Search - The Flintstones - The Complete Third Season on DVD

"It's true, folks! The Flintstones are having a baby!"

W. Langan | the end of the world to your town! | 01/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"At this writing, I couldn't tell you about the extra's included in this volume. However, as I recall, The Flintstones' 3rd season (1962-63) is perhaps their most transitional, as Fred (Alan Reed) and Wilma (Jean Vanderpyl) give birth to a little cavegirl named Pebbles (also voiced by Vanderpyl, she would make her debut towards the end of season 3 in Dress Rehearsal (aka The Blessed Event), at the end of the show; her 1st words are "Abba dabba goo goo!"). Many of the cartoons featured Wilma expecting, with the announcement of Wilma's pregnancy at the end of one particular episode appropriately entitled The Surprise (ironically, this episode had more to deal with Barney's nephew Marblehead, whom Fred grows to love, though he won't admit it! Listen for Marblehead's imitation of Uncle Barney's hiccupy laugh). Barney (Mel Blanc) and Betty (Bea Benederet) are the godparents. Also, the familiar theme "Meet the Flintstones" also makes it proper debut in this season (it was featured in background music in Seasons 1 and 2).

Highlights include a performance by Rock Roll, who looks and sings a little like Elvis ("There's a town I know where the hipsters go called Bedrock, twitch, twitch!"), Wilma and Betty enter a Rock Toasties contest and win a trip to Hawaii (Wilma saves Fred's life by punching out a ferocious dinosaur chasing him, "Beat it, buster!"), Barney plans a surprise birthday party for Fred and spends most of the episode trying to get a fast asleep Fred home to the party, Fred takes ballet lessons to improve his bowling, Barney saves a baby but Fred unintentionally takes the credit, Fred goes back to high school for his diploma in order to avoid termination from Mr. Slate and becomes a football hero ("Flintstone! Flintstone! Rah, rah, rah!"), Wilma rents the house to 3 Swedish musicians ("Duh, he is Olie, I am Schven!"), Barney becomes invisible thanks to one of Fred's wacky inventions, Fred tries hard to get along with his disagreeable mother-in-law during a visit ("I love my mudderinlaw!" he reminds himself, but gets his revenge by taking her on a long taxiride in disguise), Fred hires an Italian maid named Lolabrickida (who is an excellent cook and a lot nicer than Grandma Dynamite and the bossy nurse hired after Pebbles' birth, but has zero tolerance for bad singing!), Fred and Barney go skiing in the mountains and unwittingly prevent a jewelheist ("Psst! Slalom, Shorty, SLALOM!"), Barney reluctantly agrees to masquerade at Little Tex to impress Fred's rich Uncle Tex (voiced by Hal Smith, "Wahoooooo!"), Arnold the Paperboy cons Fred into paying more and later Wilma insists Fred see a quacky doctor and for Wilma's birthday, Fred buys her a dodo bird named Doosey, who snitches to Wilma and Betty about the boys' plans to go to a Water Buffalo convention in Frantic City without them ("Squawk! Frantic City, Frantic City, squawk, whistle!"). Also, Barney tricks Fred into thinking Pebbles can talk ("Do thum backfwips for me, Daddy, or I'll cwyyyy!") and the Flintstones move out of their humble abode to be near a crowd of rich snobs ("Everybody into the pyool!").

If you liked Seasons 1 and 2, save your money for this one! That'll be 2 rocks, please!"

ONE EDITED EPSIODE SPOILS IT ALL

MarkD | NJ | 05/17/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The first three discs were excellent with unedited episodes of the series. All were between 25 and 26 minutes long. Disc 4 starts out the same. Then I approach the third to last episode "THE BIG MOVE"..with the opening credits and NO PREVIEW footage the others have. Then I time the episode and its shy of 23 minutes. I then compare with a VHS tape taped with the first 5 minutes from a syndicated DFS print as it aired on broadcast TV in the 80's, TBS, etc, and the remaining was from Screen Gems prints which ran on Channel 5 WNEW TV (prior to 1988). 5 in New York ran older prints that they simply edited the first 4 minutes out of all the episodes. The edit I ran combined the first 5 minutes on 5 New York and the last 21 minutes from Channel 17 in Philadelphia.

I find about 2 to 3 minutes of footage is missing. The DVD shows Wilma making the statement "The Freeloaders are here" and the DVD skips the next part was when Fred was coming in from work and nieghbors were crowding Fred's home thinking he was a servant. Fred then proceeded to walk into his house looking for Wilma. Then the DVD picks up when Fred is waiting for dinner and Wilma says "You Have To Wait Your Turn".

