Before "The Simpsons", there were "The Flintstones", that modern Stone Age family. It was a daily ritual for me and my brother as kids to watch the antics of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble as they got through the daily grind in Bedrock while sometimes taking on side gigs which would usually end badly in front of their long-suffering spouses, Wilma and Betty respectively. Fred and Barney's favourite pastime of bowling wasn't lost on me since my father was also a fan of hitting the pins.
I always got a kick out of the snarky comments out of the animals that were used as appliances. Hanna & Barbera wouldn't get anywhere near the toilet though.
Of course, the other running gag on "The Flintstones" was how they brought on the celebrities and named them in their own hilarious way. The first time that I got to actually see Ann-Margret was through her appearance on the show as Ann-Margrock. And there were Stony Curtis and Cary Granite. If I had got onto the program, maybe my name would have ended up as J-Canucklestone.
A good chunk of my childhood was spent watching "The Flintstones" and I had assumed that I pretty much knew everything there was to learn about this program. But I was wrong. It was only in the last decade that I discovered "The Flintstones" had been the first animated program to get a prime-time slot on ABC; that's quite something considering that I had only seen Fred and Barney as afternoon cartoon characters.
On top of that, I only found out in the last few months that there had been a very different opening and closing sequence and a different theme song for "The Flintstones" in the first two seasons of its 1960-1966 run. The theme song used for both the opening and the ending was "Rise and Shine", a jazzy and upbeat instrumental by Hoyt Curtin. It was actually a song that I had heard as background music in the episodes but I never knew that it was the first theme. I also have to give thanks to YouTube and the uploader Steven Brandt for showing me the opening and ending credits for the very first time in my life.
Ah, as of Season 3, this was the opening credit sequence that greeted me after getting home from school or finishing off lunch. It was the swing jazz orchestra by Curtin and the Randy Van Horne Singers behind one of Western animation's most famous theme songs "Meet the Flintstones" right when Fred happily screams "Yabba-dabba-doo!" when work is done and it's time to head home.
Although "Meet the Flintstones" wouldn't become the official theme until late 1962, Wikipedia has reported that its composition by Curtin along with Hanna & Barbera had taken place in 1961 so for this ROY, I'm gonna go with that latter year and find out what were the big hits in Japan during that time.
Kyu Sakamoto -- Ue wo Muite Arukou (上を向いて歩こう)
Mari Watanabe -- Tokyo Dodonpa Musume （東京ドドンパ娘）
Sachiko Nishida -- Coffee Rumba （コーヒー・ルンバ）
Yeah, in syndication in America, they used the "Meet the Flintstones" opening even for the early episodes, so I didn't know about "Rise and Shine" until years later. I also didn't know the show was originally aimed towards adults until I read about the infamous cigarette ads they used to do.
ReplyDeleteAh, those were the days. Back then, I wouldn't have been surprised if Snoopy and Woodstock lit up after shooting down the Red Baron.
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