Our Favorite Flintstones

 At last, the day has come. Today marks the final post for Flintstones February, and to cap it off in a big way, I'm doing something completely new for this blog. We all have our favorite episodes from the original Flintstones series, so I thought I'd reach out to a couple friends and acquaintances in the animation research community to see if they'd be interested in sharing theirs. Now, without further introduction, here are our Favorite Flintstones. I will go first.

My favorite episode in the original Flintstones series is the season two episode, "The X-Ray Story." This episode revolves around a classic mix-up situation: Dino's X-rays get mistaken for Fred's, making it appear that he has a disease deadly to humans. Deadly, unless the individual is kept awake for 72 hours. Much of the comedy in this episode comes from Wilma and the others' many efforts to keep Fred awake. Their attempts start off normal at first, but as the episode continues, they have to take more and more drastic measures to stave off sleep. It is both hilarious and heartwarming to see how far they'll go to keep him safe. And I think it's that combination of comedy and heart that makes The Flintstones so enduring, and this episode in particular one of the best. Fred may get on everyone's nerves and be kind of a pain to put up with, but at the end of the day, they genuinely care for him, and the opposite is just as true. 

Next, I'd like you all to meet Mark Arnold! A pop-culture historian who has authored over a dozen books and the host of the brilliant Fun Ideas podcast, I'll let him go ahead and discuss his favorite from the series.

"There are a lot of many great Flintstones episodes. Most people agree that The Flintstones best episodes are the pre-Pebbles ones or the ones with Bea Benaderet or the ones where they smoke Winston cigarettes. In any case, there usually isn’t too much love for Flintstones episodes from season four, five and six, as many feel that the show was starting to show its age and many others don’t like the arrival of the Great Gazoo. After reviewing all 166 episodes of the original series, I have concluded that my favorite episode is one called “Ten Little Flintstones”, which originally aired on January 2, 1964, and was the sixteenth episode of season four and the 104th episode overall.

Why I like it so well is probably because of the glazed look and the monotone delivery of “Yabba Dabba Doo!” by the ten robot Fred duplicates that were created by an Alien Master in order to take over the world. Of course, chaos ensues which adds to all the fun. In researching this episode, I realize that one of the reasons I probably like it so much is because it was written by Tony Benedict, who was my favorite writer from the glory days of Hanna-Barbera, especially for his work on The Jetsons."

For our third entry, welcome writer Steve Cox to the blog! Cox is unique from others you'll hear from today in that he's actually met several cast and crew members from The Flintstones throughout the years. Read below to see not only his favorite episode, but also a great story about one of the show's most famous cast members!

"In Hanna Barbera's files, it's known as P-62, but to viewers it's titled "Dino Goes Hollyrock" (1962).  To me it's simply the "Sassie" episode, the one where Dino is featured the most.  I loved this particular episode mainly because it really put Mel Blanc's inimitable Dino voice to work and featured his barks, growls, whimpers maybe more than any other--paired with fantastic closeups of Dino.  Oddly, when Blanc would utter Dino into the mic, he performed it on an inhale which is an extremely difficult thing to do without coughing terribly. That's what made the sound unique.  Years ago, I knew Mel fairly well and when I would talk with him on the phone, inevitably I asked him to sample a voice and usually it was Dino.  (Not Bugs Bunny, or Yosemite Sam, or Barney Rubble.  I wanted Dino.) He was kind enough to oblige, even making him laugh that I loved his Dino.  And that was the voice that never aged along with him over the years. 

In the episode itself, I always thought the "Lassie" TV takeoff was brilliant as Dino discovers the real bitch, the actress, was fairly bland and not the heartthrob he envisioned.  Such a disappointment for the poor pooch. Such emotion!  Such acting! Cut!"

My next contributor is somebody who knows all about making a great cartoon. An animator who has worked on classics such as Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, and Aladdin, let's hear what the one and only David Pruiksma has to say about his favorite episode!

"I was recently asked to do what I see as a rather difficult task, to name my favorite classic Flintstones episode and what makes it so. The difficulty is that there are so many gems in the series, particularly in the first 2 seasons, that it's hard to pick a single favorite. There are moments in many episodes, like the writing and animation throughout "The Goop Writer" (Perry Gunite's hilarious walk by Carlo Vinci comes immediately to mind). The same goes for the "Snorkasayrus Hunters", again great writing and fun, fluid animation by Ed Love, not to mention Jerry Mann's vocals for the Snorkasaurus and the butcher, "would you like to try for a case of amnesia Jumbo? How about Fred pretending to get sick before going to the opera in "The Flintstone Flyer"? A hoot! Then there's the great expressions in The Engagement Ring and the hilarious scene of Fred trying to pull Barney into the ring to fight the champ while Barney frantically scratches at a fire hydrant. The timing throughout the series overall is just top notch. 

However, if I really needed to narrow it down to one favorite episode, I think it would be season one's "The Hot Piano". There is just so much fun and humor in that one that it makes me laugh out loud every time I see it. The dynamic between Barney and Fred is great. The supporting characters are terrific from the Police officers to the Piano salesman and 88 Fingers Louie. I love it when Fred comes home and Wilma rushes up and frisks him for gifts. Hilarious! And when Fred asked Barney what happened to him as he lies on the ground in the front yard he says, weakly, "I just got run over by a piano". The story and the pacing just really works well and the vocal performers bring us their A game, throughout. There's also a nice warmth between the characters overall, particularly between Fred and Wilma. All in all, a very enjoyable episode and it holds up really well, even decades after it originally aired."

Coming in next is writer and podcaster Michael Lyons! The author of Drawn to Greatness: Disney's Animation Renaissance and a frequent contributor to Cartoon Research, he has a particularly monstrous episode as his favorite.

"The “Son of Rockzilla” episode of The Flintstones is a perfect example of what made Hanna- Barbera’s classic animated sitcom so special. The series was the traditional live-action television sitcom, blended with that particular element of fantastical magic that only animation can provide. Sure, Fred and Barney discuss their bowling league at the start of the episode, but by the end, Fred is mistaken for a Godzilla-like movie monster. “Son of Rockzilla” begins simply enough, as Fred takes a temporary job with a movie studio marketing team to wear the costume of the titular monster in the upcoming film, “Son of Rockzilla.” Fred agrees to walk around Bedrock, scaring citizens, after which the studio team will call the news outlets to report this, hopefully generating publicity for their film. Of course, it doesn’t go as planned, as the costume’s head gets stuck, and Fred can’t get out of the Rockzilla costume. He gets mistaken for the actual monster, not just by people on the street, but by a real monstrous dinosaur at the zoo, Doris the Finkasaurus.

