THE NEW FRED AND BARNEY SHOW

THE NEW FRED AND BARNEY SHOW

(NBC, February 3-October 20, 1979)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Henry Corden – Fred Flintstone

Mel Blanc – Barney Rubble, Dino

Jean Vander Pyl – Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles Flintstone

Gay Autterson – Betty Rubble

Don Messick – Bamm-Bamm Rubble, various

John Stephenson – Mr. Slate, various


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 Honeymooners were 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 8^th, the package was expanded to 90 minutes to include The New Shmoo and 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 Frankenstone and 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.

Originally posted in 2020. Updated in 2025.

THE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM SHOW

THE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM SHOW

(CBS, September 11, 1971-September 2, 1972)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Sally Struthers (season 1) – Pebbles Flintstone

Jay North – Bamm-Bamm Rubble

Mel Blanc – Barney Rubble, Zonk, Stub

Gay Hartwig – Cindy Curbstone, Betty Rubble, Wiggy Rockstone

Mitzi McCall – Penny Pillar

Don Messick – Schleprock

Alan Reed – Fred Flintstone

John Stephenson – Mr. Slate, Noodles

Jean Vander Pyl – Wilma Flintstone

Lenny Weinrib – Moonrock Crater, Bronto

For a history of The Flintstones franchise, check out the post here.

            They grow up so fast. 

The characters of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

      With The Flintstones doing well in syndicated reruns—particularly on Saturdays—CBS executive Fred Silverman approached Hanna-Barbera in 1970 about doing a revival. However, he wanted to make it a teen-oriented and musical series to try and duplicate the successes of Filmation’s Archie series and their own Josie and the Pussycats. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears were assigned the task of making the modern Stone Age family even more modern. They radically aged the children of their principle characters to teenagers, and gave them a gang of friends that could play together as a band whenever the story required it. The result was The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.

Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and their gang cruising around Bedrock.

            The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show debuted on CBS on September 11, 1971. It focused on the wacky misadventures of teenaged Pebbles Flintstone (Sally Struthers), her neighbor and boyfriend Bamm-Bamm Rubble (Jay North), and their friends: Moonrock Crater (Lenny Weinrib), a genius inventor; Penny Pillar (Mitzi McCall), an overweight girl obsessed with being thin; and Wiggy Rockstone (Gay Hartwig), a girl who lived by the daily horoscopes. Often, they would find themselves in sticky situations made even stickier by Pebbles’ schemes to get them out of trouble, which often backfired (a callback to the schemes of her father in the original series). Other times, they were at odds with Pebbles’ rival, snobbish Cindy Curbstone (Hartwig), and a biker gang called The Bronto Bunch. The elder Flintstones and Rubbles made the occasional appearances on the show, but they were no longer the focus. Another thing of note is that while Bamm-Bamm did seem to pull off the occasional impossible feat here and there, the super strength he was originally depicted with as a baby was significantly played down.

Groovin' to the beat.

As The Flintstones focused on the juxtaposition of the modern world set amongst a Stone Age backdrop, so too did Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Along with everything viewers had come to expect of the franchise, the show was heavily influenced by its time period. Lingo, teen idols, drag racing and various activities the kids did for fun were taken from the trends of the 1970s. The series was written by Neal Barbera, Walter Black, Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais, Bob Ogle, Larry Rhine and Dick Robbins, with story direction by Brad Case, Carl Fallberg, Cullen Houghtaling, Alex Lovy, Lew Marshall, Paul Sommer and Irv Spector. The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols. It was one of the first Hanna-Barbera productions to utilize their new limited laugh track.

 Proving successful, CBS decided to expand their Flintstones franchise with the creation of The Flintstone Comedy Hour. Along with new adventures featuring the elder characters, the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm characters were given new shorts and a band called “The Bedrock Rockers” that performed during the show in between segments. Reruns of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm aired as the second half-hour of the Comedy Hour. As Struthers had become committed to her role on the sitcom All in the Family before the original first episode ever even aired, Mickey Stevens replaced her for all the new material produced for the Comedy Hour. When the show was renamed The Flintstone Comedy Show, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm reruns were dropped from its format and later aired as part of the weekday syndicated Fred Flintstone and Friends. It would make the rounds later on cable channel Boomerang.

An issue of the Charlton comic series.

