Timothy E
Reviewer
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2007
- Messages
- 1,517
- Real Name
- Timothy Ewanyshyn
50 years ago today, The Flintstones premiered on ABC-TV. This has not been announced on Blu-ray yet but this series seems likely to be revisited on high definition in the near future.
The entire series has been released on DVD over the last several years. There is much that Warner Bros. did right with the DVD releases, and a few things they need to correct before this is released again on DVD or Blu-ray.
Among the things they did right were:
1. Reinstating the correct opening and closing credits for the first 2 seasons. The song "Meet The Flintstones" did not become the theme song until the 3rd season, and for many years the credits from 3rd season and later were improperly tacked onto episodes from the first and second season.
2. Including commercials featuring the Flintstones over the years.
The things they did wrong that demand to be corrected in future releases are:
1. Include the broadcast version of "The Big Move." The version of this episode that has been released in the 3rd season set, and presumably also in the complete series set, is a shortened, edited version, possibly a syndicated version. This is mystifying since the complete unedited episode airs regularly in rotation on Boomerang. It is infuriating to buy a DVD collection with an edited syndicated version when the complete version is readily available.
2. Provide the episodes in production order instead of airdate order. For whatever reason, ABC-TV did not air The Flintstones episodes in production order, which created continuity errors: for example, the episode where Fred and Barney find Dino aired long after Dino was already established as a household pet with the Flintstones. Another reason why episodes should be included in production order is the artistic evolution of the characters and storyboards, which evolved noticeably over time, but particularly in the 1st season. The most noticeable change in the first season is that Fred and Barney's noses were originally huge and gradually became smaller. When these episodes are seen in order of airdate, it is jarring to see their noses be huge in one episode, tiny in the next, and then huge again in the following episode.
3. Include the Winston commercials and bumpers. Back when Philip Morris was a proud sponsor of I Love Lucy, the Flintstones also lit up cigarettes to promote Winstons. I am not a supporter of cigarette smoking by any stretch of the imagination (I personally hate cigarette smoke), but these are a fascinating part of our culture and deserve to be seen. Some of these commercials were included years ago in the terrific laserdisc set of the first 14 episodes, and their omission in the DVD collections seems to be a reflection of PC bull****. If the studio is concerned that this will encourage smoking among children, how about using it as an educational opportunity to teach history rather than revise it? The fact is that people buying The Flintstones on DVD or Blu-ray are typically not children, and in spite of the fact that the studio treats this like it is children's programming, which it is not (the studio seems to have the same mistaken attitude towards Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies), this show was created for an adult audience and primarily viewed as such during its prime-time run (which is why the Flintstones lit up with Winstons in the commercials). Honestly, if the world did not fall in when these commercials were included on the laserdiscs, does the studio really believe that it would happen now if included on DVD and Blu-ray releases?
4. Include the stone-age style ABC-TV credit that appeared originally at the end of the closing credits. If the laserdisc collection could include this, there seems little reason why the DVD and Blu-ray cannot include this as well.
5. Give us the Busch Beer episode. In or about 1966, a Flintstones cartoon was made with Fred and Barney promoting Busch Beer. Stop pretending this is a children's show. Much of the Hanna Barbera programming that came after the Flintstones was dumbed down for children but the Flintstones was not in its original incarnation.
6. The movie The Man Called Flintstone was released during the same era as the TV series and should be included, UNEDITED, on any complete series collection. By unedited, I mean including the animated Columbia logo with Wilma Flintstone posed as Columbia's lady liberty. The DVD cut this logo out. I think that Warner Brothers, which is arguably, the most successful film studio in the world releasing this film on DVD can afford to acknowledge the existence of a competitor(Columbia), particularly when the logo in question is artistically interesting and is arguably the funniest gag in the film.
7. Give us better artwork on the packaging. These DVDs and Blu-rays might actually sell better if you give the consumer something better than the generic version of the characters. The laserdisc collection gave us some beautiful John Kricfalusi artwork with an illustrated booklet with more great artwork. I am sure that the artists who did the final artwork on the DVD collections are fine artists, but how about giving the consumer artwork of the characters that reflects their appearances during those seasons? The laserdisc collection came much closer to that than the DVD sets.
