Huckleberry Hound

The biggest show in town is Huckleberry Hum For

all you guys and gals The biggest call in town

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It's Huckleberry fun, it's for everyone So come

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Soul Mary, Juggleberry, Huckleberry Hello and

welcome to the 40th, yes that's right, 40th episode

of Tooncast brought to you by the Geekcast Radio

Network. I am your host, DFJ on mic, and today

I am joined once again by Kevin, Professor Boscadar

Thompson. Hello. Hello. How are you? Today we

will begin our Hannah Barbera spotlight with

Huckleberry Hound. Yay! So yeah, what have you

been up to since last time we did one of these

shows? Um, a couple things. Besides trying to

narrow down my top ten voice actors of every

decade, which is turning out to be quite the

project, now I've decided I'm doing both male

and female lists from one from the 80s, one from

the 90s, and one from like the early, before

the 80s. So I got quite the chore trying to narrow

those down. But I have most of them narrowed

down to the top ten, now it's just ordering them

around. But I did also do, I'm getting obsessed

with top ten lists apparently, because I just

did a top ten list and the topic was the ten

best female roles of the 80s in cartoons. And

let me guess, Chitara did not make the list.

Chitara did not make the list. I did mention

her in the introduction as a notable female character,

but there's just too many good female characters

during the decade. You know, you have lots of

things like... I know you are disconnected from

the internet for the majority, but I saw Toy

Fair 2010 coverage of Mattel and Masters of the

Universe, the classics line. They have shown

off the She -Ra figure. that will be coming out

for the Masters of the Universe Classics line.

Also, earlier this month, back in January, they

released the very first ever Adora figure for

Masters of the Universe Classics line. I haven't

been doing too much, I'm still coming to terms

with being in my fucking thirties, but what are

you going to do? So I guess we're going to get

things started. Take us away with the history

lesson. All right. For today's history lesson,

we're going old school, back to 1958. Like Mike

said, to start, our spotlight on Hanna -Barbera.

Hanna -Barbera's first new for TV cartoon animation

product, not their first project overall, but

their first basically new for TV cartoon animated

project, was Huckleberry Hound. It hit the airwaves

on October 2nd, 1958. The show lasted a total

of four seasons and aired 69 total episodes.

Huckleberry Hound consisted of multiple segments,

which we'll get into when we get to the actual

show, but that's it for the history lesson. Do

you remember Huckleberry Hound at all, Mike?

Oh, yeah. You know, I thought you said you were

in your 30s. I thought your memory might be going.

Shut up. Yeah, that's, you know... Keep talking

about that, then damn Dolphins are gonna suck

ass this year, or next year, or whatever, but

anyway. Yeah, you know, again, this is something

we're probably gonna bring up in all of the Hanna

-Barbera episodes, just like I brought up in

the Flintstones episode. These were cartoons

that I thought was running concurrent to my childhood.

Because they were, by the 80s, they were already

in mass syndication. They're still in mass syndication

today on Boomerang. You know, everybody remembers

Huckleberry and his tone -deaf version of Oh

My Darling Clementine. I think that's his major,

major signature. That and his Southern drawl.

Right. I remember, I mean, I don't remember almost

all the, this happened to basically all the Hannah

Barbera cartoons. I don't remember them as much,

obviously, as I would remember ones that were

more in my prime years maybe, I guess I would

call them, you know, when I'm watching Transformers,

etc. That's when I was super into stuff. But

like I do remember being someone before, like

in the days when I would watch Smurfs and, you

know, Sesame Street and stuff like that. I do

remember being exposed to most of the cartoons,

some more than others. But I just remember it

being, you know, you can kind of equate the Hannah

Barbera, the cartoons that we're going to be

talking about over the next little while, the

Looney Tunes or Mary Melodies. So let's see,

like Pink Panther and all those types of cartoons,

stuff that just seemed like it was always on.

And it was just, it represented something completely

different for me. It was like... I don't know.

Kids today don't know what these cartoons were

like unless, obviously, they've watched them

in reruns, but I don't think they can have the

appreciation. It's almost like video games today

where people get so wrapped up in the graphics

and then the animation, and they forget about

the actual thing that's important, like in a

video game, the actual game play. And I still

today have not seen games that can compete with

the games that were out when I was a kid. They

look like movies, yeah, but they don't have that

same... quality of game play. It's kind of like

that with some of these cartoons. Yeah, these

don't look flashy, and a modern big kid might

get bored with them, but they have substance,

which a lot of cartoons these days don't. Yeah,

I completely agree with you. It seemed like people

just took more time in the writing of it. The

lines are more calculated, the voice acting.

