The Tales of Huckleberry Hound: Season 4

28. All Geared Up

One morning, Huckleberry Hound was reading over the script for his next cartoon. It was a prison cartoon titled "Bars and Stripes," in which Huck would play the role of the warden. Only thing was, he made the place more fun. He was just reading the script when he came across the line in which he had to greet the narrator. But it was missing something. So he decided to adlib a little, and he came up with a witty remark to follow his greeting!

"Howdy, narrator!" he said, rehearsing his best friendly greeting voice. "Plannin' to hang around long?" Then he snickered, and started to break into laughter. "Huhuhuhuhuh! That's a pretty good one! I gotta use that!"

So he grabbed a pen, and he added the line into the script so he wouldn't forget it. Then, he decided to see what his bosses would think, so he decided to take a walk down to their office to ask them. But as he knocked on the door, he happened to spot Fred Flintstone coming down the hall as well.

"Howdy!" Huck greeted.

"Huck!" Fred replied. "I wasn't expecting to run into you! I was just on my way to see Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera too!"

"Shuckins! That makes two of us! I wonder what they've been up to these last couple of days."

"That's what I'm trying to find out too. I heard there were some new stars joining."

"New stars!" Huck's eyes lit up with excitement. "Hot diggity! Our big happy family just keeps on getting bigger!"

The door soon opened, and there stood Mr. Barbera. "Huckleberry, Fred! What a pleasant surprise!"

"Greetings, our glorious leaders!" Fred greeted in an enthusiastic tone.

Huck smiled, knowing how much Fred loved to look so important in front of the bosses. He just gave a friendly tip of his hat instead.

"You fellas are just in time," Mr. Hanna said. "We've got some new arrivals!"

"Oh boy!" Huck smiled. "I can't wait to meet them!"

So they eagerly went inside, where one of the cartoonists was sitting at a drawing board, putting his pencil to work. Standing beside him was a man with red hair and a long nose, who wore a futuristic outfit. A woman stood next to him, whom Huck assumed must be his wife. They were also accompanied by a teenage girl who had hair so light blonde it almost looked white. They were all eagerly smiling as they watched the cartoonist at work.

"Here comes your little brother now, Judy!" the man said happily.

"Hurry up, son!" the woman called out.

"I'm coming!" a voice said from the drawing board.

The cartoonist was drawing a little boy wearing a futuristic outfit of his own, complete with a baseball cap! Once he'd been drawn, he took a look at himself.

"Jumpin' Jupiter! Don't forget my anti-gravity jetpack!" he cried.

Mr. Hanna and Mr. Barbera both chuckled.

"Okay, Elroy!" Mr. Barbera said.

The cartoonist added a jetpack to the boy's back, then after a stroke of color, he leaped off the drawing board and started hovering around!

"Wow!" Huck and Fred both exclaimed.

"Ahhh, it feels great to be able to stretch my legs!" the boy sighed.

"Elroy!" the man cried. "You're here!"

"Hiya, dad! Here I am! Hi, Mom! Hi, Judy!"

"Who are they?" Huck asked in a whisper.