By the year 1962, the once-fresh prime-time cartoon
The Flintstones had settled into a
comfortable routine of rehashed plots chronicling the misadventures of boorish
Fred Flintstone that borrowed heavily from other TV programs, movies, and pop
culture fads. The only new thing on the program that year was a different, now
iconic opening sequence in which Fred drives the family to a drive-in
restaurant and movie instead of showing him clocking out at work, picking up
the dry cleaning, and parking in the garage before settling in front of the TV
with a plate of food. The series also began using a few additional voice actors
such as
Herschel Bernardi and
Howard Morris to voice a number of incidental
characters.
When they weren't attempting to lampoon other TV shows and
movies, such as poking fun at
Gunsmoke
and westerns in general in "A Star Is Almost Born" (January 12,
1962), homemaker programs in "The Happy Household" (February 23,
1962), game shows in "Divided We Sail" (April 6, 1962), swarthy Latin
movie stars in "Latin Lover" (April 20, 1962),
Lassie in "Dino Goes Hollyrock" (September 14, 1962),
crime caper movies in "Here's Snow in Your Eyes" (October 19, 1962),
TV crime dramas such as
Hawaiian Eye
in "Hawaiian Escapade" (November 16, 1962), and
Hitchcock suspense
films in "Dial S for Suspicion" (December 14, 1962), they were
recycling their own already shopworn plots. For example, "The
Gambler" (January 5, 1962) revolves around Fred's gambling addiction for
which he once visited a psychiatrist and swore to Wilma that he would never
engage in again. When skin-flint Fred tries to avoid settling his bill with
newsboy Arnold, he falls off the wagon by offering to bet double or nothing on
his bill over a game of marbles. Predictably, Fred loses but keeps doubling
down and losing again until he has run up a tab of $88 that he can't possibly
repay because Wilma has used the money he hid from her to pay off another debt
he has been trying to avoid on their TV set. In the end, after Wilma has
figured out what Fred has been up to and has to borrow money from Betty to
replace the furniture that Fred gave Arnold to settle his debt, Fred swears off
ever gambling again. But in "The Rock Vegas Story" (March 30, 1962)
Fred decides to take Wilma and the Rubbles to Rock Vegas for their vacation
after running into old friend Sherman Cobblehead who now owns a casino and
invites Fred to come see him. Within minutes of their arrival at the casino,
when the wives go to "freshen up," Fred loses all their money in a
slot machine, and the two families have to spend the rest of their vacation
working at the casino to afford their stay. Fred's failure to keep his promises
is glossed over at the end of the episode when Cobblehead tells the husbands
how lucky they are to have such devoted wives, whereas he is forced to live out
his drab existence running a casino surrounded by beautiful show girls.
Fred's repeated attempts at deception are also recycled in
two attempts to duck out of work to go see a day baseball game in
"Operation Barney" (February 16, 1962) in which he calls in sick to
skip work but when he forces Barney to do the same, Barney's boss requires him
to submit to a medical examination that lands him in the hospital and almost
has him undergo a serious operation. After Wilma and Betty discover the ruse,
Fred promises never to play hooky from work again. Wilma is skeptical he will
stick to it, and for good reason, because we see that Fred has his fingers
crossed behind his back. And sure enough, he tries the same trick again in
"Ladies' Day" (November 23, 1962), only this time he dresses in drag
using clothes Wilma gave him to drop off at a rummage sale so that he can get
into the ballgame for free on Ladies Day. Again predictably he doesn't get away
with it and once exposed he again promises never to play hooky from work again.
This time there are no crossed fingers, but who in their right mind would ever
believe any promises made by Fred Flintstone? And who would want to watch him
go through the same routine on episode after episode?
