Dial 'S' for Suspicion

Dial 'S' for Suspicion
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	3
Episode number	74
Production number	P-74
Original airdate	December 14, 1962 (ABC)
Recording Date	July 9, 1962
Crew
Animated by	Ralph Somerville Emil Carle Chuck Harriton Amby Paliwoda
Layout	Dick Bickenbach Lance Nolley Dan Noonan
Background	Robert Gentle
Written by	Herbert Finn
Chronology
Previous	"High School Fred"
Next	"Flash Gun Freddie"

"Dial 'S' for Suspicion" is the fourteenth episode of the third season and the seventy-fourth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on December 14, 1962.

Synopsis

A series of strange accidents coupled with Wilma's sudden insistence on having Fred take out a life insurance policy, and her devotion to a murder mystery novel about a wife who bumps off her husband, causes Fred to wonder if his life is in danger.

Plot

Fred applies for an executive position at Stone Valley Inn, a mountain resort hotel where one can ski and swim in the same day, and after stretching the truth somewhat about his knowledge of Spanish and his having graduated from college (two prerequisites for the job), Fred is granted an interview with hotel owner Conrad Hailstone and accepted for managerial status at Stone Valley Inn, pending a free-of-charge physical examination by the "company" doctor.

The promised increase in Fred's income prompts Wilma to recommend that Fred assent to a life insurance policy whereby Wilma will receive $40,000 should Fred, per chance, die. Fred signs the necessary "papers" to activate the life insurance policy before Barney discovers and reads to Fred textual passages from a book of Wilma's, "Dial S For Suspicion", in which a wife ensures her husband for a fortune and then arranges his apparently unexpected death so that she and her extra-marital lover can collect and enjoy the monetary bounty.

Fred rejects the idea that Wilma may be following the example of the female character in the book until Wilma, while in the process of using a hatchet to slice meat and not knowing that the hatchet has a faulty handle, accidentally releases the hatchet blade for a free-flight across a room to cut into in the arch of a doorway into which Fred is walking.

To Barney, Fred shares his belief that the hatchet blade was hurled deliberately toward him by Wilma, i.e. that Wilma does plan to kill him. At night, Fred's pillow falls to the Flintstone bedroom floor, and Wilma is restoring the pillow to Fred's bed when Fred awakens from troubled sleep to find Wilma standing above him with the pillow in her hand. He tacitly concludes that Wilma is attempting to suffocate him with the pillow, flees through the bedroom wall, and does not return home until morning.

The plot thickens when a friend from Wilma's past, Rodney Whetstone, a knife-thrower with the Barnacle and Shaley Circus now in Bedrock, invites Flintstones and Rubbles to the circus to view his act- and Wilma "volunteers" Fred to stand against Rodney's target board as Whetstone tosses his knives in a perfect arc around Fred's tied, trembling, and terrified body. Whetstone decides to perform this feat while blindfolded as per Wilma's suggestion, and Fred busts his bindings and bolts from the target board, convinced that Wilma has conspired with Rodney to perforate him with the knives.

Desperate to negate the life insurance, Fred feigns illness, by using a false arm with no pulse and a slowly ticking clock to serve as an ailing heart, to fool what he thinks is the life insurance physician into declaring him unfit to be insured, only to later learn that the doctor is really in the employ of Stone Valley Inn, and Fred has scuttled his opportunity for employment there. Wilma finally learns about Fred's ridiculous suspicion of her and verbally scolds him.

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Dino
• Edna Flintstone (mentioned)
• Mr. Featherspine (only appearance)
• Conrad Hailstone (only appearance)
• Rodney Whetstone (only appearance)
• Rodney's assistant (only appearance, no lines)
• Dr. Pilldown (only appearance)
• Bluebeard (only mentioned)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Stone Valley Inn (only appearance)
• Barnacle and Shaley Circus tent (only appearance)

Objects

• Fred's application letter (only appearance)
• Dial "S" for Suspicion book (only appearance)

Food

• Seaweed fricasse
• Bronto-Ham

Animals

• Mammoth (as a shower)
• Monkeysaurus
• Turtlesaurus (as a mail cart and a chess table)
• Brontosaurus (as a Bronto-Ham and a Bronto-Vehicle)
• Saber-Toothed Cat (in a cage)
• Gorillasaurus
• Unnamed bird (as a pencil and eraser)

Vehicles

• Flintmobile

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone
Mel Blanc	Barney Rubble Dino Elephant Turtlesaurus #1 Pencil Bird
Bea Benaderet	Betty Rubble
Howard Morris	Rodney Whetstone Dr. Pilldown Monkeysaurus Letter Opening Bird Turtlesaurus #2 Guy #1
John Stephenson	Conrad Hailstone Mr. Featherspine Man/Ringmaster Guy in Crowd #1

Notes/Trivia

• The circus is Barnacle & Shaley (named for Barnum & Bailey).
• The mail carrier is called Mr. Featherspine.

Allusions

• This episode is a remake of two episodes of The Honeymooners, "The Cold," and "Checkup".
• The title of the episode is a spoof and a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 classic film, Dial M for Murder.

Errors

• When Fred introduces Wilma's book to Barney, the book is red, but later when Wilma is reading, the book is green, she also turns the pages backwards.