Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
Best known as the original He-Man, he played Reggie Mantle in Filmation’s
Archie franchise based on the comics. He also played Reggie, Cousin
Ambrose, Hexter, J.R., Humphrey and Hank in Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1970);
Dick Tracy, Alvin, Smokey Stover, Spooky, Gaylord Buzzard and various others in
Archie’s TV Funnies;Q and Slick in The New Archie/Sabrina Hour;
Casey Balloo in “The Horse That Played Center Field” episode of ABC Weekend
Specials; and Ronald Radford III and Clumpley in The Thing. He also
provided voices for Foofur.
For the history of The Flintstones, check out the post here.
As part of Fred Silverman’s
efforts to revitalize the last-place NBC, he
decided to bring back some old favorites. One of them was the return to the
classic Stone Age sitcom, The
Flintstones.
Fred and Barney out for a round of golf.
The New Fred and Barney Show was a direct continuation of the 1960s series.
Pebbles (Jean Vander Pyl) and Bamm-Bamm (Don Messick) were reverted to their
toddler forms, after having been depicted as teenagers in The
Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, although newer characters like the
Rubbles’ pet hopparoo, Hoppy
(outside of the intro), and the powerful alien visitor The
Great Gazoo were nowhere to be found. Instead of dealing purely with the
slice of life stuff that was the foundation of sitcoms, Fred and Barney often
started off in seemingly mundane situations while ending up in increasingly
fantastical ones. For instance, Fred (Henry Corden) and Barney (Mel Blanc) head
out for an evening of bowling only to end up in the house of an evil witch. Frank
Frankenstone and Count
Rockula (both John Stephenson) were based on Frankenstein’s
monster and Count
Dracula, respectively, replacing The Gruesomes
as the Flintstones’ spooky neighbors. Original
comparisons to The
Honeymoonerswere also further reinforced with episodes of Fred
and Barney that shared similar plots; such as Fred gaining an inheritance
from a rich person he was nice to and it ending up being a bird (“Ralph
Kramden, Inc.”), or finding a suitcase full of money and having to deal with
the crooks who want it back (“Funny Money”).
Betty and Wilma ready for a night on the town.
The New Fred and Barney Show debuted mid-season on NBC on February 3, 1979. The
series’ theme was a reworking of the original written by producer Joe Barbera and composed by Hoyt Curtin, emphasizing the
newness of the series and the return to classic Flintstones. Notably, it
was the first time Corden would voice Fred for a regular series as original
actor Alan Reed had died in
1977 (Corden previously provided Fred’s singing voice in place of Reed). The
series was written by Doug Booth,
Andy Heyward, Len Janson, Glenn Leopold, Chuck Menville, Bob Ogle, Ray Parker, Dave Stone and
Chip Yaras,
with Larz Bourne serving as
story editor.
Fred and Barney ran for two short seasons for a total of 17
episodes. For the second season, Fred and Barney was combined with one
of Hanna-Barbera’s
latest offerings, The
Thing (loosely based on the Marvel
Comics character), in the package program Fred and Barney Meet the
Thing. Despite the misleading title, the two sets of characters never
interacted outside of the package’s intro and commercial bumpers. Beginning on
December 8th, the package was expanded to 90 minutes to include The
New Shmooand was retitled Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo. The
package show continued on in reruns through 1980, when it was replaced by The
Flintstone Comedy Show. Different versions of Frankenstone, his
family and Count Rockula would appear in two prime-time Flintstones specials:
The Flintstones Meet
Rockula and Frankenstoneand The Flintstones’ New
Neighbors. The series has been made available to stream on Amazon
Prime, and returned to television in 2024 as part of The Flintstones
Family Sunday programming block on retro animation network MeTV Toons.
EPISODE GUIDE:
Season 1:
“Sand-Witch” (2/3/79) – Car trouble leads Fred and Barney to
seek a telephone in a house that belongs to a man-eating witch.
“Haunted Inheritance” (2/10/79) – Because he was kind to an
aristocrat disguised as a quarry worker, Fred gets entered into a competition
for an inheritance.
“Roughin’ It” (2/17/79) – Feeling modern living is making life
easy and boring, Fred tries to go back to old-fashioned caveman living.
“C.B. Buddies” (2/24/79) – Fred and Barney cause trouble
when they overpower their new CB radios.
“Bedrock Rocks” (3/3/79) – Fred tries to hook the Slates up
with members of a rock band Mrs. Slate wants to see on her birthday, but
failing that he and Barney impersonate them.
“Blood Brothers” (3/10/79) – Fred and Barney worry when their new neighbor Count Rockula seeks to
repay their kindness by making them his “blood brothers”.
