The Flintstones - The Complete First Season

I grew up watching the Flintstones, so when I wanted to get some episodes to show to my children I bought season one. The biggest suprise from season one is that I was not greeted with the familiar Flintstones theme song (I assume this comes in a later season). The animation seems a little "rough" on some of the early episodes too. But the more we watch and the further we get into the discs, the more it improves. My suggestion for anyone purchasing the Flintstones is to throughly read the reviews and descriptions to find out what that particular season contains.

I bought this as soon as I saw it for two reasons: the opening and closing sequences and the commercials. I was happy with the former, disappointed with the latter, which connects with the one overall beef I have with this DVD set.

As for the episodes, you'll notice they're drawn differently than in later years. The characters seem to be larger in relation to their surroundings. I find the animation, limited animation though it is, to be funnier than in the later eps. You'll also notice no Pebbles or Bamm-Bamm. They wouldn't enter the picture until the third and fourth seasons, respectively. It's nice watching Fred and Barney carry the action during the early seasons.

For years, the original openings and closings of the first season were replaced by the better remembered scenes and songs of the later seasons. So generations of Flintstone fans didn't know that the phrase "someday, maybe Fred will win the fight/and that cat will stay out for the night" actually referred back to the original closing. Or that, like Mary Tyler Moore and The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Flintstones' most famous theme song wasn't the original one.
Also, the opening scenes might remind younger viewers of The Simpsons opening. There's more than a little irony there, as The Simpsons long ago surpassed The Flintstones as the longest running animated prime time show and that the very creative Matt Groenig might've been ripping off Hanna-Barbera, a team that ranks just below Linda Ronstadt as ripoff artists.

Speaking of which, that's one disappointing thing in the extras. Maybe I missed it, but nowhere does anyone acknowledge that The Flintstones is The Honeymooners taken from the 1950s to the Stone Age and set in the suburbs.

But that's keeping with another little manipulation in the extras. Big ups for including the commercials, a reminder of when television shows were sponsored by one or two sponsors, the cast did commercials for those products in character and sometimes images of those products dominated the closing credits. Most shows altered those closing credits for syndication and DVD release. Here, we see the ads for 1-A-Day and Alka Seltzer, clearly done to be placed just after the opening sequence and before teh closing credits. But the commercial for Winston cigarettes? Nowhere, as if to deny that part of the show's history.

Yeah, yeah, kids will be watching this, blah, blah, blah. Hey, if Time Warner can put some of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons with politically incorrect racial images on a DVD with a "it's wrong, but that's the way it was" disclaimer, then Time Warner can let us see Fred and Barney hawking ciggies. As with Joe Camel, if your kid starts smoking because some cartoon character is pushing the product, the problem ain't with the cartoon character. And, trust me, I'm a major anti-smoker, but I find cigarette ads fascinating.

This is, to me, still the best of the Flintstone DVDs I own. Maybe it's because I'm OD'd on the seasons with the kids because my daughter loves those, so they've been in Heavy Rotation for the last year. But I think it's just because the early seasons of The Flintstones were the best.

I knew I had great memories of this series for a reason.

I can remember watching this series in prime time when I was a kid with my parents, and all of us laughing. I think it is difficult now, after the glorious onslaught of great prime time animation like the Simpsons and Family Guy, to appreciate what a revolutionary show the Flintstones was. These 28 episodes aired in 1959-60, and the concept of airing an animated situation comedy for adults was pure lunacy - not to mention that the show was set in the Stone Age. I can only imagine the blank stares or nervous sideways-glances cartoon geniuses William Hanna and Joe Barbera must have gotten in television's executive boardrooms.

Luckily, sometimes cream really does rise to the surface. All I can say is if you are a baby-boomer like me, watching the first season of this classic series is a pure pleasure. Not to wax nostalgic, but man - what a great rush. The writing on this series was always sharp with a hip edge (not quite as caustically brilliant as the Bullwinkle Show, but more warm and human). The vocal talent was unbelievable. I can remember feeling as a boy that the gentle yet sometimes sarcastic voice of Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and the sweet, bubbly voice of Betty (Bea Benaderet) were somehow the template for how adult women sounded and talked. And somehow whenever Barney spoke, it was funny, for which we can credit the acting prowess of Mel Blanc.

Finally, as with all the currently released Hanna/Barbera DVD sets, these cartoons look fantastic. The colors are brilliant and the sound is beautiful (remember that fantastic sound Barney always made when chomping into a pterodactyl drumstick or sandwich?).

If you were too young to catch this series the first time around, do yourself a favor and meet the Flintstones. They're a modern, Stone Age family and they live right down the street.

All in all, a real gift on DVD. --- Mykal Banta

For collectors this is amazing. Incredible to get this cartoons in dvd and in this times with high tech computer productions. Thanks editors.

glad i got this for my 6yr old son so he can know the happiness of flintsones an hanna barbara