The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray

The Flintstones: The Complete Series

 (1960-2015)

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray delivers stunning video and mediocre audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
The misadventures of two modern-day Stone Age families, the Flintstones and the Rubbles.


For more about The Flintstones: The Complete Series and the The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray release, see the The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on October 22, 2020 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.

Directors: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone
Writers: Harvey Bullock, R.S. Allen, Jed Elinoff, Warren Foster, Scott Thomas (XXVIII), Michael Maltese
Starring: Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, Don Messick, Gerry Johnson, Harvey Korman
Producers: Tony Cervone, William Hanna, Spike Brandt, Joseph Barbera, Alan Burnett, Michael J. Luisi


This Blu-ray bundle includes the following titles, see individual titles for specs and details:

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, October 22, 2020

Note: Due to the vagaries of how our database works, this release is classified as a bundle, since it contains two Flintstones films as supplements. However, The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! we link to as part of the bundle is presented in 1080p on its standalone release, but on this release is offered as a 480i upscale. Therefore I've included seven screenshots as part of this review in positions 21 through 27 from this 480i presentation, so that those interested can see what it looks like. Since there was no pre-existing standalone release of The Man Called Flintstone, I have uploaded seven screenshots to the separate review of that supplemental film (see the Supplements section for a link directly to the review).

Considering what an inestimable impact it had on the early days of television in particular, but arguably upon American culture generally, The Honeymooners was actually a rather surprisingly short lived phenomenon in terms of its original broadcast run as a series (as opposed to sketches). And in fact if judged only in terms of the length of its original broadcast run, The Flintstones, often called an animated version of The Honeymooners for obvious reasons, far outlasted its perceived progenitor. The Flintstones, whatever its genesis, belongs in the history books of network television if for no other reason than that it was the first prime time animated sitcom to air on a national network. ABC didn't have a ton of huge hits back when The Flintstones premiered in 1960, and the success of the series obviously didn't escape attention, since within a relatively short expanse of time, ABC attempted to launch The Jetsons, another Hanna-Barbera property that basically took the basic idea of The Flintstones, i.e., a family sitcom placed in an alternate time, and simply rejiggered it for the future rather than the past. (It's notable if perhaps just a little inexplicable that The Jetsons didn't fare nearly as well as The Flintstones, meeting its demise after one season in its original network run.) It isn't that much of a stretch to think that someone like Paul Henning may have himself paid attention to this gambit, since he did a similar "reverse" strategy, albeit with a disconnect between affluent urbanites and more rustic rural types rather than a time period, after The Beverly Hillbillies hit paydirt (and/or "Texas Tea") and Henning came up with Green Acres.



The Flintstones might be thought of as a prime example of that old maxim that something can be so "square" it's "hip". One of the Hanna- Barbera talking heads in the supplementary material actually uses "hip" in an unironic way to describe the series, which may be at least a little debatable for more jaded types. That said, the series, while obviously working squarely (sorry) within the acceptable confines of a "family sitcom" from that era, was regularly inventive in its depictions of its ancient epoch, and it also offered a focal quartet of characters who all had distinctive individual personalities.

Looking back on the series now, while there are some questionable aspects in some of its depictions (the release comes with one of those warnings that the show has "racial and ethnic" portrayals that "were wrong then, and are wrong now"), there's never a really malicious tone about anything, for what that's worth. The series excels in its nutty reimaginings of "future" things ranging from can openers to TV dinners (and, yes, the cavemen somehow have television, for what that's worth). There are also some unexpectedly "real" feeling moments, as in the temporary jealousy Barney and Betty feel once Pebbles shows up for Fred and Wilma (now, admittedly, that quasi-"real" moment is quickly followed by one straight out of a fairy tale).

The series does tend to often feel formulaic, which again probably puts it squarely in the idiom of a sixties family sitcom. But more often than not The Flintstones is surprisingly spry, offering well drawn (no pun intended) characters who interact with each other more or less believably, at least given the outlandish context of a "prehistoric suburb" which seems positively stuck (no matter how much of a misnomer this may seem in terms of its historical accuracy) in the Eisenhower Era.

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray, Video Quality

 

The Flintstones: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1 (for the broadcast episodes, see my comments below in the Supplements with regard to the two "films" included). The video presentation is probably by far the best thing about this release, at least with an understanding that the audio is lossy and all of the supplements are upscales. The palette is regularly beautifully suffused throughout all of the seasons (there does seem to be an overall quality falloff toward the end of the series, which may have just been attrition of some sort), and line detail is consistently strong. There's an organic look to the presentation which offers a natural grain field. There are some baked in issues in terms of things like optical dissolves, and there is also occasional flicker and even momentary frame instability at times. Overall, though, this is a wonderfully vibrant and enjoyable viewing experience.

