Special show in my heart

Tresix

Recently while I was at the library, I looked up the newspaper from the day I was born on microfilm.  In the entertainment section, there was a review of a TV show about an animated "Modern Stone-Age Family".  Yes, folks, I was born at roughly the same time as THE FLINTSTONES!  It was a very unique show, showing how some of the modern gadgets of today (or the "today" of 1960)were actually around in caveman times (phonographs, cameras, intercoms, hot water heaters). But, let's give credit where it is due:  There would really have been no FLINTSTONES if there hadn't been THE HONEYMOONERS.  Both shows dealt with a big, loudmouth type with a goofy friend who were in a battle of the sexes with their wives.  The loudmouth worked at a job that involved a big piece of machinery (Ralph Kramden drove a bus; Fred Flintstone operated a dino-steam shovel), was at odds with his boss, didn't get along with his mother-in-law, belonged to a lodge named after a mammal, always had a get-rich-quick scheme and liked to go bowling and shoot pool.  Alan Reed, the voice of Fred Flinstone, even used to do vocal stand-in work for Jackie Gleason.      Oddly enough, though the show is popular with children, I don't think it was aimed squarely at kids.  In fact, I think a lot of it would go over most children's heads.  One episode in particular I didn't understand as a child, but now has me kind of stunned when I think back at it:  Wilma has a recipe for gravelberry pie.  Fred tries to market it and gets a factory to buy him out.  Later, Fred tries to raise the price of the pies and tells the factory owner to take it or leave.  "I'm leaving it." the owner tells Fred, "What am I going to do with all of these pies?" Fred asks, "Well, you can take those pies and . . ."  At that moment, the factory whistle goes off and drowns out what the man has to say.  "Excuse me," Fred says meekly, "That whistle was making too much noise.  What did you say I could do with those pies again?"  Needless to say, when I got older and saw that episode, my eyebrows were raised.  I shudder to think what would be done with that moment in this day and age.

score 9/10

Tresix 30 October 2000

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0070039/