FLINTSTONES ON BLU-RAY (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

They're better than Disney but not flawless. They can own up to their past in a way the Mouse can't.

Okay, then, why not censor the Christmas episode of The Monkees that has gay stereotypes and slurs? (If you want to know what I'm talking about, while they are singing a verse of Deck the Halls, when they sing "Don we now our gay apparel" on the word gay they pronounce it in a fey voice and show off a limp wrist. And in the end segment when they are introducing various production people Davy Jones outs one of them telling the audience "He's a poof.")

Wasn't there a similar line in A Hard Day's Night when Ringo says the word "queen" is a double entendre? EDIT: Yes. The wording he uses is "in-joke." Words like the one quoted were all over Monty Python and still on Blu-ray.

One of late-era Hanna-Barbera's proteges, Seth MacFarlane, did something similar to that Monkees episode when he got his own show at Fox:

LOIS: Don we now our gay apparel
BRIAN (pulling on an ugly sweater): Doesn't get much gayer than this!

But where The Flintstones is concerned it seems like this is the only one with a scarlet R on its back. Mel Blanc would be out of a job today since his whole career consisted of playing things he isn't:

 

[dawnshadow]

They crammed 41 episodes of Scooby across 2 BD-25s, which is looking to be their new normal. So eight BD-25s for The Flintstones' entire run. And they'll charge as if they used an appropriate amount of discs

Unfortunately this has just been confirmed to be the case. This set is only 10 discs, including the two movies.

Now we at least pray that they use BD-50s this time round instead of BD-25s. Good lord this is sad.

 

[Mark-P]

Unfortunately this has just been confirmed to be the case. This set is only 10 discs, including the two movies.

Now we at least pray that they use BD-50s this time round instead of BD-25s. Good lord this is sad.

That’s the difference between Warner Archive and Warner Home Video. WAC’s releases of Jonny Quest and the Jetsons are limited to 8 episodes per disc, WHV’s release of The Flintstones will be at least 16 episodes per disc.

 

[ChrisALM]

Even when fans are consulted, errors and misjudgments slip in. The Lost in Space Complete Adventures blu-ray set has audio problems that I would have corrected before finalizing and Kevin Burns, one of the rights holders, is the ultimate fan. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Land of the Giants also have issues.

I don’t know how many home video series collection of classic shows are actually perfectly done at this point. Twilight Zone probably. If The Six Million Dollar Man had better prints, it would be a solid home run. Some audio issues, but the crossovers are all complete with the correct credits. The less said about anything from Sony the better.

I understand and agree with you. I'm just saying if knowledgeable people are involved the chances increase that we get a better release. Perfect? Probably not. Closer to perfect? More likely.

 

[Garysb]

I know the press release says "Every episode has been remastered in HD " but what are the chances that this release will use the same Turner masters that have been used for the Me TV broadcasts. When ME TV first announced they were broadcasting the show there was hope there would be new transfers but that was not the case. Will this be like the Wonder Woman TV set where Warner Bros just released the best version of what they already had .

Not a fan of what the modern movie animation looks and sounds like. Voice actors except for Wilma don't sound close to the originals. Warner Bros does much better job with the voices on Looney Tunes though not a fan of modern animation style on the Looney Tunes ether.

 

[Mark Y]

While that might put the Flintstones "Prowler" episode in jeopardy, Warner isn't MeTV--
Most of their disk content tends to be uncut, as long as they put their One Disclaimer Screen on the beginning.
(Well, there was that sudden silent moment for Race Bannon on the "Jonny Quest" DVD's, has it been corrected for the WA Blu?)

Conventional wisdom has it that there's not really much to censor in The Flintstones, except for...yes, THAT ad, and they're probably not including the in-series commercials.

If the Winston ad was okay for Laserdisc, why not DVD or Blu-Ray?

By the way, for anyone who has that Laserdisc set: What's the quality like on the Winston commercial(s)? I know at least one has appeared on numerous public domain releases, but I imagine Warner (or Turner or whoever released it) might have had access to better elements?

 

[Garysb]

It would be nice if they included the original ABC promos.

 

[ScottRE]

I wish every classic show had network promos.

 

[Ejanss]

Not a fan of what the modern movie animation looks and sounds like. Voice actors except for Wilma don't sound close to the originals. Warner Bros does much better job with the voices on Looney Tunes though not a fan of modern animation style on the Looney Tunes ether.

I never realized Pebbles would become one of the Powerpuff Girls...