Does anybody else out there agree with me? Or disagree?
Before I get off my soapbox, allow me to comment on the DVD releases of those other prime-time H-B cartoons from the 1960s, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest, and suggest what needs to be corrected on future releases:
The Jetsons: This first season set was almost perfect. I was ecstatic that the studio reinstated the original closing credits with George walking Astro, screaming "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" In the early 1980s, these terrific closing credits were chopped off in syndication and replaced with then-modern credits to match the new episodes being produced at that time. The only thing that W-B did wrong with this set, other than the character design on the packaging (too generic), is they left in the title cards created in the 1980s with the 1980s character design. (There really is a difference and fans can tell.) Please fix this on future releases.
Jonny Quest:
1. Please give us these episodes as originally aired. Dialogue cuts in 2 episodes on DVD are not acceptable to fans. You can see the character's lips moving but there is no sound. In "Monster In The Monastery", Jonny's line "Uh oh, here comes the Oriental Express" was cut. In "Pursuit of the Poho", Race's lines are cut where he says "heathen monkeys" and "ignorant savages." The strange thing is that the same studio also released Freakazoid! on DVD which had the same lines used as a parody of Jonny Quest in the "Toby Danger" episode. If the same thing can be said on Freakazoid!, it should be acceptable on Jonny Quest. Remember, this show was directed more to adults than to children, and we can always use this as a teaching opportunity to educate, rather than conceal history, which only allows past mistakes to be repeated into the future.
2. Please give us the original opening and closing credits. Different artists were credited on different episodes of the closing credits, and most of the episodes have the wrong closing credits attached. The DVD gives the impression that the same screenwriter wrote every episode, which is not the case. The very end of the opening credits were also snipped on the DVD where there is a fade to black, fade back in with the Jonny Quest logo and the narrator stating "Jonny Quest."
3. Give us artwork on the packaging that reflects the character design from that time (too generic on the release version).
And how about keeping the original Screen Gems logo at the end of these series? (And if you leave out the modern Cartoon Network credit that is now on the DVDs, that would really be a plus. I love the Cartoon Network but I find that 3 second credit sequence to be one of the most obnoxious and annoying credits ever.)
The entire series has been released on DVD over the last several years. There is much that Warner Bros. did right with the DVD releases, and a few things they need to correct before this is released again on DVD or Blu-ray.
Among the things they did right were:
1. Reinstating the correct opening and closing credits for the first 2 seasons. The song "Meet The Flintstones" did not become the theme song until the 3rd season, and for many years the credits from 3rd season and later were improperly tacked onto episodes from the first and second season.
2. Including commercials featuring the Flintstones over the years.
The things they did wrong that demand to be corrected in future releases are:
1. Include the broadcast version of "The Big Move." The version of this episode that has been released in the 3rd season set, and presumably also in the complete series set, is a shortened, edited version, possibly a syndicated version. This is mystifying since the complete unedited episode airs regularly in rotation on Boomerang. It is infuriating to buy a DVD collection with an edited syndicated version when the complete version is readily available.
2. Provide the episodes in production order instead of airdate order. For whatever reason, ABC-TV did not air The Flintstones episodes in production order, which created continuity errors: for example, the episode where Fred and Barney find Dino aired long after Dino was already established as a household pet with the Flintstones. Another reason why episodes should be included in production order is the artistic evolution of the characters and storyboards, which evolved noticeably over time, but particularly in the 1st season. The most noticeable change in the first season is that Fred and Barney's noses were originally huge and gradually became smaller. When these episodes are seen in order of airdate, it is jarring to see their noses be huge in one episode, tiny in the next, and then huge again in the following episode.
