| Fred Flintstone |
| First appearance |
The Flintstone Flyer |
| Created by |
William Hanna & Joseph Barbera |
| Portrayed by |
Alan Reed (1960-1977), Henry Corden (1977-2005), John Goodman(first film), Mark Addy (second film), Jeff Bergman(Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, The Flintstones: On the Rocks and Family Guy), James Arnold Taylor (2005-present)
Scott Innes (Toshiba Commercial)
and Stephen Stanton/Dave Coulier (Robot Chicken)
Maurice LaMarche (Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law) |
| Information |
| Aliases |
Frederick F. Flintstone |
| Species |
Caveman |
| Gender |
Male |
| Occupation |
Crane Operator |
| Family |
Ed Flintstone (father), Edna Flintstone (mother), Roxy Rubble (granddaughter), Chip Rubble (grandson), Bamm-Bamm Rubble (son-in-law), Pearl Slaghoople (mother-in-law) |
| Spouse(s) |
Wilma Flintstone |
| Children |
Pebbles Flintstone |
Frederick Joseph "Fred" Flintstone is a fictional character who originated in the animated sitcom The Flintstones on ABC. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone. His best friends are his next door neighbors, Barney and Betty Rubble, who have a son named Bamm-Bamm.
Fred lives in the fictional prehistoric town of Bedrock, at 345 Cave Stone Road (in some episodes, 1313 Cobblestone Way), a world where dinosaurs coexist with modernized barefoot cavepeople and the cavepeople enjoy "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles, and washing machines.
Fred has since appeared in various other cartoon spinoffs, live action adaptations and commercials.
Personality and occupation
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 is a typical blue-collar worker, who 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).
The Flintstone family came from "Arkenstone" (Arkansas) where they had been engaged in a feud with the "Hatrock" family which had been caused by a ancestor of Fred's making a wisecrack of a Hatrock family portrait. In one episode the feud is ended when Fred helps save a Hatrock baby (and Pebbles) from going over a waterfall only to start up again when Fred makes the very same wisecrack. The last of the Arkenstone Flintstones was Fred's Great-uncle Zeke Flintstone. Other Flintstone relatives were Giggles Flintstone - a rich eccentric practical joker whose jokes drive Fred into a mad rage; an "Uncle Tex" and his sister "Aunt Jamima".
Fred's interests include bowling, playing pool, poker, lounging around the house, and playing golf. At the first two of these, he is very skilled, as seen in one of the episodes where he plays against Wilma's unsuspecting mother. Fred has won championships with his incredible bowling skills. In one episode, he goes so far as to take ballet lessons in order to improve his game which led to his nickname "Twinkletoes". The nickname of "Twinkletoes" stuck with him when Fred attended a local college and became eligible to play on their football team, and it became his call sign. Fred is also an excellent golfer. In one episode he wins the championship only to have Barney repossess the winning trophy cup because Fred is behind in his dues. Fred, like Barney, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos Lodge and a member of the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs (clearly modeled after Freemasonry; Mel Blanc, the voice behind Barney, was himself a Mason, although Masons do not wear elaborate funny hats or make animal sounds). Fred also has a serious gambling problem; the mere mention of the word "bet" causes Fred to stammer "bet" over and over again and go on gambling binges.
The original series had several stories regarding TV with Fred as a dupe. In one, Fred makes a fool of himself trying to give Wilma acting lessons after she wins a TV appearance – only for the only part of her to appear on TV is her hands. In another, when Fred wins a TV appearance he tries to act like a "Stage parent" - until he comes down with stage fright. A third time Fred appears on a TV commercial in a non speaking role as a "before" picture of a person before going on a diet. Once, Fred even appeared in a movie, but merely as a stunt double.
Fred's catchphrase "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!" (originally dervied from the Brylcreem advertising jingle motto "A Little Dab'll Do Ya!"), becomes the subject of a song by Hoagy Carmichael that the singer-songwriter performs in an episode of The Flintstones. Fred's ability to carry a tune was quite good in his younger years. One early episode was where he did a jam with his musician friend "Hot Lips Hannigan", (with Barney, who is a skilled drummer) where his singing caused teenage girls to swoon. In fact, in one of the earliest episodes, "The Girl's Night Out", he recorded a demo record at a carnival of the song "Listen to the Mockingbird", which ended up making him a star whereupon he took the stage name of "Hi Fi" and toured for two weeks with Wilma, Barney and Betty. Fred, as Hi Fi, was a hit until Wilma and Betty tired of road life and told teenagers the truth, that Fred was actually a square. As the series progressed, however, his voice became worse and worse, eventually to the point that his housekeeper quit rather than having to hear Fred sing. It was also referenced in the refrain of the 1989 George Jones song, "The King is Gone (And So are You)."