We'll get to that in a second. Good lord, we're

talking about legends now and we're getting into

Anna Barbera. Yes, exactly. You know, it's one

of those things where when I was growing up,

I watched all kinds of cartoons. I watched Casper,

I watched Scooby -Doo, I watched Jetsons, Flintstones,

Peanuts, the Charlie Brown stuff, Transformers,

Voltron, Thundercats, Attempted but failed at

watching Silverhawks. uh... you know stuff like

that you know but i was all we don't need to

lose his always a big part of my childhood you

know uh... you know and like i said again these

cartoons like the hammer especially in the rare

ones and we'll we'll inhale it we can see them

before that you know They came out at a time

where I wasn't even thought of or hell with Looney

Tunes my parents weren't even born yet when those

came out but I mean with these it's like holy

crap my mom grew up on these cartoons I grew

up on these cartoons watching them in syndication

and they're just good wholesome cartoons. Yeah

and I think another thing that another connection

I have with these cartoons I had I have a sister

that's two years older but I have a brother that

almost 10 years older than I am and he really

grew up with this stuff. So you know I kind of

remember being exposed to them through him too

when I was at a really young age and I don't

know it's just nothing but good memories. Can

I remember like specifics of all the cartoons

besides you know obviously I can remember like

trademarks and like some of like you said some

of the signature parts of each character. I can't

remember tons about the actual shows, like if

I watched episodes of them, it would be like

watching them for the first time because I would

no way remember seeing those episodes. But you

still remember the characters, you still remember

the voice, you still remember the trademarks,

and I think that is a testament to, you know,

these cartoons, I don't care, the animation doesn't,

whatever, but the cartoons, except for a few

that get dated with some of the things or some

of the phrases that aren't used anymore or maybe

some pop culture references that people wouldn't

get. But the actual stories and the humor and

just the concept of them is timeless. Yeah, no,

I completely agree. I guess we can go ahead and

move into the characters and voice actors. One

thing I noticed about your listing, you don't

list the dog anywhere. There was an episode of

Huck that he was the mailman and he went against

this dog that would laugh. The dog would kind

of snicker and laugh like Mutley does. One thing

that you'll find, especially for those listeners

out there that want to look up more information

on most of these older cartoons, it's really

hard. I mean I have books on cartoons so I went

to a couple of different kind of like encyclopedia

type things and cartoon dedicated books to get

some of the information but it's not hard finding

information on the lead character but to find

information on any of the supporting cast is

really hard on these shows unless you just go

back through and re -watch them and have DVDs

of course. True, true. I was impressed that I

came up with any of the bad guys myself. Oh,

let me just list the characters that we can talk

about in a second. Obviously the good guy on

it, the title character, Huckleberry Hound, in

case you've been living in a cave your entire

life. Huckleberry Hound is a blue dog that spoke

with a southern drawl like Mike mentioned before,

with a relaxed, sweet, and well -intentioned

personality. We'll get more into him in a little

bit. Some of the opposing characters that he

came across. There was a powerhouse Pierre, which

was a tall and muscular, unshaven character with

a French accent. There was Dinky Dalton, who

was a rough and tough western outlaw that Huck

usually had to capture. Crazy Coyote, which was

an Indian who Huck often had to defeat, who was

his match. And The Rose, which was two crows

with mafia accents who often annoyed Farmer Huck.

So, yeah, you always had kind of a variety of

different people that he came across in his short

or in his little episodes. Obviously, he was

the only one that was around in all of them.

Right, right. I like the Crows too, the Crows

are funny. Yeah, and I mean obviously it's hard,

you can't really do like a favorite or least

favorite character with most of these Anna Barbera

shows just because of the limited number of main

characters. You know Huckleberry Hound would

always be everyone's favorite, so that kind of

goes without saying. Yeah. Yeah, you know I did

also like, and I know we'll get into this, but

I really like the Pixie Dixie and Mr. Jinx cartoons.

Those were always kind of funny to me because

it was a new... I don't think it was a new take,

but it was Hannah Barbera's take on Tom and Jerry.

So instead of one mouse and a cat, it's two mice

and a cat. Right. Yeah, and we'll get into those

other segments probably a little bit later so

people aren't confused. That's what we're talking

about with Pixie and Dixie. The voice cast, I

mean, goodness. You have, on this show alone,

two of possibly the greatest voice actors of

all time. Yep. And for those of you who don't

know who voices Huckleberry Hound, it's the legendary

voice actor Dawes Butler who does a ton of work

for Hanna Barbera and for a variety of other.

And of course, joining him on this show was Don

Messick. And Don Messick and Dodds Butler, along

with Mel Block, probably are three of the greatest

voice actors ever. Oh yes, very much so. And

then actually you have another veteran voice

actor, not as probably famous as Butler and Messick

in cartoon land, but Bob Holt also provided the

voice of Dinky Dalton. And there was probably

others. One thing that you'll find with a lot

of these old shows is a lot of times the voice

actors went uncredited. You'll find that especially

in anything that Mel Block said. Yeah. Because,

and this is the only thing I'll say, and maybe

it's not necessarily his fault, but... No, it's...

