The Flintstones (1962)

 

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.

 

The Flintstones (1961)

As noted in the earlier post on this series' 1960 episodes, The Flintstones was considered a trail-blazing concept when it first appeared in the fall of 1960--the first animated series to air in prime-time and a clever satire on the progress of the Space Age in its depiction of modern conveniences having low-tech equivalents during the Stone Age. By its July 1, 1961 cover story, TV Guide was touting Hanna-Barbera as the wave of the future--the article notes that when The Flintstones debuted it was the only show of its kind, but due to its early success there would be 5 animated series in prime-time starting in the new fall 1961 season. The hindsight of history shows us that none of those other series, including Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat, would match the success of The Flintstones, and that its success had already peaked as well--though it ranked 18th on the Nielsen ratings list for the 1960-61 season, it fell to 21st the following season, 30th in its third season, and out of the top 30 for the final three seasons. Rather than being the forerunner of a new trend, The Flintstones was more of an outlier.

Even TV Guide saw its appeal as short-lived: while reviewer Dwight Whitney lauded it as the lone fresh entry amongst the new shows as of December 1960, critic Gilbert Seldes was already calling it stale in his March 18, 1961 TV Guide review, saying that the series failed to measure up to feature film cartoons from Walt Disney, earlier Mr. Magoo shorts, or live-action sit-coms like I Love Lucy and Father Knows Best.  While Seldes approved of the overall concept, he claimed that there were better-drawn commercial cartoons than what The Flintstones offered. However, this lack of polish is exactly what Hanna and Barbera cited in the July 1, 1961 article as their reason for making TV cartoons economically feasible. They claimed that their work for MGM before setting up their own shop, as well as other cartoon-producers of the time, like Disney, spent too much time and money trying to make animated characters move like real ones when cruder movement was sufficient to make the animation work. But there is really no counter argument for Selden's other claim that the series' plots were stale--unlike the imaginative stories on the Rocky and Bullwinkle series, The Flintstones seemed satisfied to recycle hackneyed situations from countless live-action sit-coms.

What is perhaps more surprising is that some of the secondary characters seen as integral parts of the Bedrock landscape were rather unsettled well after the series launched. The Flintstone's pet dinosaur Dino wasn't firmly established until March 1961. The initial opening title sequence shows Fred driving home from work, entering the house to grab a plate of food from Wilma before settling in front of the TV. When Fred enters the house a blue, not magenta-colored, dinosaur is curled up in his chair in front of the TV. Hearing Fred coming, the dinosaur quickly scrambles down and curls up next to the chair. This sequence was not changed until Season 3, even after Dino was established as being magenta-colored. The first time we see Dino perform his signature move of knocking Fred down when he walks up the sidewalk on his way home from work and then licking his face is in the episode "Arthur Quarry's Dance Class" (January 13, 1961). But two episodes later in "The Snorkasaurus Hunter" (January 27, 1961) the Flintstones and Rubbles go on a hunting trip dreamed up by Fred as a way to save money on groceries. While the wives play cards, Fred and Barney go hunting for a Snorkasaurus, a purple dinosaur that looks much like Dino. After the Snorkasaurus outwits the men by hiding in one of their tents, Wilma takes pity on the animal and persuades Fred to let her take it home as a pet rather than killing and eating it. She names the Snorkosaurus Dino and soon has it performing all of her house chores, such as vacuuming and ironing. Never mind the disturbing implications of planning to kill and eat an animal that later becomes the equivalent of the family dog, Dino is never again shown as being purple and never does housework after this episode. The next time we see Dino is in "The Long, Long Weekend" (March 10, 1961) when he has returned to being magenta-colored and knocking Fred down when he comes home, which would be his role from then on.

