Colegiul National Mihai Eminescu Elev: Lupu Elena Catalina cls. XII-a A Profesor coord. : Constanta Harseu.

o o o o o o o o

0. Introduction 1. Characters 1.1 The Flintstones 1.2 The Rubbles 1.3 Other characters 2. The Flintstones family 3. Overview 3.1 Technology

o o o o o o o

3.2 Stone-age names 4. Episodes 5. Music 6. Production history 7. Theme parks 8. Popular culture 9. Biography

 The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. The show celebrated its 50th anniversary on September 30, 2010.

 1.1 The Flintstones Fred Flintstone - The main character. Fred is an accident-prone
quarry worker and head of the Flintstone clan. He is quick to anger (usually over inconsequential matters), but is a very loving husband and father. Wilma Flintstone - Fred's wife. She is more intelligent and levelheaded than her husband, though she often has a habit of spending money.

 Pebbles Flintstone - The Flintstones' infant daughter, who is born near the end of the third season. Dino - The Flintstones' pet dinosaur, who barks and generally acts like a dog. A running gag in the series involves Dino knocking down Fred out of excitement and licking him repeatedly. Baby Puss - The Flintstones' pet saber-toothed cat, who is rarely seen in the actual series, but is always seen throwing Fred out of the house during the end credits, causing Fred to pound repeatedly on the front door and yell "Wilma! Doozy - The Flintstones' pet dodo bird.

 1.2 The Rubbles

Barney Rubble - The secondary main character. Fred's best friend and next door neighbor. He and Fred are both members of the fictional "Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes" (Lodge No. 26), a men-only club paralleling real-life fraternities such as the Loyal Order of Moose. Betty Rubble - Barney's wife and best friend of Wilma. Bamm-Bamm Rubble - The Rubbles' abnormally strong adopted son; his name comes from the only phrase he ever spoke as a baby: "Bamm, Bamm! Hoppy - The Rubbles' pet Hopparoo (a kangaroo/dinosaur combination creature).

 1.3 Other Characters

Arnold - The Flintstones' paper boy. Joe Rockhead - A friend of Fred's and Barney's. Mr. Slate - Fred's hot tempered boss at the stone quarry. Pearl ( Pebble ) Slaghoople - Wilma's mother, who is constantly disapproving of Fred and his behavior. The Great Gazoo - An alien exiled to Earth who helps Fred and Barney, often against their will. Over 100 other characters : These include Cary Granite, Ann Margrock, Perry Masonry, etc.

Ed Flintstone

Edna Flintstone

Ricky Slaghoople

Pearl Slaghoople

Zeke Flintstone

Fred Flintstone

Wilma Flintstone

Barney Rubble

Betty Rubble

Pebbles Flintstone

Bamm-Bamm Rubble

Roxy Rubble

Chip Rubble

 The show is set in the Stone Age town of Bedrock (in some of the earlier episodes, it was also referred to as "Rockville"). In this fantasy version of the past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, wooly mammoths , and other long-extinct animals coexist with barefoot cavemen. Like their 20thcentury peers, these cavemen listen to records, live in split-level homes, and eat out at restaurants, yet their technology is made entirely from preindustrial materials and largely powered through the use of various animals. For example, the cars are made out of stone, wood, and animal skins, and powered by the passengers' feet.

 Often the "prehistoric" analogue to a modern machine uses an animal. For example, when a character takes photographs with an instant camera, inside of the camera box, a bird carves the picture on a stone tablet with its bill. In a running gag, the animal powering such technology would frequently break the fourth wall, look directly into the camera at the audience, shrug, and remark, "It's a living", or some variant thereof. Other commonly seen gadgets in the series include a baby woolly mammoth used as a vacuum cleaner; an adult woolly mammoth acting as a shower by spraying water with its trunk; elevators raised and lowered by ropes around brontosauruses' necks; "automatic" windows powered by monkeys on the outside; birds acting as "car horns," sounded by the driver pulling on their tails or squeezing their bodies; an "electric" razor made from a clam shell, vibrating from a honey-bee inside; a washing machine shown by a pelican with a boatful of soapy water; and a woodpecker whose beak is used to play a gramophone record. In most cases, "The Man of a Thousand Voices," Mel Blanc, contributed the animals' gag lines, often lowering his voice one to two full octaves, far below the range he used to voice the character of Barney Rubble. In the case of the Flintstones' cuckoo clocks, which varied from mechanical toys to live birds announcing the time, when the hour approached 12:00, the bird inside the clock "cuckooing" usually just ran out of steam and gave up vocally, physically, or both. It was a running gag that appeared in nearly every episode.