No, it's not his fault. No, it is his fault because

he asked for that. Well, what happened was he

asked for more money, and Warner Brothers told

him, no, we can't, but we can get it. He goes,

okay, well, then I want exclusive voice credit

for all the roles. Yeah, and the norm back then

was for nobody to get credit. Right. Nobody ever

got credited for voiceover work because it was

kind of the, you know, forgotten art, I guess,

if you want to call it. And yeah, Mel Block had

to put in a contract that he'd get credit for

his character, but he was the only one. So, you

know, that's why it's impossible. When I'm making

these top ten list of voice actors, like take

June Foray, for example, you can't find half

the roles she did as far as credits go because

she was in so much stuff with Mel Block and she

couldn't get credited for it. So, you know, a

lot of these characters we don't know, but as

far as Hannah Barbera goes, you're going to see

a whole lot of dogs while they're in domestic.

And I can't complain about that at all. I can't

either. And what separates them from me, compared

to a lot of voice actors these days, is so many

of their voices do not sound anything like each

other. Yep. And you couldn't tell that it's the

same person. When you're a kid, you didn't know

that every, like especially if you're a kid back

in the 50s or 60s watching these Hannah Barbera

things, You didn't realize that every single

cartoon you watched was the same person. Right,

exactly. Because that's basically what it was.

It was one of three people. And that's just astounding.

It boggles my mind. I don't know how people can

have that type of talent to just do so many voices.

I don't know when I said it, but I said something

about when Where somebody was talking to me about

all the interviews I did or all the interviews

that I've done so far, you know, and I said,

you know, I don't like speaking ill of the dead,

but, you know, God rest his soul with Mel Blank

was around right now and I got a chance to interview

him. It would just be too immense. I mean, it's

one of those things, you know, Frank Welker.

That interview would be a nightmare because of

the simple fact that it's not anything against

Mr. Welker at all, but because of the simple

fact that he's done so much. And the other thing

that you find, especially with Frank Welker,

I don't know if it would be the same with some

of these, obviously most of these guys have passed

already, but it would be the same if you could

talk to them. They do so many roles that, I know

in Frank Welker's case, he can't even remember

half of them. And I've seen a couple other people

where they've been asked to do a certain voice

and they have to just outright say, you know,

it's been so long, I don't think I could do that

justice. I don't think I could come back into

that voice, just spur -of -the -moment type thing.

Right. But very good voice actors. You're going

to hear a lot of repetition as far as the voice

actor segment for the next couple shows. Yeah,

hell, we might as well just pre -record the voice

actor segment for all the shows and not even...

Just have one file for Method, one file for Butler,

and just be like, that's it. Yeah, you know what

like I said before I know even though it's kind

of hard to find some of the supporting characters

I like the dog that was the villain for Huck

in the in a couple of the cartoons That was very

very cool, so I guess is that all we're gonna

say about the characters and stuff Okay moving

into the behind -the -scenes segment this show

represented new ground for the team of Hannah

Barbera and Kellogg's This was the first attempt

by the company to make a cartoon specifically

for TV. At first, Huckleberry was based in part

on both droopy from MGM theatrical cartoons and

goofy from Disney works. At first, they thought

they were going to give Huckleberry a new voice

for every profession he portrayed. However, they

eventually instead decided to go with a with

Dawes Butler, who they had heard in 1953 MGM

cartoon, Three Little Pups. Huckleberry almost

was named Alfalfa Hound or Cactus Hound. But

the blue skin color led them to choose Huckleberry.

Okay, no. No. Just no. Kellogg's loved the initial

character design, but vetoed the name saying

it was too long for kids to remember. They also

hired two of Warner Brothers' best to work on

the show in Michael Maltese and Oran Foster as

far as the writers go. It was an interesting

thing. It's hard to fathom what it must have

been like before cartoons. Before made -for -TV

cartoons. I could not. I mean, the only time

you ever saw cartoons was when you went to a

movie theater and instead of showing all the

trivia and bull crap that you see these days

and previews, you used to see theatrical short.

Yeah. That was usually what they played. I might

be talking a little bit out of ignorance since

I wasn't around there, but it's my understanding

that that's usually what you saw as far as cartoons

go. You saw them before movies or at the theater,

something like that. Yeah, you're right. There

might have been an occasional special that you

saw on TV, but there was no such thing at this

point as a made -for -TV cartoon. Right. to imagine

what kind of pressure they must have been under

and you know whether they would succeed or not

is just and I never knew that Kellogg's had anything

to do with any of these Hanna -Barbera shows.

I can kind of see the tie -in though I mean if

you think about it because they can make well

like well not Kellogg's specifically but like

they do now with like cereal they tie in cereal

to everything Look at what, you know, when the

first, you know, first cereal tie -ins I ever

remember was, even though I never ate the cereal,

because I don't like it, but Michael Jordan and

Wheaties. I mean, Jordan was always on a Wheaties

box. And now, of course, nowadays, they want

to cash in on that marketing, and they put any

NBA player that they want to on the Wheaties

box. It's just, I don't know, it's just hard

to imagine. It's not only hard to imagine a TV

show right before the producers cartoon. It's

also hard to imagine what it must have been like

if they were pitching or coming up with the idea

that these characters didn't exist at this point.

