck teams up with Snagglepuss in their monster truck called "Half Dog, Half Cat, Half Track" throughout the racecourses.[8]
Huckleberry appeared as a teenager in the 1991 series Yo Yogi!, voiced by Greg Berg. One of his enemies, Wee Willie, was also featured as an adolescent, vocalized by Rob Paulsen.[8]
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.[24]
Huckleberry Hound appears in the series Jellystone!, voiced by Jim Conroy.[25] He is shown to be the mayor of Jellystone with Mr. Jinks serving as his personal assistant.[26] His voice in the series is more based on children's television host Fred Rogers. Huck is confirmed to be gay in the Season 3 episode "Disco Fever".[27]
Huckleberry briefly appeared in a MetLife commercial that aired in 2012.[30]
Huckleberry Hound made a cameo appearance in the Animaniacs segment "Suffragette City".[31]
Huckleberry 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.[32]
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.[33]
^"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
