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| Available at Amazon.com |
In 1960, the world was introduced to what would become one of the most well-known animated families in television history, The Flintstones. Fred and Wilma lived in Bedrock along with their neighbors Barney and Betty Rubble. Living in the prehistoric era with modern day problems and inventions (all done in Bedrock style though of course). For years, adults and kids alike were watching episode after episode and rerun after rerun since they just couldn’t seem to get enough of the family from the city made of stone. Still, in a time when money was to be made, it was only obvious that sooner or later something else needed to come of it. And what better way then to take the Rubble and Flintstone kids and age them into their teen years.
Pebbles Flintstone is the offspring of Fred and Wilma while Bamm-Bamm Rubble is that of Barney and Betty. On early episodes of The Flintstones, we would merely see them as tiny babies. Bamm-Bamm would have his club and showcase his enormous strength even as a child while Pebbles would simply sit there with her ponytail and giggle. Not much else was seen of the kids at all aside from that until The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show came into existence. They merely skipped all ages from three to about fifteen or sixteen.
Pebbles seems to have inherited a lot of her father’s genes as she usually comes up with plenty of off the wall schemes for her and her friends to get involved in. They could be anything from helping out Bedrock High or just trying to earn a few extra bucks on the side. Let’s just say she doesn’t put much thought into any of them and they usually end getting the gang in trouble more then anything. Bamm-Bamm has changed a good bit from his early years in that his insane strength now appears to be gone. No real explanation is given for it, but it just isn’t there. He also though seems to have inherited a lot of his father Barney’s traits as he doesn’t stand up much for what he knows is the right thing to do. Usually he’ll just agree to whatever Pebbles wants and that just spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e. As do the Bronto Bunch which are a gang of punks just looking to cause mischief. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm along with their friends Moonrock, Penny, and Wiggy simply do all they can to avoid them and be themselves.
Back in the seventies, this type of show may have been able to fly with most families and adults. It is nothing but hair-brained comedy with some zany characters and just over the top situations. Today it would entertain the younger crowd of kids probably in the eight and under age range because everyone else would just find it way too corny. And that’s not me defending it say it isn’t because my God is it ever corny. There isn’t the lesson learning you may have gotten with The Super Friends or the violence you’ll find your kids getting from Ren & Stimpy, but just some random storylines with goofy kids. Don’t expect much more.
Episodes
Disc One:
Gridiron Girl Trouble
Putty In Her Hands
Frog For A Day
The Golden Voice
Daddy’s Little Helper
Focus Foolery
Pebbles’ Big Boast
The Grand Prix Pebbles
Disc Two:
The Terrible Snorkosaurus
Schleprock’s New Image
Coach Pebbles
No Cash And Carry
Wooly The Great
Mayor May Not
They Went That Away
The Birthday Present
The episodes are shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and it doesn’t look as if it has been fixed up all from when it first started airing almost forty years ago. The colors are faded and a lot of the animation is choppy making for an almost awful look.
The episodes are heard in Dolby Digital Stereo Sound and it does fine for the most part although the sound lowers at random times making for the frustrating “turn sound up, turn sound down” volume control.
Bonus Episodes From The Flintstone Comedy Hour – These episodes include “The Squawkie-Talkies,” “The Suitor Computer,” “Beauty And The Beast,” and “Bedlam In Bedrock.” These were showcased during the animated show The Flintstones Comedy Hour that was nothing like the original series from the sixties. Nothing special.
Perhaps I’m not remembering if I ever watched this show as a kid or if maybe it was just always this bad, but that is something perhaps we’ll never know. Ok maybe we will and it really was just always this unentertaining. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were so much cuter as the giggling and stupidly strong babies that only showed up from time to time like Dino did. Giving them their own show was nothing more then a money-making scheme even though it was intended to give the teenage audience something to watch. Believe you me that The Flintstones were entertaining enough to be viewed by all from ages two all the way up to one hundred. Except for the laugh track because God I hated that on cartoons. The special features here are just as bad and even less enjoyable. About the only crowd which would get a kick out of these cartoons now are those who just love seeing cartoons. Let’s just hope that if they see them that they don’t take them seriously and think this is all we had back in the day.
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Turner Home Entertainment presents The Pebbles And Bamm-Bamm Show: The Complete Series. Created by: Joseph Barbera and William Hanna. Starring (the voice talents of): Sally Struthers, Jay North, and more. Written by: Neal Barbera, Walter Black, Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais, Bob Ogle, and others. Running time: 319 minutes on 2 discs. Rating: . Released on DVD: March 18, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
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