3.1
Technology

Lawn Mower

3.1 Technology

The TV

The telephone.

3.1 Technology

3.1 Technology

The

Vechicle

The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and word plays involving rocks and minerals. For example, San Antoni becomes "Sand-and-Stony-o"; the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called "Mexirock." Travel to "Hollyrock," a parody of Hollywood, usually involves an "airplane" flight the "plane," in this case, is often shown as a giant pterosaur. The last names "Flintstone" and "Rubble", as well as other common Bedrock surnames such as Shale" and Quartz", are in line with these puns. So are the names of Bedrock's celebrities: "Cary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/ Hudstone" (Rock Hudsone), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margaret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonary/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels). Once, while visiting one of Bedrock's houses of Haute Couture" with Wilma, Betty even commented on the new "Jackie Kennerock (Jacqueline Kennedy Onnasis) look". In some cases, the celebrity featured also provided the voice: "Samantha" and "Darrin" from Bewitched were voiced by Elizabeth montogomery and Dick York. Examples from the above list include Ann-Margret, Curtis, Darren, and the Beau Brummels. Other celebrities, such as "Ed Sulleystone" and "Alvin Brickrock," were rendered by impersonators. Some of Bedrock's sports heroes include: football player "Red Granite" (Red Grange), wrestler "Bronto Crushrock" (Bronko Nagurski), golfer "Arnold Palmrock" (Arnold Palmer), boxers "Floyd Patterstone" (Floyd Patterson) and "Sonny Listone" (Sonny Liston), and baseball players "Sandy Stoneaxe" (Sandy Koufax), "Lindy McShale" (Lindy McDaniel), "Roger Marble" (Roger Maris) and "Mickey Marble" or "Mickey Mantlepiece" (mickey Mantle). Ace reporter "Daisy Kilgranite" (Dorothy Kilgallen) was a friend of Wilma's.

 Season 1 :
1. The Flintstone Flyer 2. Hot Lips Hannigan 3. The Swimming Pool 4. No Help Wanted 5. The Split Personality 6. The Monster from the Tar Pits 7. The Babysitters 8. At the Races 9. The Engagement Ring 10. Hollyrock, Here I Come 11. The Golf Champion 12. The Sweepstakes Ticket 13. The Drive-in 14. The Prowler 15. The Girls Night Out

16. Arthur Quarry's Dance Class 17. The Big Bank Robbery 18. The Snorkasaurus Hunter 19. The Hot Piano 20. The Hypnotist 21. Love Letters on the Rocks 22. The Tycoon 23. The Astra' Nuts 24. The Long, Long Weekend 25. In the Dough 26. The Good Scout 27. Rooms for Rent 28. Fred Flintstone: Before and After

 Season 2 :

1. The Hit Songwrite 2. Droop-Along Flintstone 3. The Missing Bus 4. Alvin Brickrock Presents 5. Fred Flintstone Woos Again 6. The Rock Quarry Story 7. The Soft Touchables

11. The Beauty Contest 12. The Masquerade Ball 13. The Picnic 14. The House Guests 15. The X-Ray Story 16. The Gambler 17. A Star is Almost Born 18. The Entertainer 19. Wilma's Vanishing Money 8. Flintstone of Prinstone 20. Feudin' and Fussin 9. The Little White Lie 21. Impractical Joker 10. Social Climbers

22. Operation: Barney 23. The Happy Household 24. Fred Strikes Out 25. This is Your Lifesaver 26. Trouble-in-Law 27. The Mailman Cometh 28. The Rock Vegas Story 29. Divided We Sail 30. Kleptomaniac Caper 31. Latin Lover 32. Take Me Out to the Ball Game

 Season 3 : http://www.peteava.ro/canal1504/filtrare/categorie/3220 Season 4 : http://www.peteava.ro/canal1504/filtrare/categorie/3221

Season 5 : http://www.peteava.ro/canal1504/filtrare/categorie/3222
Season 6 : http://www.peteava.ro/canal1504/filtrare/categorie/3223

 The opening and closing credits theme during the first two seasons was called "Rise and Shine", a lively instrumental underscore accompanying Fred on his drive home from work. The tune resembled "The Bugs Bunny Overture (This Is It!)," the theme song of The Bugs Bunny Show, also airing on ABC at the time, and may have been the reason the theme was changed in the third season. Starting in Season 3, Episode 3 ("Barney the Invisible"), the opening and closing credits theme was the familiar vocal, "Meet the Flintstones".The "Meet the Flintstones" opening was later added to the first two seasons for syndication. The musical underscores were credited to Hoyt Curtin for the show's first five seasons; Ted Nichols took over in 1965 for the final season. During the show's final season, performed by Pebbles and BammBamm, in a clip from that season's first episode, was used as alternate close music.

Before settleing on the stone-age Barbera and Hanna experiented with hillbilies, Ancient Rome, Pilgrims, and American Indians as the settings for the two families. Originally, the series was to have been titled The Flagstones, and a brief demonstration film was created to sell the idea of a "modern stone age family" to sponsors and the network. When the series itself was commissioned, the title was changed, possibly to avoid confusion with the Flagstons, characters in the comic strip Hi and Lois. After spending a brief period in development as The Gladstones (Gladstone being a Los Angeles telephone exchange at the time), Hanna-Barbera settled upon The Flintstones. Aside from the animation and fantasy setting, the show's scripts and format are typical of 1950s and 1960s American situation comedies, with the usual family issues resolved with a laugh at the end of each episode, as well as the inclusion of a laugh track. Although most Flintstones episodes are stand-alone storylines, the series did have a few story arcs. The most notable example was a series of episodes surrounding the birth of Pebbles. Beginning with the episode "The Surprise", aired midway through the third season ,in which Wilma reveals her pregnancy to Fred, the arc continued through the trials and tribulations leading up to Pebbles' birth in the episode "Dress Rehearsal , and then continued with several episodes showing Fred and Wilma adjusting to the world of parenthood. In Australia, the Nine Network ran a "Name the Flintstones' baby" competition during the 'pregnancy' episodes few Australian viewers were considered sophisticated enough to have a USA connection giving them information about past 'Flintstone' shows. A postscript to the arc occurred in the third episode of the fourth season, in which the Rubbles, depressed over being unable to have children of their own (making The Flintstones the first animated series in history to address the issue of infertility, though subtly), adopt Bamm-Bamm. The 100th episode made (but the 90th to air), Little Bamm-Bamm ,established how Bamm-Bamm was adopted. About nine episodes were made before it, but shown after, which explains why Bamm-Bamm would not be seen again until episode 101, Daddies Anonymous (Bamm-Bamm was in a teaser on episode 98, Kleptomaniac Pebbles). Another story arc, occurring in the final season, centered on Fred and Barney's dealings with The Great Gazoo . Fred and Wilma advertising Winston Cigarettes during the closing credits.

The series was initially aimed at adult audiences, which was reflected in the comedy writing, which, as noted, resembled the average primetime sitcoms of the era. Hanna and Barbera hired many writers from the world of live-action while still using traditional animation story men .The first two seasons were co-sponsored by Winston cigarettes and the characters appeared in several black and white television commercials for Winston (dictated by the custom, at that time, that the star{s} of a TV series often "pitched" their sponsor's product in an "integrated commercial" at the end of the episode). During the third season (the season in which Pebbles was born), Welchs (grape juice and grape jellies) became the primary sponsor, and the overall tone and writing of the series became more family friendly. Integrated commercials for Welch's products feature Pebbles asking for grape juice in her toddler dialect, and Fred explaining to Pebbles Welch's unique process for making the jelly, compared to the competition. Best Foods, makers of Skippy peanut butter, was the alternate sponsor. The Flintstones was the first American animated show to depict two people of the opposite sex (Fred and Wilma; Barney and Betty) sleeping together in one bed, although Fred and Wilma are sometimes depicted as sleeping in separate beds. For comparison, the first live-action depiction of this in American TV history was in television's first-ever sitcom: 1947's Mary Kay and Johnny. The show contained a laugh track, common to most other sitcoms of the period. In the mid1990s, when Turner Networks remastered the episodes, the original laugh track was removed. Currently, the shows airing on Boomerang and the DVD releases have the original laugh track restored to most episodes (a number of episodes from Seasons 1 and 2 still lack them). Some episodes, however, have a newer laugh track dubbed in, apparently replacing the old one. Because of this practice, the only episode to originally air without a laugh track ("Sheriff For a Day" in 1965) now has one. The Flintstones also became the first primetime animated series to last more than two seasons; this record wasn't surpassed by another primetime animated TV series until the third season of The Simpsons in 1992.

 At least two Flintstones-themed amusement parks exist in the United States, one in Custer, South Dakota and another in Valle, Arizona. Both have been in operation for decades. One previously existed in Australia and in Canada at Australia's Wonderland & Canada's Wonderland as a Hanna Barbara theme, dominated by small children's rides, from 1985 up until the late '90s. Another existed until the 1990s at Carowinds in Charlotte, NC. In Canada, Flintstone Park in Kelowna , British Columbia opened in 1968 and closed in 1998; notable for the "Forty Foot Fred" statue of Fred Flintstone which was a well known Kelowna landmark. Another Flintstones park was located in Bridal Falls, British Columbia which closed in 1990. Calaway park outside Calgary, Canada, also opened with a Flintstones theme and many of the buildings today have a caveman-like design, though the park does not currently license the characters.

As noted above, for the first two seasons, the series had strong ties to a sponsor, Winston cigarettes, with the characters shown smoking the product during commercial breaks. This approach was not unusual for television at that time, either with tobacco or any other product. In one memorable advertisement, Fred and Barney relaxed while their wives did housework, smoking Winstons and reciting Winston's jingle, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!. In 1962, Winston pulled their sponsorship from the show when Wilma became pregnant ; beginning in the fall of 1963, the main sponsor was Welch's Grape Juice. By no small coincidence, Pebbles' favorite drink was Grape Juice. Welch's advertised their product with animated commercials featuring the cartoon cast and they were often pictured in print ads and on grape juice containers. In the actual scenes of a few episodes, Pebbles is given grape juice as a treat, although, in those scenes, Welch's is not mentioned by name. Miles Laboratories (now part of Bayer Corporation) and their One-A-Day vitamin brand was the alternate sponsor of the original Flintstones series during its first two seasons, and in the late 1960s, Miles introduced Flintstones Chewable Vitamins, fruit flavored multivitamin tablets for children in the shape of the Flintstones characters, which are sold to this day.

 The characters from the series were used in a 1966 industrial film designed to promote the 1967 beer advertising campaign for Anheuser-Busch's Busch Beer. This film was released to the Anheuser-Busch distributors, and it was not seen by the general public until years later when bootleg copies began to circulate. In 1982 satirist Tom Chalkley, using the alias "Bruce Springstone", did a parody of the intro theme titled 'Bedrock Rap/Meet The Flintstones'. The cover of the album listed "Live at Bedrock". Sounding like Bruce Springsteen, Tom did a talking intro describing himself as a kid 'flipping dino burgers' and watching a worker (Fred) 'coming home to his stone hut' at night shouting 'Wilma, I'm home honey. Wilma!', then launching into a Springsteen-esque version of the intro theme from the show, complete with saxophone solo at the end. In the 1985 documentary feature Bring on the Night, Sting and his band sing "Meet the Flintstones" during a recording session. In the animated feature, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs when Ellie jumps on a brontosaurus she exclaims, "Yabba-Dabba-Do". Manny later says, "Don't Yabba-Dabba-Do that again". Fred and Barney appeared in the MAD segment "2012 Dalmatians", as cavemen bones at the "Museum of Natural Mystery".

 http://wikipedia.com http://peteava.ro http://google.ro