There’s great animation and non-stop gags at the beginning of the episode, when Fred’s bowling ball gets away from him, bouncing through a series of incidents, such as a backyard catch between a father and son, before landing in a plate of spaghetti at a restaurant. The design of Fred’s costume and the Finkasaurus is also in the comforting, classic Hanna-Barbera character look of this era. “Son of Rockzilla” was written by Barry E. Blitzer, who would work quite a bit for Hanna- Barbera, as well as a number of classic sitcoms, such as The Phil Silvers Show and Get Smart. Blitzer brings the same sharp humor to this episode. Blitzer also adds some nice, satirical jabs at show business, not just in the name of the studio – Feindish Films, which produces Son of Rockzilla- but also sardonic jabs at movie promotions. As the head of the studio, Mr. Feindish discusses possibilities with his promotional manager, Bunkley, they consider something like their last gimmick, “Win a Date with Frankenstone.” Mr. Feindish notes it was a hit “until the papers found out that the monster was married.” Humor like this, which still strikes a chord about our current world, demonstrates why The Flintstones truly are 'the Modern Stone Age Family!'"

Kamden Spies is the next writer I'd like you all to get acquainted with. A Cartoon Research writer and owner of the "Termite Terrace Headlines" blog, Spies goes back to the beginning with his favorite episode, and describes the advantages the first two seasons of the show had over later seasons.

"The Flintstones is one of the most important cartoons in animation history. The series was the first animated primetime sitcom and reinvented adult-oriented animation. The first two seasons, with Winston Cigarettes as a sponsor, were aimed at an adult audience. The first episode produced, “The Swimming Pool,” is the best episode of the series because of its writing, music, and the look of the characters. One of the appeals of “The Swimming Pool” is the character designs. The original Flintstones designs were by Ed Benedict. Benedict designed most of the early Hanna-Barbera characters. Besides The Flintstones and Rubbles, Benedict also designed Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, and Quick Draw McGraw. The Flintstones went through several names throughout its development, including The Flagstones, and The Gladstones. In fact, the characters are labeled as The Gladstones on the original Ed Benedict model sheets. In the first two seasons of the series, the characters have a more rough and cartoony design. This style gives more freedom for the artists to experiment. Benedict’s original character designs gave Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty a more appealing look than they had in later seasons.

One of the other reasons that “The Swimming Pool” is the best episode of the series is the music cues. Hoyt Curtin scored all of the underscores written in The Flintstones, and these scores were developed for this episode. In the first two seasons, the opening theme of the series was an instrumental tune called “Rise and Shine.” It wasn’t until the third season that the theme changed to the one we’re all familiar with, “Meet the Flintstones.” However, in the “Meet the Flintstones” theme was developed as a jazz instrumental for this episode. The first two seasons of The Flintstones were much better than the later seasons. This is because these episodes were written by cartoon writers. Later, Hanna-Barbera hired traditional sitcom writers to write episodes. Because of this, the later episodes lost the cartoony charm that the previous ones had. Animated sitcoms should be written as a cartoon and use the animated imagination to its full potential. The episode was written by Warren Foster. Foster, along with Michael Maltese, wrote most of the early Flintstone episodes. Warren Foster is one of the greatest cartoon writers of all time. He, Michael Maltese, and Tedd Pierce wrote most of the Warner Bros cartoons during the studio’s golden age in the 1940s and 50s. Foster helped develop and create The Flintstones with Michael Maltese and Joe Barbera. Luckily, the storyboards for this episode still survive.

“The Swimming Pool” is the best episode of The Flintstones. Written by Mike Maltese and Joe Barbera, this episode has everything that made The Flintstones great. This was the first episode produced and was based on the sixty-second pilot demo that helped sell the series to ABC. The first two seasons of The Flintstones are the best because of their stylized look, writing, and music. “The Swimming Pool” was the first episode of The Flintstones produced, which set up the style and tone of the first primetime animated sitcom."

Last but most certainly not least, welcome Greg Ehrbar, an expert on all things Disney and Hanna-Barbera, to the blog. A writer, historian, and podcaster all rolled into one, Greg weighs in below on what we believes is the quintessential Flintstones episode!

"Choosing one favorite episode from a series as groundbreaking and superb as The Flintstones is no easy task. I went through every season and still found at least a half dozen favorites in all six years. Instead, I selected what could be considered the one episode that combines virtually all the ingredients of what Hanna-Barbera developed in creating the art of animated television, particularly the character-driven situation comedy, crafted to exist within the primetime network landscape. By season three of The Flintstones, there had been plenty of trial and error. The audience was changing and growing. The ABC network and its sponsors were gaining ground against the other two networks by taking some chances in a medium that was still relatively young. There had to be a perfect balance of story, dialogue, voice work, music, sound effects, visuals, and gags. That The Flintstones initially drew inspiration from The Honeymooners (which drew from The Bickersons and the domestic comedies of Laurel and Hardy) was only one element of what made it work and become its own creative form. It combines the format of the half-hour sitcom—tease, main title, commercial breaks, end title—and yet a true cartoon, with the kind of visual and auditory humor that Hanna, Barbera, and their artists had employed so successfully.

Some fans consider “The Blessed Event” (also known as “The Rehearsal”) to be the episode that “jumped the shark,” changing forever the couple comedy that sparked the first two seasons. Certainly, it was not the same show, but neither was I Love Lucy after Lucy Ricardo gave birth. Little Ricky was a recurring rather than a regular character, based on the specific episode, and so was Pebbles. I Love Lucy’s dramatic impact on audience connection when Lucy was “enceinte” was a major news story and cemented the emotional power of a weekly comedy series with its viewers. If Lucy and Ricky already had a child, it would have been fine, but the home audience lived through the pregnancy. Dozens of TV series imitated the surefire event, sometimes altering a series’ tone or temporarily spiking the ratings. In the case of both Lucy and The Flintstones, the pregnancy and birth “arcs” occurred after each was an established hit and viewers got to know the characters. Nowhere in U.S. animation was a woman shown in maternity clothing until Wilma Flintstone (the first Disney feature in which a woman was “showing” came 37 years later with Chicha in The Emperor’s New Groove. Of course, there is no question that Pebbles’ birth was a TV “event” that resulted in merchandising and promotions. The Ideal toy company insisted that Fred and Wilma have a girl because female dolls sell better, and they were proven correct. This remains a regular business practice in a substantial number of animated films and TV shows.

