Huell Howser even became a character on the Simpsons TV show. It turns out creator Matt Gruening was a big fan of Howser and California’s Gold . Gruening says that Howser was the first person to acknowledge and accept his role in the show, according to Gruening. It turns out that Gruening was only poking goodhearted fun at houser with his character ‘Howell Huser’. Howser picked up on this and even met Gruening. It turns out that Gruening was a big fan of Howser and California’s Gold and talks about Howser in loving tribute in present tense here. Gruening picks up on some of the characteristics that made Howser so special including his innocence and wonderment which he says were even a part of him in real life , not to the degree we saw on the show but they were there. Gruening says the show was very natural and without the cuts you see in other shows. Howser would leave complete footage in his shows rather than cutting out large portions to save space and time. Now listen to Matt Greg, call me, talk about Huell Howser http://media.scpr.org/audio/upload/2012/12/07/KF_Groening_on_Huell.mp3