Hokey Wolf is a Hanna-Barberacartoon about the adventures of a con-artistwolf 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.
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 backfire 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 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 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, 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 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. Below is a complete listing of all cartoon shorts with the protagonist Hokey Wolf:
1960 season
1961 season
Home media
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.
Further appearances
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:
Yogi's Gang – Hokey was a member of the crew.
Laff-A-Lympics – Hokey Wolf played as a team member of The Yogi Yahooeys.
Yogi's Treasure Hunt – Hokey was a regular guest star in several episodes.
Yo Yogi! – Hokey Wolf co-starred as the mayor of Jellystone Town. His younger companion, Ding-A-Ling, also made a brief non-speaking cameo as Hokey's photographer in the episode "Super Duper Snag", but he has a speaking role in the episode "Polly Want a Safe Cracker".
Hanna-Barbera films
In the last episode of The Yogi Bear Show, Hokey Wolf, along with his sidekick Ding-A-Ling, were among the guests who showed up to wish their friend Yogi Bear a happy birthday.
In the 1982 television special Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper, Hokey Wolf co-starred as a member of the group that visited Yogi in Jellystone Park. Hokey Wolf also mentioned to Ranger Smith that he is friends with the United States Secretary of the Interior.
In the 1988 feature-length television filmThe Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound, Hokey Wolf co-starred in and played the mayor of a western town named Two-Bit.
Other appearances
Both Hokey and Ding-A-Ling appeared on Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law.
* Hokey made non-speaking cameo appearances in the episodes "Peanut Puberty," "Evolutionary War," "Juror in Court," and "The Death of Harvey."
* Ding-A-Ling was a plaintiff in "SPF" when his name was being used without his consent as a URL for a pornographic website. He also appeared in "The Death of Harvey," and made cameo appearances in "Identity Theft" and "Juror in Court."
