The biggest show in town is Huckleberry Hound, for all you guys and gals…
Following positive reaction to The Ruff and Reddy Show, Hanna-Barbera launched it’s second series, The Huckleberry Hound Show.
Each episode contained three shorts:
Huckleberry Hound, a blue dog with a North Carolina accent; Pixie & Dixie, two mice who are always being chased by a cat, Mr. Jinks; and finally, Yogi Bear, who with his sidekick Boo Boo Bear live in Jellystone Park and spend their days trying to steal picnic baskets and evade Ranger Smith.
Yogi Bear was spun off due to its popularity and given his own series. His segment was replaced with Hokey Wolf and Ding-a-Ling, two wolves who specialize in the art of the grift.
The series ran for 78 episodes and this remastered Blu-ray release from the Warner Archive features stunning video and audio with the series’ original opening/closing credits, a featurette on voice actor, Daws Butler and bumpers and bridge material.
Diving back into the series reminded me what fond memories I had of watching Hanna-Barbera cartoons when growing up. In today’s climate, I find myself more and more nostalgic for a simpler world that I grew up in. Hanna-Barbera was primarily known for creating television animation.
That meant they were cheaper, the animation was more basic, but the voice actors, the music, and color set these apart. While revisiting these, I was frustratingly reminded how repetitive they were at times. Nevertheless, seeing these episodes presented better than I’ve ever seen them before really made it a wonderful experience.
But where they shine is they were clever and memorable. Huckleberry Hound was never my favorite Hanna-Barbera character, but I love the Pixie & Dixie shorts, and watching the origins of Yogi Bear was quite entertaining. The 11-disc set does have one ask: is this overkill? Personally, it depends on what your taste is. I found myself charmed and entertained by many of the episodes. But this is not for a casual fan.
As a member of Generation X, so much of my TV watching was centered around Hanna-Barbera that I’m thrilled to have this in my collection. I think any other pop culture fan would as well. If you’re much more of a casual fan, you probably don’t need 78 episodes, but there are other collections out there that have a wider selection of characters and give you a fair example of what you’re getting.
As I spend much of my time fear-watching the news, The Huckleberry Hound Show has proven to be a dose of calm among the chaos.
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