The Flintstones - Season 1
The Flintstones DVDs
Buy now!Editorial Review:
Product Description:
The Flintstones was pitched to the network as an animated version of
Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. Now the honeymoon never has to
end with this 4-disc set of the 28 episodes of the entire (pre)historic
first season full of terrific extras and trivia that will make fans
shout "Yabba dabba doo!"Running Time: 737 min.Format: DVD MOVIE
Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 014764227320
Amazon.com:
Meet The Flintstones in this prehistoric Hanna-Barbera production.
Primetime's first animated series was also the longest running until
The Simpsons came along. Not so coincidentally, the two shows aren't
all that different--even if the former emerged in the sixties, the
latter in the eighties. Fred (Alan Reed), patriarch of the
cave-dwelling clan, may be marginally more intelligent than the
similarly blue collar Homer, but most storylines still revolve
around his more dunderheaded moves. Fortunately, wife Wilma (Jean
Vander Pyl) and Barney (Mel Blanc) and Betty Rubble (Bea Benaderet),
their neighbors, are usually able to set things right. That was also
true for Ralph Cramden of The Honeymooners, a direct influence (Reed
even sounds like Jackie Gleason). But Ralph didn't have a pet
dinosaur and he did live in the Modern Age--if you can call the
fifties "modern"--rather than the Stone Age.
This long-awaited DVD set includes all 28 episodes of the first
season, including the lost Flagstones pilot. Notable segments
include "Hot Lips Hannigan"--one of several riffs on beatnik
culture--in which Fred, aka "The Velvet Smog," sings and Barney
beats the traps and "The Creature From the Tar Pits," in which Fred
fills in as Gary Granite's stunt double in a Bedrock-set horror
flick.
The Flintstones's first season introduced two timeless couples from
another time. Its success led to a theatrical release, two
live-action features, and countless specials and spin-offs. New
viewers may be surprised to find that Dino doesn't make his official
entrance until episode 18 ("The Snorkasaurus Story"), that Pebbles
and Bamm-Bamm aren't in the first season at all, and that the famous
theme won't hit the airwaves until the third (replacing instrumental
"Rise and Shine"). Those quirky quotes, however, were in effect from
the start: "Wiiilmaaaaaaa!," "Droll, very droll" and, especially, "Yabba-dabba-doo!!!"
--Kathleen C. Fennessy
