Flash Gun Freddie

Flash Gun Freddie
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	3
Episode number	75
Production number	P-75
Original airdate	December 21, 1962 (ABC)
Recording Date	July 16, 1962
Crew
Animated by	Ed Parks Ed Love Carlo Vinci Hugh Fraser
Layout	Dick Bickenbach Willie Ito Irv Spector
Background	Fernando Montealegre (known as F. Montealegre) Neenah Maxwell
Written by	Jack Raymond
Chronology
Previous	"Dial 'S' for Suspicion"
Next	"The Kissing Burglar"

"Flash Gun Freddie" is the fifteenth episode of the third season and the seventy-fifth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on December 21, 1962.

Synopsis

Fred's new "Polarock" camera is an occasion for all kinds of misadventures for him and Barney.

Plot

Vacationing-at-home Fred and Barney are required by their wives to shop for groceries at the Bedrock Drug Store, where Fred discovers a magazine, Profits in Pictures For Amateurs, and announces that he and Barney will buy a still-photograph camera and be freelance photographers. Barney pays for Fred's purchase of an Instant Polarock, in which a bird uses its beak to etch pictures from slabs of rock, plus the magazine, from the pharmacist on duty.

Wilma and Betty are supportive of their spouses' new endeavor provided that it means a trouble-free vacation for Flintstone and Rubble, and the aspiring photographers commence their quest for lucrative pictures- as per the magazine's recommendations- by pestering Mr. and Mrs. Harry Millrock to allow them to photograph their newborn. The Millrocks place a quarantine sign on their door in a vain effort to repel Fred and Barney, and when Fred promises that the pictures will be free of charge, the Millrocks admit entry to their house to the camera-wielding duo.

The Millrock baby punches and throws food at Fred at the precise moment that Barney activates the camera, resulting in less-than-cute snapshots. Next, Fred and Barney try to capture a humorous moment by photographing a street workman asleep and leaning on a "men at work" sign, but the workman awakens and irately bashes Fred through the camera. When Barney attempts a picture of a pterodactyl nest on a cliff face, the mother bird grabs and drops him atop Fred.

However, Barney attains a spectacular action photograph of Fred while he is falling onto his camera cohort, and a reporter from The Bedrock Gazette, having witnessed this event, is so impressed by Barney's yield that he invites Barney and Fred to meet the newspaper editor, who agrees to pay two dollars for every picture delivered by Fred and Barney to the Gazette. Fred and Barney must upgrade their equipment, however, and Barney withdraws from the Rubbles' bank, money being saved by Betty to finance a dishwasher, to fund a largely frivolous assembly of camera gear- including a submersible lens for underwater photography.

In a desperate effort to produce a valuable picture so that they can replenish the Rubble bank account before Betty learns about Barney's withdrawal of the saved money, Flintstone and Rubble happen to photograph a pair of bank robbers running away from the site of their latest heist.

Though the criminals chase the intrepid camera-masters and try to force the picture from Fred and Barney in a dead end side street, police arrive there and arrest the crooks, and Fred and Barney are paid $40 by The Bedrock Gazette for their superb photograph. They deposit the money into the Rubble bank account and resolve to abandon freelance photography, only to later find that Betty and Wilma have spent the money on two new cameras for their husbands!

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Dino
• Harvey Millrock (only appearance)
• Martha Millrock (only appearance)
• Harry (only appearance)
• Mac (only appearance)
• Rocky and Knuckles (only appearance)
• Bank manager (only appearance)
• Construction worker (only appearance)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Bedrock Drug Store
• Bedrock Gazette (only appearance)
• Bank

Objects

• Polarock camera

Animals

• Snorkasaurus
• Mammoth
• Porcupineasaurus
• Woodpeckerdactyl
• Pterodactyl
• Brontosaurus (as Brontosaurus Steaks)
• Hedgehogasaurus

Vehicles

• Flintmobile

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone Martha Millrock Pterodactyl Mother
Mel Blanc	Barney Rubble Dino Elephant Baby Bank Manager Baby Birds
Bea Benaderet	Betty Rubble
Howard Morris	Harry Kid Porcupine Mac Knuckles
John Stephenson	Harvey Millrock Mailman Editor Rocky Construction Worker

Notes/Trivia

• The title refers to the flash gun which was a name for the flash apparatus.
• Gimrock's Department Store is a spoof of the old Gimbels Store in New York.
• The crooks are called Rocky and Knuckles. The manager is called Harry and the reporter is Mac.
• When Fred and Barney ask to see Harvey, he says: "There's no one home!" And slams the door. This references the Emerald City scene in the classic 1939 film The Wizard of Oz.
• When Dino runs away from Fred trying to take him for his shots, he runs on his hind legs. He hasn't done this since "The Snorkasaurus Hunter."

Errors

• When Fred & Barney are pulling away from a house they had done a "baby photo" shoot with Dino; Dino's head is hanging out of the back of the car looking backward. His whole face is one solid color purple instead of having a light-colored snout.