Flintstone of Prinstone

Flintstone of Prinstone
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	2
Episode number	36
Production number	P-35
Original airdate	November 3, 1961 (ABC)
Recording Date	April 10, 1961
Crew
Animated by	Don Patterson
Written by	Larry Markes
Chronology
Previous	"The Soft Touchables"
Next	"The Little White Lie"

"Flintstone of Prinstone" is the eighth episode of the second season and the thirty-sixth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on November 3, 1961.

Synopsis

Fred decides to go to night school to enhance his job prospects, but he is forced into the school's American football team, chosen by his boss at the quarry.

Plot

Fred's awareness of his woeful education peaks when he plays Scrabble with Arnold the boy newspaper carrier and resorts to inventing a "word" like "zarf" in a feeble attempt to use the last of his letter blocks. Arnold, of course, excels at the game with a vocabulary that includes "cataclysm" and "polo-pony". Fred explains to Wilma what happened to him in high school, that he aspired to majoring in public accounting in college but spent most of his high school time as "Twinkletoes" Flintstone on a football field and was "too musclebound" from his exploits as a running back to qualify for a diploma.

When Fred discovers a newspaper advertisement for Prinstone University's Night School program, he resolves to improve himself by enrolling in public accounting at P.U., where he- a beanie-capped freshman- is bullied by a squat, bespectacled upperclassman who commands him to call himself Mr. Simplesoul, compare himself to a wiggly worm, for there is no other form of life that is as "low" as a P.U. freshman, and carry the upperclassman's books.

When Mr. Slate learns that Fred is a student at his own alma mater, he telephones Rockwell Quartz, Director of Sports at P.U., to recruit "able-bodied" Fred as a player on P.U.'s football team. Fred is willing to endure the rigor of a renewed football regiment because it enables him to be in the same "league" as the upperclassmen. He strives- without much success- to stay awake as he juggles his responsibilities at the rock quarry, in the P.U. classrooms, and on the football field with his gigantic teammates.

In a crucial game against Shale University, Fred's muddling of his football signals and his accounting-problem figures confuses the opposition, enabling him to score a touchdown, and he literally travels with the football in a field goal. P.U. is victorious, and although Fred earns his diploma, the most that Slate will reward to Fred is a place on the rock quarry's football team!

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Arnold
• Mr. Slate
• Mrs. Slate (first mentioned)

Other Characters

• Gina Loadabricks (only appearance, on a photo from an annual)
• Professor Siltsby (only appearance)
• Coach Rocky Rock (only appearance)
• Bronto Kragurski (only appearance)
• Bat Mastodon (only appearance)
• King Kong Quagmire (only appearance)
• Brick Humpley (only appearance)
• Hum Prickley (only appearance)
• Hammerslag (only appearance)
• Sammy Bog (only appearance)
• Bill Stone (only appearance)
• Harry Olyphic (only appearance, no lines)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Slate Rock and Gravel Company
• Prinstone University (only appearance)
• Rose Boulder Field (only appearance)

Other

• Hollyrock (mentioned)

Objects

• Scrabble crossword game (only appearance)
• Rockville High annual (only appearance)
• Rockville News news-slab (only appearance)
• Schoolbooks (only appearance)
• Rock Bell Phones

Animals

• Turtlesaurus (as a clothes ironer)
• Stegosaurus (as rare Stegosaurus meat and a Stego-Crane)

Vehicles

• Flintmobile

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone King Kong Quagmire Crowd
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone
Mel Blanc	Barney Rubble Coach Rocky Rock Turtlesaurus Crowd
Bea Benaderet	Betty Rubble
Don Messick	Arnold Senior Professor Siltsby Bronto Kragurski Bill Stone
John Stephenson	Mr. Slate Doc Hammerslag

Notes/Trivia

• As of January 23, 2024, this is the only episode from season 2 that no longer airs on Boomerang.
• The title refers to Princeton University, a private university located in Princeton, New Jersey and one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.
• Gravel Pit Packers is a spoof of Green Bay Packers.
• Fred went to Bedrock High School, which it was mistakenly known as Rockville High School, but he never graduated. One of his classmates was Gina Loadabricks (Gina Lollabrigida). Fred was in the classes of '41, '42, '43, '44, and '45.
• Mr. Slate is known this time with his first names as either Seymore or Butterfinger Slate.

Errors

• Fred makes the word "CAT" to which Arnold adds "ACLYSM" to make cataclysm. The scrabble tiles change from shot to shot when the board is shown and their words wouldn't be possible from the varied configurations shown.
  • Furthermore Fred makes the final bogus word "ZARF" by adding his tiles to a "Z" that wasn't there before (at the end of the long vertical word in the center), which it is an actual word, meaning: (especially in the Middle East) a holder, usually ornamental, for a hot coffee cup.
• The newspaper and yearbook are titled The Rockville Times and Rockville High respectively but mistakenly, however they live in Bedrock.
• Arnold is the Flintstone's paper boy and when he goes back to work after the scrabble game he's holding a stack of papers titled "Bugle". Yet later Fred and Wilma are shown reading The Rockville Times even though they live in Bedrock.