Rating: - SATURDAY MORNING MEMORIES: "DON'T ROCK NOW BECAUSE OUR LOVE HAS GROWN STONE COLD."
I was a little too young to watch the original animated "The Flintstones," which was first run on ABC from 1960-1966. Of course, I was aware of "The Flintstones" and watched it in heavily syndicated reruns. "The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show," the delightful 16 Episode Saturday morning sequel, first ran on CBS in 1971 when I was about five or six years old. THIS show is part of my Saturday morning memories!
On "The Flintstones", Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were babies, and I never cared much for babies or children in shows, even when I was a child. For their own self-titled show, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are teenagers. The title characters are excellently voiced by Sally Struthers ("All In The Family") and Jay North ("Dennis The Menace"). They hang out with a new gang of teenage friends, including The Bronto Bunch Motorcycle Gang, astrologically-inclined Wiggy, hippie Penny, inventor Moonrock, snobby Cindy and Fabian, and Bad Luck Schleprock ("Hi, everybody, miserable day, isn't it... wowsie, wowsie, woo-woo!"). Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty, and Mr. Slate return, but Dino The Dinasour is noticeably absent. He is replaced here by Bamm-Bamm's pet Snoots and Pebbles' pet elephant Wooley, who, in one episode, flies exactly like Disney's Dumbo.
Watching this series again after SO MANY years, I realized that "Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm" plots are basically recycled from "I Love Lucy." It is basically bedlam in Bedrock when Pebbles gets ideas in her head. But Pebbles is enthusiastic, energetic, and good-hearted. She's not scatterbrained like Lucy is, but Bamm-Bamm humorously and truthfully says, "You've got rocks in your head, Pebbles...when Pebbles makes up her mind, it's a state of mind over matter. Pebbles makes up her mind and NOTHING else matters." My most vivid memory of the series is actually the series' BEST episode. In "The Golden Voice," Pebbles discovers that Bamm-Bamm has a beautiful singing voice when he's in the shower. For this episode, he repeatedly sings the phrase, "Don't rock now, because our love has grown stone cold." Outside of the shower, his singing is terrible. Pebbles takes him to see Madame Fortismo, who turns him into a vocal freak sensation. In other memorable episodes, Pebbles gets involved in football and baseball; although she knows absolutely nothing about either sport, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm become Grand Prix race car drivers in order to retrieve a special fuel for Fred and Barney, and chaos reigns when Pebbles becomes honorary mayor of Bedrock for one week.
I also seem to recall a TV Special when Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm got married and had a baby of their own. That would make Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty grandparents! I don't need to go into that. I hope you love and enjoy "The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show" as much as I do!