In 2008 Warner Bros released The Pebbles And Bamm Bamm Show to DVD and I quickly bought and watched it, but found myself disappointed with the episodes. The show wasn't as fun as I remember it being.
And a few months ago (Spring 2019) Boomerang dropped The Flintstone Frolics (TFCS) on the Boomerang streaming service and I finally got to watch these episodes for the first time since I saw them Saturday Mornings in the early 80's.
I'm fairly certain this is the version of the Teenage Pebbles & Bamm Bamm that I remember enjoying so much.
I have seen descriptions of the show on Wikipedia for a while and vaguely remember the things existing, and as much as I remembered enjoying the 1979 The New Shmoo show, I badly wanted to see Bedrock Cops where Fred and Barney team up with The Shmoo. And also this version of Captain Caveman.
Finally getting to watch these has been wonderful. There is an aspect where characters from the different segments will occasionally overlap. Fred as a cop shows up in Flintstone and Frankenstone segments. Captain Caveman or Shmoo will cameo in other segments. And so on.
The Bedrock Cops segments are fine. Mostly they face-off against the Frankenstone's pet Badrock. They are not great at their job. Not just in the inept way, but also Fred embodies the whole abuse of power by cops thing in a major way. In one of the Frankenstone episode he abuses his cop powers to make the monster family lose their home.
The Captain Caveman segments seem heavily inspired by not just Superman, but possibly the 1952 TV version of Superman starring George Reeves. And also a little bit Hong Kong Phooey. Chester, Captain Caveman's alter ego, works at the Daily Granite as a janitor. (Like Penry from HKP) Wilma and Betty are a pair of star reporters, together taking on the role of Lois Lane. When Captain Caveman transforms, he requires a hat rack to jump behind, making so much noise many residents of Bedrock look out their windows quizzically. These segments have a wide array of interesting and inventive villains.
The Dino and Cave Mouse segments are another version of the Tom & Jerry, Tweety & Sylvester type of cartoon series. Tex Avery's name appears on the title card for one, but he may have worked on more. Each episode of the show featured 2 Dino and Cave Mouse segments. Fred Flintstone is in quite a few of these cartoons.
The Flintstone Family segments feel a lot like the classic 60's episodes, but in stripped down 7 minute versions. Fun stuff.
After Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist, and The Gruesomes from the original series and The Creeply's from Laff-A-Lympics, the Flintstone Frolics give us a new version of the Hanna Barbera horror family and it is The Frankenstones. Mostly the same from the movie(s), but not exactly the same. If you liked The Addams Family, The Munsters, Western Publishing's Little Monsters and the other versions, this is more of the same. But with the added bonus of the funny Charles Nelson Reilly from The Hollywood Squares and The Match Game.
But my favorite segment of this show is the Pebbles, Dino and Bamm Bamm cartoons. These seem like they are very heavily inspired by American International Pictures horror films. Giant Spiders, Zombies, Gatorsaurus, Neanderthal, Ghosts, Lizard Monsters, Pirates and various other monsters. This is where we see that Bamm Bamm's supernatural strength from the classic series is no longer in evidence. Dino is pretty hilarious here too.
Both the Pebbles and Captain Caveman cartoons have Mummy stories and I just can't get enough Mummy fiction.
I really can't express how deeply happy getting to watch these cartoons makes me.