“The Blessed Event” does not so much jump the shark as it bridges both the similarities and differences between the three years of The Flintstones series run and the second three years. The mass audience increased quickly between 1960 and 1963. Demographics were becoming more and more specific—information crucial to sponsors. The Flintstones was a hit show on a network that needed hits. To keep it on the air, it was necessary to deliver to as many viewers as possible. It changed its primary focus from couples to families. The occasional fantasy stories that are often remembered as being part of the later seasons were also in seasons one and two. What really changed was not the tone of the series, but the need to have a larger spectrum of tones. Even season six offered a few “husband and wife” stories, but there were now also stories included about parenting, children, and pets in addition to episodes focusing on marriage, the workplace, and life in Bedrock. TV was entering the “great escapism” era with comedies like My Favorite Martian and Bewitched, and outlandish action-adventures like Lost in Space and Batman). All of this context is mentioned to clarify why “The Blessed Event” is quintessential of the phenomenon and legacy of The Flintstones. It has elements of very funny husband-and-wife, next-door-neighbor, and best-buddy comedy. But it never lingers on those tropes, because the cartoon gags are consistent throughout (an exercise instructor wears an inflatable muscle suit, Fred paces so much that he wears a groove in the floor, etc.) offering the kind of experience that a live-action sitcom does not (even though some have come very close).

The final scene in “The Blessed Event” was recorded after Jean Vander Pyl had actually given birth herself. Never a person to be demanding, she found herself insisting that Pebbles be her voice. It was her cartoon child. The warmth of the ending sequence is genuine, voiced by people who were fond of each other and could identify with their characters. At home, audiences were sharing a “blessed event” completely created by elements of animation. The next season, Barney and Betty adopt Bamm-Bamm in an episode that includes a sequence with a level of drama rare to the series. After Fred cruelly accuses the Rubbles of monopolizing play time with Pebbles, a rare personal scene occurs with Betty and Barney wishing they had a child of their own. This would not have been possible, nor very convincing, had viewers (and the network) not lived through several seasons of The Flintstones and “The Blessed Event.” And in true Hanna-Barbera fashion, it ends on that “laughing fade” so familiar in hundreds of series, from Scooby-Doo to Super Friends, in which a gag and/or silly remark is punctuated by the characters “ha-ha-ha-ing” to a merry musical cue. In this case, it’s Jean Vander Pyl as Pebbles, cooing “Yabba-Dabba-Doo, to which Alan Reed (who invented the phrase) says as Fred, “Are there any questions?”"

And there you have it! In my time putting this piece together, I was surprised by two things. One, not one episode was repeated, which gives you an idea of how many memorable and great episodes of the show there are. Second, each individual brought up something completely different about what made the series, and their favorite episode, so great. Whether it be the writing, voice-acting, music, art, or storyline, all of us found different things that made the show so appealing. With so much to enjoy, it's no wonder The Flintstones has been a pillar of great animation for nearly 65 years!

A Buffet Fit for a Cave Man

 To animation enthusiasts like us, the names Alan Reed and Jean Vander Pyl will immediately conjure up images of Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Unfortunately, for the rest of the population, those names don't carry nearly the same significance. To them, they are just names. Some might be aware of their roles, but few know their faces or what they were like. 

However, those who attended a 15th-anniversary event at Hanna-Barbera HQ in 1972 tell a different story. In celebration of the studio's continued success, a party was held that allowed attendees to meet many of the faces behind their most popular characters. Below is a story on the event that appeared in the September 22nd, 1972 edition of the Van Nuys Valley News. It details who was there, the studios' history, and what the future had in store for the house that Bill and Joe built. Also featured is an image of Alan Reed alongside Jay North (teenage Bamm-Bamm). The quality isn't the best, but images of Reed can be hard to come by, so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to share it. Enjoy!

Flintstones Raise Voices in Tribute to Family's Success

By Beverly Edwards

   

    Ask any kid from 3 to 93 who Fred Flintstone is, and he'll tell you about a zaney character who sports a leopard suit and lives in a groovy stone-age community called Bedrock.
    But ask who Alan Reed is, and few will identify him as the "voice" that has become famous around the world...the man who has made Fred Flintstone a legend in 15 short years, and Hanna-Barbera a multi-million dollar corporation.
    To celebrate a decade-and-a-half of producing television entertainment for the whole family, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera asked the press to meet the company's family of famous "voices" at an al fresco cocktails and buffet event at their Cahuenga Blvd. headquarters.
    Wilma Flintstone (Jean Vander Pyl) and Bamm-Bamm (Jay North) made it a family reunion with Fred Flintstone. Jean, a former Valley resident, drove from her San Clemente home for the occasion. Television viewers who remember when Jay North was Studio City's own "Dennis the Menace" wouldn't recognize the clean-cut six-footer who just returned from a vacation in Jamaica (courtesy of the "Dating Game") and was sporting a "don't-touch-me" sunburn. Little Dennis is 21 years old now.
    Another famous Valley voice, Gary Owens of "Laugh-In" and KMPC fame, will be back on the new season as "Space Ghost" along with Tim Matheson and Ginny Tyler, also a Valley Resident. Gary's resonant tones are heard throughout the day on radio extolling a multitude of products and places.
    But voices, no matter how famous, were all upstaged when beautiful Zsa Zsa Gabor arrived on the arm of escort Joe Bolker to be warmly greeted by Mr. Barbera. Although her voice isn't her most famous asset, she was heard as the Queen on Hanna-Barbera's "Alice in Wonderland" special.
    Herb Vigren of Encino, half of the funny Norm's Restaurants commercial team, has done so many characters he's lost track of them, but his latest for Hanna-Barbera is Lurvy in "Charlotte's Webb" to be released in theaters next spring, marking the company's first venture into feature-length films.
    Other assorted voices paying tribute to Hanna-Barbera included Sam Edwards, Nancy Wible, John Stephenson, Virginia Gregg and Barney Phillips.
    The sun never sets on the genius of Hanna-Barbera...their cartoon characters have become household words throughout the world. And it all started right here in the San Fernando Valley, California's answer to Bedrock.
    

