Review: The Flintstones: Season 3 DVD
Reviewed by Craig Byrne
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Before I discovered the world of super-heroes or favorites such as G.I. Joe, cartoons, particularly the ones by Hanna-Barbera, filled my mornings. I still remember the bad grainy copies of The Flintstones that WBFF Channel 45 in Baltimore would show every morning before school, with their little clock in the bottom right hand corner reminding me that it was soon time to leave for school. I remember the very young me getting easily confused, too, thinking the adult Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm from the 70's were actually Fred and Daphne of Scooby Doo in disguise.

I was a weird kid.

I was very excited and lucky to be given the opportunity to review the third season set of The Flintstones from Warner Home Video. It contains 28 episodes from the show's third year, including what may be the most famous episode of the entire series - the episode where Pebbles Flintstone was born into the world. Season Three was the first season of the animated series to be broadcast in color; even though, the first two seasons were produced in color and have aired that way perpetually in syndication, they actually originally were seen in black and white.

The third year also brought out the very first year that the familiar "Meet The Flintstones" opening sequence was used on the show. For previous seasons and for the first few episodes of this DVD, the original opening credits of Fred driving to work (which are very similar to the opening titles of The Simpsons today!) have been restored. I love this opportunity to see things how they originally were, and I really look forward to seeing the later episodes treated in the same way so the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm "Let The Sunshine In" close is back.

The only problem with the credits restoration, though, is that it seems inconsistent. I'm no expert on The Flintstones; that honor would go to someone like Scott Shaw!, whose collection of Flintstones memorabilia is the best bonus extra on the set. But I do find it a little hard to believe that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm would be in the credits for several episodes before Pebbles was even born, and a season before Bamm-Bamm entered the show. Snafu? Most likely. I'm very picky about the opening titles thing; I refuse to buy the later Married... with Children sets because they replace the "Love And Marriage" theme, I'm annoyed that Dawson's Creek has replaced it's familiar tune, and I'm especially annoyed with Anchor Bay's shoddy handling of Saved by the Bell - where some episodes have the right titles and others use the later, syndicated version. But anyway. Considering that multiple versions of the titles are on this DVD, so I can at least see all of the variations, I can't really hold it against them, because the prints look great. For a 40-year-old cartoon, the makers of this DVD really did an outstanding job at making this look good. And, one of the great things about the original Flintstones is that it's really timeless. They originally aired in the 60's, I saw them in the 80's, and I'm sure a generation younger than me would enjoy these episodes just as much today.

I also had issues with jumping from chapter to chapter with this Flintstones DVD. It may be my player; I'm not sure.

The Flintstones Season 3 is, as previous seasons, packaged in a VERY nice-looking "Hanna-Barbera Golden/Classic Collection" design. The design of the packaging is probably some of the best looking I've ever seen to date; especially for an animated series. The only down side to this outer cover is that it is sometimes difficult to get the DVD sets in and out of it without messing something up. Still, it looks way classy on your shelf, and makes you just want to collect them all. (This scheme has also been used for sets of Scooby Doo, Top Cat, Wacky Races, and other Hanna-Barbera greats.

As far as a recommendation to buy the set, I'd actually recommend you get the first season set of The Flintstones before anything else. That set has amazing extras, and it's great to see it all from the beginning. Now that I've got Season One and Season Three, I really wish I had picked up the second season. I still would give the set a B. Some great stuff on there, and definitely recommended for the Flintstones fan, but it's not something that I'd speed through in the same way as a Batman Animated set or anything like that.

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Note: The views of Craig Byrne don't necessarily represent the thoughts and feelings of everyone at KryptonSite.

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