For our lifetime, there's always been Bugs Bunny.

There's always been Mickey Mouse. There's always

been Yogi Bear, Huckleberry High. It's almost

like they've existed forever. Yeah. Oh, I completely

agree. And to picture them pitching these characters

and having the talk back and forth of, you know,

we don't like the name, or we like the name,

or we like the look, or do we have to go with

blue, or just all these different things. And

it seems like the decision seems so easy for

us just because we've And these people have always

existed, but I wonder what it was like sitting

at that table or sitting in that conference room

or wherever and trying to pitch characters like

Huckleberry Hound and what kind of reaction they

got. Yeah, you know, it all goes back to, like,

say, you know, I like how they showed off that

process in Tiny Toon Adventures, the very first

episode of, you know, the loony beginning. you

know how that kind of you know even though they

were kind of making fun of it but they were also

showing us how that process is done but still

you know huckleberry was almost too long of a

name for them to use well yeah well like it said

you know kids wouldn't remember it i can remember

it oh right but you know well it's the same thing

with um uh well not yogi but snaggle puss what

the fuck is a snaggle you know you know what

i mean i mean nobody really I don't know, but

we'll get to that eventually. So are we going

to move into the actual show? Just in case people

aren't 100 % aware of this, obviously, I'll just

mention the directors, Joseph Barbera and William

Hanna. Everyone's heard of Hanna and Barbera,

but there are actual people in case you didn't

know that, and they're the ones that obviously

directed the show. Like we said, the writers.

They stole two people from Warner Brothers, and

there was a mixture of some other people that

we won't get into. But yeah, we can get into

the actual show now. Since at the time, no 30

-minute cartoons had been established, The Huckleberry

Hound Show consisted of three different 7 -minute

cartoons, as was the norm at the time. At first,

these three segments were Huckleberry Hound,

Pixie and Dixie, and Yogi Bear. Yogi would later

go on to host his own show and would be replaced

by Hulky Wolf. In Huckleberry Hound, they set

out to have more verbal than visual gags and

so relied on great scripts rather than great

animation for their success. They also decided

to instill humor by having deadpan reactions

to events by Huckleberry. The credits originally

Huckleberry would interact with the Cornelius

the Kellogg's mascot. Huckleberry hounds southern

drawl and laid -back mannerisms bear close resemblance

to southern wolf in MGM cartoons including those

produced by Hannah Barbera. The term Huckleberry

can be slang synonym for a rube or an amateur.

and it seems to fit Huck's personality. Most

of his shorts consisted of Huck trying to perform

jobs in different fields, ranging from policeman

to dog catcher 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. 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 Hannah Barbera productions

at this time for the same reason. Oh, for some

reason. But Huckleberry said it more often than

anyone else. One of his careers had a job position

on the door listed as T .S. in S .L .T .T. When

asked what it stood for, Huck said, top secrets

and stuff like that there. That's so funny. Various

Hannah Barbera characters were known for frequently

turning into the viewing audience to make little

comments and sides, following the tradition of

the MGM cartoons directed by Tex Avery and produced

by Fred Quimby, characters of the 1940s and earlier

by Groucho Marx. Huck took this to somewhat of

an extreme, as a significant part of typical

cartoon was his running narrative to the audience

about whatever he was trying to accomplish. The

other thing, which doesn't really mention, this

is probably the first cartoon that I remember

watching that had a narrator. Yeah. Because the

narrator would always open and, you know, this

is Huckleberry Hound, the policeman, and blah,

blah, blah. Huck would actually interact with

the narrator. Right. Oh yeah, I do remember that.

Yeah, I thought that was very, very cool. Yeah.

And I think, just to go back to what you said

at the beginning there, we should mention because

it's going to be a running theme here for the

rest of the Hannah Barbera spotlight and this

is something that to me now when I'm a kid in

the 80s watching different cartoons obviously

you know to me I probably didn't realize that

some were older than the others but kind of like

what you said before most of them just felt like

they were going on as I was a kid yeah but one

thing that did separate some cartoons from others

to me and I did notice the difference obviously

as most people it's not like it takes anything

to notice the difference but There were the cartoons

that lasted for 22 minutes or a half hour basically

and then there were these that had little short

segments like a seven minute skit. Obviously

most of the older ones, Looney Tunes, Hannah

Barbera were the ones that had these little seven

minute cartoons. It's been done before, it's

been done since, just kind of to harken back

to that. I never really realized that the whole

concept of having a thirty minute cartoon had

not even been thought of at this point. Nobody

would have thought into the fact that a kid was

going to stay focused on one story for 30 minutes.

Right. And it was just easier probably as far

as writing goes, etc., to come up with these

little short gags and stuff like that. But that's

one thing. I enjoy the fact that they have these

little skits because it tells a story, which,

God help it, a cartoon couldn't tell a story

these days in seven minutes if they wanted to.

