"Alvin Brickrock Presents" is the fourth episode of the second season and the thirty-second overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on October 6, 1961.
Synopsis[]
A detective magazine convinces Fred that his neighbor's wife is the victim of foul play, when she mysteriously disappears.
Plot[]
Fred and Barney seat themselves in chairs to watch through the Flintstones' rear window another in a series of violent squabbles between a mysterious, new neighbor and his shrewish wife. The wife is now unseen and unheard, and the man, vocation unknown, of the "big, old, gloomy" house situated behind the abodes of Flintstone and Rubble is diminutive and monocled, and has a bandaged cut on his forehead and a propensity for uttering, "Good evening," with an exaggerated English accent.
Coming to the Flintstones' door and introducing himself as Alvin Brickrock, he asks to borrow a spade from Fred and declares that he has again, "been transferred to a new territory," and will thus be moving away from Bedrock. He declares that he has already dispatched his wife, Agatha, to his next community in advance of him. "She fights moving." She, "...goes all to pieces," and Alvin must, "...do all the packing," and laments that it will, "...take a week to clean up everything." The double entendres in Brickrock's statements, and his request for a spade, cause Fred to conclude that Brickrock is, in fact, Albert Bonehart, who is described in Fred's Weird Detective Magazine as being suspected of mortally disposing of three wives and, though not physically resembling Brickrock, having an English-accented fetish for saying, "Good evening." Fred convinces Barney of the veracity of his suspicion that Brickrock/Bonehart has killed Agatha and is intent on burying her remains with use of the spade, and together, Fred and Barney investigate Brickrock, spying upon the strange, little man's bizarre possessions, among them a mastodon skeleton.
Brickrock discovers Fred and Barney in his "study" and confesses- to being an archaeologist in Bedrock to excavate (with the spade) rare treasures of scientific interest. Already in Brickrock's collection are a mummy and a man-eating, flying fish- a piranha-keet. Fred and Barney still think that Brickrock is Bonehart, and when they see a trunk with the initials of A.B., Fred and Barney assume the trunk to be the container for Agatha Brickrock's corpse (a la Rope). Brickrock, although not privy to any of Fred and Barney's macabre beliefs about him, admits that the trunk is for Agatha's body! He opens the trunk to reveal Agatha's body-building materials (weights, barbells, etc.), then talks by telephone to his "pussycat", Agatha, and Fred and Barney's suspicions are finally quashed.
But in a monologue to the audience, Brickrock hints that his man-eating fish is quite capable of consuming a "pussycat". "Good evening."
Characters[]
- Fred Flintstone
- Wilma Flintstone
- Barney Rubble
- Betty Rubble
- Arnold (first appearance)
- Alvin Brickrock (only appearance)
- Agatha Brickrock (only mentioned)
- Machine Gun McGerk (only mentioned)
- Charlie Slate (only mentioned)
- Albert Bonehart (only appearance, in a magazine page)
Locations[]
Bedrock[]
- Flintstone home
- Rubble home
- Alvin Brickrock's house (only appearance)
Other[]
- New Rock City (mentioned)
Objects[]
- Weird Detective Magazine (only appearance)
- Shovel
- Sarcophagus containing a mummy (only appearance)
- Archeology book (only appearance)
- Agatha Brickrock's trunk (only appearance)
- Agatha Brickrock's body-equipment (only appearance)
- Hammer
Animals[]
- Porcupineasaurus
- Saber-Toothed Cat (as a skeleton)
- Piranhakeet (only appearance)
Cast[]
| Alan Reed | Fred Flintstone |
|---|---|
| Jean Vander Pyl | Wilma Flintstone |
| Mel Blanc | Barney Rubble Porcupineasaurus Piranhakeet |
| Bea Benaderet | Betty Rubble |
| Don Messick | Arnold |
| Elliot Field | Alvin Brickrock |
Notes/Trivia[]
- Fred reads Perry Gunnite (Perry Gunn) and Peter Masonite (Peter Mason) comics. Barney, however, reads The Wall Street Journal.
- The Flintstones live at 39 Stone Canyon Way.
- The animation (by George Nicholas) where Fred explained to Wilma about Alvin Brickrock was recycled from the previous episode of the first season, "Hollyrock, Here I Come".
Allusions[]
- This episode is like a parody of the Alfred Hitchcock series because Alvin Brickrock sounds just like Alfred Hitchcock.
- The title spoofs the famous director and mystery show host Alfred Hitchcock and the series Alfred Hitchcock Presents.
- This episode includes a plot very similar to that of the 1954 Hitchcock film, Rear Window.
Errors[]
- In some scenes, Fred's outfit loses its spots.
- In the scene where Alvin explains the contents of the trunk the sticking plaster on his forehead moves from the right side to the left and back again.
| Season 2 of The Flintstones |
|---|
| "The Hit Songwriters" • "Droop-Along Flintstone" • "The Missing Bus" • "Alvin Brickrock Presents" • "Fred Flintstone Woos Again" • "The Rock Quarry Story" • "The Soft Touchables" • "Flintstone of Prinstone" • "The Little White Lie" • "Social Climbers" • "The Beauty Contest" • "The Masquerade Ball" • "The Picnic" • "The House Guest" • "The X-Ray Story" • "The Gambler" • "A Star is Almost Born" • "The Entertainer" • "Wilma's Vanishing Money" • "Feudin' and Fussin'" • "Impractical Joker" • "Operation Barney" • "The Happy Household" • "Fred Strikes Out" • "This is Your Lifesaver" • "Trouble-in-Law" • "The Mailman Cometh" • "The Rock Vegas Story" • "Divided We Sail" • "Kleptomaniac Caper" • "Latin Lover" • "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" |