When Hanna-Barbera Tackled Pro Football

by Jeffrey J. Miller

Ed Huddles, star quarterback of the Rhinos

In the summer of 1970, football fans in Buffalo, just like those from every other city with a pro football team, were in rapt anticipation of the upcoming season.  The merger between the two American professional football circuits was finally upon us, with the ten teams of the 10-year-old American Football League joining forces with the 50-year-old National Football League.  It was a pretty big deal, and for fans in Buffalo, it was a chance to see our hometown heroes finally go up against such fabled names John Unitas, Bart Starr, Deacon Jones, Dick Butkus, Gale Sayers and so many other gridiron goliaths of NFL.  Little did we know in the summer of 1970 that we’d soon live to regret those forthcoming matchups!

Anyway, ahead of the initial post-merger season came a summer replacement television show geared to fans of the fast-growing sport of pro football.  But this was not going to be a live action program with actual actors or even guest-starring current (or former) pro football players.  No, this was going to be an animated show from the prolific studios of Joseph Hanna and William Barbera.

The Hanna-Barbera team was a mainstay in the animation field, having given us such memorable cartoon characters as Ruff and Ready, Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, and, of course, the first prime-time animated series, The Flintstones.  It was in November 1961 in an episode titled “Flintstone of Prinstone” that Hanna-Barbera made its first foray into the world of football (albeit college) when its lead character, Fred Flintstone, enrolling at Prinstone (the pre-historic equivalent Princeton) University to impress his boss, Mr. Slate, and hopefully get a raise.  Fred is recruited to play on the school’s football team.  He becomes the team’s star quarterback, earning the name “Twinkletoes Flintstone.”  What’s more, Fred leads Prinstone to victory over Shale (Yale) in the Rose Boulder.  Needless to say, this episode really rocked!  (I couldn’t resist)

The Flintstones ... "Flintstone of Prinstone."

 

The studio used a very similar storyline in an episode airing in December 1962 called “High School Fred.”  Fred is forced to return to high school to earn his diploma and winds up on the Bedrock High football team, and of course becomes the star player … oh, very original!. 

Hanna-Barbera revisited the subject in its other prime-time animated hit series, The Jetsons, in October 1962.  In an episode called “Jetson’s Nite Out,” the family patriarch, George Jetson, is invited to the robot championship football game by his boss, Mr. Spacely.  The two had to lie to their wives to get out of other commitments to attend the game and are caught when the wives see them on TV sitting in the stadium.  The episode foretells such future innovations as the enormous flat-screened TV, scanned tickets for entering the stadium, and coaches using computerized technology on the field to strategize offensive and defensive plays and formations (and who knows, maybe one day soon, robotic players?).

The Jetsons ... "Jetson's Nite Out."

Fast forward to the summer of 1970.  The CBS-TV Network, in anticipation of the fall football season, green-lighted a comedic animated summer replacement show, produced by Hanna-Barbera, called Where’s Huddles?  The show revolved around the main character named Ed Huddles, the star quarterback of the fictitious team called the Rhinos (no home city was used, most likely to avoid backlash from fans from whichever cities weren’t selected).  Ed, his long-suffering wife Marge, daughter Pop Pom and pet pooch Fumbles live next door to Ed’s best friend and team center Bubba McCoy.  Veteran character actor Cliff Norton portrayed Huddles, but most of the cast featured mainly Hanna-Barbera voice veterans including Jean Vander Pyl (known primarily for providing the voice of Wilma Flintstone) as both Marge and Pom Pom, and perhaps the greatest voice actor of them all, Mel Blanc, as Bubba.  Alan Reed, who famously provided the voice for Fred Flintstone, breathed life into the Rhino’s head coach, Mad Dog Maloney.  Hall-of-Fame broadcaster Dick Enberg, at that time the play-by-play man for the Los Angeles Rams, lent his talents as the voice of the Rhino’s public address announcer.  Teammate and frequent visitor Freight Train was voiced by character actor Herb Jeffries.  The Huddles also had a neighbor, portrayed by Paul Lynde, whose primary purpose seemed to be to thwart Ed’s schemes at every turn.

Where's Huddles?

The show, though sometimes good for a hearty guffaw, suffered from poor production qualities as far as animation and writing were concerned, and relied too heavily on recycled stock footage when it came to the football scenes.  It enjoyed a ten-episode run that summer, beginning July 1, 1970.  It was initially being considered for a permanent slot but failed to generate the necessary viewership to justify adding it to the network’s fall lineup and was ultimately canceled. 

The entire 10-episode series was released to home video in 2016, and in a recent fit of nostalgia I purchased a copy for my library.  I binge watched all ten in a two-day span, and enjoyed the trip memory lane, though one viewing was enough to see why the show didn’t make it.  Still, having these shows in my library is cool and seeing them was enjoyable.  They serve as a time capsule reminding us that the game of pro football was booming at the time and would soon overtake baseball as America’s Pastime. 

Hanna-Barbera would revisit football numerous times over the next several years in its other popular animated shows, most prominently in several episodes Scooby Doo, Where Are You?  But Where’s Huddles? Holds the distinction of being the first and only prime time animated show on network television predicated on professional football.  Those of us who love the game hold it near and dear to our hearts.