It tells a complete story, takes you from beginning,

middle to end, has everything going, and then

you can move on to the next one. And it doesn't

take that much time, so it's almost like, I don't

know, there's some type of magic or just kind

of, I don't know, some type of artistic brilliance

of these little seven -minute skits in my opinion.

I mean, as a kid, I didn't like them as much.

As a kid, I would have rather watched a 30 -minute

show, and that's one thing that made me like

them. the 80s cartoons better than these old

cartoons, but as an adult, I can appreciate these

little seven minutes. It's here and there because

it's a lot easier to sit through than sitting

through a half hour and then find out you don't

like the show or something like that. Yeah, see,

for me, it's like, you know, now, because I'm

so used, okay, say you have, like when I had,

unfortunately, Boomerang, the Boomerang channel

is only on digital cable or satellite now. It's

not on actual regular basic classic. Yeah, I

know it. But you know when I would watch this

you know they would block off say from 12 p .m..

To 12 30 p .m.. Or 12 p .m.. To 1 p .m.. An entire

hour of say the huckleberry hound show or yogi

or Hell even Tom and Jerry and they would just

show the seven minutes six or seven minute shorts

throughout that hour and they would cut it off

like say that say they're gonna do I Don't know

seven or eight seven minute shorts in an hour's

time span. And that would be the end of the hour.

So for me, I liked watching them in those blocks.

Granted, as a kid I don't remember watching them

as far as... Like, I don't remember paying attention

to time, because honestly, until I started watching

Superman the Animated Series and realizing, holy

crap, these episodes, even though they're 22

minutes long, on DVD, they're like, wow, that

episode went so fast. And I realize, and now

I know that most, like, say, hour -long shows

or whatever are, say, 40 -something minutes,

or, you know, and half -hour shows are like 22,

23 minutes, and I think that sucks, because...

If you didn't have that, granted if you didn't

have the other eight minutes or nine minutes

or seven minutes of ads you wouldn't get show

on the air but it's still eight or nine minutes

that you could have had to put into the episode.

I imagine though with a show like this, now see,

the ones that have done it recently and I can't

think of specific examples off the top of my

head but I want to say like Some that were out

around the same time as Tiny Toon and stuff had

these short little clips. But what you usually

had in later ones was you would have three clips

of the same show. Whereas back in this time period,

I imagine there was some type of... I imagine

everybody had their favorite little short clip

of time. And I wonder if having these three different

segments, you were always kind of wondering or

looking forward to seeing if the next one was

going to be your favorite. Right. In this one,

you have Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie,

and Yogi Bear. Let's say Pixie and Dixie was

your favorite. I wonder if you through a seven

-minute Huckleberry Hound cartoon hoping, oh,

I hope Pixie and Dixie is going to be next, or

whatever. You had that type of anticipation.

And you touched a little bit on Pixie and Dixie,

obviously, kind of like a common jerry. And we

don't need to talk a whole lot about Yogi Bear.

Think of these three sharing the spotlight in

a half hour. That's a pretty powerful lineup

there. I don't recall at all what Hokey Wolf

was like. I don't know if I've ever seen it or

if it doesn't stick in my memory. I was telling

you off air that Boomerang will show mini...

They have this thing where it's an actual projector,

but it's an animated projector. Royal still shots

of of pixie and dixie are sitting at that like

up below the lens and they show like these mini

cartoons between Because boomerang doesn't do

commercials unless it's for Cartoon Network because

obviously Cartoon Network owns that net owns

that channel so they would show like mini cartoons

and I would see like mini cartoons of hokey wolf

and I think it's Ding Boyer. His sidekick might

just be called Ding. And he's okay. He's all

right. I don't know, though. I don't know. But

I suppose everybody had their favorite out of

the three. Whether it was Huckleberry Hound,

Pixie and Dixie, or Yogi Bear. I mean, we all

know which one became the most popular. But the

Huckleberry Hound was the one that they pitched.

That's the one that the studios were sold on.

have to get a lot of credit for basically starting

the cartoon. It wasn't the first Hannah Barbera,

but it was the first one made specifically for

TV, and thank God it was a success. Yeah, because

if it wasn't, we wouldn't have all the cartoons

we have nowadays. I mean, it would have happened

at some point, but who knows what course it would

have taken. Is there anything else you want to

say as far as the actual show? Oh, I do have

something about the actual show that I wanted

to say that I almost forgot. Another thing that

you get with these old -fashioned Hanna -Barbera

shows, which is kind of ironic since we just

kind of talked about it also in last week's episode

because of the environmental mask that it was

under. But in these old shows, guess what, folks?

There's nobody out there making sure you don't

see violence. There's nobody out there complaining

that there's actual pistols and guns being used

on this cartoon. The episode I watched, the last

episode I watched actually had Huckleberry Hound

branding his pistol and then shooting away at

his efforts. I didn't even think anything about

it. Then I thought, wait a second, when's the

last time I saw someone with a pistol on a cartoon?

