Moonlight and Maintenance

Moonlight and Maintenance
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	5
Episode number	134
Production number	P-134
Original airdate	January 29, 1965 (ABC)
Recording Date	July 28, 1964
Crew
Animated by	John Gentilella Kenneth Muse Casey Onaitis Barney Posner
Layout	Dick Bickenbach Ed Benedict
Background	Phil Lewis Rene Garcia Richard Khim
Written by	Alan Dinehart Herbert Finn
Chronology
Previous	"The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes"
Next	"Sheriff for a Day"

"Moonlight and Maintenance" is the twentieth episode of the fifth season and the one hundred and thirty-fourth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on January 29, 1965.

Synopsis

Tired of household chores, Fred moves his family to the fully automated Bedrock Towers, taking on the job of resident stationary engineer to help pay the rent.

Plot

Fred becomes janitor at the highly "automated" Bedrock Towers with the reward of an apartment in the building- in the basement. "Welcome to the black hole of Calcutta," Wilma laments upon viewing the windowless cellar dwelling, which, naturally, requires a complete cleaning job. Expecting his janitorial duties to be few and easy, Fred retains his rock quarry job at Slate Construction and "moonlights" as Bedrock Towers' custodian without Slate's knowledge.

Fred also rents the original Flintstone residence to a Mr. and Mrs. Wrathrock for additional profit. However, while Fred is working by day at the rock quarry, Wilma is pestered constantly by snobby Bedrock Towers tenants with various equipment problems, and the tasks do not ease when Fred arrives at the apartment building after his long day of work at the rock quarry. He must climb a ladder, with Barney's help, to re-light a candle that illuminates one of the letters in the building's sign.

Matters are worse when Slate relocates his home into Bedrock Towers and sees Fred in the act of mowing the grass surrounding the edifice. Speedily donning a wig and false mustache and speaking with an affected English accent, Fred tries to fool Slate into thinking that he, Bedrock Towers' resident stationary engineer, is another man with Flintstone physique, but the ruse does not last for long, for Fred is obliged, by his unhappy family, by Mr. Rockroll- his dissatisfied Bedrock Towers employer, by Slate, and by his tired body to quit the janitor job and return to the first and humble Flintstone abode.

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Pebbles Flintstone
• Bamm-Bamm Rubble
• Dino
• Hoppy
• Mr. Slate
• Mrs. Slate
• Mr. Rockroll (only appearance)
• Mrs. Rockroll (only appearance)
• Mr. Wrathrock (only appearance)
• Mrs. Wrathrock (only appearance)
• Rimrock (only heard)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Slate Rock and Gravel Company
• Bedrock Towers (only appearance)
• Wig store (only appearance)

Objects

• Rake (only appearance)
• Shopping list
• Coffee mug
• Coffee pot
• Super-Powered Lawn Mower (only appearance)
• Golf club
• Golf ball
• Broom
• Welding helmet (only appearance)
• Welding hose (only appearance)
• Ice Age Box

Animals

• Snorkasaurus
• Hopparoo
• Brontosaurus (as a Bronto-Crane)
• Monkeysaurus
• Mammoth (as a sprinkler)
• Pterodactyl (as an intercom)

Vehicles

• Flintmobile
• Moving trailer (only appearance)

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone Otis
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone Pebbles Flintstone Mrs. Slate Mrs. Wrathrock
Mel Blanc	Barney Rubble Dino
Gerry Johnson	Betty Rubble Mrs. Rockroll
Don Messick	Bamm-Bamm Rubble Hoppy Mr. Rockroll Door Monkey Ice Box Monkey Rimrock
Doug Young	Mowersaurus Elevator Monkey Cop Bird Auto Horn Joe
John Stephenson	Mr. Slate Wrathrock Wig Man

Notes/Trivia

• In this episode only, Mr. Slate has two large tufts of dark hair behind his ears.
  • In all of his other appearances, he only has a few hairs on top of his head.

Allusions

• Herb Finn partially reworked this episode from a similar script he collaborated with A.J. Russell for The Honeymooners episode, "Dial J For Janitor", in 1956.

Errors

• When Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles are in the elevator going down to their apartment for the first time, Wilma asks where the apartment is located in the building, when Fred says "It's in the sub-basement", his mouth doesn't move.
  • In fact, he's not even animated in the shot, but a layout painting.
• In this episode, Betty seems to imply that Hoppy is female when she says "She's going to miss Dino". But in the kangaroo's other appearances in the series, he's male. Maybe the writers didn't know Hoppy's gender, or Gerry Johnson flubbed her line.
• Towards the end of the episode, when Barney is raking the leaves, Fred and Wilma pull up the street. There's Fred, Wilma, and Pebbles in the front with Dino in the back. But when they go to a close-up shot of the Flintstones in the car, Dino suddenly disappears.