Unearth the Surprising Secrets Behind The Flintstones That Will Rock Your Stone Age World!
The Honeymooners Weren’t The Only Source Of Inspiration
In addition to being similar enough to The Honeymooners to make a lawsuit a tempting proposition for Jackie Gleason, at least six episodes of The Flintstones were found to have taken their plots directly from old Laurel and Hardy films.
And this was true from the very beginning, as the cartoon’s pilot episode, “The Flintstone Flyer,” bore a strong resemblance to the 1931 short film Be Big! Also from Season 1 were “The Split Personality” and “The Hot Piano,” which respectively ripped their plots from the 1940 feature A Chump At Oxford and the Academy Award-winning 1932 short, The Music Box.
It Was Oddly Easy To Forget That The Flintstones Had A Cat
In the opening and closing credits, the Flintstones are seen driving with Dino and a saber-toothed cat in the back seat. This cat was called Baby Puss, and he was especially present in the closing credits, as he’s the reason Fred gets locked out of the house after trying to put him out.
However, Baby Puss’s prominent role in these sequences is odd in light of the fact that he almost never appears in the series itself. Seemingly, the writers often forgot he existed. Whenever the family has a problem with an unruly pet, it’s always Dino.
Baby Puss’s Fur Was A Massive Undertaking To Render
According to The History Of Computer Animation, Baby Puss in The Flintstones movie from 1994 did not mark the first instance of CGI fur in a movie. That honor apparently goes to the 1991 film Fire Beast.
However, the idea of rendering three-dimensional fur through computer graphics was still a novel enough concept at the time that there wasn’t an established playbook for doing so. As such, a specific algorithm had to be developed for the movie to account for the movement of every strand of fur on Baby Puss’s body.
Baby Puss Actually Gets A Line In One Episode
In the Season 5 episode, “Pebbles’ Birthday Party,” Fred snores forcefully enough in his sleep to knock Baby Puss off his bed, sending him tumbling to the floor. After waking, the cat said, “That does it. I’m turning myself in at the animal shelter. At least I can get a night’s sleep.”
After this line, Baby Puss runs out of the house as promised. If nothing else, this line does a lot to explain why his appearances in the show were so rare.
The Jetsons and The Flintstones Had Another Connection
Both The Flintstones‘ influence over the creation of The Jetsons and the existence of The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones have been established by now, but these aren’t the only connections the two popular Hanna-Barbera cartoons had. And it happened over 20 years before the 1987 TV movie.
It turns out that George Jetson’s voice actor, George O’Hanlon, wrote two episodes of The Flintstones: “Seeing Doubles” in 1965 and “Curtain Call” in 1966. Funnily enough, he would also end up writing for The Jackie Gleason Show.
Mel Blanc Received A Posthumous Credit For The Movie
Since Mel Blanc’s work on The Flintstones is largely remembered for Barney’s voice, it would seem strange that he would receive credit for the 1994 movie when that role was filled by Rick Moranis.
However, Mel Blanc also lent his voice to Dino’s animal sounds, which were ripped directly from the cartoon when they were making the movie. As such, Mel Blanc was credited for voicing Dino five years after he had passed away.
The Bowling Alley Scene Almost Didn’t Make It In The Movie
In the 1994 movie, there’s a scene at a bowling alley where John Goodman portrays Fred’s unusual tip-toed bowling style that seems to double as a good-luck ritual for him. But the scene where this endowment takes place was a last-minute addition to the film.
Although it wasn’t essential to the story, the filmmakers felt that the bowling style was too important to Fred’s character to leave out of the movie. It does seem like an absence the fans would have noticed.
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