Fred Flintstone

Fred Flintstone is the main protagonist 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.

Fred lives in the fictional prehistoric town of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexist with modernized cavepeople and the cavepeople enjoy "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles, and washing machines. Fred's trademark catchphrase yell is "yabba dabba doo!", a phrase that was originally his club's cheer, and later adopted as part of the theme song from the third season on and used in the 1994 live-action Flintstones film.

Since the original series' run, Fred has appeared in various other cartoon spinoffs, live action adaptations, music videos, video games, and commercials.

Biography

While the mid-1980s spin-off series The Flintstone Kids depicts Fred as a child, the series may be apocryphal due to its presenting Wilma as a childhood friend of Fred and Barney; the original series asserts that they first met as young adults. Still, the series' depiction of Fred as the only child of Ed (a handyman) and Edna (homemaker) Flintstone might be canon. (Pops Flintstone was in a comic strip.)

As young adults, Fred and Barney worked as bellhops at a resort. There, they met and fell in love with Wilma and Betty, who were working there as cigarette girls. Fred met Wilma's mother, Pearl Slaghoople, and the two took an instant dislike to each other.

During the original series' third season, Wilma gives birth to the couple's daughter, Pebbles. Years later, when Pebbles is a teenager, Fred and Barney join the Bedrock police force for a time as part-time police officers. The nickname of "Twinkletoes" stuck with him when Fred attended a local university and became eligible to play on their football team, and it became his call sign. Fred is also an excellent golfer. Fred is a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos Lodge (named "the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs" in an early episode). Fred also has a serious gambling problem; the mere mention of the word "bet" causes Fred to stammer "bet" over and over again (sounding like a clucking chicken) and go on gambling binges. Fred is also an avid driver. In the fifth-season episode "Indianrockolis 500", Fred entered the famed prehistoric auto race under the pseudonym "Goggles Paisano".

Fred's catchphrase is "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!"; Alan Reed, voice actor who provided Fred's voice from 1960 to 1977, reportedly said the inspiration for the phrase came from his mother, who used to say, "A little dab'll do ya," probably borrowed from a Brylcreem commercial. When the script called for a simple yahoo, Alan either asked if he could alter the phrase or he ad-libbed. It inspired, in the 1970s a short-lived fruit drink called "Yabba Dabba Dew" and may or may not have also inspired George Jetson's similar-sounding catchphrase, "Hooba-dooba-dooba" (or "Hooba-Dooba"). It does, however, become the subject of a song by Hoagy Carmichael which the singer-songwriter performs in one episode of The Flintstones. Fred's ability to carry a tune was quite good in his younger years. One early episode (Alan Reed himself was not a good singer; in instances where he was expected to sing well, a stand-in—usually Henry Corden from 1965 onward—would be used.)

Due to his impulsive and short-tempered behavior and stubborn and somewhat selfish nature, Fred seems to be accident-prone. Even his most innocent and mundane actions often cause widespread confusion. At the end of the closing credits, Fred puts the Flintstones housecat "Baby Puss" outside; the cat however jumps back inside and puts Fred out who begins to knock on the door of his house and starts yelling "Wilma", to open the door.

According to the original series' third-season episode "The Birthday Party" (originally aired April 5, 1963), Fred's birthday is February 2. Fred's address has varied through the series' run, with addresses given for the Flintstone residence including, 201 Cobblestone Lane (October 21, 1960 - "No Help Wanted" episode), 345 Cave Stone Road, 39 Stone Canyon Way, and 1313 Cobblestone Way. Fred's address was cited as "35 Cobblestone Rd" in the 1961 episode "The X-Ray Story".

Animated media

Television shows

The Flagstones (1959)
The Flintstones (1960–1966)
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971–1972)
The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972–1974)
Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics (1977–1978)
Fred Flintstone and Friends (1977–1978)
The New Fred and Barney Show (1979)
Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979)
Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (1979–1980)
The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–1982)
The Flintstone Funnies (1982–1984)
The Flintstone Kids (1986–1988)
What a Cartoon!, featuring Dino: Stay Out! (1995)
The Rubbles (2002)
Yabba Dabba Dinosaurs (2020)
Jellystone! (2021)
Bedrock (cancelled)

