Barney's personality was based on that of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners, played by Art Carney.[7] Like Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, Fred was constantly on the lookout for get-rich-quick schemes, while Barney, like Norton, found life satisfactory as it was, but participated in said schemes because Fred was his friend. Usually, after Fred had hatched one of his plans, Barney showed his agreement by laughing and saying, "Uh hee hee hee... OK, Fred!" or "Whatever you say, Fred!"
In the early episodes, Barney had a New Jersey accent. It was soon changed to a deeper, more chuckle-like American voice. In "On the Rocks" and the late 2000s, his New Jersey accent returns.
Barney's interests included bowling, playing pool, poker, tinkering around in Fred's garage, and playing golf (though in some episodes, Barney did not know how to play golf). He, like Fred, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes lodge and its predecessor in earlier episodes, the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs. He is also a talented pianist and drummer.[8] In the first episode of the original series, he was an inventor of a human-powered helicopter.[9] Another time Barney actually built an advanced sports car racer; which almost but did not win a $50,000 race because the car's stone wheels crumbled at the last minute.[10] Although clearly depicted as being in better shape than Fred, he is not shown to be quite as enthusiastic a sportsman as Fred is. This distinction can be attributed to Fred's fondness for food, though Barney is shown to be almost as capable of excessive appetite on a number of occasions.
Biography
Barney grew up at 142 Boulder Avenue in Granitetown (north of Bedrock). He was acknowledged to be the maternal nephew of Fred Flintstone's boss, Mr. George Slate.[11] As young adults, Barney and Fred worked as bellhops at a resort, where they first met Wilma and Betty, who were working as cigarette girls.[12] Eventually, Barney married Betty (as Fred did Wilma).
Several episodes and spinoffs suggest that Barney, along with Fred, spent some time in the army early in their marriages, though said references may be to Barney and Fred's military service in the first-season episode "The Astr'nuts."
An early episode of the original series does have a brief scene of Barney working at the Granite Building for a Mr. H. Granite.[13] He was fired from his job during the first-season episode "No Help Wanted" (due to Fred's misguided attempt to negotiate a raise for Barney) and takes a new job as a repo man. His employment is never addressed over the remainder of the series. The majority of subsequent spinoffs suggest at some point after the original series, Barney went to work at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company quarry alongside Fred as a fellow dino-crane operator. When speaking to an upper-crust snob in another episode, Betty declares Barney is in "top-secret" work, but that might have been a cover for a low-level job or unemployment, or perhaps an in-joke meaning that Barney's job was unknown even to the show's writers. It could also be possible that both Fred and Barney work at the quarry,[14] but may work in different sections of it, under different bosses. In one episode, Barney's boss tells him to "put down his broom", which implies some sort of janitorial work is involved. Nevertheless, since Barney's occupation was never made explicitly clear, inebriated fans of the show would call Hanna-Barbera Studios afterhours to ask about Barney's occupation.[14] In later series like The New Fred and Barney Show, the franchise has Barney working as a co-worker in the same quarry as Fred.
During the fourth season of the original series, Betty and Barney found an abandoned infant on their doorstep, by the name of "Bamm-Bamm". A court battle ensued between the couple and a wealthy man who also had wanted to adopt Bamm-Bamm. Barney and Betty were successful in their efforts to adopt Bamm-Bamm because the wealthy man gave up (after winning the case) upon learning his wife became pregnant, after which Bamm-Bamm became a regular character on the series.[15] For the next nine episodes (though Bamm-Bamm aired on "Kleptomaniac Pebbles" in the opening scene teaser but not in the body of the episode but would return two episodes later) after Bamm-Bamm's debut, he does not appear on the show. This was because "Little Bamm-Bamm" was made after these episodes, but was broadcast first. Once more episodes were made, Bamm-Bamm appeared regularly. In the fifth season, the family buys a pet "hopparoo" (a combination of a kangaroo and dinosaur) named Hoppy.
When Bamm-Bamm grew into a teenager, Barney joined the Bedrock police force with Fred for a period of time as part-time officers. Both characters were paired with the Shmoo from Li'l Abner.[1] He later became grandfather to Pebbles's and Bamm-Bamm's children, Charleston Frederick "Chip" and Roxeanne Elizabeth "Roxy" Flintstone-Rubble.[5]
Although Fred and Barney are best friends, Barney loses his patience with Fred occasionally. The best example comes in I Yabba-Dabba Do!: after losing his patience with Fred for ruining Pebbles's and Bamm-Bamm's wedding, Barney decides to leave Bedrock. He changes his mind after Fred apologizes. Fred is often annoyed by Barney's inveterate cheerfulness, but he does truly care for him.
