Howard and Harold McBride facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Howard and Harold McBride |
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| The Loud House characters | |
Howard (left) and Harold (right) with Clyde
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| First appearance | "Overnight Success" (2016) |
| Created by | Chris Savino Kevin Sullivan Darin McGowan |
| Voiced by | Michael McDonald (Howard) Wayne Brady (Harold) |
| Information | |
| Gender | Males |
| Family | Gayle McBride (Mother; Harold Mother-In-Law; Howard) |
| Spouse(s) | Each-other |
| Children | Clyde McBride (adopted son) |
| Nationality | American |
Howard and Harold McBride are a pair of fictional supporting characters in the American animated television series The Loud House on Nickelodeon. Howard and Harold are voiced by comedians Michael McDonald and Wayne Brady, respectively. Their first appearance was in "Overnight Success", following several episodes in which they were only mentioned. The McBrides are significant as the first married gay couple to be featured in a Nickelodeon animated series. The McBrides are notably also an interracial couple. Their introduction into the series was reported in the news as being historic and caused a ratings surge.
Howard and Harold are the adoptive gay fathers of Clyde McBride, who is a main character and the best friend of protagonist Lincoln Loud, Clyde's birth parents have never been seen. They shower Clyde with attention and rarely let him do anything unsupervised. Howard is sensitive and neurotic, often getting overemotional while watching Clyde grow up. Harold's parenting style contrasts with Howard's; he is calm, collected, and concerned with Clyde's safety and health above everything else, but also a little more willing to be lenient. The McBrides serve as foils to Lincoln's less worrisome parents.
Contents
Characters
Role
Howard and Harold are helicopter parents to Clyde and tend to be overprotective of him. Howard feels the need to protect Clyde at all times and never lets him out of sight, unless he is with Lincoln or at school. Howard is also sensitive and overemotional, often needing Harold to get him to chill out when he gets worked up. Harold's demeanor is the opposite; he is straightforward and even-tempered. Both of the McBrides have a fondness for cats and have adopted two, Cleopawtra and Nepurrtiti (named after Cleopatra and Nefertiti, two Egyptian queens). Their surname is ironic because a bride is a newlywed woman, but they are two married men.
A running gag is the McBrides' impractically large and ever-expanding repertoire of hobbies and former jobs, which increases to include any skill set that an episode's plot demands. Whenever one of the Loud children learns something new from Howard and Harold, they will simply say that "Mr. McBride" taught them, leaving it intentionally ambiguous as to which dad possesses each skill. The only constant hobby is Harold's talent for preparing home-cooked meals for Clyde and Howard, particularly one of Clyde's favourite foods: Swiss chard frittatas. The McBrides are foils to Lincoln Loud's parents, who are less worrisome and more sensible despite having eleven children instead of one.
Howard and Harold made their on-screen debut in "Overnight Success", in which they bring Clyde to a sleepover at Lincoln's house and Howard has trouble letting him leave. They had been mentioned previously in "A Tale of Two Tables" and "Hand-Me-Downer", which were the first two full-length episodes of The Loud House to be released online.
Legacy
Awards and achievements
The Loud House's portrayal of Howard and Harold McBride led the series to be nominated for Outstanding Individual Episode at the 28th GLAAD Media Awards and for Outstanding Kids & Family Programming at the 29th GLAAD Media Awards.
In October 2016, Howard and Harold's introduction was named one of the five best LGBT moments in children's cartoons by South Florida Gay News. In May 2017, The Loud House's portrayal of the McBrides was nominated for a Vision Award from NAMIC (National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications).
The widest viewership ever for an episode of The Loud House was 2.28 million for "Two Boys and a Baby" on July 19, 2016; this was the first episode to air after Howard and Harold were announced.
