"The Flintstone Canaries" is the sixth episode of the fourth season and the ninety-fourth overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on October 24, 1963.
Synopsis[]
The barbershop quartet Fred organizes to advertise "Soft Soap" is a bathtub quartet, because Barney can carry a tune only when he's in the tub.
Plot[]
Bedrock television's highly popular Hum-Along With Herman Show announces a barbershop quartet contest. The coveted first-place prize is a tropical vacation at Boulder Beach for each member of the tuneful foursome to successfully audition, appear on the next week's Hum-Along With Herman, and be selected by the judges as best quartet. Desirous, of course, of being victor in the contest, in that a stay at Boulder Beach would enable him to relax beneath the sun and fish from atop large boulders on said beach, Fred organizes a "barbershop" quartet with his co-workers at the rock quarry, with noon hour practice on each workday.
Fred's colleagues are capable hummers despite never learning to read music and bring advised by Fred to "fake it". However, Fred as the quartet's lead singer is ear-achingly tortuous for every man and dinosaur at the quarry- and triggers a boulder avalanche, with Flintstone continuing his untalented aria after huge rocks bury him! Fred's musical group has no hope of auditioning successfully without a truly sweet-sounding center vocalist, and to Fred's delight, he hears Barney singing brilliantly in the Rubble bathtub and shanghais his closest friend into joining the Flintstone Canaries in the required capacity, but Barney is only "in good voice" while in soapsuds and bath water.
Improvisation being the brother of invention, Fred modifies the act of the Canaries to include a naked, singing Barney paddling as though he were in a boat, in a bathtub amply filled with water and pulled on a rope by the informally dressed supporting hummers, i.e. Fred and two rock quarry employees.
As fate decrees, the sponsor of Hum-Along With Herman is the goopy Soft Soap, and the Canaries, after innovatively topping the auditions, appear on the relevant Hum-Along With Herman in the final minute of the show as performers in a Soft Soap commercial announcement, all four of them naked in sudsy water in a bathtub extolling the virtues of the product.
Characters[]
- Fred Flintstone
- Wilma Flintstone
- Barney Rubble
- Betty Rubble (no lines)
- Dino
Other Characters[]
- Vic Stoney (only appearance)
- Rocky (only appearance)
- Rabbit
- Herman (only appearance)
- Announcer (only appearance)
- Joe (only appearance)
- Sam (only appearance)
- Police officers
- Army soldiers (only appearance)
- General (only appearance)
- Governor (only appearance)
- Cashier (only appearance)
- Agency Man (only appearance)
- Dogs (only appearance)
- Foreman
- Animal act (only appearance)
Locations[]
Bedrock[]
- Flintstone home
- Slate Rock and Gravel Company
- Vic Stoney Gym (only appearance)
- Shopping center
- Rocks 5th Ave. (only appearance)
- TV Studio
Other[]
- Boulder Beach (only appearance)
- Pterodactyl Airlines (mentioned)
Objects[]
- Soft Soap (only appearance)
- Automatic dishwasher (only appearance)
- Golf clubs
- Record changer
- Rock Bell Phone
Animals[]
- Snorkasaurus
- Rabbitsaurus (as an antenna)
- Pterodactyl (as a record player)
- Monkeysaurus
- Brontosaurus (as a Bronto-Crane and a cab)
- Mammoth (as a whistle)
- Mouseasaurus
- Hedgehogasaurus (as a bath brush)
- Dogasauruses
- Horseasaurus (as a motor in the rear)
- Gorillasaurus
- Chickenasaurus (as a hard-boiled egg)
- Skunkasaurus (mentioned in the song, The Soft Soap Jingle)
Vehicles[]
- Flintmobile
- Sports car (only appearance)
- Bathtub (only appearance)
- Dinosaur cab (only appearance)
- Tank (only appearance)
- Cannon (only appearance)
- Police bicycle
Songs[]
Media[]
- Hum-Along With Herman Show (TV show)
Cast[]
| Alan Reed | Fred Flintstone Bronto-Cab |
|---|---|
| Jean Vander Pyl | Wilma Flintstone Pebbles Flintstone Cashier |
| Mel Blanc | Barney Rubble Dino |
| Don Messick | Announcer |
| Howard Morris | Herman Rocky Horse Sam Bird General |
| John Stephenson | Joe Foreman Egg Porcupine Governor Agency Man |
Notes/Trivia[]
- Stoney River is a spoof of the famous song, Swanee River.
- This episode is a spoof of Sing Along with Mitch, starring Mitch Miller.
- Betty is seen is this episode, but not heard. At the end of the episode she is sitting with Wilma waiting for the boys to appear on the show.
Allusions[]
- In this episode we learn that Thomas Edistone invented the candle, which is an allusion to Thomas Edison who created the lightbulb.
Errors[]
- During the gravel pit rehearsal of "Stoney River", Fred sings the second verse to the tune of the song's refrain.
| 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" |