Then after Fred was thrown in the Pool The DVD shows Fred coming home with very bad thoughts about the big move up in the world. It skips the scene where Fred was at The Gravelpit sulking about being thrown into the pool and then Barney showing up to visit him where Fred sort of apologizes to Barney for being rude to him the week before (which prompted the move)and this gives Fred thoughts that maybe he wants out of his new living situation.

Still I would have bought this DVD because I was anxious to have all the other episodes which were fine. But i am very unhappy about losing one episode. Thankfully I have the unedited print on VHS plus one taping off Cartoon network from 2001. But it would have been nice to not need it anymore. Hopefully Warner Brothers will pick up on this and rerelease this DVD properly.

I would then have to buy it again. Hopefully this is not the beginning of a new trend. The next two episodes are also fine.

But I feel so strongly about this one glitch I will take 2 stars away as a result.

"

Warning-Edited Episode In Set!

Eric Paddon | Morristown, NJ | 04/11/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This set was emerging as great in terms of transfers used until I reached on Disc 4 "The Big Move" and discovered to my amazement that Warner and H-B used a cut syndicated print of this episode that runs four minutes short (lacking a preview at the start, and a scene of Fred at work suffering from a cold after being tossed in the pool the night before, and ending with audio of an old, outdated H/B tag). Sloppy work there that requires this episode to be redone on future pressings! This would be five stars if not for that."

"FLINTSTONE! FLINTSTONE! RAH-RAH-RAH!"

Jonathan Cohen | Brookline, MA United States | 08/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This "Flintstones" package marks the midpoint between the "pre-Pebbles" and "post-Pebbles" eras, and as a lifelong fan who's seen all of these at least twice over, I'm delighted to follow the show as it unfolded. By now, Fred and Barney were at their prehistoric Kramden/Norton best, and the buildup to Pebbles' arrival was- to these much older eyes- surprisingly subtle as well as funny. Hanna-Barbera knew what it was doing and really pitched the show to both kids and their parents. Both the writing (with help from two proud Looney Tunes alums) and animation (headed by a former Walter Lantz director) are sharp and better-timed. Even one-shot guest characters (Grandma Dynamite, fitness expert Brick Boulder) are quirky, while the wisecracking bird/animal appliances are a sideshow in themselves.
Some of my all-time favorite episodes are a part of this season. There's "Dino Goes Hollyrock", where Fred brings Dino to the TV studio for a guest appearance on the "Sassie" show; "The Twitch", featuring prehistoric teen idol Rock Roll; "Baby Barney" with Barney in baby booties as "Little Tex" (to please Fred's rich uncle); "High School Freddie" ("Flintstone! Flintstone! Rah-Rah-Rah!"), "Foxy Grandma" (Grandma Dynamite, the little old lady bank robber, moonlights as Fred's maid), and many more.
Don't miss "The Buffalo Convention", with guest bird Doozy, the Talking Dodo, who- in a great nod to Chuck Jones' "One Froggy Evening"- won't talk in front of anybody but his owner (Fred)...until he tips Wilma off on where the boys have sneaked off to for their convention: "Gawwk! Frantic City! Frantic City! Doctor's a plumber! Gawwk!" That's just one "Flintstones" line that stuck with me the way "Lucy" or "Seinfeld" bits did with others. "Hawaiian Spy" (with guest star Larry Lava) and "Dial S for Suspicion" (a great Hitchcock send-up even better than the "Brickrock" episode in Season 1) are two more that show how this really was an adult, as well as kid, comedy. Finally, those baby cues- a pair of booties here, a visit from Betty's baby nephew there, the parade of maids- all lead up, beautifully, to Pebbles' arrival.
As with the previous volumes, a couple of mini-features are tacked on. Kitsch fans will be impressed by the incredible collection of Flintstone toys and tchotchkes, as displayed by Scott Shaw! (the ! is a part of his name), the rotund cartoonist who's done more Flintstone drawings and designs (cereal boxes, posters, et al.) than anyone. The other item is a tribute to the late Bea Benaderet and Jean VanderPyl, the wonderful voice artists who did Betty and Wilma. (Note that Bea left soon after this season to head the cast at "Petticoat Junction"- her giggly, lovable voice was missed.)
Yes, I did notice that Episode 26, "Big Move" (with some funny bits involving Fred and his new, wealthy neighbor, Reggie Van Slaten- yet another Gleason takeoff) was a bit shorter, and I'm not crazy about double-sided DVDs. But these are minor quibbles. If you're a lifelong 'Stone-head or if you haven't seen them since grammar school, this is for yabba-dabba-you!"