While he may not be Hanna Barbera's most memorable animated animal,
Huckleberry Hound has garnered his fair share of followers since his first
appearance in 1958. Find out a few fun facts about him here:
1. Voice
actor Daws Butler is responsible for giving Huck his trademark drawl--but our
favorite blue-hued hound dog wasn't the first character to receive the laconic
vocal stamp. Butler voiced at least two previous characters in exactly the same
lazed drawl, Wolf of the MGM cartoon Droopy and Chilly Willy's clutzy foe,
Smedley the Bear.
2.
Huckleberry Hound was Hanna Barbera's first
major animated TV series, but the characters introduced on the show, including
Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Baba Looie and (most notably) Yogi Bear and Boo
Boo, often stole the show and eventually surpassed its star in popularity.
3. The show won an Emmy during the 1959-1960 and became the first
animated series ever to receive the distinction.
4. Though an
explanation has never been offered for Huck's obsessive fondness of the
standard, "My Darling Clementine," our actual theory is that Clementine was the
raven-haired, coke-bottle-figured owner of Huck's mother. She eventually became
his first-ever crush, just before she released him and the rest of the litter
into the unsuspecting streets to fend for themselves as strays. That's just us,
though.
What do you
think? 5. Huckleberry Hound starred in his own comic title in
1959, which outlasted his television show by more than a decade.