Charlton Comics published 36 issues of a tie-in comic series from 1972-76. A three-issue revival series and a one-shot were published in 1993 by Harvey Comics. Several styles of lunchboxes were released by Aladdin Industries featuring the show’s characters. In 2008, Warner Home Video released the complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. It was re-released in 2017 as part of the Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection. In August of 2024, the series returned to television as part of retro animation network MeTV Toons’ The Flintstones Family Sunday programming block.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Gridiron Girl Trouble” (9/11/71) – Bamm-Bamm’s dogosaurus follows them to school, and hiding him from the dogcatcher lands Pebbles into playing in the big football game.

“Putty in Her Hands” (9/18/71) – Pebble’s attempt at sculpting falls flat. She convinces Bamm-Bamm to pose as her sculpture to fool Cindy, but statue Bamm-Bamm ends up stolen crooks.

“Frog for a Day” (9/25/71) – Pebbles studies witchcraft to prove her authenticity when her role in a play is cut back resulting in her believing she accidentally turned Barney into a frog.

“The Golden Voice” (10/2/71) – Pebbles forces Bamm-Bamm to sing for her band after hearing him in the shower. Unfortunately, the only place Bamm-Bamm CAN sing is in the shower.

“Daddy’s Little Helper” (10/9/71) – Believing Fred about to be fired, Pebbles gets a job at the gravel pit in order to help save his job. However, she ends up costing him a promotion instead.

“Focus Foolery” (10/16/71) – Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm stumble on a bank robbery, forcing them to hide out in a baby pageant with Bamm-Bamm posing as a baby.

“Pebble’s Big Boast” (10/23/71) – Pebble’s brags about knowing a big rock group to Cindy and is tasked with getting them to play at her party.

“The Grand Prix Pebles” (10/30/71) – Pebbles accidentally gives away Fred and Barney’s new super fuel. Retrieving it, the kids discover a flaw in the formula they must fix before the big race.

“The Terrible Snorkosaurus” (11/6/71) – Pebbles fails to sell a snorkosaurus to Sea Rock World and hides it in her swimming pool, forgetting Fred has a pool party planned for his boss.

“Schleprock’s New Image” (11/13/71) – Pebbles tries to help jinx Schleprock change his luck, but her help only leads to endless mishaps befalling the gang.

“Coach Pebbles” (11/20/71) – Pebbles and her girl friends takes over coaching the little league team when Fred loses his voice, but their lack of baseball knowledge brings the team down.

“No Cash and Carry” (11/27/71) – A con man posing as chief of store security convinces the gang to steal from a department store as part of an effort to help test his operatives.

“Wooly the Great” (12/4/71) – Moonrock’s super shampoo gives Pebble’s pet elephant the ability to fly. After Wooly causes Fred to get angry at him, Wooly runs away to join the circus.

“Mayor May Not” (12/11/71) – Pebbles becomes honorary Mayor of Bedrock and attempts to improve the city…with disastrous results.

“They Went That Away” (12/18/71) – Pebbles volunteers her friends and family to watch Uncle Hatrock’s ranch while he’s away, and she unknowingly hires cattle rustlers as ranch hands.

“The Birthday Present” (1/1/72) – Wooly buries Wilma’s present, causing Pebbles to believe it was stolen by their neighbors, the creepy Gruesomes.

Originally published in 2014. Updated in 2024.

THE HISTORY OF THE FLINTSTONES

MEET THE FLINTSTONES

            They’re the modern Stone Age family. 

Barney, Fred, Betty and Wilma.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera had a desire to recapture the adult market for their productions after having become largely regarded as “children’s entertainment.” They decided what they needed was an animated situation comedy for primetime.         

A wooly mammoth fountain and a dinosaur lawnmower are just some of the Stone Age technology.

            After toying with several ideas, they eventually settled on the Stone Age as the setting for the show. Barbera would tell film critic and historian Leonard Maltin in a 1997 interview it was in part because of the ease it made in converting modern conveniences into Stone Age ones. Cars would be foot-powered, animals served the functions of household appliances (which they’d often complain about to the audience in a recurring gag), clams were used as electric razors, newspapers were giant rock slabs, etc. Hanna would go on to attribute The Honeymooners as a major influence on the project, as it was the most popular show at the time and regarded by him as the funniest. Tex Avery, with whom Hanna and Barbera were in friendly competition with, has also been cited as another inspiration; specifically his cartoon The First Bad Man, which featured a bank robber in Stone Age Dallas that introduced similar visual jokes that the Flintstones would become known for.