Well, yeah, but like in wide shots though? Like,

Looney Tunes is a perfect example. Looney Tunes,

in the cartoon where Bugs and Sam are facing

off on the train, and they're like, oh, I got

a six shooter, oh, I got a seven shooter, oh,

I got a ten shooter, and they start firing bullets.

The bullets we see, but we won't actually see

them hitting the characters. Right. It's just

like something that's just like, God, those are

the days back when you could actually have a

gun on your cartoon instead of having to have

a nerf neon color. Sorry. But that was kind of

the one thing that struck me when I watched the

one episode, you know, besides the classic, breaking

the third window and talking to the audience

and the Southern draw that we talked about before

and just well -written lines and well -delivered

that just made you laugh. Yeah, me too. You can

move into the music. It's very simple. It's also

something that usually was a backdrop for a higher

percentage of the entire cartoon compared to

these days. These days you'll see it in transition,

you'll see it at the beginning, you'll see it

at the end. There's a lot of times in these Hanna

-Barbera cartoons and others of this era where

the music is constantly playing in the background.

Right, yeah. More orchestral type stuff. Obviously,

you're not going to have a rock soundtrack or

whatever like that, but you're going to have

this orchestra or piano or different stuff that

kind of keeps your attention. You've got to think

it's only a seven minute skit, so it's very easy

to have a tune being played for most of that.

So going into the legacy segment here, The Huckleberry

Hound Show was probably the series that truly

made Hanna -Barbera a household name. It was

often credited with legitimizing the concept

of animation produced specifically for television,

like we said. Within a year of its debut, it

was airing in 192 out of 263 markets and had

an international audience of over 16 million.

It was virtually in the top 10 non -network programs.

in every major city. Amazingly, 65 % of its audience

was adults. It usually aired in the 5, 30, to

7 p .m. slot, but some major cities like Chicago

were successful enough that they showed it in

a prime time. It did win for an Emmy in 1960.

First animated show to ever win an Emmy. In 1961,

it was nominated. It was outstanding achievement

in the field of children's programming. Do you

want to talk about the next little item there?

I know how much you hate that. I want to make

one comment first. I was surprised to learn that

65 % of this audience are adults. That also shows

though that they took time in the writing and

they made it appeal for not just kids but adults

also. Our lovely friend, it's going to turn out

to be one of my least favorite websites in the

world I think. Our lovely dumbass friends at

IGN with their, I mean, I would stop mentioning

this at all, but I figure since we've been mentioning

it at so many different episodes, we've got to

keep going with it. They have their Top 100 animated

TV shows. Huckleberry Hound, the show that starts

it all, gets ranked 63rd. Yep, that's behind

every show that comes out in the 90s or past,

because that list is so biased towards adult

and current. animated shows but Uncle Barry Island

at least made the list at 63rd which most of

the Andy Barbera ones will not. And of course

the signal of its success and its popularity

has been referenced in a whole lot of stuff.

I found it interesting a couple of these first

ones which were movies at the time I mean we

obviously expect things to be referenced in all

the current pop culture stuff because that's

just like that's the fad. I mean, that's how

Robot Chicken and Futurama and Family Guy and

Simpsons and all that stuff, that's how they've

made their money is by spoofing all this old

stuff. But look at some of these old things that

they've got. Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1961. That

Audrey Hepburn's character briefly wears a Huckleberry

Hound mask at the costume shop. And Bye Bye Birdie

back in 1963, Huckleberry Hound pajamas. I mean,

that's... That's pretty impressive that it was

so popular and so monumental at the time that

it was even getting referenced in older stuff

like that, which you never saw. You never see

that with some of the other stuff. Obviously,

a lot of it hasn't been out yet. You know, Sanford

and Sons, Simpson, Eternal Sunshine of the Starless

Nine, there's a reference in that movie. There's

been reference in categories in Jeopardy, Scooby

-Doo, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? There's

been questions about it, obviously. So it's been

all over the place. The TV show, The 100 Greatest

Cartoons, that aired in 2005 on the Huckleberry

Hound Show and the Met. Yes. I need to bring

up The Simpsons, though. The Behind the Laughter

episode, at the end it says, next week on Behind

the Laughter, The Huckleberry Hound Show. And

we see a clip of Huckleberry Hound being interviewed

about it. Oh, damn. As far as the DVD release,

what? No, go ahead, go ahead. Well, as far as

the DVD release, on November 15th, 2005, The

Huckleberry Hound Show Volume 1, the complete

first series, was released. The additional features

include a bonus collectible animation cell, feature

it on reconstructing the premiere episode, never

before seen bumpers and bridge, and a segment

tributing Dawes Butler voice actor. I might have

to try to find that. Also, if there's fans out

there, I feel the need to mention it because

it's going to apply to most of our shows, even

though... BehindThePlaceActors .com Not at all.

