The Flintstones: Season 1 (DVD)

The Flintstones: Season 1Box SetGenre: Children & FamilyLabel: Warner Bros. Home Ent.Description: Pitched to the American networks as an animated version of Jackie Gleasons The Honeymooners The Flintstones became the first ever successful prime time animated TV show. This amazing 4 disc boxed set includes all 28 episodes of the first series with tons of extra features including amazing trivia and fun games. The forerunner for everything from The Simpsons to Family Guy rediscover the gentle comedy of Fred Wilma Betty and Barney (and Dino the pet dinosaur) in the most beloved animated sitcom of all time! AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW Meet The Flintstones in this prehistoric Hanna-Barbera production. Primetime's first animated series was also the longest running until The Simpsons came along. Not so coincidentally the two shows aren't all that different--even if the former emerged in the sixties the latter in the eighties. Fred (Alan Reed) patriarch of the cave-dwelling clan may be marginally more intelligent than the similarly blue collar Homer but most storylines still revolve around his more dunderheaded moves. Fortunately wife Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and Barney (Mel Blanc) and Betty Rubble (Bea Benaderet) their neighbors are usually able to set things right. This long-awaited DVD set includes all 28 episodes of the first season including the lost Flagstones pilot. Notable segments include Hot Lips Hannigan--one of several riffs on beatnik culture--in which Fred aka The Velvet Smog sings and Barney beats the traps and The Creature From the Tar Pits in which Fred fills in as Gary Granite's stunt double in a Bedrock-set horror flick. The Flintstones's first season introduced two timeless couples from another time. Its success led to a theatrical release two live-action features and countless specials and spin-offs. New viewers may be surprised to find that Dino doesn't make his official entrance until episode 18 (The Snorkasaurus Story) that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm aren't in the first season at all and that the famous theme won't hit the airwaves until the third (replacing instrumental Rise and Shine). Those quirky quotes however were in effect from the start: Wiiilmaaaaaaa! Droll very droll and especially Yabba-dabba-doo!!! --Kathleen C. Fennessy