Boppin' to the Bedrock Beat

 As Flintstones February draws to a close, I've got one more piece of Flintstones memorabilia I'd like to share with you guys. Fred Flintstone and the drums might sound like a strange combination, but it's this pairing that's the center of this toy released by ALPS in 1962. The toy shows Fred (without any fingers) playing the drums as a member of "Fred Flintstone's Bedrock Band." Not a very creative name for a band if you ask me! The toy was battery-operated and would simulate the act of playing the drums when activated. The artwork on the box is nice, though I have to ask what's up with Fred's toes? I also love how the drumset itself has been made to fit in with the show's stone-age setting.

If this toy happens to look familiar, it's probably because it was one of the many collectibles featured in Boomerang's original bumpers. Check that particular bumper below, which interestingly enough, uses a sound clip of Henry Corden as Fred, rather than his original actor, Alan Reed. A lot of the Flintstones merch I've shared this month was showcased in these commercials as well. They went a long way in giving the channel its unique identity, and I'm sure it caused many younger viewers to become interested in these older toys. They definitely caught my attention!

Drawing Fred Flintstone, the Cartoon Network Way

 Remember a couple weeks back when I went through and discussed the various features on Cartoon Network's old Flintstones site? Welp, it appears I left a little something out. Below is a tutorial the website hosted on how to draw Mr. Flintstone himself. Considering the time, it's actually not such a bad one, either. Most "how to draw" tutorials you find online are only good for drawing a character in one particular pose, but this one mentions methods that would be good for drawing Fred in any pose. Take a look at the tutorial down below, and while you're at it, why not try your hand at drawing Fred yourself?

Video of the Week: The Flintstones Come to TV

 It's time for the last "Video of the Week" feature for Flintstones February, and for today, I couldn't think of a better thing to spotlight than to go back to the beginning and share this amazing video showcasing nearly four minutes of TV spots for the original Flintstones. Sit down and watch how audiences were first introduced to the town of Bedrock with these lovely advertisements. Highlights include a promotion for vitamins, and Fred informing viewers of a slight schedule change!

Happy Birthday, Pebbles

 It was sixty-one years ago today that the Flintstones house became a home of three, and Pebbles Flintstone first charmed viewers with her cute demeanor and adorable design. Dolls of the character quickly flew off store shelves, and before long, Pebbles was a staple of the franchise. Now, if I'm being honest with you, I'm not the biggest fan of Pebbles as a character (nor Bamm-Bamm for that matter). While I like the later episodes of the series more than most, I see them as the point where the show stopped being for everyone, and started being geared more for younger audiences. Still, considering the date and the fact this is Flintstones February, I couldn't have let today go by without writing something for her. However, baby Pebbles isn't the focus of today's post.

Instead, let's head to 1971 and discuss the older version of the character featured in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. This was the first major spin-off of The Flintstones since the original cartoon ended in '66, and saw both Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as teenagers getting into misadventures all over Bedrock. Given that this was the first in a long line of Flintstones continuations, it's no surprise that there was a lot of buzz about this show when it premiered. Here's a sneak peek of the show that appeared in Kenosha News on August 7th, 1971. While I'm discussing things I'm not big on, I'm not a tremendous fan of this spin-off or most of the others, but considering its place in the franchise's history, as well as the fact that I've never discussed the show before, the time felt right to spotlight this moment in the evolution of the series.

Pebbles grows up

    A second generation of a family which captivated television audiences all over the world will be seen this fall when teenage children of two celebrated Stone Age families — the "Flintstones" and the "Rubbles" — will star in their own series.
    The prehistoric spoof, based on two moppets originally in "The Flintstones," is called "Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm." The Hanna-Barbera Productions cartoon series debuts at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 11, on CBS.
    In the 1962-63 season Fred and Wilma had a daughter — Pebbles — and Barney and Betty a son - Bamm-Bamm.
    Bamm-Bamm was the kid with all the strength. He used to go around knocking in the cave walls and crashing the furnishings.
    The new show will include teenage fad items, such as bell-bottom caveskins, souped-up cave buggies and a teenage hangout called the Rock Shop.
    The two teenagers are involved in a light-hearted romance — "going steady." Adding to the fun are the usual jealousies and rivals from other Bedrock teenagers.
    The original "Flintstones" characters will be in the series only occasionally, for instance Fred and Barney will be on hand to cause an opening complication for the kids.
    Actress Sally Struthers, of "All in the Family" is the voice of Pebbles. Jay North of the old "Dennis the Menace" show does Bamm-Bamm.

Scrapped Stone-Age Shows: Three Flintstones Cartoons We Never Got

 It's a plain and simple fact that, for a franchise as big as The Flintstones, not everything conceived with them saw the light of the day. Today, I'm going to spotlight three such projects. From the 1970s all the way until 2012, here are three Flintstones cartoons that went the way of the dinosaurs.

1. The Blackstones

Conceived at some point in the late seventies by Joe Barbera, The Blackstones aimed to be a spin-off of The Flintstones that centered around a black family. Barbera thought the show would be able to find success among the many other successful black-centric series of the time, and had HB legend Iwao Takamoto get to work on some concept pieces of the family, who would've been neighbors to the Flintstones. In the end, however, every network passed on the show, forcing them to abandon the concept. 

2. The Flintstones' Lost Episodes

Going forward to the 90s, this next one was a pitch aimed at Hanna-Barbera from animator William Wray. Considered a more "back to basics approach", this reboot aimed to be a lot closer to the look and feel of the original series than most later iterations tended to be. Wray explained on his Twitter in 2021 that the show would've been set before Bedrock had been founded. The women of the stone age would civilize the men, only for the men to discover Bedrock and take all the credit. So why did this one never come to be? To put it bluntly, blame John Kricsfalusi. According to Wray, the executive he pitched this to was very much excited about the project, but his boss was "in bed with John", who convinced them to abandon the show. A real shame, if I must say. Out of the three projects I'm discussing here, this one had the most potential to be something great in my opinion.

