Fred Flintstone

File:FredFlintstone.jpg

Fred Flintstone

Frederick Flintstone (usually called Fred) is a fictional character who originated in the popular television animated series The Flintstones. Fred has since appeared in various other cartoon spinoffs and commercials. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone. His best friends are his next door neighbors, Betty and Barney Rubble.

Fred lives in the fictional prehistoric city 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 personality was based on that of Ralph Kramden of the 1950s television series The Honeymooners and Chester A. Riley from The Life of Riley. Thus, much like Ralph, Fred tends to be loud-mouthed, aggressive, and constantly scheming ways to improve his family's working class lot in life, often with unintended results.

Fred works as a "bronto crane operator" at Slate Rock and Gravel Company (also known as Rockhead and Quarry Cave Construction Company in the earliest episodes).

Fred's interests include bowling, playing pool, poker, lounging around the house, and playing golf. Of the first two he is incredibly skillfull, as seen in one of the episodes where he plays against Wilma's unsuspecting mother. Also, Fred has won championships for his incredible bowling skills; in one episode, he goes so far as to take ballet lessons in order to improve his game. Fred, like Barney, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos Lodge.

Fred's catchphrase is "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!," which becomes the subject of a song by Hoagy Carmichael which the singer-songwriter performs in an episode of The Flintstones. It was also referred to in the refrain of the George Jones song "The King is Gone".

Biography

While the mid-1980s spinoff series The Flintstone Kids depicts Fred as a child, the series seems to be mostly apocryphal due to its presenting Fred as a childhood friend of Wilma and Betty (vs. the original series' assertion that they first met as young adults). Still, the series' assertions that Fred was the only child of mechanic Ed and homemaker Edna Flintstone, and was a childhood friend of Barney, might be taken as valid.

As a teenager in high school, Fred became Bedrock High School's star quarterback (and was nicknamed "Twinkletoes Flintstone") for its football team; however, paying more attention to football instead of his studies caused Fred to fail to graduate (and drop out), which he eventually rectified years later.

As a young adult, Fred worked with Barney as bellhops at a resort. There, they first met, and fell in love, with their future wives, Wilma and Betty (who were working there as cigarette girls/waitresses). Wilma's mother, Mrs. Slaghoople, also met her future son-in-law, and immediately took a disliking toward Fred (and vice-versa) starting a years-long rivalry between the two. Eventually, Fred and Wilma were married.

Several episodes of the original series plus a few of the spinoffs assert that Fred spent some time in the army early in his marriage.

In the original series' third season, Wilma became pregnant, and gave birth to the couple's only child, Pebbles.

When Pebbles was a teenager, Fred became a part-time police officer for Bedrock's police force, where along with Barney, he was teamed up on cases with the Shmoo (of Lil Abner comic strip fame).

Later still, Fred became a grandfather when Pebbles and the Rubbles' son Bamm-Bamm (both of who had grown to adulthood and married) became parents of twins, Chip and Roxy.

The following Christmas, Fred and Wilma apparently adopt an orphan from the "wrong side of the tar pits."

Fred Flinstone in Other Media

• Fred Flinstone appeared in the Johnny Bravo episode "A Page Right Out Of History" where he save Johnny's ancestor of the same name as Johnny. Johnny did chores for Fred as a way of repaying Fred.

• Fred Flinstone appeared in an episode of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law where he is suspected to be an organized crime boss. In this show, he is voiced by Maurice LaMarche.

• Fred made a special guest appearance in the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode "Modern Primatives", in which Billy finds him, frozen in ice, buried in his backyard. Upon being (accidentally) unfrozen by Grim, Fred is forced by Billy to adapt to the modern world until he finally goes on a senseless rampage. At the end of the episode, he is frozen again, this time due to sherbet ice cream. Billy also gets frozen (though not shown in the episode; only known because he tells Fred in another future world), due to realizing that there was sherbet ice cream buried in his yard. This version of Fred only says part of his catchphrase, except when Billy asks him his name; he replies with "Oh, Fred", but Billy misinterprets it, thinking Fred is talking in another language, and renames him Jake Steel. Here, Fred Flinstone is voiced by James Arnold Taylor.

Trivia

• Alan Reed was the original voice artist of Fred until his death in 1977. Henry Corden, who had provided the singing voice for Reed (and Fred) in The Man Called Flintstone, took over until his death in 2005. After that Jeff Bergman took over. In fall of 2006 Joe Alaskey and Billy West will take over. In the first live-action Flintstones film, he was portrayed by John Goodman, while the second live-action film had the character portrayed by Mark Addy.

• The notion of a rivalry between in-laws, as seen between Fred and Wilma's mother, is seen in various other sitcoms, including in The Flintstones's successor prime time animated series, The Simpsons---where Homer shares a rivalry with Marge's sisters Patty and Selma Bouvier.

• With Barney Rubble, Fred has been a pitchman for Post Cereals' Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles breakfast cereals. The commercials typically feature Barney trying to trick Fred out of his cereal, invariably ending with Fred bellowing, "Barney, my Pebbles!" as Barney runs off with Fred's cereal - with the singular exception of a Christmas-themed commercial in which Santa Claus reminds him that "'Tis the season for sharing, Fred." Fred then sheepishly shares his cereal with both Barney and Santa.

• During the first several seasons of The Flintstones series, Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble were pitchmen for Winston cigarettes, the show's sponsor at the time. In one Winston 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 the Winston brand cigarette, Fred lit up his cigarette and delivered the catch phrase: "Winstons taste good like a cigarette should.". Another similar ad for the cigarettes featured Wilma and Betty as well; the women were working hard mowing the lawn and beating dust out of a rug while Fred and Barney smoked behind the house.

• In the crossover film The Jetsons meet the Flintstones, Fred and Barney become spokesmen for Spacely Sprockets and Cogswell Cogs respectively.

• English cricketer Andrew Flintoff is given the nickname "Freddie Flintoff" due to perceived similarities between the men.

• When the series was broadcast in Spanish-speaking countries, Fred and Wilma's names became Pedro and Vilma Picapiedra, and Barney and Betty Rubble became Pablo and Betty Mármol, though in Portuguese (which is quite similar to Spanish), the names remained intact.

• In fall 2005, Fred and Barney began appearing in Midas television commericals "Trust the Midas Touch" campaign.

External links

• Webrock - The Flintstones and Hanna Barbera Page

• Drawings of Fred by John Kricfalusi: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5