The show aired as a regular episode of The Flintstones on Christmas Day 1964 (the first time the show aired on a Friday night after swapping spots with Jonny Quest). It was repeated on Christmas Eve 1965, so we can only presume ABC and Screen Gems intended this to be an annual thing. Of course, 1965-66 was the final network season for the show.
It’s evident that Hanna-Barbera pumped more money into this episode than usual. There are a couple of original songs by John McCarthy. There are a few imaginative overhead layouts, something Hanna-Barbera rarely engaged in. And despite the anachronisms, a few plot holes, inconsistencies in the names of Santa’s elves, and the non-presence of Bea Benaderet, the episode has its charms. Alan Reed gives a fine performance (his off-key singing suits Fred’s character, to be honest), the background artwork is top-notch and the songs are kind of cute. And Barney’s mantra of “good will to your fellow man” is appropriate but not strident.
Warren Foster’s plot involves Fred Flintstone, fill-in department store Santa, filling in for the real Santa Claus who can’t make his Christmas Eve delivery because of a bad cold. Fred jumps in Santa’s sleigh and pours toys out of a huge bag that are swallowed up by chimneys. No need to animate Fred going in and out of houses; some cycle animation of falling parcels and toys does the trick. The cartoon makes good use of silhouettes as Fred drops presents upon various places in the world. The presents include Pebbles dolls. Ideal Toys needs their product placement!
The Flintstones was starting to run on fumes by season five, but this episode is a pleasant half-hour that is worth watching at Yuletide time.
With all due respect, this one's not particularly one that I cared for (but unlike others who never cared for this I still like part of it..)SC
ReplyDeleteI wonder if some technophiles, etc. would comment that if one was not like the Jetsons, one might as well be like the Flintstones! In a Zits comic some years ago (I think a Sunday in April), Jeremy's mother was depicted as Wilma Flintstone because she was promoting a decades-old low-tech camera instead of a digital camera. LOL XD
ReplyDeleteNo presents for Mexico / South America - Payback for being detained in Rockapulco at the end of "Fred El Terrifico".
ReplyDeleteBick on layouts, Dick Lundy among the animators.
ReplyDeleteWhen this episode first aired, the Pebbles dolls had been on the market for about 22 months. This would have been the second Christmas for Pebbles dolls. Also notice there are some Dino toys and in the store scenes it looks like some Baby Puss toys as well.
ReplyDeleteReworked years later as "A Flintstone Christmas." Interesting to note that Hal Smith voiced Santa Claus in both versions. (As I noted earlier, each of these episodes features a song with Fred--voiced by Alan Reed and later Henry Corden--singing about how Christmas is his favorite time of year!)
In Great Britain: MERRY CHRISTMAS!
ReplyDeleteIn France: JOYEUX NOEL!
In Italy: BUON NATALE!
It all makes sense as long as you follow the theory that this show is an outcome of an apocalyptic future.
ReplyDeleteGeez...you're willing to accept all the rest of this, but you need to make THE FLINTSTONES historically accurate? In the end, is there one aspect of the series which doesn't simply replace today's society with one that's set in the prehistoric era? Then of course there would be Christmas, and parallel versions of modern landmarks; it's simply a parallel world in its most basic sense. Unlike THE JETSONS, with its conceit of actually being (the comedic version of) us in, say, 100 years (when it's actually simply 1960s society transplated into a future setting), I never got the feeling that we were meant to believe that FLINTSTONES was anything more than a clever anachronism. There are no cavemen in THE FLINTSTONES, there are suburbanites in tiger skins. They're not inventing fire, they're perfecting garbage disposals with live lizards as the mechanism. Kids in general wouldn't have thought twice about any of it. Adult critics are simply thinking too much.
ReplyDeleteI wonder...what if the Jetsons didn't have technology to deal with obstables like volcanic ash cloud (like an Icelandic volcano spewed out several years ago) and space junk? They might as well be a TERRESTRIAL family and be called the Carsons (named after the car, no relation to real-world Carsons).
DeleteKids, maybe most people, understand (or I'd like to think they do) is the show's concept is "what would the 1950s be like in the Stone Age?"
Delete@Yowp: Reminds me of how the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and later cartoon shorts in spin-offs(?)) appears to be a Flinstones version of the Archie cartoons; Bamm-Bamm couldn't even break out of a cement statue that was made around him (I think BABY Bamm-Bamm could!).
DeleteSee? Cave people were celebrating the season before Jesus was even born.
ReplyDeleteIt was explained in this comic.
DeleteThanks Yowp, First time I've read the explanation for Christmas during the stone age. Of course, being a cartoon, even as a kid I never really gave it any thought. Just like looking to Gilligan's Island for any type of continuity-Ha! I *do* remember as a youngster doing a little eye roll as the Pebbles dolls were dropped by Santa Fred to all the children below...Yep, good o'l product placement.
DeleteHeh, maybe there was a Stone Age equivalent of Jesus Christ born well before said Age!
ReplyDeleteIt's not a bad episode, I guess. I'm just so completely over the "So-and-So Saves Christmas" plot that I don't care if I never see it used again, anytime, anywhere, for any reason.
ReplyDeleteMy answer for why the Flintstones celebrate Christmas has always been, because its the MODERN stone age family.
ReplyDeleteThe comic above is a great answer as well!