3. Include the Winston commercials and bumpers. Back when Philip Morris was a proud sponsor of I Love Lucy, the Flintstones also lit up cigarettes to promote Winstons. I am not a supporter of cigarette smoking by any stretch of the imagination (I personally hate cigarette smoke), but these are a fascinating part of our culture and deserve to be seen. Some of these commercials were included years ago in the terrific laserdisc set of the first 14 episodes, and their omission in the DVD collections seems to be a reflection of PC bull****. If the studio is concerned that this will encourage smoking among children, how about using it as an educational opportunity to teach history rather than revise it? The fact is that people buying The Flintstones on DVD or Blu-ray are typically not children, and in spite of the fact that the studio treats this like it is children's programming, which it is not (the studio seems to have the same mistaken attitude towards Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies), this show was created for an adult audience and primarily viewed as such during its prime-time run (which is why the Flintstones lit up with Winstons in the commercials). Honestly, if the world did not fall in when these commercials were included on the laserdiscs, does the studio really believe that it would happen now if included on DVD and Blu-ray releases?
4. Include the stone-age style ABC-TV credit that appeared originally at the end of the closing credits. If the laserdisc collection could include this, there seems little reason why the DVD and Blu-ray cannot include this as well.
5. Give us the Busch Beer episode. In or about 1966, a Flintstones cartoon was made with Fred and Barney promoting Busch Beer. Stop pretending this is a children's show. Much of the Hanna Barbera programming that came after the Flintstones was dumbed down for children but the Flintstones was not in its original incarnation.
6. The movie The Man Called Flintstone was released during the same era as the TV series and should be included, UNEDITED, on any complete series collection. By unedited, I mean including the animated Columbia logo with Wilma Flintstone posed as Columbia's lady liberty. The DVD cut this logo out. I think that Warner Brothers, which is arguably, the most successful film studio in the world releasing this film on DVD can afford to acknowledge the existence of a competitor(Columbia), particularly when the logo in question is artistically interesting and is arguably the funniest gag in the film.
7. Give us better artwork on the packaging. These DVDs and Blu-rays might actually sell better if you give the consumer something better than the generic version of the characters. The laserdisc collection gave us some beautiful John Kricfalusi artwork with an illustrated booklet with more great artwork. I am sure that the artists who did the final artwork on the DVD collections are fine artists, but how about giving the consumer artwork of the characters that reflects their appearances during those seasons? The laserdisc collection came much closer to that than the DVD sets.
Does anybody else out there agree with me? Or disagree?
Before I get off my soapbox, allow me to comment on the DVD releases of those other prime-time H-B cartoons from the 1960s, The Jetsons and Jonny Quest, and suggest what needs to be corrected on future releases:
The Jetsons: This first season set was almost perfect. I was ecstatic that the studio reinstated the original closing credits with George walking Astro, screaming "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" In the early 1980s, these terrific closing credits were chopped off in syndication and replaced with then-modern credits to match the new episodes being produced at that time. The only thing that W-B did wrong with this set, other than the character design on the packaging (too generic), is they left in the title cards created in the 1980s with the 1980s character design. (There really is a difference and fans can tell.) Please fix this on future releases.
Jonny Quest:
1. Please give us these episodes as originally aired. Dialogue cuts in 2 episodes on DVD are not acceptable to fans. You can see the character's lips moving but there is no sound. In "Monster In The Monastery", Jonny's line "Uh oh, here comes the Oriental Express" was cut. In "Pursuit of the Poho", Race's lines are cut where he says "heathen monkeys" and "ignorant savages." The strange thing is that the same studio also released Freakazoid! on DVD which had the same lines used as a parody of Jonny Quest in the "Toby Danger" episode. If the same thing can be said on Freakazoid!, it should be acceptable on Jonny Quest. Remember, this show was directed more to adults than to children, and we can always use this as a teaching opportunity to educate, rather than conceal history, which only allows past mistakes to be repeated into the future.
2. Please give us the original opening and closing credits. Different artists were credited on different episodes of the closing credits, and most of the episodes have the wrong closing credits attached. The DVD gives the impression that the same screenwriter wrote every episode, which is not the case. The very end of the opening credits were also snipped on the DVD where there is a fade to black, fade back in with the Jonny Quest logo and the narrator stating "Jonny Quest."
3. Give us artwork on the packaging that reflects the character design from that time (too generic on the release version).
And how about keeping the original Screen Gems logo at the end of these series? (And if you leave out the modern Cartoon Network credit that is now on the DVDs, that would really be a plus. I love the Cartoon Network but I find that 3 second credit sequence to be one of the most obnoxious and annoying credits ever.)