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray, Audio Quality

 

The Flintstones: The Complete Series features only lossy audio in the form of a Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track. This may seem especially unfortunate considering the glut of goofy sound effects the series regularly employs, but it probably suffices well enough, if not optimally, for presentation of the dialogue. For any Baby Boomers with faltering memories (ahem), don't freak out when the first couple of season offer an instrumental theme which is weirdly reminiscent of "This is It" from The Bugs Bunny Show. The more instantly recognizable "Meet the Flintstones" theme begins in Season 3. But the musical element is another facet that may strike some audiophiles as being woefully underserved by a lossy presentation. There's no noticeable audio damage to report, in any case, and optional English subtitles (along with some other languages, see above) are available.

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras

 

Disc One

• The Flagstones: The Lost Pilot (480i; 1:35) is just a snippet, rather badly faded and with considerable damage.


• How to Draw Fred Flintsone (480i; 6:47) features Hanna and Barbera themselves as tutors.

Disc Two

• Carved in Stone: The Flintstones Phenomenon (480i; 20:42) is an archival retrospective featuring a number of people who worked on the series.

Disc Three

• Songs of The Flintstones Album (480i; 27:57) is basically an audio supplement that plays to stills from the series. This features Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono audio.

Disc Four

• All About The Flintstones (480i; 5:21) is an archival retrospective that goes into the history of Hanna - Barbera in general as well as this show. Hanna and Barbera make some appearances, with not exactly "natural" sounding conversation between them.


• Wacky Inventions (480i; 5:44) look at some of the whimsical "technologies" the show regularly employed.

Disc Five

• Bedrock Collectibles: Collecting All Things Flinstones (480i; 6:42) looks at some of the maybe just a little kitschy tie in products that accompanied the show.


• The Flintstones: One Million Years Ahead of its Time (480i; 8:33) is another archival piece with a bunch of Hanna-Barbera workers talking about the series.

Disc Six

• First Families of the Stone Age (480i; 7:06) features more Hanna-Barbera folks discussing two families you can probably guess.


• Hanna-Barbera's Legendary Music Director Hoyt Curtin (480i; 7:05) was for my money the best single featurette on this release, with a number of people assessing Curtin's contributions to the "Hanna-Barbera brand". For some reason this started out anamorphically stretched and then popped into its correct 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Disc Ten

• The Flintstones Meet Pop Culture (480i; 11:29) features Steph en Baldwin talking about some of the series' parodies.


• The Great Gazoo - From A to Zetox <480i; 3:49) features Earl Kress going over some history of the series' Season Six character.


• The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! (480i; 51:39) is one of two supposed feature films offered in this set. As mentioned above in the introductory note, this particular title had its own standalone Blu-ray release several years ago, and for those interested in a plot recap, I refer you to Ken Brown's The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! Blu-ray review of that version. I'll also repeat my reminder that Ken's review is of a 1080p release, while this "supplement" is presented in 480i, and as such the difference in video quality is quite striking. Also as mentioned above, I've included seven screenshots from this version in positions 21 through 27. Finally, this has Dolby Digital 2.0 audio, while the standalone release had a lossless surround track delivered via DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.


• The Man Called Flintstone (480i; 1:29:00) is to my mind the only "real" feature film in this set. Our database includes a listing for this title, and so I refer you to my The Man Called Flintstone Blu-ray review for my thoughts on the film as well as its technical presentation.

Note: As may be surmised from the above list, Disc Seven, Disc Eight and Disc Nine contain no supplementary content.

The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation

 

There are both pluses and minuses to this release in my estimation. The big plus is the video quality of the actual series, which looks sharp, organic and generally really beautifully suffused. The minuses include only lossy audio and the fact that all of the supplements, including the ostensible "films", are in 480i and have resultant less than optimal video. While I personally would have preferred lossless audio and 1080p presentations of at least the "films" (especially since the WWE film had a previous 1080p release), having the series looking this good is wonderful. With caveats duly noted, Recommended.

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The Flintstones: The Complete Series Blu-ray, News and Updates

• Warner: The Flintstones The Complete Series Detailed for Blu-ray - September 23, 2020

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