We could go over the multiple episodes about Fred's failed
get-rich quick schemes or his cruelty to Barney, but perhaps more salient is
the program's blatant chauvinism in its depiction of the roles of husbands and
wives. This topic has been discussed on various web sites and in various forums
with opinion generally falling into two camps--those who are shocked that a
show they loved as children could be so misogynistic, and those who brush such
criticism aside by saying the program only reflected the prevalent attitudes of
the era, was set in the Stone Age so of course the male characters behave like
"cave men," or was only a cartoon and therefore should not be taken
so seriously. The episode most often cited for the program's chauvinism is the
aforementioned "The Happy Household" in which Wilma is recruited to
host a TV homemaker program but Fred eventually intervenes to get her show
canceled so that she can be home to cook his dinners, not to tell other
housewives how to please their husbands. Fred not only says that a woman's
place is in the home, but ends the episode by admonishing any housewife viewers
to take note of this week's lesson. While it is certainly true that
The Flintstones was not the only TV
program of its time to reinforce the stereotype of women being ideally and only
suited to being homemakers--even the supposedly proto-feminist
Donna Reed Show had her proving she
could handle other jobs outside the home but always choosing to return to
domestic contentment--what makes
The
Flintstones stand out is that its chauvinism can be disingenuously defended
as being only a cartoon set in Stone Age times while also appealing to children
who are less able to resist its reactionary message. Sure, it was a prime-time
"adult" cartoon, but children are naturally drawn to cartoons due to
their simplicity, bright colors, fantastical events, and general mood of fun
and humor. Children even enjoy clearly adult-oriented cartoons such as
The Bullwinkle Show, whose political and
social satire is beyond their understanding, because the show depicts talking
animals involved in outlandish adventures. In the TV age, cartoons are also a
key component in the socialization of children and can have profound effects on
their development, depending what kind of cartoons they are exposed to. The
number of adults who are shocked when they revisit childhood favorites such as
The Flintstones only reinforces the fact
that children cannot discriminate like adults and recognize when a theme is
being depicted only for humorous effect. That's why the messages disseminated
by
The Flintstones--that women can
and should be satisfied only as housewives or that you can be cruel to your
friends and suffer no real consequences--are not good, clean fun, even for
adults.
The Actors
For the biographies of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander
Pyl, and Bea Benaderet, see the 1960 post for The Flintstones. For the biography of Hal Smith, see the 1961 post
for The Andy Griffith Show. For the
biographies of John Stephenson and Don Messick, see the 1961 post for The Flintstones.
Notable Guest Stars
Because it was an animated series, The Flintstones did not have many guest stars known from other
shows, except those listed below.
Season 1, Episode 17, "A Star Is Almost Born":
Frank
Nelson (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
The Jack Benny Program) plays TV producer Norman Rockbind.
Season 1, Episode 18, "The Entertainer": Paula
Winslowe (Martha Conklin on Our Miss
Brooks) plays Mr. Slate's client Greta Gravel.
Season 1, Episode 19, "Wilma's Vanishing Money": Frank
Nelson (see "A Star Is Almost Born" above) plays a sporting goods
store clerk. Herschel Bernardi (see the biography section of the 1960 post on Peter Gunn) plays stick-up man Silky.
Season 1, Episode 22, "Operation Barney": Herschel
Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays an operating
room doctor. Paula Winslowe (see "The Entertainer" above) plays the
operating room nurse.
Season 1, Episode 23, "The Happy Household":
Paul
Frees (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1960 post on
Rocky and His Friends) plays TV producer Mr. Rockenschpeel and TV
station owner Sam Bedrock.
B.J. Baker (Miss Alabama at age 17, background
singer and member of the Anita Kerr Singers, wife of
Mickey Rooney and later
jazz guitarist
Barney Kessel) provides Wilma's singing voice.
Season 1, Episode 25, "This Is Your Life Saver":
Walker
Edmiston (shown on the left, played Enik on
Land of the Lost
and voiced Dr. Blinkey and Orson Vulture on
H.R.
Pufnstuf, Admiral Scuttlebutt, Bela, and Big Chief Sitting Duck on
Lidsville, Sebastian on
Dumbo's Circus, and Sir Thornberry on
Adventures of the Gummi Bears) plays con
man J. Montague Gypsum.