3. Seth MacFarlane's The Flintstones

Now, it's time we talk about the canceled Flintstones series you're probably all aware of. Announced by FOX in 2011, this would have been a modernized reboot of the classic series by none other than Family Guy and American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane, who was actually a writer for Hanna-Barbera back in the 90s. The show's announcement was accompanied by a short teaser featuring Seth discussing his vision for the show, promising a 2013 release date that would leave audiences "Flintstoned" (ugh). However, only a year after the show was announced, the series was essentially put on ice. FOX executives weren't big on the pilot script, and MacFarlane made the decision to leave it behind to pursue other projects. He later explained in a Reddit AMA that another reason the show didn't happen was because he had trouble differentiating Fred from Family Guy's Peter Griffin, which I must admit I find a bit hard to believe. Regardless of the reason, the show never happened, but FOX didn't give up entirely on a new Flintstones series. At the moment, they're currently giving it another try, although MacFarlane is nowhere to be seen with this new iteration.

That's all three I have to share with you today, but unsurprisingly, there are other canceled Flintstones cartoons out there, and probably even more that we've never even heard of! Check out this post I did in September, focusing on a version of the Flintstones set in the 1970s. I'm curious to hear from you guys on these shows. Are we better off without these, or are there any you wish had materialized?

Riding on Dino

 I'm back yet again with another post spotlighting a classic piece of Flintstones memorabilia. Today, I'm showing two of my favorites, both based around Fred's lovable pet Dino. Released by Marx in 1963, here are the "Flintstone Pals on Dino" wind-up toys. Both Fred and Barney were available as part of this collection, and I have to say, of the toys I've shared on this blog from when the original Flintstones was originally broadcast, these ones probably do the best job at capturing the look of the characters. The packaging is pretty nifty, too. The characters' expressions are lovely, and whoever did the art did a great job at staying true to their appearances in the show. Here's what they look like both in and out of box.

I'm not quite done talking about Dino yet, however. Remember, I did say I wanted to talk about two pieces of merchandise. Below is a battery-operated tin toy of Dino, complete with Fred riding him. It measures 21 inches long, and when activated, Dino bops his head around while going his merry way. He even whistles, which the box proudly touts. It seems to be one of the bigger toys Marx offered in their Flintstone line, and I imagine any Flintstones-obsessed kid would have been ecstatic to get this back in the day. As you can imagine, this is also one of the more expensive products to get ahold of nowadays. A quick look on Ebay shows that most offerings of the toy go for at least a couple hundred, while a boxed copy goes up to nearly a thousand! I don't think I'd be willing to shell out that kind of money on a toy, but I can't deny that it's a lovely piece of memorabilia.

Allan Melvin at 101

 Born on February 18th, 1923, Melvin was an actor who appeared in some of the most popular shows of the fifties and sixties; Andy Griffith, Phil Silvers, Brady Bunch, Lost in Space, Dick Van Dyke, and the list goes on and on. Yet, for many who hear his name today, one character springs to mind: Magilla Gorilla.

Though his vocal credits aren't as lengthy as his onscreen roles, Allan Melvin entered the world of Hanna-Barbera as the title character of the 1964 series Magilla Gorilla, beginning a career in animation that would last for thirty years. Magilla is the character he's best known for, but he also voiced a vast variety of minor roles in many of Hanna-Barbera's productions in those decades. The last role he did for them was as Magilla once more for the 1994 film Scooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights before finally retiring. Melvin would sadly pass away from cancer at age 84 on the 17th of January, 2008. Over a decade after his death, however, his legacy endures through his impressive body of work spanning nearly half a century. And, as this past Sunday marked what would've been his 101st birthday, I think it's only right to dedicate an article on this blog to an often underappreciated voice actor from the early years of Hanna-Barbera.

This piece comes to us courtesy of the June 1st, 1981 edition of The Morning Call. Inside, Melvin discusses his work on the series Archie Bunker's Place, a series he was featured in at the time, as well as his last onscreen role. Alongside this series, he looks back at his many past TV roles, including his voiceover work at Hanna-Barbera. I hope you enjoy this article, and to Mr. Melvin, I wish a most happy heavenly birthday!

Allan Melvin a loyal sidekick in 'Archie Bunker's Place'

By Jerry Buck
AP Television Writer

    LOS ANGELES - Allan Melvin has played Archie Bunker's best friend since 1972, but it didn't start off as a chummy relationship.
    The very first time Melvin appeared on "All in the Family," it was not as Barney Hefner, best friend, but as Sgt. Pete Pulaski of New York City's Finest.
    "The fun of that episode was that Archie came down to the police station and was making remarks about the Polish," he recalled. "Somebody says, 'Oh, yeah, tell that to Sgt. Pulaski' — and I throw Archie into the can."
    It was a few months after that that Melvin was reincarnated as Barney Hefner. He remained with the CBS show when it was changed to "Archie Bunker's Place," and only Carroll O'Connor, as the irrepressible Archie, has been with the series longer.
    Melvin, who got his start as a stand-up comic and mimic and then played on Broadway in "Stalag 17," has had a long and profitable career in television as the foil to the leading man.
    A lot of that time was spent in uniform. On "The Phil Silvers Show" he was Cpl. Henshaw, who was Sgt. Bilko's partner in his attempts to bilk the other soldiers. He was Dick Van Dyke's old Army buddy on his show and Sgt. Hacker on "Gomer Pyle." He also had recurring roles on "The Joey Bishop Show" and on "The Andy Griffith Show."
    Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin at "All in the Family" were familiar with his work even before Sgt. Pulaski. A few years before that, he and Sorrel Booke had starred together in a pilot adapted from the "Barnaby and Mr. O'Malley" comic strip, which Lear and Yorkin had produced.
    "I went in the same season from Pulaski to Barney Hefner," he said. "I think they make allowances for the fact that the audience will accept certain changes. I guess they figure since it was a one-shot I wasn't that established. I've been Barney ever since."
    Marvin is also well known as Al the Plumber, a character he has played for 14 years on the Liquid Plumber commercials. Less well known is the fact that he does many cartoon voices. He has been the voice of Bluto on the "Popeye" cartoon for the past four years. He's also done the voice on "Magilla Gorilla" and has done many impressions for "The Flintstones."
    In fact, the day after the interview he was due to spend the day at Hanna-Barbera studios, recording voices. "They actually animate to our soundtrack," he said. "This gives us a lot of freedom to embellish the parts."
    Few characters on television ever seem to have jobs, but Barney Hefner is a bridge inspector. Not that he ever works at it. "He never really inspects any bridges," said Melvin. "He just says they're all unsafe. That's how he can spend so much time at Archie's Place.
    As Archie's oldest friend they are very similar. "He's very much like Archie in his thinking and his values. But not to the extreme that Archie goes. He's more temperate."
    Melvin recalled that during the making of "The Phil Silvers Show" in New York, the technical adviser assigned to the show was a captain named George Kennedy.
    "He would beseech Nat Hiken for a role," he said. "Finally, Nat made him an MP and let him stand by the door and wear a helmet. He was thrilled. Did I ever think he'd become an actor? No way," Kenedy, of course, not only became an actor, but went on to win the Academy Award as best supporting actor.
    Melvin was born in Kansas City, but was raised in New York and New Jersey. He and his wife now divide their time between their home in Brentwood and one on Monarch Bay in Laguna. He also spends much of his spare time on the golf course.
    His own oldest and closest friend is author Richard Condon, who wrote "The Manchurian Candidate." Condon wrote an early children's record that Melvin recorded and wrote a night club act for him. It was that night club act that caused the producers of "Stalag 17" to alter the role of Reed to fit Melvin's background and his act.

