The Flintstones – The Complete Fifth Season

The Flintstones
The Complete Fifth Season
Fred Flintstone, Wilma Flintstone,
Barney Rubble, Betty Rubble
Hanna-Barbera
26 episodes
3 DVDs + 1 double-sided DVD
Warner Home Video 2006

Yabba Dabba Doo! The Flintstones Season Five (The Complete Fifth Season) is finally available. This is the season where the writers of this brilliant and first prime-time television cartoon show are really at the top of their form. Although any Flintstones season is excellent, The Complete Fifth Season contains some of the most far-out and funniest shows in the series. This is the season where the writers, after introducing Hoppy, stray more and more way from Bedrock and Fred’s day-to-day routine and arguments with Barney and explore the possibilities a lot more in terms of story. Case in point is Adobe Dick (Disc 3) which is a take on Moby Dick. If you watch carefully, you’ll notice why Fred is the original blue collar comic.

The Gruesomes (episode 8 or disc 2 show 3) is one of a couple of pretty scary and very funny The Flintstones episodes in this collection and definitely a Flintstones fans all-time favorite. Weirdly Gruesome, his atrociously beautiful wife Creepella, and their little monster Goblin move into the scary house next to Fred and Wilma Flintstone. The writing here is top notch as in the scene where Creepella starts eating her tea cup: Wilma: “Creepella, that is my good china!” / Creepella: “Don’t be so modest, dear. Good? It’s excellent!” Part of the fun is the writers, in an obvious spoof of The Munsters, cannot resist a few really bad puns like when Betty sees the movers bring in an electric chair, “I don’t get a charge out of that period stuff.” Things get even better when Barney volunteers Fred to baby sit little Gobby (with his pet spider, grasshopper, and hela monster -an obvious reference to the series’ own Dino and Hoppy pets–) in Gruesome Manor and the boys go exploring. This leads them to a man-eating plant and Barney’s observation, “Must be a tiger lily!” This particular episode shows a bit of wear of tear on the DVD as you can see a few vertical lines here and there. Bar restoration job I guess.

Another pretty scary episode in this collection is A Haunted House Is Not A Home, a perfect take on the usual horror movie where Fred will inherit his uncle Giggles Flintstone’s mansion if he can spend the night. Notice the scene where Barney is served alphabet soup and the letters H B floating on top. Add to this the Dr. Sinister James Bond spoof with Madam Yes, “Hello, Good Lookink.”

In a take on Dickens’ Prince And The Pauper and a tip of the hat to My Fair Lady (“The rotskin spotskin motskin in the plotskin”), King For A Night has Fred standing-in for the king of Stonesylvania when the latter, a Fred look-alike decides to escape his golden life and become one of Bedrock’s people. This of course causes lots of trouble when the king ignores Barney and Wilma and makes a pest of himself. By the way, there is a blooper in this one where during the hotel hallway chase scene Fred is seen without the spots on his shirt for a couple of seconds.

DVD 3 features the episode where Fred Flintstone becomes Goggles Paysano at the Indianrockopolis 500, the first Flintstones Xmas episode where Fred replaces Santa when the latter gets sick. It also includes the science fiction Time Machine where Fred and the gang end up traveling in time thanks to a crazy scientist’s machine. This is not the episode where the Flintstones meet the Jetsons world but it is quite cool.

DVD 4 Side 1 has The Hatrocks and The Gruesomes, definitely good fun in this particular episode. This DVD has a lot of redneck and western references and episodes. In Moonlight And Maintenance Fred becomes Resident Stationary Engineer in a high-rise apartment building. Goes to prove PC language dates back to the stone age.

The Flintstones go Beach Boys in Surfin Fred (DVD 4, Side 2) when Fred books a vacation at a surfing resort during spring break. Jimmy Darrock has a cameo as the lifeguard that constantly saves Troy Flintstones’ life. This disc also includes the minor Fred Meets Hercurock, a bit of a déjà vu where Fred becomes a movie star and stuntman.

Extra features are a bit thin with The Flintstones The Complete Fifth Season and on side 2 of DVD 4. The Gruesomes’ Road to Bedrock is an interesting story of how Hanna Barbera kept including this weird family in a few of its cartoons, put them in The Flintstones for a couple of shows, and even tried to give it its own series. This is definitely interesting stuff for cartoon aficionados. A Stone Age Parenting Guide is just a bunch of short clips from the series in a top ten list kind of thing. Flintstones Rarities Unearthed features 3 commercials for Welch’s. Aside from the Gruesomes’ bit, this is nothing to carve a stone tablet home about.

The Flintstones The Complete Fifth Season is . . . here it comes . . . rock solid.

Episode list:

DVD 1:
Hop Happy
Monster Fred
Itty Bitty Fred
Pebbles’ Birthday Party
Bedrock Rodeo Round-up
Cinderellastone

DVD 2:
A Haunted House Is Not A Home
Dr. Sinister
The Gruesomes
The Most Beautiful Baby In Bedrock
Dino And Juliet
King For A Night

DVD 3:
Indianrockopolis 500
Adobe Dick
Christmas Flintstone
Fred’s Flying Lesson
Fred’s Second Car
Time Machine

DVD 4 Side 1:
The Hatrocks and The Gruesomes
Moonlight And Maintenance
Sheriff For A Day
Deep In The Heart of Texarock
The Rolls Rock Caper
Superstone

DVD 4 Side 2:
Fred Meets Hercurock
Surfin’ Fred

Special Features:
The Gruesomes’ Road To Bedrock
A Stone Age Parenting Guide
Gemstones: Flintstones Rarities Unearthed.

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