Rip Van Flintstone

Rip Van Flintstone
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	6
Episode number	148
Production number	P-147
Original airdate	November 5, 1965 (ABC)
Recording Date	June 15, 1965
Crew
Animated by	Robert Carr Hugh Fraser Lou Kachivas Carlo Vinci
Layout	Walt Clinton Lance Nolley Morris Gollub
Background	F. Montealegre Fernando Arce Rene Garcia
Written by	Tony Benedict
Chronology
Previous	"The Great Gazoo"
Next	"The Gravelberry Pie King"

"Rip Van Flintstone" is the eighth episode of the sixth season and the one hundred and forty-eighth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on November 5, 1965.

Synopsis

Fred falls asleep at the company picnic and dreams he has awaken 20 years later.

Plot

After nearly demolishing a supermarket while trying to ride a skate-bone, a bored and irritable Fred is a nuisance at the Slate Company picnic, alienating his friends and co-workers, before he decides to wander away to a quiet place with Dino for a nap.

Sleep Fred does, and he awakens with a long, white beard, which repeatedly trips him. Initially, Fred thinks Barney glued the beard onto him as a prank and is miffed. Fred can't find Dino nor anyone at the picnic site, which is now decrepit from years of neglect. When he asks a passerby about the Slate Company Picnic, the passerby claims not to know about any Slate Company, except for the one that's been out of business for almost 20 years. Fred walks into Bedrock-proper and goes to the Bedrock Pool Hall, to meet up with some buddies. However, none of them are there (presumably retired or deceased). Fred finally makes it home, but another family is living there, and they chase him away. Fred goes to Barney's house to find out what's going on, but another occupant informs Fred that Barney (now called B.J. Rubble) struck it rich almost 20 years ago, and now lives in a mansion called Sandstone Simeon. Now Fred realizes why everything is so different. He's slept for 20 years!

Fred is despondent at having slept his life away, but he decides to go see Barney to find out where his family is. The elder Barney is skeptical about Fred's return, but a sleepy aged Dino, immediately recognizes Fred, erasing any doubt that it is him. Fred tells Barney how he somehow slept for an entire 20 years and asks where his family is. Barney informs Fred that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Rubble, are married now and living there as well. Barney asks the couple to come out, so Fred can see his daughter, but identifies Fred as an old friend named "Mr. Glump" as Fred does not wish to put Pebbles through such an adjustment after being absent from her life for 20 years.

While Fred is delighted to see Pebbles, married happy and beautiful, (and Bamm-Bamm as strong as ever), he's sorry to have missed watching them grow up. Then Barney informs Fred that he and Betty took care of Wilma with his wealth, and she has a cottage on the estate, and Fred goes off to see her. In her elder age, Wilma's eyesight and hearing have faded, and initially, she mistakes Fred for a brush salesman. It takes Fred several attempts to explain who he is before Wilma understands. Wilma pulls up Fred's beard, and recognizes Fred's large tummy, again erasing any doubt that it's him, and she asks where Fred has been all this time. Fred again, sheepishly admits he fell asleep and didn't wake up for 20 years. Wilma is angered about Fred doing this, leaving her to raise their daughter alone, and demands he 'WAKE UP!"

It turns out a young Wilma is waking up Fred from his dream for real near the Slate Company picnic and it turns out that he actually only slept for about an hour. A man reborn, he returns to the picnic and enthusiastically and amiably participates in all of the events.

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Pebbles Flintstone
• Bamm-Bamm Rubble
• Dino
• Mr. Slate
• Sandy (only appearance)
• Sam Shaleface (mentioned)
• Ricky Rockslide (mentioned)
• Stonyslaws (only appearance)
• Hunter (only appearance)
• Marvin (only appearance)
• Fang (only appearance)
• Security Guard (only appearance)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Rubble home
• Bedrock Supermarket
• Bedrock Park
• Pool Hall
• Sandstone Simeon (only appearance)

Objects

• Rock Bell Phone
• Skate bones (only appearance)
• Squirt flower (only appearance)
• Exploding cigar (only appearance)
• Hand buzzer (only appearance)
• Jack-in-a-Box (only appearance)
• Year Glass (only appearance)
• Polarock Camera with a Punching Bag
• Trophy

Food

• Pies
• Brontosaurus soup bone (only appearance)

Animals

• Snorkasaurus
• Mammoth (as a trophy)
• Hipposaurus (as a trophy)
• Saber-Toothed Tigersaurus (as a trophy)

Vehicles

• Flintmobile

Events

Slate Construction Annual Picnic

• Wheelbarrow Race
• Four-Legged Race
• Pie-Eating Contest

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone Pebbles Flintstone (baby and adult)
Mel Blanc	Barney Rubble Dino Fang
Gerry Johnson	Betty Rubble
Daws Butler	Sandy Marvin
Don Messick	Bamm-Bamm Rubble Hunter Stonyslaws
John Stephenson	Mr. Slate Security Guard
Henry Corden	Adult Bamm-Bamm

Notes/Trivia

• The title is a spoof of the story, Rip Van Winkle.
• Coming five years before Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm had a spin-off, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show depicting them as teenagers, this episode offered the first glimpse of a futuristic version of the twosome, here as young adults.
  • Note, Bamm-Bamm's young adult version was taller than Pebbles and Fred, and had taupe-gray hair, plus his same strength.
  • Interestingly though, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm would later get married in I Yabba-Dabba Do!.
• Barney's estate in the dream sequence, Sandstone Simian, is a spoof of the city San Simeon, California, and the mansion is possibly a parody of the Hearst Castle located there.
• In the dream sequence, Bedrock's population expanded from 2,500 to 30,000.
• The actual wedding of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm would be depicted in the 1993 film, I Yabba-Dabba Do!.

Censorship

• Two pictures of a naked woman could be seen in Barney's Mansion known as Sandstone Simian. It was unknown and uncertain how it got past the censorship.

Errors

• When Barney (as B.J.) hangs up the Rock Bell phone, it disappears in the same shot.