“Barney’s Chickens” (3/17/79) – Barney ends up accidentally
hypnotizing a bunch of people into believing they’re chickens.
“The Butler Did It…and Did It Better” (3/24/79) – Fred is
happy with his new robot butler, until the robot proves to be better than him
at everything.
“It’s Not Their Bag” (3/31/79) – Fred and Barney find a bag
of stolen money while playing golf and must evade the crooks looking for it.
“Barney’s Luck” (4/7/79) – Fred tries to prove that a coin
Barney found isn’t responsible for his string of extraordinary good luck.
Season 2:
“Stone Age Werewolf” (9/8/79) – Fred and Barney head out in
search of a werewolf, but a storm forces them to take shelter in the cabin of a
friendly old man.
“Fred & Barney Meet the Frankenstones” (9/15/79) –
Needing a break, Fred and Barney head to a spa they discover is run by Frank
Frankenstone.
“Physical Fitness Fred” (9/22/79) – Jealous of his wife’s fawning over a celebrity, Fred decides to get fit
to turn her head.
“Moonlighters” (9/29/79) – Fred and Barney try to compensate
for rising prices by taking various part-time jobs.
“Fred Goes to the Houndasaurs” (10/6/79) – Wilma adopts a
new Houndasaur that causes trouble for both Fred and Dino.
“The Bad Luck Genie” (10/13/79) – Fred finds a genie while
fishing whose wish-granting ends up causing more trouble than they’re worth.
“Dinosaur Country Safari” (10/20/79) – Fred and Barney take
their wives on a safari which ends up with their landing in a pterodactyl’s
nest.
Team-ups in comics
are not an uncommon thing. In fact, Marvel
Comics had two ongoing books dedicated exclusively to the concept. However,
when Hanna-Barbera
decided to team-up a Marvel character with some of their characters, it was a
bit misleading.
The ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing.
DePatie-Freleng
was trying to maintain its hold on the Fantastic Four
license after the abject failure of their series The New Fantastic Four. They pitched an idea to NBC’s Fred Silverman about a
spin-off show where Ben Grimm would travel from town to town, transforming into
the Thing to help people (similar to the hit CBS
series, The Incredible Hulk). At the same
time, Hanna-Barbera was pitching a show featuring Archie Comics-styled teenagers where one
of them could change into a monster leading to hilarious results (sounding like
Ruby-Spears’ Fangface).
Silverman liked the Hanna-Barbera proposal, but felt it would be more
successful with a recognizable monster instead of an original creation. Silverman
took the Thing away from DePatie-Freleng and allowed Hanna-Barbera to use him
in their series, which ultimately ended up being an amalgamation of both
studios’ pitches.
Thing Rings doing their thing.
The Thing centered around the titular character (Joe Baker, with some inspiration
from Jimmy Durante) going to
scientist Dr. Harkness (John Stephenson) for a way to transform back to human
form permanently. Although the cure worked, he was now the teenaged pipsqueak
Benjy Grimm (Wayne Morton) instead of an adult test pilot. Benjy could still
access his superhero persona thanks to a pair of rings which, when put together
with the phrase “Thing ring, do your thing!”, caused Benjy’s rocky visage to
gather around him. Benjy stayed with Harkness as he worked to find a permanent
cure for his condition that wouldn’t also diminish his age any further. While
the Thing still sported his blue trunks and declared himself “The idol o’
millions” (amongst other signature phrases), no mention was ever made of his
time with the Fantastic Four.
Spike and Turkey causing some trouble.
Benjy attended
Centerville High School with Harkness’ daughters Betty (Marilyn Schreffer) and
Kelly (Noelle North), the latter of which knew Benjy’s secret identity. Betty’s
personality was very inconsistent, ranging from one of Benjy’s friends to a
spoiled and shallow girl that could barely tolerate him (ironically, she was a
big fan of the Thing) and used his crush on her (let’s forget for a moment he
was technically an adult) to get her way. Benjy often clashed with
Betty’s snobby boyfriend, Ronald Radford (John Erwin), who would play
mean-spirited pranks on him. The kids were frequently in the company of their
scatterbrained teacher/principal, Miss Twilly (also Schreffer) on school field
trips (despite the fact that the majority of their class wasn’t present on
these outings). The Thing would be called upon to solve general problems, such
as Miss Twilly stepping onto a runaway push cart or a gas truck stalled on
railroad tracks, or to deal with the shenanigans of the Yancy Street
Gang. The Gang, often depicted in the comics as a group of juveniles that
tortured Thing with pranks whenever he visited his old neighborhood, were
reimagined as a biker gang comprised of the diminutive Spike (Art Metrano), the
bulky Turkey (Michael Sheehan) and the scrawny Stretch (Stephenson).
TV Guide ad for the show.
