Flub-a-dub - Strange creature on the classic children's puppet program HOWDY DOODY/NBC/1947-60. Flubadub (originally Flubdub) was a unique South American animal with a duck's head, a cat's whiskers, a giraffe's neck (encircled with rings), a cocker spaniel's ears, a seal's flippers (and four webbed feet), a raccoon's tail hairpiece, a dachshund's body and the memory of an elephant. When Flubadub got hungry he cried "Meatballs!, Meatballs!", his favorite food (a prototype of SESAME STREET's Cookie Monster who cries "Cookies!"). The creation of the Flubadub character was a result of a need by Buffalo Bob Smith, the program's host to explain his absence from the HOWDY DOODY show while he was on vacation in the Caribbean in February of 1949. He told the Peanut Gallery kids that he was going on a hunting expedition to capture the legendary Flubdub. On the way back from the expedition, the Flubdub jumped ship in Bermuda to smell the flowers, but was soon recaptured and returned to Doodyville where he was given to Clarabell the Clown as a pet. The voice of the Flubadub was supplied by Dayton Allen. The letter "a" in the name "Flubadub" was added later in the series for easier pronunciation.