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The Flintstones is truly a television classic that needs no introduction. Chronicling the stone-age misadventures of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Barney and Betty Rubble and the other assorted residents of the town of Bedrock, the show lasted an impressive six seasons and 166 episodes. It also broke new ground by being television's very first primetime animated series. Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera may have borrowed the basic idea from Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners, but they still managed to make it their own with a cast of memorable and funny characters, clever scripts, and an endless supply of prehistoric puns and sight gags. The show became a huge hit with audiences of all ages and has held up to countless repeats in syndication ever since the show ceased production in 1966.

While the show's entire run has already been issued as individual season sets, Warner Home Video has now released a "Complete Series" collector's set just in time for Christmas. This massive 24-disc set comes cleverly packaged in a plastic case made to resemble the Flintstone family's television set (not sure why it's orange, though). A holographic image on the case's "TV screen" recreates that iconic moment of the end credits where Fred orders up a massive rack of ribs that causes the family car to flip on its side. Once opened, there are two "books" each containing 12 discs inside the case. Each disc is tucked (very tightly) in a "sleeve" of the cardboard book. A word of warning --- be very careful trying to remove the discs from their sleeves... they don't come out very easily, making them easy to get scratched or fingerprints on. It's even harder to remove the handful of double-sided discs. A few of the discs in the set I recieved already had slight scratches on them. If you are picky about such things, you will want to just purchase the regular season sets instead of this. It doesn't cost that much more than this "complete" package and will take up less shelf space.

The discs themselves are all identical to those found in the previously released season sets. Besides the collectible packaging, nothing new has been added to this "Complete Series" edition. So if you already own the entire run of the show, you won't be missing anything here. On the other hand, if you haven't already picked up any previous Flintstones sets and have been meaning to, this is a quick and easy way to get your hands on everything.

In addition to all 166 original episodes (all uncut and looking excellent), the DVDs offer up an excellent assortment of bonus features ranging from featurettes, vintage commercials, and audio commentaries, to the show's brief and rarely seen pilot episode (when the show was originally going to be titled "The Flagstones"). Needless to say, Flintstone fans will be in heaven.

It's great that you can easily watch the show's entire run chronologically to see how it evolved through the years. The funny, but still rough-around-the-edges, episodes of the first season lead to a very solid and entertaining Season 2. Season 3's big story arc leads to the birth of Fred and Wilma's daughter, Pebbles. Season 4 introduces the Rubbles' super-strong adopted son, Bamm-Bamm. As things start to wind down, we see the show's writers adding more "gimmicky" and fad-inspired episodes and characters to the mix. Aimed towards a younger audience, these final seasons introduce the Addams Family-esque "Gruesomes" (Season 5) and the wish-granting spaceman, the Great Gazoo (Season 6).

Overall, this is a fun trip to the past filled with a lot of great episodes and memories. If you don't think you'll have any qualms with the packaging (and don't think owning it is Flintstone-overload), go ahead and pick up a copy. It's not just a page right out of history --- it's an entire library.

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