Portrayal
- 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. Corden voiced Fred's father in The Flintstone Kids, whereas a child actor voiced a preteen Fred. Fred is currently voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
Appearances in other H-B media
- For many years Fred Flintstone (as well as other characters from the show) was used to advertise 'Amber', an Australian company that sold pavers and tiles. In some advertisement, a variant of Fred's catchphrase was changed to "Only Amber tiles will do".
- Fred also appeared in some episodes of 1977-1978's Laff-a-Lympics as guest.
- Fred Flintstone appeared in the short movie trailer, Raging Fred, a redub of Flintstones clips with dialogue from the movie Raging Bull.
- Fred Flintstone alongside Barney Rubble appeared in Yogi Bear's All Star Comedy Christmas Caper as Street Santas. Snagglepuss approaches them if they seen J. Wellington Jones only for Fred and Barney to have him ask an old lady. When the old lady screams in fear of Snagglepuss, Fred and Barney attack him claiming it to be an entertainment purpose.
- Fred Flintstone appeared in the Johnny Bravo episode "A Page Right Out of History." He saves Johnny Bravo's ancestor of the same name and Johnny repays Fred by working for him.
- James Arnold Taylor voiced Fred Flintstone who appeared in the The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy episode Modern Primitives. In which Billy after digging him up in a block of ice adopts him as his pet and calls him "Jake Steele", eventually he gets loose and after colliding with an ice cream truck he ends up frozen again and Billy reburies him in his backyard.
Advertising
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: "Winston tastes 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. Vignettes also aired in which Fred lit Wilma's Winston cigarette, and the couple shared a smoke. Campaigns such as this contributed to cigarette advertising of all kinds being banned from television beginning in 1970.
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, usually ending with Fred bellowing, "Barney, my Pebbles!" as Barney runs off with Fred's cereal - a notable exception being a 1989 Christmas-themed commercial in which Santa Claus reminds him that "'Tis the season for sharing, Fred," whereupon Fred then says "Happy holidays, pal", and willingly shares his cereal with both Barney and Santa.
In autumn 2005, Fred and Barney began appearing in Midas Muffler television commercials. Fred appears in a 2007 GEICO Insurance commercial which spoofs the money-saving methods of a blue-collar working man and how he and wife, Wilma, were able to afford a necklace "with huge rocks." It turns out saving money with GEICO really is so easy even a caveman can do it.
Fred was the spokesman for a Rhode Island bank until it went out of business in the 1980s-'90s. The bank, The Providence Institution for Savings, known as Old Stone Bank, featured Fred in its commercials, saying, "Yabba-Dabba-Doo! Love that Old Stone Bank!" The Bank was also one of the first to offer full service Automated Teller Machines (ATM) which were named "Ready Freddy" and included a picture of Fred until the Bank decided to terminate its contract with Hanna Barbera to use the likeness. The machines were so popular that people often referred to ATMs at other banks as "Ready Freddies."
Other languages
- When the series was broadcast in Spanish-speaking countries, Fred and Wilma's names became Pedro (Pedro, Peter in Spanish as being close to 'piedra' which means 'stone') and Vilma Picapiedra ('picapiedra' translating to something like 'stone chiseler' or 'stone hammerer'), and Barney and Betty Rubble became Pablo and Betty Mármol ('marble'), though in Portuguese (which is quite similar to Spanish), the names remained intact. The Spanish version featured Mexican actor Jorge "Tata" Arvizu doing the voice of Pedro Picapiedra, who frequently ad-libbed comments not traceable to the original English language script. Some critics (and a few Hanna-Barbera executives, Arvizu once claimed), found these ad-libbed comments funnier than those in the original English track. A classic example is an episode in which Fred suggests to Barney that two music-playing boarder youths who rented rooms at their respective houses be ejected from them "de una patada en la rabadilla" ("with a kick in their rumps"), a line not featured in the English script.
External links
