The cast at the old swimming hole, from a comic book cover.

WHERE’S HUDDLES?

Original Medium: TV animation
Produced by: Hanna-Barbera
First Appeared: 1970
If this site is enjoyable or useful to you,
Please contribute to its necessary financial support.
Amazon.com or PayPal

The Hanna-Barbera cartoon factory had a huge hit in 1960 when it put The Flintstones on prime-time TV. The hits weren't so huge when the studio followed it up …

continued below

… with Top Cat (1961), The Jetsons (1962) and Jonny Quest (1964). After that, prime-time animation was dismissed by most as a brief fad that had run its course, until The Simpsons made it big a quarter-century later.

But the intervening years weren't completely devoid of stabs at prime-time animation. In 1970, Hanna-Barbera supplied a replacement for The Glenn Campbell Goodtime Hour, a variety show that had just wrapped up its first season on CBS. Where's Huddles?, which debuted July 1, 1970, on that network, demonstrated that the creators of Yogi Bear and Magilla Gorilla hadn't completely given up on the idea of cartoons for adults.

The title character was Ed Huddles, quarterback for The Rhinos, a pro football team. His next-door neighbor was Bubba McCoy, the team's center. Next door on the other side was Claude Pertwee, not connected with the team. Other regulars included Ed's and Bubba's wives (Claude wasn't married, and his sexual orientation was ambiguous) and a couple of others connected with the team, and Ed's dog, Fumbles. Other than being a cartoon instead of live action, the show functioned as a typical sitcom.

Ed's voice was done by Cliff Norton, who also played a couple of parts in Chuck Jones's The Phantom Tollbooth. Bubba was Mel Blanc (Henery Hawk, among others). Claude was Paul Lynde (Mildew Wolf). Marge Huddles was Jean Vander Pyl (Mrs. Finkerton in Inch High, Private Eye). Penny McCoy was Marie Wilson (who had no other voice roles). Fumbles was Don Messick, Hanna-Barbera's voice man of choice at the time for non-anthropomorphic animals, such as Josie's cat, Sebastian, and Shazzan's camel, Kaboobie.

The show lasted about as long as most summer replacements, i.e., ten episodes. The following year, Gold Key Comics published three issues of a Where's Huddles? comic book, with artwork by Roger Armstrong (Ella Cinders, Scamp). One more comic book story appeared in the ninth issue of Fun-in, an anthology title that also featured such Hanna-Barbera properties as Dastardly & Muttley and Cattanooga Cats.

After that, Where's Huddles? sank without a trace.

— DDM

BACK to Don Markstein's Toonopedia™ Home Page
Today in Toons: Every day's an anniversary!

Google
Web www.toonopedia.com

Purchase Hanna-Barbera Merchandise Online


Text ©2005-08 Donald D. Markstein. Art © Hanna-Barbera.