The Girl’s Night Out

Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Airing Date: January 6, 1961
Stars: The Flintstones
Rating: ★★★★½

The wives are complaining that the boys never take them out, so Fred and Barney take them to an amusement park, much to Betty’s and Wilma’s dismay.

At the amusement park Fred records a song for Wilma, which he leaves behind, as Wilma clearly isn’t interested. But Fred’s record is picked up by teenagers, and even makes it to the radio. Soon, Fred becomes the bespectacled teenage idol Hi-Fye.

In his new career as a pop star, Fred is managed by a colonel, who keeps rambling about a boy from Georgia ad nauseam in a rather lame running gag. The Georgia reference is a rare occasion of a real contemporary reference within the series instead of a phony one (like ‘Hollyrock’), and belies the supposed stone age setting of the series.

Anyway, Barney, Wilma and Betty accompany Fred, alias Hi-Fye on a tiring tour, until the wives are so fed up, they spread a rumor that Hi-Fye is in fact a square, thus ending the teen idol’s career within seconds.

This episode is a nice satire on the pop music industry of the late 1950s and early 1960s with its rapid turnover of pop stars. The period between the end of rock-‘n-roll (ca. 1958) and the advent of The Beatles in 1963 was particularly depressing in that respect, with teen idols with shallow hit songs and a short product live span flocking the jukebox.

Fred Flintstone seems to be the epitome of such stardom, having only one hit: his updated version of the age old song ‘Listen to the Mocking Bird’, the origins of which go way back to 1855. Nevertheless, watching Fred doing his ridiculous ‘gimmick’ as Hi-Fye is a sheer delight. The episode also contains a short reference to Hot Lips Hannigan (the star of the episode of the same name) as being way out.

Apart from the pop music scene of the early 1960s, this episode unwillingly gives us a little insight in the depressing life of housewives of the era, who never go out of their homes and whose reason of existence seems to be to serve their husbands. True, more episodes of The Flintstones display this sobering fact, but in ‘The Girl’s Night Out’ this pre-feminist life is made the main subject of the episode.

Watch ‘The Girl’s Night Out’ yourself and tell me what you think:

This is Flintstones Season One Episode 15
To the previous Flintstones episode: The Prowler
To the next Flintstones episode: Arthur Quarry’s Dance Class

‘The Girl’s Night Out’ is available on the DVD-set ‘The Flintstones: The Complete First Season’