Fred's boss is another character who was unsettled until well into Season 2. In "The Tycoon" (February 24, 1961) Fred asks his boss Mr. Boulder for a leave of absence so that he can secretly impersonate an AWOL business executive who is a dead ringer for Fred and whose assistants want him to pretend to be so that his empire doesn't crumble. In "The Good Scout" (March 24, 1961) Fred's boss is Joe Rockhead, a name that would be used for other characters in later episodes. In "Flintstone of Prinstone" (November 3, 1961), Fred's boss is Mr. Slate, a Prinstone graduate whom Fred is trying to impress by studying at his alma mater. Mr. Slate is also his boss in "The Beauty Pageant" (December 1, 1961), in which Fred and Barney get roped into judging a beauty contest because no one else wants the trouble that would come with such a duty. But in "The Masquerade Ball" (December 8, 1961), Fred's boss is back to being Mr. Rockhead. Though actor John Stephenson is best remembered as the voice of Mr. Slate, that role was not firmly established on The Flintstones until at least 1962.

Things were not helped when the legendary Mel Blanc, voice of Barney Rubble, suffered a near fatal car accident on January 24, 1961, which left him in a coma for two weeks. While he was recovering, the versatile Daws Butler voiced Barney for a few episodes before the producers were able to set up recording equipment in Blanc's hospital room and later at his home to allow him to continue recording episodes with the other cast members at his bedside. Blanc's temporary absence from the program proved to be only a minor hiccup in the grand scheme of the series. Still, for a series being touted as a trailblazer in the animation field, The Flintstones experienced an unusual amount of uncertainty at the height of its popularity.

What the series probably did best was satirize contemporary culture by showing that there's nothing new under the sun. As noted above, the clever recreation of modern conveniences in Stone Age clothing was what received the most praise. But the series also poked fun at other television programs, music fads, and celebrity culture. Crime dramas were a favorite subject of ridicule, even on live-action sit-coms such as Father Knows Best and My Three Sons. In "Love Letters on the Rocks" (February 17, 1961) Fred meets up with a private detective named Perry Gunnite to find out who penned love poetry to Wilma he found in one of their end tables. As soon as Gunnite walks into the bar where they are meeting, he is attacked and pummeled by some mobster's henchmen, an obvious dig at Peter Gunn's near-constant thrashings on his own program. "Alvin Brickrock Presents" (October 6, 1961) pokes fun at Alfred Hitchcock's suspense series by having the Flintstones live next door to an archaeologist who looks and sounds like Hitchcock and whom they suspect of having murdered his wife and disposed of the body (Rear Window anyone?). And "The Soft Touchables" (October 27, 1961) is a transparent  lampoon of The Untouchables in which Fred and Barney decide to open their own detective agency and become dupes for a gang of mobster bank robbers. 

Fickle music fans are parodied in "The Girls Night Out" (January 6, 1961) in which Fred becomes an overnight sensation after recording a hipsterized version of "Listen to the Mockingbird" at an amusement park recording booth. After he leaves the record behind, a teenager finds it and forwards it to a record executive. When the record company finds Fred's true identity, a Svengali figure named The Colonel (modeled after Elvis' Colonel Tom Parker) transforms Fred into Hi Fye and launches a nationwide tour. Wilma soon grows tired of the rigors of touring and even though The Colonel assures her that Fred's fame won't last, she decides to end things right away by blowing his cover and telling his fans that he is really a square, which sends them off in search of the next insta-star. The music business gets another ribbing in the first episode of Season 2, "The Hit Songwriters" (September 15, 1961), in which Hoagy Carmichael plays himself and helps the boys write a song based on Fred's signature phrase "Yabba Dabba Do" after the boys' first attempt, a blatant rip-off of "Stardust," is rejected by a music publisher. Carmichael injects a note of realism into the plot when he tells Fred that only 1 out of every 5,000 song written becomes a hit, advice that doesn't seem to deter Fred until Wilma puts her hand over his mouth to quash any further attempt to collaborate with Barney on new songs.

Movie stars are also fair game in "The Rock Quarry Story" (October 20, 1961) in which movie star Rock Quarry (i.e., Hudson) grows tired of being hounded by adoring fans and decides to go incognito to experience real life. At first he is thrilled with the novelty of bowling and shooting pool with Fred and Barney, who never recognize him since he uses his birth name of Gus Schultz. However, after the novelty wears off, Quarry can't seem to convince anyone that he really is a movie star until he fortunately runs into his boss and is returned to the fans he was tired of just a few days before. While The Flintstones' producers were fond of poking fun at the fickleness of fans and the elusiveness of fame, perhaps they were hedging their bets against their own popularity, which they knew too well had an inevitable expiration date. Still, what they accomplished in keeping an animated series on prime-time TV for 6 seasons was something unmatched for several decades.

