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It is time to take one final trip to Bedrock. Warner Home Video has recently released the DVD set of all the Flintstones episodes from the sixth and final season of the original series. The Flintstones and Rubbles would live on in reruns and in several Saturday morning spin-offs but this was the last season of the show that aired in primetime. As most Flintstones fans can tell you, the series started losing steam around Season 4 and by the time Season 6 rolled around the writers really seemed to be running low on new ideas to keep the show fresh. Many of these Season 6 episodes were relying on far too many gimmicks and pop culture references in an attempt to appeal to the now younger core audience that the show had. This, of course, is the season that added the Great Gazoo, the little green spaceman that was only visible to Fred and Barney.

Even though these episodes are weaker compared to the earlier seasons, folks who grew up with the Flintstones and the Rubbles either during the original primetime run or on local or cable stations in syndication will find gems that surely stand out among their memories of the show.

Among the highlights:

• The Great Gazoo creating "nothing" doubles of Fred and Barney that can only say "Yes. Yes. Yes" and "No. No. No" in "Seeing Doubles".

• A crossover episode where Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York guest starred as their Bewitched television series characters Samantha and Darren Stevens in "Samantha" (Bewitched, which Hanna-Barbera had animated the famous opening titles for, was also airing on ABC at the time).

• There's also the show that has Fred waking up twenty years in the future to see how Bedrock would have turned out without him in "Rip Van Flintstone" (the Great Gazoo also zaps the stone-age families into a Jetsons-style future in "The Long, Long Weekend").

• Fred trying his hand at the pie baking business with humorous results in "The Gravelberry Pie King".

These are among the admittedly few true stand out episodes during this final season. Sadly, the constant riffing on 1960s pop culture has made many of these episodes rather dated. Fads in popular music were regular topics of parody (including "Shinrock-a-Go-Go" where Fred invents a new dance, The Frantic, by dropping a bowling bowl on his foot; "The Masquerade Party" featuring the fictional rock group the Way-Outs; and "No Biz Like Show Biz" where Pebbles and Bamm Bamm become music stars in a dream sequence). Movies and television shows, while always spoofed in stone-age fashion throughout the run of the series, seem much more prominent than they had in the past. On top that , the animation and writing simply just can't compare with the earlier seasons. Even the final episode of the series, "The Story of Rocky's Raiders", ends the show's six year run on a rather weak note. Yet there is still an undeniable nostalgic appeal to the show and the always amazing vocal talents of Mel Blanc, Alan Reed, and Jean Vander Pyl (along with Harvey Korman as Gazoo) are as enjoyable as ever.

The picture and sound quality is quite good throughout the set and is pretty much consistent with the previous DVD sets (which isn't surprising since they all seem to use the same copies that Boomerang airs). The extras are a little on the skimpy side but they are both worth checking out. First, actor Stephen Baldwin (who played Barney in the live-action Viva Rock Vegas film) takes a look at how pop culture influenced the series (many of the examples I cited above are covered in this short feature). Also on hand are Sal Valentino (lead singer of the Beau Brummels who were featured in Season 6's "Shinrock A-Go-Go"), animation writer and historian Earl Kress, and music historian and producer Alec Palao. Earl Kress returns to host "The Great Gazoo: From A to Zetox" which reveals some interesting facts about the Gazoo character including some original names that were under consideration. Kress also discusses writer Joanna Lee. Sadly, Harvey Korman was unavailable to participate in the piece. Both are fairly informative and a step above the useless fluff "extras" that have shown up on some other Hanna-Barbera DVD sets. A few more bonus commercials or commentary tracks, which were among my favorite extras on previous collections, would have been nice as well. Rounding out the extras are a batch of Warner Home Video trailers and, oddly, included among them is a trailer for... The Flintstones: The Complete Sixth Season (did someone think we needed an ad to convince us to buy a DVD set we are already watching?)

Stephen Baldwin and Earl Kress in "The Flintstones in Pop Culture" Bonus Feature.

Alec Palao and the Beau Brummels' Sal Valentino as they appear in the bonus feature.

How much you want to buy this set probably depends on how much you want to own the entire run of the Flintstones on DVD. I am sure Hanna-Barbera and Flintstone enthusiasts already have this on their wishlists. I have to admit, it is rather nice having all of the original episodes on the shelf and ready to view at any time. These shows also make fine viewing for the entire family to sit down and enjoy together (which, in this day and age, is hard to come by). However, for the more casual fans I'd recommend sticking with the earlier seasons (especially Seasons 1 and 2) to see the show at its best.

In the end, I still have to give the folks at Warner Home Video praise for releasing the entire original run of the show to DVD and giving our favorite Bedrock residents their most comprehensive video release ever. It certainly has been fun collecting and watching these shows again.

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