Nope, not talking about that at all. It doesn't

as much apply to this show as it does to some

of the ones we'll be doing in future weeks, but

there is a set of DVDs out there that most of

you probably are aware of. That is Saturday Morning

Cartoon. And we just have to bring it up because,

actually, they just announced a new release.

But there's a 1960s volume one. There's a 1960s

volume two. And there's two volumes for 1970s.

And each one of these has a smurfs board of different

stuff that was released. Usually the not mainstream

ones, so there's not a lot of Huckleberry, Han,

and Yogi on these, but there is a lot of the

other stuff that probably could be Pixie and

Dixie or some of those other ones on there. So

if you like this era of cartoons, that's a good

sampling of a whole bunch of stuff. I almost

picked one up the other day because I had quite

a few of the Hannah Barbera shows that we'll

talk about. And also they just announced that

now they're continuing with the series and now

they have a 1980s Saturday morning volume 1 being

set for release. Cool! It has a good variety

of cartoons that were kind of flew behind, you

know, under the radar that have not been released

on DVD. I guess my best advice is if you're interested

in any of those, you know, check out pbshowsondvd

.com and see when the release dates are or what

cartoons are on each package. You can find most

of these on those DVD sets. Yes, I just thought

Target has the 60s and 70s ones on their regular

rack I think I have I would have to go look I

think I have 60s volume 1 & 2 I think I need

or no I might have 60 because because it's weird

the way they released them though They really

60s and 70s volume 1 and then 60s and 70s volume

2 so I think I have the 60s and 70s volume 1

I know I have two of them Yeah, and the only

complaint I've heard about those DVDs is that

there's no way to find specific clips, like there's

no menu or way to jump to a specific area, or

it's hard to find. Right, there is no actual

scene selection, but there's a cartoon selection,

like an episode selection. Okay. But some of

them do have some cool special features. I know

one of them, I don't know which one. They each

seem to have at least one bonus feature, and

one of them I know has a whole inside studio

behind the story typing of Magilla Gorilla, and

there's another one that has something else.

I've never seen them, but I'm almost willing

to go buy one just to see what they're like.

Right, yeah. I actually just ran into my bedroom

to grab them. I have 1960s Volume 1. The Good,

Bad, and the El Cabong feature on Quick Draw

McGraw, The Herkuloids, Monster Rock, The Adventures

of Frankenstein Jr., and The Impossibles. I mean,

there's just a whole bunch of kind of great cartoons

on these things. It's really, really cool. Let's

see, with this cool, 33 -tune, 5 -plus hour set,

the hepcat craziness of Topcat, the unbottled

fun of Quickdraw, the nuttiness of Agent 00O

or Triple O, Secret Squirrel, you'll find these

Peter Potamus, Breezeley and Sneezeley, Yippee

-Yahoo, Thrun Stones, Marine Boy, Hercules, Miguel

Guerrero, Pumpkin Puss, I love Pumpkin Puss,

that's so funny. I'm really sure we'll have it

in more reasons to tune in. Now here are the

two biggest reasons we're all there. Still great

fun and you're still a kid at heart. So that's

the 1960s Volume 1. And in the 1970s, just on

the front here, it features Scooby, Batman, the

Jetsons, Yogi and Boo -Boo, Hong Kong Fooey.

Oh God. Freaking Josie and the Pussycats. Yuck!

Let's see... and comic blasts from the past.

Put yourself in a jumbled world of some awesome

animated pleasure. According to this, bring back

the good time bonuses are Sovereign Crimes with

the Chan Clan way, and Heavens to Betsy Ross,

the spirit of Funky Phantom. So the special features

really aren't that much to write home about,

but hopefully Once and honestly when I first

got these and I first watched them I was kind

of disappointed because I was expecting more

of Huckleberry, Yogi, Pixie and Dixie. I was

expecting more honestly out of these. I really

don't care about the Chan Clan. I think I think

what they probably ran into is that they there's

only certain ones that weren't you know that

they could get the licensing to or they could

have permission to to run so they kind of had

a choose from whatever they can get. But luckily

the Huckleberry Hound does have its own DVD release

which very few of the olden day cartoons do have.

Obviously you have to give them any chance. They

have a ton of DVD releases. But with Hannah Barbera,

I think Yogi and Huckleberry Hound are two of

the only ones that have a specific DVD release

related just to their show. No later than 1961,

the characters began appearing in person at events

across America. Hanna -Barbera commissioned costume

characters of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and

Quick Drama Girl, which appeared at events like

the Florida State Fair. Hanna -Barbera owner

Taft Broadcasting started opening theme parks

in 1972, beginning with Kings Island. Oh wow,

I live a half an hour away from that place. These

parks included areas themed to the company's

cartoons and included Walk -around characters

of Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and others.

