This episode of the Muni-Mula story simply moves the plot a little bit. Narrator Don Messick tells us the Big Thinker is using Ruff and Reddy to make an army of robots to invade Earth. (Well, actually, he says “robutts.” Janet Waldo recalled that she tried to get Penny Singleton to stop pronouncing the word that way on The Jetsons).
Have we talked about Messick’s narration in the early days of this series? It’s not bombastic. It’s very matter-of-fact and calm, much like Roy Whaley in the original Crusader Rabbit show, or even the anonymous voice-over man in Bucky and Pepito (also debuting in 1957), though Messick is more polished.
The footage shows a metallic Muni-Mulan stamping out a mould of Ruff and Reddy, then disposing of them down a chute as they aren’t needed any more.
The H-B sound effects library hasn’t been built up yet, so there is no clanging sound as the two sides of the mould press slam together. Mind you, no sound effect means saving time and, therefore, money. There are portions of the episode where Reddy pops from pose to pose without any in between.
The moulds are pressed.
“The real Ruff and Reddy stand by and watch helplessly as the mechanical Ruffs and Reddys are turned out like hotcakes.” I think Charlie Shows mixed some metaphors in the dialogue here. Note the silhouette drawings.
The camera pans over the painting machine. This could have come from Dan Gordon’s storyboard or Dick Bickenbach’s layouts (he said he worked on the first Ruff and Reddys).
Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera save money by having the fake Ruffs and Reddys on a cel while the background moves.
Finally, a “robot brain” is added which gives them power to obey orders of the Big Thinker.
All this does is get Reddy’s “dandruff” up. (I guess kids watching this on Saturday mornings never heard that old one before. Cecil of “Beany and” fame used the same line). Notice how the background isn’t a solid colour. The stripes (which you can’t see very well on this murky dub from cable TV) add something, though the show was broadcast in black and white. What’s with Ruff’s weird knuckles?
Headstrong Reddy zips to the conveyer belt, somehow thinking holding up his hand at a robot will stop it. Instead, he gets zapped by the robot brain helmet and turns into a robot, and begins to walk in a stiff, 12 drawing cycle by Ken Muse.
This is a pretty decent cliff-hanger, as the kid viewers are probably wondering what will happen next.
This segment originally aired on December 28, 1957.
Greg Watson, or whoever cut the sound in this, relies on only two Capitol Hi-Q cues, one by Spencer Moore and the other supposedly by Bill Loose and John Seely. It’s a sped-up version (with the same arrangement) as “Night Battle” by Joseph Cacciola on the Sam Fox/Synchro library.
0:00 – Opening title (silent)
0:05 – L-653 EERIE DRAMATIC (Moore) – Start of cartoon
2:51 – No music
3:00 – TC-217A CHASE-MEDIUM (Loose-Seely) “Hold it!” to end of cartoon
3:28 – Closing title.
Like a rotting brontosaurus carcass on a desert, The Flintstones stunk in the final season.
Sorry, fans of the Great Gazoo. The character was a gimmick (though Harvey Korman was great, as always). Sorry, fans of “A Screen Gems Presentation.” Samantha and Darren Stephens were suddenly turned into cartoon characters eons before they existed because Bewitched and The Flintstones were distributed by the same company? What was the idea behind inventing a “Stone World War One”? And don’t get me started on that treacly episode where Bamm Bamm and Pebbles chirp a song denuded of its religious references.
Then there was the studio’s tendency to be lazy and add “stone” or “rock” to names, whether or not it fit. Thus viewers were subjected to “Romeorock” and “The Beau Brummelstones.”
A name which worked much better was Tony Curtis. “Stony Curtis” may seem obvious, but it was an appropriate pun for a character on The Flintstones (not a stretch like “Arnold Palmrock”).
Guest stars have been used for a long time to bolster ratings, going back to the days of network radio. There’s no denying Curtis was a star at the time he was converted into a cartoon character; The Great Race was appearing in theatres and he starred in a number of acclaimed films before that.
