HOKEY WOLFOriginal medium: TV AnimationProduced by: Hanna-Barbera First Appeared: 1960 Please contribute to its necessary financial support. Amazon.com or PayPal It was the success of Yogi Bear that led to the creation of Hokey Wolf. Not because Hokey was very similar to Yogi, tho he was, but because when Yogi moved out into |
his own show, he left his segment on Huckleberry Hound's show vacant, and Hanna-Barbera created Hokey to fill the gap.
Like Yogi, Hokey had a shorter companion of the same species, Ding-a-Ling, to serve as a sounding board for dialog and to contrast with his own self-serving point of view. Also like Yogi, Hokey lived by his wits, tho he didn't always confine his cheating and conniving to the mere acquisition of food. Nor did he have anyone like Ranger Smith to rein him in. Voice actor Daws Butler (Cap'n Crunch, Chilly Willy) made Hokey sound like actor Phil Silvers, whose best known role at the time was con man Ernie Bilko. The technique of using such impressions for characters' voices was to serve Butler well over the next few years, as his Snagglepuss sounded like Bert Lahr and his Wally Gator like Ed Wynn. Ding-a-Ling was voiced by Doug Young (Doggie Daddy on Quick Draw McGraw's show, Yippee on Peter Potamus's). Hokey's segment was added to Huck's show in the 1960-61 season, freeing Yogi to debut in his own half-hour in January, 1961. (The third segment, Pixie & Dixie, remained in place.) Only 28 episodes were made. He got into Dell and Gold Key comic books, but only in the back pages of other characters' titles — alone among the pre-1962 Hanna-Barbera TV characters, he never had one of his own. He and Ding-a-Ling did, however, appear in a 1961 Little Golden Book. There was the usual toy and clothing merchandising, but not a great deal of it in this case — Hokey was about as minor a character as Hanna-Barbera had done to date. He had an occasional part in the later ensemble shows, including Yogi's Treasure Hunt, as recently as 1985; and in TV movies as recently as The Good, the Bad & Huckleberry Hound in 1988. Now, except an occasional bit part in Adult Swim, he's pretty much forgotten. — DDM BACK to Don Markstein's Toonopedia Home Page
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