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Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Airing date: February 22, 1963
Stars: The Flintstones
Rating: ★★★★★ ♕
Review:
‘The Dress Rehearsal’ forms the pinnacle of the continuity that had started with ‘The Surprise‘ a month earlier. In fact, the episode is the best of the whole third season, and perhaps of the whole Flintstones series.
The episode starts inconspicuous enough, with Fred and Barney practicing at a gym, owned by a phony character, but when red and Barney decide to practice the day Wilma goes into labor some really fine comedy starts, with the writers pulling all comic registers, from slapstick, via lame jokes to a great comedy of errors.
Barney looks particularly silly posing as Fred’s wife, more looking like Little Red Riding Hood. But all this is topped by a remarkable speedy sequence of rushing back and forth to the hospital. The episode ends with the coming of Fred and Wilma’s baby Pebbles. Unfortunately, her arrival also heralds a sudden drop of quality of the series, as the subsequent episodes will show.
Note that ‘The Dress Rehearsal’ knows a rare appearance of the saber-tooth cat of the title sequences. In the hospital we also see two clear caricatures. These appear to be Vince Edwards and Sam Jaffe from the television series ‘Ben Casey’ (961-1966), which is set in a hospital.
Watch an excerpt from ‘The Dress Rehearsal’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is The Flintstones Season Three episode 23
To the previous The Flintstones episode: Fred’s New Job
To the next Flintstones episode: Carry on, Nurse Fred
‘The Dress Rehearsal’ is available on the Blu-Ray ‘The Flintstones – The Complete Series’ and the DVD-box ‘The Flintstones Season
Directors: William Hanna & Joseph Barbera
Airing date: November 2, 1962
Stars: The Flintstones
Rating: ★★★
Review:
‘The Little Stranger’ starts with a Fred so grumpy Wilma sends him to a doctor to get examined. On the way Fred and Barney repeatedly meet a paper delivering little boy called Arnold, who gets the better of Fred each time. However, we have to wait until the 11th minute before the story really begins.
As with some of the best Flintstones episodes ‘The Little Stranger’ is a comedy of errors, and it is a delight to watch Fred’s sweet side, as well as him running back and forth when he thinks Wilma is expecting a little baby any minute. The best sight gag however, is when the doctor makes Fred inhale and exhale, a breath so powerful it moves Barney, who’s reading on a chair, through the office.
‘The Little Stranger’ feels like a prequel to the continuous story of the Flintstones getting a baby, which makes the third season so unique. It’s the first episode in which the baby idea comes up, and Fred’s reaction indeed is inviting to make the character deal with the real thing.
The stone age gags, meanwhile, are modest, and include a dish washing pelican, the now almost regular mammoth vacuum cleaner, and a bizarre bag-crocodile. Notice that for once, one of the windows is glass-covered, to get a gag with Arnold along.
Watch an excerpt from ‘The Little Stranger’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is The Flintstones Season Three episode 8
To the previous The Flintstones episode: The Buffalo Convention
To the next Flintstones episode: Baby Barney
‘The Little Stranger’ is available on the Blu-Ray ‘The Flintstones – The Complete Series’ and the DVD-box ‘The Flintstones Season 3’
Director: John Eng
Stars: Duckman
Airing Date: April 9, 1994
Rating: ★★★★
‘Gland of Opportunity’ starts with the family being stuck in a long traffic jam on their way to an amusement park, loosely based on Disneyland.
Inside the amusement park, Duckman and his family spend the rest of the day waiting in an overlong line for a roller coaster, but Duckman chickens out just before the ride.
In a rather incomprehensible scene switch he suddenly finds himself in a hospital about to get an andrenoid gland transplant. He goes through with it in the hope to get more courage, and to become more of a role model to his kids.
And indeed, as soon he awakes, and convinces himself he has the gland of a deceased daredevil he becomes a superhero, solving crimes by the dozen and becoming a superstar in now time. But he also is a bad influence on his kids, whom he takes from school to experience ‘the school of life’, which is one long trip around the world. It’s up to Cornfed to restore the situation.
What’s great about ‘Gland of Opportunity’ is that the makers make clear that Duckman’s newborn drive may be originated in a delusion, but that it’s motivated by Duckman’s desire to be respected and admired by his sons. Of course, in the end he utterly fails, but by then we viewers have had a wonderful roller coaster ride of an episode.
Watch ‘Gland of Opportunity’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Duckman episode no. 5
To the previous Duckman episode: Psyche
To the next Duckman episode: Ride the High School
‘Gland of Opportunity’ is available on the DVD-box ‘Duckman – The Complete Series’
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