Genre Comedy Presented by Huckleberry Hound Final episode date 1 December 1961 Number of episodes 28 | First episode date 11 September 1960 Number of seasons 2 | |
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Written by Joseph BarberaWarren FosterDan GordonMichael MalteseCharles Shows Directed by William HannaJoseph Barbera Starring Hokey WolfDing-A-Ling Wolf Similar The Huckleberry Hound S, Snooper and Blabber, Pixie and Dixie and Mr Jinks, Peter Potamus, Loopy De Loop | ||
Hokey Wolf is a Hanna-Barbera cartoon about the adventures of a con-artist wolf who is always trying to cheat his way into the simple life. He is often accompanied alongside by his young, diminutive, sidekick Ding-A-Ling Wolf, both of whom are featured as part of The Huckleberry Hound Show in their own segment.
Contents
- History
- Character Information
- Hokey Wolf
- Ding A Ling Wolf
- Original segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show
- DVD release
- Hanna Barbera series
- Hanna Barbera films
- Other appearances
- Hokey Wolf in other languages
- References
History
The initial creation of Hokey Wolf occurred when another follow-up segment was needed, because Yogi Bear's rising popularity in preceding appearances warranted a promotion to his own self-titled show. As a result of the change in schedule, Hokey Wolf had made its debut midway through the third season of The Huckleberry Hound Show and became a regular appearance afterward on this segment. Hokey's theme music for his segment of the show was composed by Hoyt Curtin and used an instrumental version of the refrain from Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here.
The segment follows the everyday misadventures of its protagonist, Hokey Wolf, and his young companion, Ding-A-Ling Wolf, through their typical con-artist routines of getting what they need in their daily lives. Through each episode, Hokey would usually try to fool different characters with food-stealing schemes and/or finding a place to stay without cost, only for most of these tricks to back-fire on him in one way or another.
Character Information
Both of the cartoon's feature characters were designed by animation artist and character designer Ed Benedict.
Hokey Wolf
Hokey Wolf (voiced by Daws Butler impersonating Phil Silvers) is the smooth-talking title character throughout each cartoon. His main hobby in life was to outsmart and coax the clueless out of free meals or places to stay, much of which he seemed to do so with ease, despite possible consequences later on. Hokey typically wears his trademark green bow tie with white collar and a violet-colored hat. His personality would later be recycled for fellow Hanna-Barbera characters Top Cat who starred in a prime-time sitcom that ran from 1961 to 1962 that followed a very similar concept.
Ding-A-Ling Wolf
Ding-A-Ling Wolf (voiced by Doug Young impersonating Buddy Hackett) is the younger sidekick to Hokey Wolf who always accompanies him throughout each misadventure. He is usually eager to follow in Hokey's ambitious con-artist footsteps, but often reconsiders the plans Hokey will come up with in many situations. Ding typically wears a bowler hat (sometimes red, sometimes black), a sleeveless green shirt, and a black vest.
Original segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show
In total, Hokey and Ding-A-Ling Wolf starred in 28 seven-minute cartoons throughout the third and fourth seasons (1960–1961) of The Huckleberry Hound Show. Their pilot episode was Tricks and Treats. The Hokey Wolf series would come to an end with the episode Bean Pod’ners, airing on December 1, 1961 (1961-12-01). Below is a complete listing of all cartoon shorts with the protagonist Hokey Wolf:
DVD release
The episodes Tricks and Treats and Castle Hassle are on the DVD Hanna-Barbera 25 Cartoon Collection, part of The Best of Warner Bros. collection series.
Hanna-Barbera series
While the initial series ended in December 1961, Hokey Wolf went on to appear in four other animated Hanna-Barbera series alongside other classic characters. These were as follows: