The Flintstones: The Complete 4th Season
The Last Pleasant Trip to Bedrock
DVD Review by Mike Thompson (mthomp86 at yahoo.com)
I'm just going to come right out and say it: the best seasons of The Flintstones were the first two. The show had been created as basically an animated version of The Honeymooners, with Fred, the somewhat boorish, overweight husband; Wilma, the long-suffering wife who put up with the brute but always had the satisfaction of knowing she was right in the end; and their next-door neighbors, Barney and Betty Rubble. It was in these initial seasons (particularly the first) that the show worked best. In the third season, a baby was introduced, the formula of the show changed, and things started to go downhill. In the fourth season, things further went downhill, as the Rubbles got a baby of their own. It's only on rare occasions does a show actually improve when it departs from the original formula that made it a success in the first place. Unfortunately, The Flintstones is no exception to the rule.Still, while not as good as it had been, The Flintstones was still enjoyable in its fourth season. And that, combined with some nice bonus features that are included in the set, is why I recommend Warner Home Video's DVD release of The Flintsones: The Complete Fourth Season. Barney and Betty get their own son, an adoptee named Bamm-Bamm, and while I'm not a huge fan of the character (more on that later), he did lead to some pleasant stories with the Flintstones and the Rubbles dealing with family life. That's why Season Four is the last good season of The Flintstones. The writers seemed to have run out of ideas relatively quickly, and Seasons Five and Six are burdened with stupid science-fiction and monster stories, spy parodies, and the horrid creation of The Great Gazoo.
You can see the beginnings of all this in Season Four; take (or better yet, don't) "Ten Little Flintstones" or "Son of Rockzilla" as examples. But, by and large, the season is dominated by pleasant stories like "Room for Two," which features a return of the always welcome Fred-Barney feud. (This episode also shows that, while the writing wasn't quite as good in Season Four as it had been in previous seasons, there are still gems to be found, such as Fred's line, "Barney's my best pal, and best pals do what they're told. That's what friends are for.")
In addition to this being the last really watchable season of The Flintstones, it's also the last one to feature Bea Benaderet as Betty. This season of The Flintstones, the 1963-64 season, was also the first season of Petticoat Junction, a live-action sitcom that aired on rival network CBS (The Flintstones aired on ABC) and starred Bea. During this season, Bea did double-duty, starring on Petticoat Junction as she continued to voice Betty (although it should be noted that, due to the lengthy production time of an animated television show, all episodes of this season of The Flintstones had been recorded before Petticoat Junction even debuted). Starting with Season Five of The Flintstones, though, Gerry Johnson voiced Betty, while Bea continued on with Petticoat Junction. Now, I've long suspected Bea gave up the role so that she could focus all her attention on Petticoat Junction. She was, after all, the star of that show, and it no doubt required a lot of her time. Unfortunately, all of the original cast members on the show are now dead, and Joe Barbera isn't returning my phone calls (of course, it would help if I actually made those phone calls), so why she really left The Flintstones I might never know for sure. But one thing I do know for sure: her presence was definitely missed on the show.
For this collection, Warner Home Video has really put together a pretty nice DVD package. The prints of the episodes are very nice-looking, although they don't seem like they were created for this set; rather, they seem like the prints mastered in the 1990s for airing on Cartoon Network. The appearance of the now-obsolete "Hanna-Barbera: A Turner Company" logo at the end of each episode is a dead giveaway.
There are commentary tracks on two of the episodes, and on both shows commentary is provided by Hanna-Barbera historian Earl Kress and a pair of veteran animation writers, Paul Dini and Mark Evanier. The trio provide commentary for two of the more notable episodes of the season -- the season premiere, "Ann-Margrock Presents," and Bamm-Bamm's first episode, fittingly titled "Little Bamm-Bamm" -- and it's obvious from the commentaries that all three are serious fans of the show. But, while they're fans, they're unafraid to point out some of the flaws that exist in the episodes, such as Ann-Margrock's agent growing and shrinking in size over the course of the Ann-Margrock Presents episode.
Kress, Dini and Evanier are also full of interesting bits of information about the episodes. Included among these is the very interesting bit of trivia that the famous Gene Kelly-and-Jerry the mouse dance sequence from the movie Anchors Away was originally planned to be with Gene Kelly and Mickey Mouse. But Walt Disney told George Sidney, the director of Anchors Aweigh, that he was just too busy and instead suggested that Sidney use the animation department over at MGM (the studio that was making Anchors Aweigh). He did, and that was how Jerry got into Anchors Away.
Most importantly, Kress, Dini and Evanier never talk down to the listeners; they treat them all as the adults that they probably are (sorry, but I just can't picture many 8 year-olds wanting to listen to commentary tracks). And while they are insightful, they're never dull. Anyone who's listened to the put-you-to-sleep Michael Barrier commentary tracks on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVDs knows what I'm talking about. Overall, the commentary tracks are a joy to listen to, with the only real complaint being that there are only tracks on two of the episodes. Come on, Warner Home Video! There were 26 episodes of The Flintstones this season. I think you could have included commentaries for another episode or two.
There are two other featurettes included, which are nice, but brief. The first is a making-of type featurette, while the other is devoted to Hoyt Curtin, Hanna-Barbera's musical director. The making-of talks about the history of the show and how the creators tried to keep it fresh for the fourth season, while the Hoyt Curtin one offers heaps of praise on Curtin from various different people. Both featurettes are somewhat interesting, but not all that memorable. The Curtin one is the better of the two, though.
The other remaining "extras" on the collection aren't really extras at all, but rather are trailers for other Warner Home Video DVDs. These include the Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound sets, as well as trailers for Tom & Jerry Spotlight Collection Vol. 2, Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 3 and Looney Tunes Movie Collection. There's also a trailer for the new straight-to-DVD movie Scooby Doo: Where's My Mummy? As you might expect, the movie looks terrible.
Are there flaws in this DVD set? Sure, but they're relatively minor. There are no chapter breaks at all in the episodes, not even after the opening sequence. If you hit the "go-to-the-next-scene" button on your DVD player, you go to the next episode on the disc. It's somewhat frustrating; if you have to stop an episode in the middle, you have to manually fast-forward through the episode until you find the spot where you left off. Another flaw, that's more curious than annoying: For some reason, the "Daddies Anonymous" episode ends with credits taken from a Season Six episode. The other episodes have their correct end credits, though, so this was just a simple mistake. Still, rather curious.
Before I wrap up this review, I should keep my promise and expand more on my beef with Bamm-Bamm. Now, the episode in which he's introduced is actually a really good installment. There's some fairly adult stuff here that you don't often find in The Flintstones. A wealthy family (called the Stoneyfellers, to play on the Rockefellers, get it?) decided to adopt Bamm-Bamm, even though the Rubbles were the first ones to find him, right on thier doorstep. Wilma encourages Betty to go to court over Bamm-Bamm, saying, "I think you should get a lawyer and fight this, Betty." But Betty laments her situation: "How can we fight the rich Stoneyfellers?" Sure enough, they lose the case, and Barney is so distraught he nearly commits suicide. In the end, the Rockefellers give the baby back, of course (the wife gets pregnant, so the husband decides he'd rather have his own flesh-and-blood than an adopted kid), and the Rubbles get to keep Bamm-Bamm.
So, it's a good episode. But not a good character. Bamm-Bamm is just kind of a one-note gimmick. He has superhuman strength, and uses it for niceness instead of evil (helping to patch up a quarrel between Fred and Barney, for instance, in the "Room for Two" episode), but his shtick gets old fast. The fact that the Rubbles were given not really a baby but a gimmick shows that the writers were already running out of ideas (heck, the fact that another baby was introduced so recently after Pebbles came on board suggests the well was running dry). The gimmicks continued in Season Five, when the Rubbles get a pet of their own, but wait, this one's not just a pet dinosaur like dino, he's a kangaroo! And then, of course, Season Six brings the cruellest gimmick of all, the aforementioned Great Gazoo.
But, for the most part, the good outweighs the bad when it comes to The Flintstones: The Complete Fourth Season. The episodes are well-done, for the most part, and the commentary tracks are very rewarding. Like I said, you just wish there were more of them. Still, the four-disc DVD set is really not a bad purchase.