Season 1, Episode 26, "Trouble-in-Law":
Verna
Felton (shown on the right, played Mrs. Day on
The Dennis Day Show
and
The Jack Benny Program and Hilda
Crocker on
December Bride and
Pete and Gladys) plays Wilma's mother
Pearl Slaghoople.
Season 1, Episode 27, "The Mailman Cometh": Herb
Vigran (Judge Brooker on Gunsmoke)
plays policeman Officer Riley.
Season 1, Episode 30, "Kleptomaniac Caper": Herb
Vigran (see "The Mailman Cometh" above) plays policeman Officer O'Rockery.
Herschel Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays a
department store detective.
Season 1, Episode 31, "Latin Lover":
Jerry Mann (shown on the far left, appeared
in
The Sky Divers,
Shutter Bug, and
The Maltese Bippy, also wrote several shorts and 3 episodes of
Tom and Jerry as well as voicing Tom the
cat) plays Italian movie star Roberto Rockelini.
Paula Winslowe (see "The
Entertainer" above) plays a cosmetics saleswoman.
Season 3, Episode 1, "Dino Goes Hollyrock": Herschel
Bernardi (see "Wilma's Vanishing Money" above) plays talent agent Sam.
Season 3, Episode 3, "Barney the Invisible":
Howard
McNear (shown on the right, see the biography section for the 1961 post on
The Andy Griffith Show) plays physician Dr. Quartz.
Season 3, Episode 5, "The Twitch":
Ginny Tyler (shown on the left, voiced
characters in
Son of Flubber,
The Sword in the Stone,
Mary Poppins, and
Doctor Doolittle and voiced Sally Hansen and Elaine Hansen on
Davey and Goliath, Wendy on
The New Casper Cartoon Show, Jan and
Black Widow on
Space Ghost, Flirtacia
on
The Adventures of Gulliver, Aunt
Martha and Polly on
Devlin, and Sue
Richards and The Invisible Girl on
The
Fantastic Four) plays a talentless singer for agent Sam Stone.
Season 3, Episode 6, "Here's Snow in Your Eyes":
Doug
Young (shown on the right, voiced Doggie Daddy on
Quick Draw
McGraw,
Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy,
and
The Huckleberry Hound Show, Ding
a Ling on
The Huckleberry Hound Show,
Yippee on
The Peter Potamus Show and
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey, and later
the Grand Poobah on
The Flintstones)
plays stolen goods fence Chip Marble.
Season 3, Episode 8, "The Little Stranger": Verna
Felton (see "Trouble-in-Law" above) returns as Wilma's mother Pearl
Slaghoople.
Season 3, Episode 12, "Nuttin' But the Tooth":
Howard
Morris (shown on the left, appeared in
Boys' Night Out,
The Nutty Professor, and
High Anxiety, played Ernest T. Bass on
The Andy Griffith Show, and voiced
Beetle Bailey, Gen. Halftrack, Otto, and Rocky on
Beetle Bailey, Breezly Bruin on
The
Peter Potamus Show, Mr. Peebles on
The
Magilla Gorilla Show, Atom Ant on
The
Atom Ant Show, Jughead Jones, Big Moose, and Dilton Doiley on
The Archie Show and
Archie's Funhouse, Frankie, Wolfie, and Dr. Jekyll on
Sabrina and the Groovie Goulies, Cousin
Ambrose on
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,
and The Hamburglar on
McDonaldland)
plays dentist Dr. Smiley Molar.
Season 3, Episode 13, "High School Fred": Howard
Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays efficiency expert
Mr. Rockhard.
Season 3, Episode 14, "Dial S for Suspicion": Howard
Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays circus knife thrower
Rodney Whetstone and physician Dr. Pilldown.
Season 3, Episode 15, "Flash Gun Freddie": Howard
Morris (see "Nuttin' But the Tooth" above) plays the drug store clerk
and comic-buying kid.
