The Flintstones – The Complete Fourth Season

The Flintstones
The Complete Fourth Season
Hanna-Barbera
4 DVDs
26 Episodes
Warner Home Video 2005

You have to be living in a cave not to know about The Flintstones, the coolest TV cartoon show ever created and the first prime time cartoon ever. It is said that the Homeland Security people ask suspicious looking airport travelers to sing the Flintstones theme song to make sure a person is not from the Middle East. The adventures of loudmouth Fred Flintstone, good pal Barney Rubble, wives Wilma and Betty as well as Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm, and Dino have been the delight of almost four generations now. The Flintstones, The Complete Fourth Season is simply a must in any decent family DVD collection.

The Complete Fourth Season finds the Flintstones in fine shape. This is the season that opened with the Ann Margrock episode and when Barney and Betty Rubble found little Bamm-Bamm on their doorstep. Many of the episodes in this fourth season of The Flintstones focus on Pebbles such as Kleptomaniac Pebbles and Daddy’s Little Beauty. Two of the best Flintstones episodes, Ten Little Flintstones where aliens from outer space clone Fred and cause mayhem in Bedrock, and Peek-a-Boo Camera where Fred and Barney are caught on tape at a Water Buffalo party they were not supposed to go to, are on Disc 3.

Of course, fans of The Flintstones know about the flat animation technique Hanna-Barbera used to meet its cartoon show a week requirement. Basically, this means only the feet and head or head and arms of the characters are usually animated while the body is static most of the time. This also explains why each Flintstones character wore a collar or necklace so as to separate the animation line of the head from the static body. This is also the reason why so many Hanna-Barbera cartoons seemed to live in long hallway shaped houses where the characters could run by the same background scene five or six times in a chase scene.

An interesting bit of continuity trivia in The Flintstones The Complete Fourth Season is in the Daddies Anonymous episode. Fred and Barney join a club for daddies and at some point Fred and Elmo Rockbottom take the wrong kid home by mistake. Fred has Chester and Elmo has Pebbles. At the end of the show, Elmo’s wife takes Chester home from the police station but nobody seems to notice Chester looks nothing like the Chester at the beginning of the show. Another glitch is Cave Scout Jamboree (DVD 4 Side A) when Bamm-Bamm helps Barney drive a stake to pitch the tent even if the tent is already pitched. These are, of course, minor details only a true Flintstones fanatic will notice. After all, continuity was never a big factor on The Flintstones.

Part of what made and still makes The Flintstones a good family cartoon is the references to stars of the time like Roger Marble and Leo Ferocious while the younger set can enjoy the very funny talking animal tools and household appliances. Of course these days the animal rights people would probably protest The Flintstones for their showing animals as slaves to cavemen but at least once a season, one of these animal tools will look at the viewer and say, “It’s a living!” Still each episode of The Flintstones The Complete Fourth Season has something for everybody.

Other personal favorites in The Flintstones, The Complete Fourth Season are on Disc 4 Side A, The Cave Scout Jamboree and Room For Two where you get to see how a prehistoric home is built. Fans of the series will also want to watch Bachelor Daze where how Fred and Barney met Wilma and Betty is revealed.

Other Warner Brothers Cartoon DVD collections:

Hong Kong Phooey The Complete Series review

Magilla Gorilla The Complete Series (includes Ricochet Rabbit and Punkin Puss) review

The Flintstones The Complete First Season review

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