Huckleberry Hound
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Huck.jpeg
Huckleberry Hound
Voiced by Daws Butler, Huckleberry was a blue dog that spoke with a southern drawl, with a relaxed, well-intentioned personality. Most of his shorts consisted of Huck trying to find employment in different fields, ranging from policeman to (ironically enough) dogcatcher, with backfiring results, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow peristence or sheer luck.
The Hanna-Barbera characters were known for frequently turning to the viewing audience to make little comments and asides. 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.
Although the voice Butler gave to Huckleberry Hound resembles that of Andy Griffith (who had recently become famous in movies, though not yet on TV), Butler had already developed and used the voice in earlier work. It was based on the neighbor of his wife, Myrtis; Butler would speak with said neighbor when visiting North Carolina. Because some of Hanna-Barbera's early shows (The Flintstones, Top Cat) are acknowledged to be take-offs on celebrities and shows of the day, it is possible that the studio was partly capitalizing on Griffith's popularity in making use of the voice, but this was not its origin.
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, and even as a teenager in the series Yo, Yogi!. Huck was also the star of one of the 1980s made-for-television movie, The Good, The Bad, and Huckleberry Hound.
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.
External links
- List of Huckleberry Hound episodes (http://www.wingnuttoons.com/HuckleHound.html)
- Huckleberry Hound's Toonopedia entry (http://www.toonopedia.com/huckle.htm)
Huckleberry Hound in other languages
- Brazilian Portuguese: Dom Pixote
- Spanish: similar to English
- German: Hucky
- Italian: Braccobaldo
- French: Roquet Belles Oreilles