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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 with Top Cat (1961), The Jetsons(1962) and Johnny 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 and Magilla Gorilla hadn't completely given up on the idea of cartoons for adults.
“There is a family down the street, the Huddles. The McCoys live right next door.” 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, only to
his cat
“Yes I know. The girls are all right Marge and Penny, but the Fellas! They play football you know. Savages that’s what they are!” Pertwee was obviously the best character on the show. He put down the “Fellas” every chance he could, calling them the ever legendary “Savages!” In fact in the premier episode he even had a Savages detector. Claude’s runner up in the greatest character in the show is the team’s captain, Mad Dog. Like his sexually ambiguous co star, he too makes fun of poor Huddles, but he is supposed to. Most of the time he is supportive if not a bit bitter to his team. His shining moment was when he was picked up for a record deal with him just yelling “SIX MONTH SUSPENSION!”
“Give the ball and a cheer for Huddles, with a point after touch down every time!” Ed's voice was done by Cliff Norton, who also played a couple of parts in Chuck Jones' The Phantom Tollbooth. Bubba was Mel Blanc (If you don’t know who he is then I loathe you). Claude was Paul Lynde (The Hooded Claw on Penelope Pitstop). Marge Huddles was Jean Vander Pyl (Wilma Flintstone). 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. Guest Starring was Jazz singer Herb Jeffries as the big but loving Freight Train and Fred Flintstone himself (Alan Reed) as the coach of the Rhinos Mad Dog Mahooney.
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. After that, Where's Huddles? sank without a trace.
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Hey everybody! AM here and I figured I’d start my own guide
section based on my favorite things. To start it off, we are going to discuss Where's Huddles?