 

Under the working title The Flagstones, a short demonstration film was created in order to sell the series to potential networks and sponsors. The short featured the characters of Fred, his wife Wilma, and their son Fred, Jr. They spent several weeks pitching the show until finally young fledgling network ABC bought it. As the series was developed, several changes occurred such as the removal of Fred, Jr. and the name eventually becoming The Flintstones in order to further differentiate it from the Flagstons in Hi and Lois.

Fred and Barney hard at work in an autographed print.

Taking place in the town of Bedrock, the series focused on blue-collar gravel pit worker Fred Flintstone (Alan Reed), his wife Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and their best friends and neighbors Betty (Bea Benaderet through season 4, Gerry Johnson for the remainder) and Barney (Mel Blanc, Daws Butler for the pilot and several episodes in season 2 after Blanc was in a near-fatal car accident) Rubble. Most of the time, Fred and Barney would get into some kind of misadventure, often linked to a get rich quick scheme Fred cooked up and hapless Barney would fall for. Other prominent characters included the Flintstone’s pet Snorkasaurus Dino (Blanc) and Fred’s boss Mr. Slate (John Stephenson). Words related to rocks or minerals would often find their way into names of people and places, especially for celebrity parodies such as Stony Curtis for Tony Curtis or Alvin Brickrock for Alfred Hitchcock. The show debuted September 30^th, 1960 and was a hit, landing its adult demographics with the familiar sitcom setups it employed and the style of writing for the series.

The Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes.

The Honeymooners influence was evident throughout the show. Fred was the overweight, overbearing loudmouth who constantly tried to get above his station, and Barney was the hapless dimwit who could out-eat Fred and not gain a pound. Both belonged to a lodge, the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes that involved wearing silly hats, and enjoyed bowling whenever possible. The similarities were so great that at one point Honeymooners creator and star Jackie Gleason had considered suing Hanna-Barbera for copyright infringement, but decided he didn’t want to be the one that got a beloved show pulled from the air

Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm joined the family.

Changes came when the series reached its third season. Originally opened with an instrumental theme called “Rise and Shine” by series composer Hoyt Curtin, by the season’s third episode the show gained its iconic theme “Meet the Flintstones” performed by the Skip-Jacks and a 22-piece jazz band, as well as a new opening sequence. It was decided to introduce a baby to the family, based on a suggestion from Barbera’s second wife, Sheila. Originally intended to be a boy, Hanna and Barbera were convinced to make it a girl by marketing because girl dolls sold better than boy dolls. The third season employed the show’s first ongoing story arc leading up to the birth of Pebbles (Pyl, who also had her own baby at the same time) and the adjustment period that followed. The following season, the Rubbles, unable to have children, would go through the process leading them up to the adoption of their son, Bamm-Bamm (Don Messick); a super-strong baby. The Rubbles also gained a pet Hoppasaurus, Hoppy (also Messick). It was at this point that Benaderet would leave the show to focus all her attention on Petticoat Junction, being replaced by Johnson. The final season introduced The Great Gazoo (Harvey Korman), an exiled alien that used his incredible powers to help Fred and Barney, often getting them into even more trouble to teach them a moral lesson.

After Pebbles, the series’ tone softened and the writing became more juvenile, costing the show its adult demographic ratings and its original sponsor of Winston Cigarettes. With a move from their original 8:30 timeslot to 7:30, a renewed focus on toys and merchandising, and the acquisition of Welch’s grape products as a sponsor, the show had effectively returned to the kiddie fare it was originally created in opposition of. The series was quietly cancelled in 1966 after 166 episodes, but had secured its place in history as the longest-running primetime animated series; unsurpassed until The Simpsons in 1995. The Flintstones left one final mark on viewers with the theatrical release of The Man Called Flintstone that same year.

The Great Gazoo teaches his favorite Dum Dum a lesson on a signed print.

The series performed exceptionally well in syndicated reruns, earning Hanna-Barbera more money than it had during its entire run on ABC. With the show as popular as it ever was, CBS executive Fred Silverman approached Hanna-Barbera with the notion of reviving the series, beginning the Flintstones’ journey to Saturday mornings.