Video of the Week: Harvey Korman Talks Flintstones

His birthday may have been yesterday, but I'm not quite done celebrating Harvey Korman's contributions to The Flintstones yet! For this week's video, here is a great interview with him discussing how he approached the role of the Great Gazoo, and the character's enduring legacy. As a fan of his work both in and out of Bedrock, I got a real kick out of finding this, and I hope you will too.

The Great Gazoo Speaks!

 The later seasons of The Flintstones are known by now to have a somewhat divided reputation among fans. Fans are split on everything from the direction the show went in to the introduction of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, but nothing stirs up more debate than the character of the Great Gazoo. Voiced by comedy legend Harvey Korman, this little green alien showed up in a dozen episodes of the final season, and has since gone on to be the franchise's Scrappy-Doo for many. However, there are plenty of others who like the little guy, and I just so happen to be one of them. Does his character feel out of place in a series like The Flintstones? Absolutely? Do I particularly care? Not really! I'd honestly take him over either Pebbles or Bamm-Bamm, and the fact that he was voiced by Korman makes the character even more entertaining.

Speaking of Korman, he's the real subject of today's post! This day marks what would have been his 97th birthday, and to celebrate, I'm sharing this short chat he had with The Province on October 13th, 1995. Beyond looking back on the series, the piece also celebrates his collaborations with Mel Brooks and advertises a signing event Korman was participating in later on that day. 

Korman's a cult, only thanks to Flintstones

The Great Gazoo Still Remembered

By Damian Inwood

    You'd think that after doing ten years on the Carol Burnett Show and working with Danny Kaye, Harvey Korman would command quite a following.
    But it's his role as the voice of a little green spaceman on The Flintstones that has given the veteran actor a cult following.
    "I did only eight or nine episodes of the Great Gazoo, 25 or 30 years ago," laughs Korman. "Now, I sign a picture of me with Barney or Fred and people pay $500 to $700."
    The 68-year-old actor just finished a film with Mel Brooks, which is due out at Christmas.
    "It's called Dracula: Dead and Loving It, with Leslie Nielsen as Dracula," says Korman, who made Blazing Saddles, High Anxiety and History of the World Part 1 with Brooks.
    "It was great to get back together with Mel. He's as brilliant and beautiful and crazy as ever."
    Korman says he keeps busy playing golf and playing with his kids, aged 10 and 12. He says he's bothered by the laugh track on today's sitcoms.
    "It becomes a very synthetic experience," he says. "It's like, 'Please let me alone, let me decide when to laugh.'"
    Korman bemoans the fact that, in Hollywood, actors become disposable when they get older. 
    "In other professions - doctors, lawyers, accountants - when you get into your 50s or 60s you're better than ever, you know the terrain, you're smarter than ever, and you're more valuable," he says.
    "In my business, you have some peak years and bang, you're not marketable anymore. There are so many men that I know in Hollywood that are really funny and have nowhere to go. It's quite a sad commentary."
    Korman is signing animation cels at the World of Animation Gallery, 1140 Robson Street at 7 p.m. today.

The Old Flintstones Website on Cartoon Network

The Wayback Machine is truly a treasure trove of great riches from the past. I've mentioned it here before, but using it and looking at older versions of the Cartoon Network website is a great source for finding rare photos and concept art of the classic Hanna-Barbera shows. However, just as they do today, the website also housed specific sections for each of their most popular shows, and in the early days, The Flintstones was one of the lucky series that earned such a distinction. So come with me as we venture into this interactive version of Bedrock, dating back to the year 2000!

The first thing we're treated to is this short animation of Fred and the rest of the family rolling up to the drive-thru. If you click on the film screen, the movie title will change. Each one is a rock-themed play on an existing film.

Now, here's what the main page of the site looks like. You've got an ad for Boomerang, a link on how to draw Fred, downloadable icons of the characters, and a guide on when the show aired, among other things.

Here's a glance at the games available on the site. As this was before Adobe Flash took off, you actually had to download these titles if you wanted to play them. All of them have been preserved and you can easily find playthroughs on Youtube, but I assure you that you aren't missing much.

Ever wanted to join the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes? Probably not, but if you did, Cartoon Network offered an application for the organization as a bonus on the site. 

I've saved the weirdest feature on the site for last, and here it is. I doubt anybody here has ever thought of how different Fred Flintstone's life would be if he had hundreds of toes, but thankfully, if you for some reason have, Cartoon Network has you covered with this look into such a scenario. You may now sleep peacefully at night. The image that's supposed to show up here was broken, so sadly (or perhaps thankfully?), this image will have to be left up to your imagination.

