Barney's personality was based on that of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners, played by Art Carney.[8] 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 "Hee hee hee... 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.[9] In the first episode of the original series, he was an inventor of a human-powered helicopter.[10] 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.[11] 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.[12] 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.[13] 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.[14] 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,[15] 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.[15] 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.
While the voices of the other characters were based on their The Honeymooners counterparts, Mel 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, and, for the first 15 episodes of season 1, gave Barney a much higher-pitched 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 slowly toned down. At the end of season 1, Blanc was involved in a near-fatal car crash, which sent him into a 2-week long coma. Daws Butler briefly assumed the role for the first, second, 5th, 6th and the 9th 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. When Blanc woke from his coma, he was able to return to the show much sooner than expected, by virtue of a temporary recording studio for the entire cast set up at Blanc's bedside. Blanc's voice for Barney had changed considerably after the accident, going from the American smart-aleck voice to a deeper, more chuckle-like voice, quite similar to that of Hugo the Abominable Snowman from Looney Tunes, and he was shown as somewhat dopier than before.
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 he became a staple character on the series.[16] 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, no sign of him is seen on the show. This was because, while "Little Bamm-Bamm" was made after these episodes, it aired before. Once more episodes were made Bamm-Bamm aired 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.[2] He later became grandfather to Pebbles's and Bamm-Bamm's children, Charleston Frederick "Chip" and Roxeanne Elizabeth "Roxy" Flintstone-Rubble.[6]
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)
The Flintstones is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series with a prime-time slot on television.
Pebbles Flintstone-Rubble is a fictional character in the Flintstones franchise. The red-haired daughter of Fred and Wilma Flintstone, Pebbles is born near the end of the third season. She is most famous in her infant form on The Flintstones, but has also appeared at various other ages, including as a teenager on the early 1970s spin-off The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and as an adult in three television films. She spent most of her time with Bamm-Bamm Rubble, her childhood best friend whom she eventually marries.
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions that originally aired for one season on CBS Saturday morning from September 11, 1971, to January 1, 1972. With an ensemble voice cast of Sally Struthers, Jay North, Mitzi McCall, Gay Hartwig, Carl Esser and Lennie Weinrib, the show follows teenage Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble as they encounter problems growing up in the fictional town of Bedrock. The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is the first spin-off series of The Flintstones. For the 1972–73 season, the show was revamped as The Flintstone Comedy Hour, with more time given to the original Flintstones cast alongside both reruns and newly produced segments of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.
Fred Flintstone is the main character of the animated sitcom The Flintstones, which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960 to 1966. Fred is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone and together the family live in their homely cave in the town of Bedrock. His best friend is his next door neighbor, Barney, who has a wife named Betty.
I Yabba-Dabba Do! is a 1993 American animated made-for-television film based on the 1960s animated series, The Flintstones and is a continuation of the series’ spin-off, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. It premiered on ABC on February 7, 1993.
Jean Thurston Vander Pyl was an American voice actress. Although her career spanned many decades, she is best known as the voice of Wilma Flintstone for the Hanna-Barbera cartoon The Flintstones. In addition to Wilma Flintstone, she also provided the voices of Pebbles Flintstone; Rosie the robot maid on The Jetsons; Goldie, Lola Glamour, Nurse LaRue, and other characters in Top Cat; Winsome Witch on The Secret Squirrel Show; and Ogee on The Magilla Gorilla Show.
Wilma Anna Flintstone is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones. Wilma is the red-headed woman married to caveman Fred Flintstone, daughter of Pearl Slaghoople, and mother of Pebbles Flintstone. Her best friend is her next door neighbor, Betty Rubble.
Betty Rubble is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones and its spin-offs and live-action motion pictures. She is the black-haired wife of caveman Barney Rubble and the adoptive mother of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. Her best friend is her next-door neighbor Wilma Flintstone.
The New Fred and Barney Show is an American animated television series revival and spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired on NBC from February 3 to October 20, 1979. The series marked the first time Henry Corden performed the voice of Fred Flintstone for a regular series.
Dino is a fictional character featured in the Hanna-Barbera animated television series The Flintstones, and its spin-offs and feature films. He is a pet dinosaur of the series' main characters, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Dino debuted in the opening credits of the pilot episode of The Flintstones, but is not mentioned by name until the first season's fourth episode, "No Help Wanted". Dino was voiced by voiceover actor Mel Blanc from 1960 to 1989 and in 1994 and 2000.
The Flintstone Comedy Show is an American animated television series revival and spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera that aired on NBC from November 22, 1980, to October 24, 1981. Outside North America, the show was released under title of Flintstone Frolics.
Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby is a 1993 American animated made-for-television film based on the 1960s series classic, The Flintstones. It first aired on ABC on December 5, 1993. It is the sequel to I Yabba-Dabba Do! and is followed by A Flintstone Family Christmas, which aired less than two weeks later on the same network.
The Flintstones: Little Big League is a 1978 animated television special featuring characters from The Flintstones franchise. It was produced by the Australian division of Hanna-Barbera and aired on NBC on April 6, 1978. It was an hour-long primetime special, as part of The Flintstone Primetime Specials.
Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo is an American animated package show and a spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired on NBC from December 8, 1979 to November 15, 1980. The 90-minute show is a repackaging of episodes from Fred and Barney Meet the Thing combined with the addition of The New Shmoo episodes.
Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration is a 1989 American live-action/animated television special which premiered on TNT on July 17, 1989.
Bamm-Bamm Rubble is a fictional character in the Flintstones franchise, the adopted son of Barney and Betty Rubble. He is most famous in his toddler form on the animated series, but has also appeared at various other ages, including as a teenager on the early 1970s spin-off The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and as an adult in three television films. Cartoonist Gene Hazelton contributed to the original model sheets for the character, and he has said that he based Bamm-Bamm's design on his own son, Wes.
The Flintstone Comedy Hour is an American animated television series and a spin-off of The Flintstones and The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, produced by Hanna-Barbera, which aired on CBS from September 9, 1972, to September 1, 1973. It was re-titled The Flintstone Comedy Show for a second season of reruns as a half-hour show from September 8, 1973, to January 26, 1974.
The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! is a 2015 American direct-to-video animated film starring The Flintstones. It is the second co-production between Warner Bros. Animation and WWE Studios following Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery. The film features Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble and the whole Bedrock gang with stone age versions of WWE Superstars and Divas. It was released on March 10, 2015, by Warner Home Video.
Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs is an American animated television series and a spin-off of the original series, The Flintstones. Like Cave Kids, the series focuses on the lives of best friends Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, who are joined by Dino for many adventures in the Stone Age. The series premiered on HBO Max on September 30, 2021. The series was removed from HBO Max in August 2022.
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.
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