It appears the Hanna-Barbera publicity machine got in gear in late April 1965; that’s when newspapers starting running blurbs in their entertainment columns that Curtis would appear on the premiere episode of the sixth season. Sources indicate Curtis recorded his part on June 21. The episode was not the season opener. It was the third show to air, on October 1.
If you’re wondering what Curtis thought of the experience, it seems he didn’t (at least publicly) deem working on a cartoon demeaning. The September 25-October 1 edition of TV Guide wrote about it.
IT WAS TYPE CASTING
Tony Curtis is playing Stony Curtis on THE FLINTSTONES
“It does your ego good to wind up in the cartoons,’ says Tony Curtis of his role as Stony Curtis, prehistoric movie star, in an episode of The Flintstones (ABC, Oct. 1). “It is also intriguing to see the caricature and hear the voice. I liked the idea of doing it, and I thought it would be good for my daughters [Kelly, 9, and Jamie, 6; Alexandra is only 1] to see.”
Aside from all that, it gave Tony a chance to do a good turn. “I never got paid so well in my life,” he said of the wages he received from Hanna-Barbera Productions for his voice work. “I go in for a few minutes’ time and they pay me three or four hundred bucks. I added some money to it and sent it to a summer-camp fund.”
Curtis had full approval of the role he was to play, that of a film idol visiting the Stone Age town of “Bedrock,” and of the sketches. “We had an ascot tie on him and he took it off,” said Joe Barbera, co-producer (with Bill Hanna) and director of the episode. “He wanted to look like a cave man, so we didn’t dress him up.” When he actually recorded, said a bystander, Tony took direction as though “doing a major movie role.”
Curtis is the second major movie star to do a Flintstones; the other was Ann-Margret, who played “Ann-Margrock.” Barbera hopes to have other stars like “Cary Granite,” “Jackie Gleastone,” or the “Cartrocks” of the “Rockerosa Ranch.”
As for his own Stone Age name, Tony is happy enough with it. “At least it’s better than ‘Phony Curtis,’ ” he said.
Curtis “took direction as though doing a major movie role”? This would have been news to the Hollywood Women’s Press Club which, in late 1964, voted Curtis the Sour Apple award as “the most uncooperative male star.” (The AP’s Bob Thomas reported Curtis was bewildered because “the girls” had honoured him as the most cooperative male star twice).
Barbera’s comment about Cary Granite is odd, as the character appeared in the series’ first season. The Cartrocks appeared in season five. Considering the possibility of a lawsuit stemming from The Flintstones’ similarities to The Honeymooners, it’s no wonder Jackie Gleastone did not visit Bedrock. (Gleason revealed in the August 1986 issue of Playboy he had mulled over the suit. Gleason also told writer Bill Zehmer “In fact, the guy who did Fred's voice (Alan Reed) dubbed in things for me in motion pictures, whenever they were looping and I couldn't make the session”).
Curtis mentioned the role in his autobiography, American Prince: A Memoir (Harmony, 2008).
In the fall of 1965, George Pal, my director in Houdini, introduced me to several executives at Hanna-Barbera — the company that had created the cartoon The Flintstones — to explore the possibility of using my voice on the show. Was I interested in helping to create a new cartoon character named Stony Curtis? I said, "Let's do it." I loved the idea, plus The Flintstones was one of the most popular shows on television. Later, people asked me why I did it. I did it because I was invited to, and because it looked like it would be fun! And it was.
Curtis’ star-power didn’t help. The Arbitron ratings gave CBS’ The Wild, Wild West a 18.1 rating and a 40 share. The Flintstones placed second with an 11.8 rating and 26 share, while Camp Runamuck on NBC ended up with a 7.6 rating and a 17 share.
As far as I can recall, one stone/rock name pun didn’t make it into the episode. It would have been entirely logical for Fred to point out that Stony’s real name was “Bernard Quartz.”
This episode of the Muni-Mula story simply moves the plot a little bit. Narrator Don Messick tells us the Big Thinker is using Ruff and Reddy to make an army of robots to invade Earth. (Well, actually, he says “robutts.” Janet Waldo recalled that she tried to get Penny Singleton to stop pronouncing the word that way on The Jetsons).