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 Daws Butler, see the 1960 post for Rocky and His Friends. For the biography of Hal Smith, see the 1961 post for The Andy Griffith Show.

John Stephenson

Hailing from Kenosha, Wisconsin, John Winfield Stephenson first took up acting while attending small Ripon College before matriculating to the University of Wisconsin to study law. His studies were interrupted by World War II during which he served in the U.S. Army Air Force and earned a Distinguished Service Cross. After the war he attended Northwestern University, where he earned a master's degree in speech and drama and worked in Chicago radio. After visiting Chicago friends in Hollywood, he found work out west on the radio shows It's Always Sunday and The Count of Monte Cristo. He then became the voice for sponsor Philip Morris in introducing episodes of I Love Lucy on television starting in 1951. Soon thereafter he also began appearing in acting roles on various TV shows and in feature films such as Day of Triumph, Strange Lady in Town, and The Looters. He appeared in several episodes of the TV drama Treasury Men in Action, The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show, and Perry Mason and had a recurring role as Roger Crutcher on the Jackie Cooper series The People's Choice from 1955-58.  His long and prolific career as a voice actor for animated series began with his first appearance on the 11th episode of The Flintstones, "The Gold Champion," which aired on December 9, 1960. In all, he appeared in 73 episodes during the show's 6-year run, most notably as Fred's boss Mr. Slate.

After becoming ensconced at Hanna-Barbera due to his work on The Flintstones, Stephenson was then cast as ladies man Fancy-Fancy on the 1961-62 animated series Top Cat, followed by the role of Dr. Benton C. Quest on Jonny Quest and Colonel Fusby on The Peter Potamus Show. Concurrently he continued appearing in live-action series such as The Real McCoys, The Beverley Hillbillies, Hogan's Heroes, and serving as the episode-ending narrator on Dragnet. But by the late 1960s his voice acting work far surpassed his live-action credits on series such as Young Samson & Goliath, The Wacky Races, The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, and The Adventures of Gulliver. The 1970s were just as busy with work on Where's Huddles?, Scooby Doo, Where Are You?, Help!...It's the Hair Bear Bunch, The Houndcats, Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, Inch High Private Eye, Super Friends, Jeannie, Dinky Dog, and The Fantastic Four. The 1980s, likewise, included considerable voice-acting work on The Incredible Hulk, The Dukes, Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, The Littles, G.I. Joe, The Smurfs, and The Transformers, to name but a few. He continued to find work in the various Flintstones and Scooby-Doo revivals up until 2010. He contracted Alzheimer's disease a couple of years later and died May 15, 2015 at age 91.

Don Messick

Donald Earl Messick was born in Buffalo, NY, but his family soon thereafter moved to Baltimore before relocating again in rural Maryland. Messick grew up listening to classic radio programs, such as Fibber McGee and Molly and Jack Benny. By age 13 he had developed his own ventriloquist act and two years later landed his own radio program on WBOC in Salisbury, Maryland. After graduating from high school at age 16, he moved back to Baltimore to study acting while living with his grandparents. At age 18 his father was killed in a freak accident when a flagpole he and two other men were taking down came in contact with electrical wires, killing all three men. Soon afterward Messick was drafted into the army and brought along his ventriloquist dummy, replete with an army uniform made by his mother, which got him assigned to Special Services as an entertainer for the troops. After the war, Messick first relocated to San Francisco, where an Army buddy produced a radio program. He then moved to Hollywood and convinced a theatrical agent to represent his ventriloquist act before landing the role of Raggedy Andy on The Raggedy Ann radio show. But after being noticed in a local talent show, he went on tour with a production company doing his ventriloquist act again and then tried it on the east coast before returning west to work on live puppet shows. Once puppet shows began being replaced in theaters by cartoon shows, Messick began introducing himself to the local animation studios, which is where he met William Hanna and Joseph Barbera just as they were about to leave MGM and start their own studio. But before MGM shuttered its animation studio, Messick met Daws Butler, who introduced him to Tex Avery, who eventually hired him to voice Droopy Dog after Bill Thompson left the show. In 1957 when Hanna and Barbera started producing their first made-for-TV animated series, Ruff and Reddy, they hired Messick to voice Ruff and Professor Gizmo and Butler to voice Reddy. The two would be paired in numerous other Hanna-Barbera productions, including The Huckleberry Hound Show as Pixie and Dixie and The Yogi Bear Show with Butler playing Yogi and Messick playing Boo Boo and Ranger Smith. When Hanna-Barbera launched their first prime-time cartoon series with The Flintstones Butler and Messick were again called on to provide a variety of supporting characters.

