"Reel Trouble" is the twenty-third episode of the fourth season and the one hundred and eleventh overall episode of The Flintstones. It aired on February 20, 1964.
Synopsis[]
Fred shows his home movies of Pebbles to everyone in Bedrock, including footage of two art thieves committing a crime.
Plot[]
Barney is playing football with Bamm-Bamm until the latter knocks him into the Flintstones House, where Fred shows him baby pictures of Pebbles, to his chagrin. Wilma tells him to get rid of his camera to kick his snapshot craze. Fred goes to the store, and when he gets home, he reveals that he traded it for a movie camera to the chagrin of Wilma, who notes, “he’s on the stuff again. Oh well, we’re just gonna have to learn to live with it.” Fred becomes an obsessive-compulsive home-movie-maker. His subject: Pebbles. Fred expects everyone to love his films because Pebbles is the most beautiful baby in Bedrock. At the same time, Wilma understands that watching a baby do nothing but wave hello and good-bye, dance on her butt, and count her fingers and toes for hours is boring to the point where watching such insipid infant footage all night every night all year long is torture. Soon, Barney and Betty avoid socializing with Fred and Wilma, certain as they are that Fred will "shanghai" them into being a "captive audience" for his Pebbles' hello-good-bye-hello-good-bye hand-waving spectacles. Fred has the audacity to bring a feature-film-length home movie, 'A Full Day in the Life of Pebbles Flintstone,' to the Water Buffalo Lodge, quashing his lustful Lodge brothers' hopes to behold a "bathing beauty" film.
The Water Buffalo brethren have angrily vacated the Lodge, all except for a sleeping Barney, by the time the movie finishes and Fred exits the projection room to receive his wrongly anticipated accolades only for Barney to give him Sam Slagheap's note to Fred: "Dear Former Lodge Member, We'll get you for this!" Barney adds insult to injury by telling Fred that his only hope is to join Home Movies Anonymous, a support group for people who have home movie-related problems that they need outside help for. In response to this debacle, Fred modifies his approach to the filmic art by positioning Pebbles in locales of interest to people in general, i.e., the Bedrock Park, Zoo, and Art Museum.
At the last of these places, Fred inadvertently captures an art robbery in Cromagnonoscope Technicolor, in particular the snatching by diminutive Boss and dimwit lummox Fingers of a Whistlerock's Mother portrait. Boss and Fingers smile at Fred's camera as they rush past it, the stolen painting clearly in their possession.
Seconds later, Boss is fully cognisant of the implications of two art bandits being on film, and, in the guise of a doting, elderly lady, befriends Fred and Pebbles and learns Fred's name and address. Come evening, after Wilma and the Rubbles have all gracefully excused themselves from further torture by Fred's filmic fanaticism (with Barney running away shouting, “Poor Fred, he’s really flipped! He’s even too far gone for Home Movies Anonymous!”) and Fred is alone at home with Dino, Boss and Fingers, claiming to be representatives of 20 Millionth Century Fox, visit Fred to request a five-dollar purchase of a certain desirable roll of Fred's film.
Fred declines their overture, and thence, Boss and Knuckles reveal their real identities and purpose while they tie Dino to a chair with film as binding material. Dino sneezes and frees himself, so Boss and Fingers prepare to dispose of Dino in a closet, from which Fred's bowling ball falls from a shelf onto the heads of both criminals. Their resultant unconscious state facilitates a citizen's arrest by Fred.
Police arrive at the Flintstone house as summoned by a telephone call from Fred and find Boss and Fingers fastened by a rope to two chairs and suffering the cruel and unusual punishment of watching Fred's home movies. The devious duo are only too happy to submit themselves to police custody. The police don’t blame them as they find what they just saw very disturbing and Fred’s obsession with his daughter very unhealthy to the point where even the officer in charge agrees that Fred’s got a problem he needs to join a support group for or see a psychiatrist about. Although his fascination with moving images was instrumental in solving a crime, Fred agrees to Wilma's insistence that he kick the home-movie habit and replaces his movie camera with a tape recorder to audio-record Pebbles' baby babble to the chagrin of Wilma and the Rubbles, who can see that he’s got a new fad that has put him right back on the stuff again to the point where the trio wants to scream, "Oh no, here we go again!"
Characters[]
- Fred Flintstone
- Wilma Flintstone
- Barney Rubble
- Betty Rubble
- Bamm-Bamm Rubble
- Pebbles Flintstone
- Dino
- Sam Slagheap
- Boss and Fingers (only appearance)
- Uncle Slabsides (only mentioned)
- Police officers
- Museum Guard (only appearance)
Locations[]
Bedrock[]
- Flintstone home
- Bedrock City Park
- Bedrock City Zoo
- Bedrock Art Museum
- Camera shop (only appearance)
- Water Buffalo Lodge
Objects[]
- Bowling ball
- Pebbles' photo album (only appearance)
- Projector screen (only appearance)
- Rockographic movie camera (only appearance)
- Tape recorder (only appearance)
Food[]
- BBQ Pterodactyl
- Cactus Juice
- Coleslaw
Animals[]
- Snorkasaurus
- Pterodactyl (as BBQ Pterodactyl)
- Brontosaurus
- Tyrannosaurus Rex
- Mammoth (as a statue)
- Unnamed zoo animal
Vehicles[]
- Flintmobile
- Boss's car (only appearance)
- Police car
Cast[]
| Alan Reed | Fred Flintstone |
|---|---|
| Jean Vander Pyl | Wilma Flintstone Pebbles Flintstone |
| Mel Blanc | Barney Rubble Dino Fingers |
| Bea Benaderet | Betty Rubble |
| Don Messick | Bamm-Bamm Rubble Buffalo #1 Buffalo #3 Boss Guard Radio |
| Doug Young | Sam Slagheap TV Announcer Cop Buffalo #2 Clerk |
Notes/Trivia[]
- The cultural references in this episode were taken with spoofs, including Daryl Zanrock (Daryl Zanuck), the Green Bay Brickers (Green Bay Packers), General Stonewall Jackstone (Stonewall Jackson), and Mickey Marble (Mickey Mantle).
- Rockbrandt, Van Granite, Rockasso, and Whistlerock are spoofs of famous artists, including Rembrandt, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Anna Whistler.
- 20 Millionth Century Fox is a spoof of the studio, 20th Century Studios, which Disney dropped the Fox name on January 17, 2020.
Errors[]
- None known.
| Season 4 of The Flintstones |
|---|
| "Ann-Margrock Presents" • "Groom Gloom" • "Little Bamm-Bamm" • "Dino Disappears" • "Fred's Monkeyshines" • "The Flintstone Canaries" • "Glue for Two" • "Big League Freddie" • "Old Lady Betty" • "Sleep On, Sweet Fred" • "Kleptomaniac Pebbles" • "Daddy's Little Beauty" • "Daddies Anonymous" • "Peek-a-Boo Camera" • "Once Upon a Coward" • "Ten Little Flintstones" • "Fred El Terrifico" • "The Bedrock Hillbillies" • "Flintstone and the Lion" • "Cave Scout Jamboree" • "Room for Two" • "Ladies' Night at the Lodge" • "Reel Trouble" • "Son of Rockzilla" • "Bachelor Daze" • "Operation Switchover" |