Flintstones TV Tinykins By Marx

 Just as promised, it's time for this week's Flintstones retro memorabilia spotlight, and for today, I'm looking at Marx's line of Flintstones TV Tinykins. Marx made a lot of collectibles based around the Hanna-Barbera characters, but the TV Tinykins seems to be one of the more famous ones they put out. For those who've never heard of them before, these were small and cheap figurines based on the Hanna-Barbera characters. They covered everyone from Quick Draw to Yogi, and The Flintstones were obviously included in that lineup. Released back in 1961, the line included Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Dino (now in green!), Baby Puss, the Fire Chief, and a Traffic Cop. Remember, this was before characters like Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm debuted, so they had to reach a little for characters beyond the core four. Below is what they looked like in and out of box, as well as a neat store display setup for the toys!

One interesting thing about this line is that they also sold characters in bundles. For example, here is The Flintstones set, if you wanted just the characters from that series.

Probably the oddest thing about these toys, however, is that over a decade later, they were given away for free inside of packages of Fruity Pebbles. Guess they had to get rid of that unsold product somehow!

Last, but most certainly not least, here's a great commercial showcasing the line of figures, complete with a catchy tune!

Meet the Flintstones

 For today's entry into Flintstones February, I felt it was time I went back to the very beginning of the franchise. It seems weird to imagine a time in pop culture without Fred, Barney, and the other citizens of Bedrock, but it is from that exact era that this early preview piece for the series comes from. Appearing in the Austin Daily Herald on April 16th, 1960 (five months before the show's debut), this is one of the earliest pieces of writing I could find for the show, and it felt appropriate to share during this month. A quick sidenote about this preview: if you for some reason didn't know that the main gag of The Flintstones was its play on modern situations using cavemen, they'll remind you about half a dozen times here.

Series to Compare Problems Today With Stone Age Issues

    "The Flintstones," an original situation comedy series — the first to be produced in animation — will be sponsored by Miles Laboratories, Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. during the 1960-61 ABC-TV season, according to William P. Mullen, vice president in charge of network sales.
    "The Flintstones" — previously titled "The Flagstones" — will be scheduled at 7:30-8 p.m. (Austin time) Fridays, including Channel 6.
    Hanna-Barbera Productions will create the all-new family comedy which transports contemporary language, behavior and problems into a prehistoric setting. ABC purchased the program from Screen Gems, TV subsidiary of Columbia Pictures.
    "The Flintstones" is a Stone Age family that runs into the same pressures as those confronting contemporary split-level families. Paralleling the dilemma of keeping the modern ranch house clean, the prehistoric home dwellers seek to tidy up the cave.
    Transportation is another common problem that bridges the gap of the centuries. Only instead of worrying about spark plugs or anti-freeze, "The Flintstones" are still wondering about the wheel.

Since this was an article that was more on the short side, how about I throw in a video as well. Here's an excerpt from Joe Barbera's interview with the Television Academy Foundation, where he reflects on the inception of The Flintstones. Of course, if you've seen many interviews with Joe, a lot of what he says here will sound more than familiar, but this is probably one of the better interviews discussing this particular topic, so I felt it deserved to be shared here. Enjoy!

Video of the Week: Four Flintstones Food Commercials

 Video of the week time has hit once again, and here, I'm going to share four different commercials over the years for Flintstones food tie-ins! The stone age family has shown up in tons and tons of advertisements for different food products, and I'm not even getting into the Fruity Pebbles ads today. The first one I'm sharing is a Hardee's commercial for 1991, celebrating a cross-promotion between the restaurant and the 30th anniversary of The Flintstones, complete with...a guy doing a painfully poor rendition of the theme. Well, it can only go up from here!

This one aired on TV back in 1994, and promoted a special Flintstones version of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. This was just one of many tie-ins made as part of the marketing blitz for the live-action film, which was released that same year.

If mac and cheese isn't your thing, then maybe you'll prefer this Heinz Spaghetti ad from 1992? While it's not as animated as the Kraft one, it at least features some dialogue from the characters.

Last up, appearing in 1990, here we have an ad for Flintstones push-ups. This one has both Fred and Barney along for the ride, and a rap, because, of course, it has a rap. Every ad in the early 90's had one!

Flintstones Friction Cars

 As part of my ongoing Flintstones February series, I thought it would be fun to highlight a different set of vintage Flintstones toys every week. Starting us off for week one, we have these Flintstones friction cars. Released by the Louis Marx company and appearing in stores in 1962, this line covered all of the four main characters. Here they are below.

If they look the same to you, that's because they essentially are. Apart from the heads, which are made out of rubber and interchangeable, everything is the same across all characters. As for the bodies and the cars, they are made of tin. While the bodies don't look completely accurate to the characters, the likenesses for the characters are pretty good, especially for the time (although Fred looks a bit silly). Below is a look at the packaging for the toys, which does a good job of showing off the characters and their accompanying vehicles.

Rockin' with Janet Waldo

 On February 4th, 1919, one of Hanna-Barbera's most celebrated voice actresses was born. I am talking about none other than the legendary Janet Waldo. Waldo portrayed dozens of characters across radio, television, and animation, but it's the characters she played for Hanna-Barbera who are her most remembered, including (but not limited to) Judy Jetson, Penelope Pitstop, and Josie of Josie and the Pussycats.

In celebration of what would've been her 105th birthday, I figured I'd share this great interview she did in 2011. The Warner Archive Collection had just released the 1988 TV movie Rockin' with Judy Jetson on DVD, and to promote the release, they had Janet Waldo appear on their podcast. Listen right here as she talks with their library historian George Feltenstein about her early career, her work in cartoons, and what it was like rejoining the Jetsons cast decades later for the eighties episodes.

As a little bonus, I also thought I'd throw in this video showcasing her appearance at San Diego Comic-Con 2010, where she appeared as a guest during animation writer and historian Mark Evanier's yearly cartoon voice actors panel. Here, she reflects on the many characters she's voiced over the years, and discusses one often overlooked part of her career.

The Four Fred's: A Brief Retrospective

 February 2nd. It was on this day, several billion years ago, that Fred Flintstone came into this world. Or, that's at least what the original series told us. While there's no real-life Fred Flintstone, there have been many people who have voiced him, and four of them stand above the rest. Those are Alan Reed, Henry Corden, Jeff Bergman, and James Arnold Taylor. These are the four who have been primarily tasked with playing the character in his various onscreen appearances. Today, we're going to celebrate each of them by going through their respective histories as the character. We'll look into their backgrounds, how they approached the role, and how they got it in the first place. Let's begin with the original, Alan Reed.