Messick continued working for Hanna-Barbera during and after The Flintstones' 6-year run, providing various voices on Top Cat, Mr. Twiddles on The New Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series, taking over for John Stephenson as Dr. Benton C. Quest on Jonny Quest, playing So-So on The Peter Potamus Show, and Mr. Peebles on The Magilla Gorilla Show. When The Flintstones added children to the lineup in 1963, Messick provided the voice of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. He would go on to play Atom Ant, Shag Rugg, and Precious Pupp on The Atom Ant Show, Blip, Bronto, and Zorak on the original Space Ghost, Kaboobie on Shazzan, Vulturo and Falcon 7 on Birdman, Snork, Aramis, and Professor Carter on The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, Dick Dastardly's sidekick dog Muttley on The Wacky Races, Tagg and Eager on The Adventures of Gulliver, Fumbles on Where's Huddles?, and Scooby Doo on Scooby Doo, Where Are You?  In the 1970s he would also provide voices for Josie and the Pussycats, The Houndcats, Inch High Private Eye, Dinky Dog, The Fantastic Four, and Godzilla, to name but a few. The 1980s saw him playing Papa Smurf on The Smurfs as well as appearing in The Transformers, Paw Paws, Foofur, and Pound Puppies along with various specials and reboots of Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Jonny Quest, and The Jetsons. He also played a voice actor like himself on the live-action series The Duck Factory in 1984. He continued working until suffering a stroke in 1996, his last credits coming on yet another Jonny Quest revival, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. A second stroke on October 24, 1997 killed him at age 71.

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 19, "The Hot Piano": Frank Nelson (shown on the left, see the biography section for the 1960 post on The Jack Benny Program) plays a music store clerk.

Season 1, Episode 20, "The Hypnotist": Howard McNear (see the biography section for the 1961 post on The Andy Griffith Show) plays a veterenarian.

Season 1, Episode 26, "The Good Scout": Lucille Bliss (the voice of Crusader Rabbit on Crusader Rabbit, Smurfette on The Smurfs and various Smurf specials, and Ms. Bitters on Invader ZIM) plays boy scout Hugo.

Season 2, Episode 1, "The Hit Songwriters": Hoagy Carmichael (see the biography section for the 1960 post on Laramie) plays himself.

Season 2, Episode 3, "The Missing Bus": Sandra Gould (Mildred Webster on I Married Joan and Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched) plays schoolgirl's mother Mrs. Gypsum. Pattie Chapman (Miss Duffy on Duffy's Tavern) plays a nurse.

Season 2, Episode 4, "Alvin Brickrock Presents": Elliott Field (shown on the right, the voice of Blabber and the narrator on Quick Draw McGraw) plays archaeologist Alvin Brickrock. 

Season 2, Episode 5, "Fred Flintstone Woos Again": Frank Nelson (see "The Hot Piano" above) plays a hotel clerk. 

Season 2, Episode 7, "The Soft Touchables": Sandra Gould (see "The Missing Bus" above) plays female con artist Dagmar. 

Season 2, Episode 9, "The Little White Lie": Sandra Gould (see "The Missing Bus" above) plays newspaper columnist Daisy Kilgranite. 

Season 2, Episode 10, "Social Climbers": Paula Winslowe (shown on the left, played Martha Conklin on Our Miss Brooks) plays Wilma's high school classmate Emmy Glutzrock. 

Season 2, Episode 11, "The Beauty Contest": Leo DeLyon (the composer on It's a Business and the voice of Spook and Brain on Top Cat) plays gangster Big Louie.