Saturday, May 7, 2011

Paul Lynde & Mel Blanc in Where's Huddles (1970)

Obscurity factor: 8

The world of professional football was the setting for this summer replacement series with some similarities to The Flintstones - it had a prime time slot and featured the voice of Wilma Flintstone (Jean Vander Pyl) as Marge, Ed's wife. Best friends Ed Huddles (Cliff Norton) and Bubba McCoy (Blanc) were members of the Rhinos professional football team and lived next door to each other. On the other side of Ed's house lived Claude Pertwee (Lynde), who was always doing his best to throw a wrench into the works of whatever plans were on the table for Ed and Bubba that particular day. Though the character Lynde plays is a not-so-subtle jab at gay men, the series still has some fun moments in it. In the episode below, he's apoplectic about the boys plan to install a pool in Ed's back yard.

Though this series didn't have much of a life after the 10 weeks it played on CBS in the summer of 1970, it did spawn a comic book that ran for 3 issues and can occasionally be seen on the cartoon cable channels. A few episodes are available on YouTube. The one above - The Swimming Hole - was uploaded by patricktoons. The series is not available on DVD.

Obscurity factor: 8 (largely forgotten, not on DVD, on YouTube and occasionally aired on TV)

5 comments:

  1. Love Paul Lynde :)

    I think I saw this when I was a kid. HB made some obscure stuff :p

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember watching the premiere of this when my family was visiting my aunt and uncle and cousins in Boston. To paraphrase Karen in "All About Eve," it is funny the things you remember. My mom wanted to watch it because of the football angle, as she and my dad were both football fans. So was my brother. I never was. That aside, I cannot recall what everyone's thoughts were after watching it. My mom liked Paul Lynde, so I am sure she thought his lines were funny. I do not recall watching the remaining episodes during the original run, but maybe I saw some of them. I think it showed up on Saturday morning at some point. I cannot remember for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes, the following year it was shown on CBS' Saturday morning lineup...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hanna-Barbera did a few series that I thought of as variations on "The Flintstones." I always considered "Where's Huddles?" to be in that category. There was also one called "The Roman Holidays" that was on NBC during the 1972-73 season that was like "The Flintstones" in ancient Rome.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll have to look for that one. You may see it here one Saturday!

    ReplyDelete