Hokey Wolf (segments)


 * This article is about the segments. For the main title character, see Hokey Wolf''.

Hokey Wolf is a series of animated segments as part of The Huckleberry Hound Show, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for NBC's Saturday morning children's programming. It served as the replacement of the Yogi Bear shorts after Yogi got his own show. It ran from 1961 and 1962, airing 28 episodes that spanned two seasons.

Much like Yogi Bear, most of the cartoons consist of Hokey Wolf and Ding-a-Ling attempting to steal food or a place to stay in. Some Hokey cartoons are also similar to the Loopy De Loop shorts, in the sense that both use Brothers Grimm fairy tale characters and stories in some plots.

Development
After it was discovered that Yogi Bear was more popular than Huckleberry Hound, the former was moved to his own series in 1961. But since Yogi was no longer on The Huckleberry Hound Show, his spot had to be replaced with a new character. Dick Bickenbach—known for drawing many other Hanna-Barbera characters like Huck, Yogi and Quick Draw McGraw—drew Hokey Wolf and Ding-a-Ling's model sheets on October 13, 1960.

Somewhere in between early production, Hokey was originally attended to be named "Wacko Wolf". However, his name was quickly changed due to another similar looking character from "Bozo: The World's Most Famous Clown" already using the name at the time. Additionally, the second working title for the character was "Wacky Wolf". However, the name was most likely too similar to "Wacko Wolf", and it was changed to "Hokey Wolf".

The voices of Hokey and Ding-a-Ling are impressions of Phil Silvers and Buddy Hackett respectively.

Music
The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin. Curtin used an instrumental version of the song "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" for the main Hokey Wolf intro.

Cast

 * Daws Butler as Hokey Wolf
 * Doug Young as Ding-a-Ling

Legacy
Reruns of the shorts were featured as part of episodes of Yogi Bear and Friends.

In the years since, Hokey Wolf (and Ding-a-ling) made several comebacks in other Hanna-Barbera series, with the former notably appearing as the member of the Yogi Yahooeys in Laff-A-Lympics. Recently in 2021, both Hokey and Ding-a-Ling have appeared in Jellystone!, albeit as cameos.