Basset Hound

On February 27 1928, Time magazine featured a Basset Hound on the front cover. The accompanying story was about the 52nd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden as if observed by the Basset Hound puppy. This prestige is often seen as the event which made the Basset Hound a popular part of American popular culture.
Basset Hounds have had prominent roles in movies and television. Some Bassets have been featured in comic strips and cartoons. Examples include cartoon character Droopy, originally created in 1943 by Tex Avery, and Fred Basset, the main character in the comic strip Fred Basset, created by Alex Graham in 1963. Basset Hounds playing more minor roles include Rosebud the Basselope from Berke Breathed's comic strip Bloom County, Byron Basset in Tiny Toon Adventures, Toby, from The Great Mouse Detective, and Lafayette, from the 1970 Disney film The Aristocats. The notable webcomic PvP by Scott Kurtz occasionally features the author's pet Basset Hounds. In the children's novel Lunchbox and the Aliens (2006 Henry Holt), by Bryan W. Fields, a basset hound named Lunchbox is abducted by a pair of misfit aliens and accidentally made intelligent. Rodney Dangerfield voices a Basset Hound in the animated feature film, Rover Dangerfield. Even Phil Harris voiced Patou the Basset Hound in Don Bluth's Rock-a-Doodle.
Basset Hounds in films include Fred, the companion of Cledus in the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit and its two sequels. A basset, Gabriel, appears as Batou's Basset Hound in Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence. Gabriel is in fact director Mamoru Oshii's real life pet, and is included in many of his films including the 2001's Avalon. In a scene most likely referencing Smokey and the Bandit, a truck driver has a Basset Hound beside him in American Pie 2. Basset Hounds are featured prominently in off-beat roles as well—one gets hit by a car and survives in The Rage: Carrie 2, and in the film Monkeybone a basset has its own nightmarish dream sequence. In The Cassandra Crossing a basset is airlifted by helicopter off a doomed train allowing officials to identify a deadly plague (and thus becomes one of the few survivors of the all-star cast disaster film). Finally, bassets appear in such other mainstream films as The Lost Treasure of Sawtooth Island (where it prominently appears alongside star Ernest Borgnine on the film poster/DVD cover); An American Werewolf in Paris, Nanny McPhee, Spider-Man 2 and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.
Television programs have used Basset Hounds as characters as well. In the early days of television, Elvis Presley famously sang "Hound Dog" to a Basset Hound named Sherlock on "The Steve Allen Show" on July 1, 1956. One of the most famous Bassets on television was Flash, the dog owned by Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane in the 1980s TV series "The Dukes of Hazzard". A life-sized replica named "Flush" was used in dangerous situations. Other Bassets on television include Cleo, the doggie femme fatal from "The People's Choice", which starred Jackie Cooper; Pokey, a canine friend of Lassie early (1954–57) in the "Lassie" television series ; the Basset Hound named simply "Dog" from "Columbo", Henry from "Emergency!", Governor from "The Governor & J.J.", Quincey, from "Coach", Sam from "That's So Raven", Chips from "EastEnders", Arthur in "Our House" and Socrates in "Judging Amy".