Usually, with the others (at least leading up to "Jetsons Meet the Flintstones), Warner still tries to fall into line with the later 70's-series designs of the characters, but this is one of the first new DTV specials done AFTER Warner's infamous "school-bully" Cartoon Network phase in the 00's, where all vintage Hanna-Barbera had to be backhandedly hipster-mocked, because hip modern animators are "embarrassed" by their ancestors.

They've managed to get some therapy for most of their Scooby-Doo issues, but just mention the classic H-B characters, and you'll see the old true-colors come out. And they're still working on their old fears that nobody can mention the DC Comics superheroes without making Aquaman and Superfriends jokes.

 

[Garysb]

Now this is strange. Clip from Flintstones on the Rocks. The voice cast are much closer to the classic episodes than the WWE movie included with the blu ray. Makes a big difference.

 

[dawnshadow]

I understand and agree with you. I'm just saying if knowledgeable people are involved the chances increase that we get a better release. Perfect? Probably not. Closer to perfect? More likely.

The thing is, according to Jerry Beck, there are no knowledgeable people involved.

I know the press release says "Every episode has been remastered in HD " but what are the chances that this release will use the same Turner masters that have been used for the Me TV broadcasts.

The new HD masters are real, they’re on HBO Max. A lot of missing cold openers and incorrect end credits though. At least The Big Move has been fixed.

 

[Ejanss]

but this is one of the first new DTV specials done AFTER Warner's infamous "school-bully" Cartoon Network phase in the 00's, where all vintage Hanna-Barbera had to be backhandedly hipster-mocked, because hip modern animators are "embarrassed" by their ancestors.

Now this is strange. Clip from Flintstones on the Rocks.

Yeah, that would...pretty much historically be from that phase.
Things were getting a bit ugly, in the days before Warner Archive started selling the DVD boxsets, and CN didn't have to worry about using network time to rerun "Wacky Races" anymore.

 

[MatthewA]

I expect that if they had actually gone through with the Seth MacFarlane reboot, that's what we would have gotten. ABC's current owner is going through a similar identity crisis as we speak, except they were never really hip enough to be "hipsters," try as they might. Of all the classic pre-Simpsons pre-Nickelodeon cartoons, Looney Tunes had that kind of "street cred" when I was a kid/young teen more than H-B and certainly more than The Mouse, even if it resulted in a 90-minute shoe commercial. At least when Universal made H-B properties into theatrical movies, they weren't built around the products they endorsed. Imagine if The Flintstones movie from 1994*, which had critics playing a game of the Yabba-Dabba-Dozens to adapt its signature catchphrase into a bad review, had been built around the vitamin pills.

*Paramount wanted to do The Jetsons that way in the 1980s but that got scrapped.

 

[ChrisALM]

The thing is, according to Jerry Beck, there are no knowledgeable people involved.


Okay, I hadn't heard this. So, I'll have to wait for reviews on this set before I consider buying.

I have the original season sets that were released on DVD, I am hoping this will be a noticeable step up in quality.

 

[ScottRE]

Now this is strange. Clip from Flintstones on the Rocks. The voice cast are much closer to the classic episodes than the WWE movie included with the blu ray. Makes a big difference.

I only saw a few minutes of this and was waiting for the rerun that never happened. I - LOVE - the voices, as least Fred and Wilma. They're spot on. I also appreciate the early run look of the characters. No idea if it's any good, but I would have gotten a kick out of it just to have something closer to the original voices than we ever got in the later shows and movies.

 

[timk1041]

Is it possible to get the original series that I originally watched with this BR release? That is what I want. End of story!

Me too.

 

[darkrock17]

Fred and Wilma's voices from The Flintstones: On The Rock special were done by Jeff Bergman and Tress MacNellie.

Jeff Bergman is known for taking over Looney Toons after Mel Blanc's death in 1989.

Tress MacNellie is one of the most known voice actors of all time, she's done The Simpsons, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, Futurama and Rugrats.

 

[Timothy E]

60 years ago today, The Flintstones premiered in prime time on ABC-TV. Today is 10 years to the day after this thread was started, and the series is scheduled to be release on Blu-ray on October 27, 2020.

Will this set be the collection that we have hoped for? Stay tuned...

 

[dawnshadow]

60 years ago today, The Flintstones premiered in prime time on ABC-TV. Today is 10 years to the day after this thread was started, and the series is scheduled to be release on Blu-ray on October 27, 2020.

Will this set be the collection that we have hoped for? Stay tuned...

The answer is already no...

 

[Timothy E]

The official HTF review has been posted here: https://www.hometheaterforum.com/the-flintstones-the-complete-series-blu-ray-review/