The characters were also featured on rides, including

carousels. Licensed Huckleberry Hound products

include a Latin brand thermos. Okay, that's kind

of weird. The current owner before current distributor

Warner Brothers Television picked up the ownership

of the show following its 1996 acquisition of

Turner. So that's the legacy segment. Final thoughts,

I think that Huckleberry, it's a very fun cartoon.

You know, again, and you know, we also need to

mention that there was a whole bunch of, like,

made for two, like, you know how Looney Tunes

had, like, old animation with new animation mixed

in for, like, say Daffy Ducks, Quack Busters,

and all the, like, one thousand, or one thousand

and one rabbit tails and stuff like that? There

were movies that Boomerang showed at their Boomerang

theater like, Huck is this mysterious blue eyed

stranger or blue faced stranger or something.

So there are like other things other than just

the seven minute cartoons. So that's pretty cool.

Overall, great cartoon I think. What about you?

I want to say, you know, I told you a while back

that I'd be bringing some other cartoons back

up again in this episode, or in one of the Handbubber

episodes. I think what separates this from me,

from other cartoons, is, you know, if I'm going

to watch a cartoon for, you know, great visuals

and animation and stuff like that, you know,

I'll turn to the more current ones, you know,

from the 80s on. If I want to turn one, you know,

that is... void of all the fluff and it's actually

a good cartoon show. These are probably the places

to go. I think that's what separates this from

some of the... I am a real sore spot. A lot of

cartoons these days really piss me off because

they try to go retro and dumb down the animation

but then they don't have good stories. And that's

a problem, you know, and I wish I could think

of more, but I try to put them out of my imagination

or out of my memory banks as immediately as possible.

But there was so much crap put out in the 90s

and in the 2000s that was in this style of animation

like Huffleberry Hound, but just was nothing.

They said, okay, we'll rip off and try to go

nostalgic and retro by using their style, but

then we won't put the time into actually making

it a good cartoon. And I don't know. That's the

problem I have with things like Dexter, Lavatory,

and other shows like that. So I think they did

it right. And Huckleberry Hound, it's not the

greatest cartoon in the world, absolutely not,

but it is what it is for a time period and it

was great for that time period. Dexter was 29

episodes ago. Let it go, dude. Well, I couldn't

think of the other ones that are like that but

there's other ones like that I don't remember

if that's what is that was Foster's imaginary

friends was like of that kind of that same animation

style I don't know there's other crap that's

come out since and that's basically the same

show All right, so thank you for joining us here

on to cast there so boys get in contact with

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enjoyed this episode of Tunecast and wish you

would join us next time when we will be continuing

the Hanna -Barbara Spotlight with Yogi Bear.

For now, I am TFG1Mike with... Tom Selleck. What?

Tom Selleck. You wish you were Tom Selleck. Uh,

yeah, until next time, ladies and gentlemen.

See ya. Oh, that's so funny. Look at that left

touch. Like that cat. Give him a fat limp. Oh,

look at that scaredy cat run. He must be the

world's strongest mice. A Knockout Mouse cartoon.

Gee, I wish we had a friend like Knockout Mouse.

Yeah, but he ain't for real, Dixie. I'm for real,

shorty. Knock out mice, eh? I'll fix you guys.

Uh, just remember, wise guys, that, uh, mice

is beating up the cat stuff. Uh, happens only

in cartoons. So, don't get any fa - He's so right,

Dixie. Imagine a mouse smacking a cat. Well,

we can dream, can't we? Look, Pixie. It's a telegram.

Well, open it, Dixie. Telegram scared the pants

off of me. Well, who's it from, Dixie? Have we

got a cousin in Texas? Cousin in Texas? That's

what the telegram says. Listen up, this. Pixie

and Dixie. I'm coming to visit you all for a

spell. Your cousin from Texas, Cousin Tex. Cousin

Tex? Are you all a -jushing me, partner? Shucks,

no, partner. I never met a mouse from Texas.

When he comes in, he'll probably say, howdy,

cousins. Howdy, cousins! Uh, howdy. Where's Cousin

Dixie at? He's behind the door, Tex. Well, dog

my cats. It's little old cousin Dixie. You look

kind of puny, son. You need fattening up. Speaking

of grub, how's about putting on the old feed

bag? I'm plumb hungry. The grub's in the kitchen.

Well, I'll just mosey over to the chuck wagon

for some chow. Look out for the cat, Tex. Cat?

Shockings. I ain't scared of no cotton -picking

cat. But Jinx is dynamite. Don't fret none, partner.

I must be having a nightmare. I thought I saw

a king -size mice. Uh -oh. Jinx is after Tex.

Poor cousin Tex. Pardon my glove, buster. Are

you for sure? You know, I'm me's type mice. Show

it off, stranger. I'm a Texas mouse. In my book,

partner, a mice is a mice. And since I'm a cat

type, mice like you all has got to go. Jincy's

got tacks. You had not a while, me stranger.

Don't get my dander up on you. You're trying

to frighten me. So long, cousin Tex! Get your

cotton -picking hands off of me, you mangy vermin!

Tex is in trouble!