Thursday, September 30, 2010

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Flintstones&ct=flintstones10-hp&oi=ddle

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=The+Flintstones&ct=flintstones10-hp&oi=ddle

Storyline

The Flintstones and the Rubbles are modern stone-age families. Fred and Barney work at Slate and Company, mining rock. Fred gives Barney some money so he and Betty can adopt a baby. When Fred and Barney take a test to determine who should become the new associate vice president, Barney returns the favor by switching his test answers for Fred's, whose answers aren't very good. Fred gets the executive position, but little realizes that he's being manipulated by Cliff Vandercave to be the fall guy for an embezzlement scheme.

"Stone-age" names

The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and puns involving rocks. For example, San Antonio becomes Sand-and-Stony-o: the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called Mexirock. Travel to "Hollyrock," a parody of Hollywood, usually involves an "airplane" flight — the "plane" in this case is often shown as a giant pterosaur. The last names "Flintstone" and "Rubble" are in line with these puns. So are the names of Bedrock's celebrities: "Cary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonary/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Mick Jadestone and The Rolling Boulders" (Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels). In some cases, the celebrity featured also provided the voice: "Samantha" and "Darrin" from "Bewitched" were voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York. Examples from the above list include Ann-Margret, Curtis, Darrin, and the Beau Brummels. Other celebrities, such as "Ed Sulleystone" and "Alvin Brickrock", were rendered by impersonators.


Music

The opening and closing credits theme during the first two seasons was called "Rise and Shine", a lively instrumental underscore accompanying Fred on his drive home from work. The tune resembled "The Bugs Bunny Overture (This is It!)," the theme song of "The Bugs Bunny Show", also airing on ABC at the time, and may have been the reason the theme was changed in the third season.

Starting in Season 3, Episode 3 ("Barney the Invisible"), the opening and closing credits theme was the familiar vocal, "Meet the Flintstones".

The musical underscores were credited to Hoyt Curtin for the show's first five seasons; Ted Nichols took over in 1965 for the final season.

A PRS for Music survey revealed that the Flintstones' theme tune was the most recognised kids TV theme tune amongst UK adults