In the series' original episodes until the end of season 5, Barney's eyes are drawn as ovals or (occasionally) dark circular outlines (similar to Little Orphan Annie in her comics). In other episodes, and on all the season 6 ones, they are solid black, similar to Wilma's eyes.
Hanna-Barbera Educational Filmstrips – featuring Bamm-Bamm Tackles a Term Paper, A Weighty Problem, Fire Alarm, Fire Escape and Driving Guide (1978–1980)
Hal Smith originally auditioned for the role of Barney Rubble, and did a test track of his voice and that of Fred Flintstone for the pilot, but was replaced with Daws Butler.[16][17][18][19] When the series sold, Jerry Hausner (and later Smith) and Bill Thompson were cast as Barney and Fred respectively, but were replaced with Mel Blanc and Alan Reed.[20][19] While the voices of the other characters were based on their The Honeymooners counterparts, Blanc was asked to model Barney's voice after the voice of Ed Norton, but he reportedly refused, thinking that it was stealing a voice from another actor.[21][22] For the first 15 episodes of season 1, he gave Barney a higher-pitched, nasal New Jersey accent to the point of portraying him as a smart-aleck, though towards the later part of the season he eventually relented and Barney's smart-alecky personality was gradually toned down. Blanc's Barney voice varied from the New Jersey accent to a deeper, more chuckle-like voice, as he and Barbera, who directed the sessions with Alan Dinehart, explored the right level in relation to comedy and other characters. Blanc used both voices in one of the earliest episodes, "The Prowler".[23]
At the end of season 1, Blanc was involved in a near-fatal car crash, which sent him into a 2-week long coma. Butler briefly assumed the role for five episodes of season 2 while Blanc recovered from the accident, continuing to deliver a Norton-inspired performance. Incidentally, Butler was also the original voice of Yogi Bear, who was also inspired by the character of Ed Norton.[24][25][26] When Blanc awoke from his coma, he was able to return to the series much sooner than expected, by virtue of a temporary recording studio for the entire cast set up at Blanc's bedside.[27] Blanc's voice for Barney had changed considerably after the accident, going from the New Jersey accent to the deeper voice.[28] Butler also occasionally voiced Barney on records throughout the 1960s and 1970s.[29][30][31]
1 2 3 Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby, A Flintstone Family Christmas, 1993, ABC
↑ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nded.). McFarland & Co. pp.333–344. ISBN978-1476665993.
↑ "The Creator Of Barney Rubble's Voice". YouTube. November 1, 2017. Retrieved July 31, 2025. Joseph Bevilacqua: Hal Smith spent his life claiming to be the voice of Barney Rubble and sometimes even Fred Flintstone. He was neither. Smith recorded a test track for The Flagstones pilot "Swimming Pool" scene. His voice was rejected and replaced with Daws Butler as both. Eventually, Mel Blanc and Alan Reed were chosen as the official voices. Daws played Barney for six episodes in 1961 while Mel was recovering from his auto crash. Before the accident Mel voiced Barney in his dumb twangy voice like Little John in Rabbit Hood. Daws voiced Barney lighter and higher aka Ed Norton. When Mel returned, Joe Barbera insisted Mel imitate Daws' version of Barney.
↑ Evanier, Mark (September 28, 2010). "Today's Video Link". News From ME. Retrieved July 31, 2025.
↑ Magill, Frank Northen (1993). Great Events from History II: 1955-1969. Salem Press. pp.1840–1841. ISBN978-0893566388. When Mel Blanc auditioned to play the part of the voice of Barney Rubble, he was asked by Hanna-Barbera to imitate the voice of Art Carney. Blanc told the studio that he did not imitate other people, at which point Blanc gave a rendition of what became the famous voice of Barney Rubble.
↑ Ehrbar, Greg (October 11, 2016). "Sam Singer and Hanna-Berbera's "Sinbad Jr." on Records". Cartoon Research. Archived from the original on October 15, 2024. Retrieved April 1, 2025. Peter Pan did two Flintstones without any original cast members, but instead New York actors like Jackson Beck and Lionel Wilson. I haven't covered them yet on Spin.
↑ "Better Off Dead - Barney "Can I Take Out Beth?"". YouTube. January 7, 2018. Retrieved August 10, 2025. That's not Mel Blanc doing his voice. It was Rich Little. He was also the voice of Yee Sook Ree doing the Howard Cosell impersonation.
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