In most of his cartoons he has different jobs, with results that backfire, yet usually coming out on top, either through slow persistence or sheer luck. He has been a Romangladiator, a medieval knight, a dogcatcher, a policeman and arocket scientist. He also appears in futuristic cartoons, as an intergalactic space policeman, alongside otherHanna-Barbera characters. His off-key and inaccurate rendition of "Oh My Darling, Clementine" was often used as arunning gag.[11]
In 1953,Tex Avery created a character known as the Southern Wolf (later Dixie Wolf inThe Tom & Jerry Show) for hisMGM cartoonsThe Three Little Pups andBilly Boy. Introduced as an antagonist toDroopy, the wolf had a southern drawl and laid-back mannerisms provided byDaws 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 andJoseph Barbera produced two more shorts with the character. In two of his cartoons (Billy Boy andBlackboard 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 inBilly 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 inThe Ruff and Reddy Show and Smedley inWalter Lantz'sChilly Willy shorts. The voice for Huck was actually inspired by a neighbor of Butler's wife, Myrtis Martin, in her hometownAlbemarle, North Carolina. Butler would visit Myrtis and her family and would talk to the neighbor who was aveterinarian. Butler found the man's voice amusing and remembered it when it came time to voice Huck.[13][11] The voice bore similarities to that ofAndy 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 beingparodies of known celebrities; Butler, who had been using the accent for about a decade before Griffith became famous, denied this rumor.[12]
Huckleberry appeared inThe Yogi Bear Show episode "Yogi's Birthday Party" where he and the others help celebrate Yogi Bear's birthday.[14]
Huck makes a cameo in theTop Cat episode "King for a Day", in a comic cover along with Yogi.[15]
Huckleberry, Yogi,Boo-Boo,Snagglepuss,Quick Draw McGraw,Magilla Gorilla and the others traveled around America in the half-hour seriesYogi's Gang. Debuting in 1973, the characters traveled in a ship calledYogi's Ark, which looks likeNoah's Ark, but with a helicopter propeller. They solved problems including Mr. Waste's pollution, Mr. Bigot's bigotry, and other various issues.[16][12]
TheGalaxy Goof-Ups segment of the 1978 seriesYogi'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 ofYogi's Space Race also reveals Huck's origin inMemphis, Tennessee.[18] 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.[16][12]
In theWake, Rattle, and Roll (1990) segment,Fender Bender 500, Huck teams up with Snagglepuss in theirmonster truck called "Half Dog, Half Cat, Half Track" throughout the racecourses.[17]
Huckleberry appeared as a teenager in the 1991 seriesYo Yogi!, voiced byGreg Berg. One of his enemies, Wee Willie, was also featured as an adolescent, vocalized byRob Paulsen.[17]
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 ofNew York City, likecar horns,jackhammers, andbirds, 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 acar, all rendered withcutout 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.[25]
Huckleberry Hound appears in the seriesJellystone!, voiced byJim Conroy.[26] He is shown to be themayor of Jellystone withMr. Jinks serving as hispersonal assistant.[27] His voice in the series is more based on children's television hostFred Rogers. Huck is confirmed to begay in the Season 3 episode "Disco Fever".[28]
Huckleberry is the singing narrator of a parody recording ofLorne Greene's song, "Ringo", called "Bingo, Ringo" where the hound meets a man who appears to resembleThe Beatles drummer,Ringo Starr, punctuated with considerable percussion.[33]
Huckleberry Hound in Hollywood Capers is a 1993 computer game forMS-DOS,Amiga, andAtari ST, released only in Europe. It was adapted from an earlier game,Dino Jr. in Canyon Capers.[34]