Now, as for the
misleading team-up mentioned earlier: The
Thing wasn’t broadcast as its own show. Instead, it was placed in the
hour-long package show Fred and Barney
Meet the Thing along with The New Fred and Barney Show, a spin-off of The Flintstones. Despite the title, Fred and Barney never interacted with The
Thing outside of the opening title sequence and commercial bumpers; all of the
characters were contained within their own shows. Fred and Barney Meet the Thing debuted on NBC on September 22,
1979. Two Thing segments aired during
the second half hour of the program for a total of 13 episodes. On December 8,
the show was expanded to 90-minutes to included the recently-cancelled show The New Shmooand was renamed Fred and
Barney Meet the Shmoo. Once again, all of the featured characters only
interacted in the opening and the commercial bumpers.
That's one way to raise the roof.
The show fared no
better than Fantastic Four and was cancelled after a single season. Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo continued on
in reruns through November of 1980 when it was replaced by The Flintstone Comedy Show(which
featured The Shmoo actually interacting with the Flintstone characters).Hanna-Barbera would recycle their
teen-into-monster-hero idea for Drak
Packthe following year. Reruns
of The Thing eventually made their way to Cartoon
Network and Boomerang. Because the show was produced by
Hanna-Barbera, the rights to the series lie with WarnerMedia as Warner Bros. had purchased the studio in
1996. However, the overall rights to the character belong to Disney who had
purchased Marvel in 2009 and
later Fox, which held the theatrical rights, in 2019. As a result, it’s not
likely that the series will see a home release any time soon.
“The Picnic Panic / Bigfoot Meets the Thing” (9/22/79) – The Yancy
Street Gang cause a distraction so that they can steal the food from the
picnic. / The Yancy Street gang use a Bigfoot costume to terrorize the local
ski resort, not knowing the actual Bigfoot is nearby.
“Junkyard Hijinks / Gone Away Gulch” (9/29/79) – Benjy and Kelly
decide to clean up an abandoned lot for a playground, but the Yancy Street Gang
likes it as is. / The kids end up stuck in a ghost town where an obsessive
prospector dangerously searches for treasure.
“Circus Stampede / The Thing and the Queen” (10/6/79) – The Yancy
Street Gang causes trouble when the circus comes to town, resulting in the
animals breaking free. / Betty plans to run for homecoming queen, but the Yancy
Street Gang plans to make sure their girls win.
“Carnival Caper / The Thing Blanks Out” (10/13/79) – A crooked
carnival owner wants to sign the Thing as an attraction. / When a drawbridge
conks Thing on the head, he loses his memory just as his friends are stranded
on a boat in front of a breaking dam.
“The Thing Meets the Clunk / Beach Party Crashers” (10/20/79) – A
scientist’s well-meaning robot causes chaos around the city. / The Yancy Street
Gang decides to play tricks on the kids at the beach.
“Decepto the Great / The Thing’s the Play” (10/27/79) – The magician
hired for the school bazaar ends up being a thief who steals during his act. / The
kids go to a delusional acting coach who believes Betty is his favorite actress
and the key to his big comeback.
“Double Trouble for the Thing / To Thing or Not to Thing” (11/3/79) – A
robot double frames Thing for its crimes. / A new attempt at a cure leads to
the Thing transforming in uncontrollable and strange ways.
“The Big Bike Race / The Thing and the Treasure Hunt” (11/10/79) – Benjy
enters a bike race where Betty serves as the race queen. / A day of boating
leads the kids to discover a treasure map.
“Out to Launch / The Day the Ring Didn’t do a Thing” (11/17/79) – A
jilted city employee threatens the launch of a ship from the new shipyards. /
While on a fossil hunt, Benjy removes one of his rings and it ends up in the
hands of Spike.
“A Hot Air Affair at the Fair / The Thing Goes to the Dogs” (11/24/79)
– Benjy, Ronald and Spike compete in a hot air balloon race. / The Yancy Street
Gang plans to scare Ronald by stealing his father’s prized dog from the dog
show.
“The Thing Goes Camping / Dude Ranch Rodeo” (12/1/79) – Miss Twilly
takes the kids on a camping trip. / The Yancy Street gang causes trouble at a
rodeo.
“Photo Finish / Lights, Action, Thing!” (12/8/79) – Ronald, Spike and
Benjy compete in the zoo’s photo contest. / The kids get jobs working on the
movie that a jilted stuntman would do anything to disrupt.
“The Thing and the Captain’s Ghost / The Thing and the Absent-Minded
Inventor” (12/15/79) – The Yancy Street Gang challenges the kids to confront a
ghost story in order to scare them. / The kids help Miss Twilly’s absent-minded
uncle get to the annual inventor’s convention.