Films and specials

Alice in Wonderland or What's a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1966)
The Man Called Flintstone (1966)
The Flintstones on Ice (1973)
Energy: A National Issue (1977)
A Flintstone Christmas (1977)
Hanna-Barbera's All-Star Comedy Ice Revue (1978)
The Flintstones: Little Big League (1978)
Hanna-Barbera Educational Filmstrips (1980); featuring A Weighty Problem, Fire Alarm, Fire Escape and Driving Guide
The Flintstones' New Neighbors (1980)
The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone (1980)
The Flintstones: Fred's Final Fling (1980)
The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera Arena Show (1981)
The Flintstones: Wind-Up Wilma (1981)
The Flintstones: Jogging Fever (1981)
Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper (1982)
The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration (1986)
The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)
The Flintstone Kids' "Just Say No" Special (1988)
A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration: 50 Years of Hanna-Barbera (1989)
I Yabba-Dabba Do! (1993) (voiced by Henry Corden)
Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby (1993)
A Flintstone Family Christmas (1993)
The Flintstones (1994) (portrayed by John Goodman)
A Flintstones Christmas Carol (1994)
What a Cartoon!, featuring Dino: Stay Out! (1995)
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas (2000) (portrayed by Mark Addy)
The Flintstones: On the Rocks (2001) (voiced by Jeff Bergman)
The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown! (2015)
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021) (briefly voiced by Jeff Bergman)

Video games

The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy
The Flintstones
The Flintstones: Surprise at Dinosaur Peak
The Flintstones: The Treasure of Sierra Madrock
The Flintstones: Bedrock Bowling
The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas

Portrayal

George O'Hanlon originally auditioned for the role of Fred Flintstone. Alan Reed was the original voice artist of Fred (minus the original short pilot where he was voiced by Daws Butler, who also voiced him on a 1973 record Duke Mitchell provided the singing voice of Fred in the episodes "Hot Lips Hannigan" and "Girls' Night Out". and also provided the singing voice for Fred in The Man Called Flintstone. In 1972-1975, Lionel Wilson and Jackson Beck provided Fred's voice for two Flintstones record albums produced by Peter Pan Records. Following Reed's death, Corden officially took over the role until his retirement in 2000, although he continued to voice him in Post Pebbles commercials until his death in 2005. Corden voiced Fred's father and mother in The Flintstone Kids, while young Fred was voiced by both Lennie Weinrib and Scott Menville at different points.

Australian voice actor Keith Scott provided Fred's voice in various commercials throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and the live show Hanna-Barbera Gala Celebrity Nite at the Wonderland Sydney amusement park in Australia. Willie Ito provided Fred's Japanese voice for a scene in The Flintstones' 25th Anniversary Celebration.

Jeff Bergman voiced Fred in the fourth episode of The New Show and Flintstones/Jetsons: Timewarp and performed the character throughout the 1990s and 2000s for various Cartoon Network and Boomerang commercials and bumpers, and voiced him in The Flintstones: On the Rocks, his guest appearance in Johnny Bravo, some episodes of Family Guy, and The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown!. James Arnold Taylor voiced Fred in commercials following Corden's death, up until 2011, as well as his guest appearance in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Taylor returned to voice Fred in 2016 for a Columbus Zoo commercial. He was also voiced by Scott Innes in a Toshiba commercial.

Other voices include Maurice LaMarche (in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law), Stephen Stanton (in Robot Chicken), Dave Coulier (in Robot Chicken), Seth Green (in Robot Chicken), In various Italian dubs, Fred's voice was provided by Italian voice actor Carlo Bonomi. Stephen Root was planned to voice Fred Flintstone in the scrapped FOX series Bedrock.

Live action portrayal

In the first live-action film, The Flintstones, Fred was played by John Goodman, who also provided his voice for the film's pinball adaptation. In the prequel film, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, in which Fred is portrayed as younger than he was in the original, he was played by British actor Mark Addy.

In other media

Commercials

Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were pitchmen for Winston cigarettes, the show's sponsor at the time. In one ad, Fred and Barney saw the men working hard at the quarry and decided to retire out of sight for a smoke break. After extolling the virtues of their favorite brand, Fred lit up and delivered the catch phrase: "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." A similar ad featured Wilma and Betty as well. By the original series' third season, Winston had been dropped in favor of Welch's.

Reception

Fred Flintstone was ranked 3rd on the 10 Best Hanna-Barbara Characters Ranked List