As a lot of you probably know, Reed wasn't the first person to voice Fred. Daws Butler played him in the pilot reel, and for a time, the role went to Bill Thompson. However, Bill and Joe felt that none of the other voices had the gravelly tone they were looking for with Fred. That's where Alan Reed enters the picture. A resident of the Big Apple, Reed had a voice that was equal parts rough and smooth, making him perfect for a character like Fred. He could accurately capture the entire range of Fred's emotional spectrum, from sentimental to anger, and do it well. Also helping him was his years' worth of experience in acting. From radio to the stage, Reed had done it all, and although Fred is the cartoon character people know him most for, it wasn't the only character he portrayed. He also voiced Boris in Disney's Lady and the Tramp, and would go on to give his voice to many other Hanna-Barbera productions.

Reed was the first and only voice for Fred during the entirety of the original Flintstones series. He'd later go on to reprise the role in the early spinoffs, such as The Man Called Flintstone movie, and The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. Sadly, as time progressed, Reed's health began to decline. Shortly after the show ended, he developed bladder cancer, and though it was treated, he also began to suffer from emphysema. In June of 1977, just two months shy of his seventieth birthday, Reed died of a heart attack. His death left a huge void in the Flintstones voiceover family, but it wasn't long before Hanna-Barbera sought out a replacement. 

The actor who would take over for Reed was none other than Henry Corden. Born in Canada, Corden's path to becoming Fred began years before he took over the role from Reed. You see, Alan Reed couldn't sing on pitch, so Hanna-Barbera required a soundalike to provide Fred's singing voice anytime the character sang. In instances like the aforementioned Man Called Flintstone and their line of records, it was Henry Corden who took on those duties. Corden had been working with Hanna-Barbera since around 1964, providing minor roles in episodes of The Flintstones and Jonny Quest. After Reed died, Corden was the obvious pick for his successor, although he did audition for the part alongside several others.

Corden began being heard as Fred in 1977's A Flintstone Christmas, and continued to be heard as the character until 2005. While Alan used his natural voice for Fred, Corden (and by extension, all of the following Freds), had to create Fred's voice. Corden initially focused on closely imitating Alan, but as time progressed, he began to make the character more his own. Many liken his take on Fred to being very Jackie Gleason-esque, and I wouldn't say that's wrong. He was a little bit higher pitched than Alan's, and his voice most definitely had a more cartoony quality to it. 

Like I said, Corden voiced Fred for nearly three decades, but towards the end of his run, he began to step back from the role, until he was voicing the character only in Fruity Pebbles commercials. His last major credit as Fred was in the 2000 video game Bedrock Bowling. As far as I can tell, this was due to a few reasons. For one, Corden was beginning to suffer from several health problems, chief among them being sight issues. It also sounds like those who worked on Flintstones productions during these later years felt Corden didn't sound like Fred. In an episode of Johnny Bravo, Fred appears, and Corden originally voiced him. According to series creator Van Partible, they felt his voice didn't sound right, and hired another actor instead. In May of 2005, Henry Corden passed away from emphysema (the same illness Reed struggled with). Since then, Fred has been voiced by two actors.

The first of these is Jeff Bergman. While Reed and Corden got their starts in radio and film, animation voice-acting was always Bergman's area of expertise. He grew up doing impressions of his favorite cartoon characters, and when he was only 29(!), he got the opportunity of a lifetime to take over many of the Looney Tunes characters after Mel Blanc's passing. His ability to imitate Blanc also made him a natural choice for the characters he voiced for Hanna-Barbera, including Mr. Spacely, and, of course, Barney Rubble. He voiced him opposite Corden's Fred in many Fruity Pebbles commercials throughout the nineties and 2000s, but it was in 1993 that he got his first chance to voice Fred, this being through a strange video game crossover between The Jetsons and The Flintstones. Jeff voiced the character periodically in the nineties, mostly in commercials for the Cartoon Network, but got his big break as Fred in 2001's Flintstones: On The Rocks TV movie. Since then, he's voiced the character in the majority of his appearance, such as the 2015 WWE crossover film, Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs, and even Fred's appearances in Family Guy! Out of all the Fred's that have come since Alan Reed, I maintain that Bergman is easily the best of the bunch. I do mean no offense to the others, who I feel have all done a wonderful job, but Jeff's take feels the most like a natural continuation of Reed's Fred. Bergman has actually taken over many Hanna-Barbera characters, from Yogi Bear to George Jetson, and he's done a great job as all of them. To put it simply, he knows his cartoons!

The other voice actor who inherited the role after Corden was James Arnold Taylor. Oddly enough, Taylor is the only one of the four to have had a major voice-acting role before voicing Fred. He's voiced Obi-Wan Kenobi in many Star Wars projects, tons of Marvel and DC superheroes, and in 2005, took over for Fred in the Fruity Pebbles commercials. Henry Corden was personally involved in his selection, which came down to Taylor and three others. While James doesn't look like the type of guy to have Fred's voice, he can actually go even deeper than Corden ever could, showing his skill as a voice actor. James Arnold Taylor also has a really interesting approach to the role of Fred. Rather than just imitating one of the prior actors, Taylor likens his version of the character to an amalgamation of Reed and Corden's performances. To put it more specifically, I'd say he takes Reed's smoothness and combines it with Corden's often over-the-top delivery. It makes for a Fred that sounds like the character, but still manages to be its own thing, a pretty hard feat to accomplish. Sadly, we don't get to hear from this take on Fred too much nowadays. After Post swapped ad agencies sometime around 2010, Taylor was replaced in the role before the entire marketing approach for Fruity Pebbles was changed. Taylor does voice the character on occasion, but not nearly enough if you ask me. Below is a great video of Taylor getting into the headspace for the voice of Fred. It's always lovely to see a voice actor do what they do best!

And that's all, at least for now. I know Stephen Root has been tasked to voice the character in that upcoming Bedrock series, and if that animated film ever gets off the ground, I'm sure they'll get some big-name celebrity to voice Fred (much to my dismay). That's also not getting into the voice actors who have played him in more obscure instances, or the actors who portrayed him in The Flintstone Kids. Maybe someday I'll cover the rest of them, but for today, I think I am all Fredded out! That's why this coming Monday, we'll be celebrating the life of Janet Waldo, who celebrates her birthday over the weekend!