The following was contributed by Brendan S.
The original Flintstones TV series, enjoyable as it’s always been, was rife with a number of inconsistencies- Fred’s car seating anywhere from two people to both his family and the Rubbles, the five distinctly different designs for supporting character Joe Rockhead, whether Wilma’s maiden name was “Pebble” or “Slaghoople” and so on- but they were small potatoes compared to what would follow in the subsequent spinoffs that managed to throw everything out of whack: pretty much trashing the continuity of its flagship program in the process! (The Frankenstone/Shmoo episodes immediately come to mind.)
How is it that a teenage Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm were members of a band that played early ’70s ‘bubblegum’ music, while pre-adolescent versions ‘kiddie’ versions of Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty (their parents, mind you!) could have fun with such ’80s pastimes as Walkmans & personal computers? Equally ludicrous- Dino as a puppy and making the future Mr. Slate the same age as Fred and the gang!
Okay, they were following the ever-changing trends of Saturday morning television respectively aping both The Archie Show and Muppet Babies, but the whole Flintstones aging and de-aging thing continues to this very day!
Now, granted, there were two episodes from the old show in which Fred dreamed he was an elderly codger and they worked. Adding to the confusion, however, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were adult newlyweds in a pair of ’90s tv specials. On the current Post Cereal commercials, they’re infants again! (The Pebbles ads, at least, being a little closer in spirit to vintage Flintstones in that many of that show’s obscure supporting characters occasionally turn up!)
Could that alien being the Great Gazoo have possibly thrown the entire Bedrock universe off-kilter with his magic out of revenge for being stranded in the Stone Age? It’s certainly a much more believable explanation for all these latter-day discrepancies, wouldn’t you say?
The following was contributed by Brian B.
Why does Fred wear a tie? He works for a construction company, he drives the bulldozer. I don’t know any construction workers that wear ties. Perhaps if Fred was a foreman or a supervisor (foremen are usually covered with dirt hence no tie, but I’m giving the benefit of the doubt here) perhaps then he might have use for a tie. As near as I can figure, it was because Ralph Cramden wore a tie. Ralph drove a bus, not a bulldozer. If Ralph was going to dig dirt all day I doubt he’d wear a tie. Perhaps Wilma made him wear it, maybe she thought it looked sexy. But when he came home from work he was probably covered with dirt, and probably bathed immediately (I hope). So then he would have had a chance to change into something sexy for Wilma.
Tags: tie, Ralph Cramden, Pebbles, Slaghoople
May 29, 2008 at 4:11 pm
While I was running production at H-B we heatedly discussed this very subject endlessly - well, at least once. We were rather late to the property (early 90’s), and we were in the midst of adapting early-Victorian Dickens to Bedrock, so we just put it down to Joe B’s desire to sell the spin-offs: if the network folk wanted of-the-moment music, in reverse anachronistic order, who was Joe to tell them No.
As for the age differences in Flintstone Kids, don’t you know that all the characters in a series have been children of the same age at the same moment in the past-perfect tense - a timeless law of cartoons; cf. Tiny Toons, post-Jones WB, Muppet Babies (albeit the adult Muppets were live action, so MB were actually a cross-species spawn mid-wifed by Jim Henson, Jeff Scott, Bob Richardson, and Hank Saroyan), A Pup Named Scooby, et alia.
All in all, this post was far too thoughtful and serious for the blog - it approaches the level of complexity best left to the academics who ignore the site.
May 30, 2008 at 6:38 pm
As much as I agree with you, Buzz, but you may be thinking of “Baby Looney Tunes” when you mentioned Tiny Toons. “Baby Looney Tunes” had the classic WB characters as babies, while Tiny Toons had the classics at their normal ages, but starring entirely new, younger characters emulating their older counterparts.
I notice that the Great Gazoo is mentioned, and I’m saddened by the news that his voice actor, Harvey Korman, just passed away.
June 2, 2008 at 11:13 am
Galileo - mea culpa, you’re right. Thanks for the correction.
July 19, 2008 at 3:08 am
vintage adult babies…
How do you come up with so much material to blog with?…