"The Hero" is the eighteenth episode of the third season of The Flintstones. It aired on January 18, 1963.
Synopsis
Quick-thinking Barney saves the life of a child at an amusement park, but it is Fred who gets the credit.
Plot
Fred and Barney are returning home from a Water Buffalo Lodge meeting when a mother leaves her baby in his carriage positioned at the top of a hill for a minute while she patronizes a drug store. While alone, the infant plays with his yo-yo and accidentally loosens the carriage's brake, and carriage and innocent occupant careen down the hill. Fred and Barney see the freewheeling baby vehicle and run after it in determination to rescue the passenger thereof.
After the baby carriage rapidly rolls into an amusement park and onto a roller coaster's rails, Barney valiantly grabs a set of balloons, ascends to free the infant from the carriage at the roller coaster's highest point, and descends to ground with the baby in his arms. Barney then passes the baby to Fred and commences search for the diapered boy's lost yo-yo, and as Fred is comforting the tiny tot, he is surrounded by the grateful mother, bystanders, a policeman, and a reporter for The Bedrock Gazette, all of whom believe that Fred was the baby's rescuer from the roller coasting baby carriage. Before Fred can correct the adulating crowd, he is informed by the reporter that his picture will be on the Gazette's front page, with a headline saying, "Hero Flintstone Saves Baby".
Fred's flattery supersedes his honesty, and Barney humbly bows to Fred's popularity as town hero, even while Fred snubs him to bowl with the mayor, fish with the governor, and yacht with the president and speaks cornily at the Bedrock Women's Club, Arnold's Boy Scout Jamboree, and the Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Wilma notices that Fred is avoiding Barney, senses that Fred is hiding something, and demands to know the full story about the baby rescue. Fred confides to Wilma about Barney being the real hero but refuses to repudiate his own celebrated status for Barney's benefit, and Wilma scolds Fred, telling him that she cannot understand how he can live with himself.
On cue, an annoying Flintstone doppelganger steps out of Fred's body and challenges Fred to accommodate him indefinitely as house-guest, or else admit to Wilma that he is unable to live with himself and do the honorable thing and cede to Barney as actual hero. Although he tries to do so, Fred cannot endure the presence outside of his own body of his food-snatching, bed-space-grabbing, exploding cigar-providing self and at a Water Buffalo election of Grand Imperial Poobah, at which Fred is the favored candidate, confesses that Barney saved the baby's life and that Fred just "took the credit". Barney and the Water Buffalos are so inspired by Fred's courage in this admission that they unanimously elect Fred as the Poobah anyway!
Characters
- Fred Flintstone
- Wilma Flintstone
- Barney Rubble
- Betty Rubble
- Sam Slagheap
- Arnold
- Fred's self (only appearance)
- Police officer
- Mayor Jimmy (only appearance)
- Baby (only appearance)
- Baby's mother (only appearance)
- Stonewall (only appearance)
- Mrs. Goldrock (only mentioned)
- Madame President (only appearance, no lines)
- Sam Quartz (mentioned)
- Gilbert Granite (only mentioned)
Locations
- Bedrock
- Flintstone home
- Bedrock Drug Store (only appearance)
- Amusement park
- Loyal Order of Water Buffalo Lodge
- Bedrock Women's Club
Objects
- Bedrock Bugle news-slab
- Golf club
- Golf ball
- Alarm clock
Animals
- Snorkasaurus
- Turtlesaurus (as a tire jack)
- Mammoth (as part of a tow truck)
- Stegosaurus (as a Stego-Roast Leg with French Fried Cactus Rings)
- Porcupineasaurus (as a hair comb)
- Dodo Bird (as a Deviled Dodo Egg)
Vehicles
- Loggin Continental
- Tow truck (only appearance)
- Mayor's limousine (only appearance)
Cast
| Alan Reed | Fred Flintstone Fred's self |
|---|---|
| Jean Vander Pyl | Wilma Flintstone Baby |
| Mel Blanc | Barney Rubble Sam Slagheap Porcupineasaurus Turtlesaurus |
| Bea Benaderet | Betty Rubble Mother |
| Howard Morris | Jimmy (Mayor) Sam Quartz Member #2 Member #4 Ticket Taker Reporter Man #1 |
| Don Messick | Arnold Stonewall Member #1 Member #3 Cop Man #2 |
Errors
- None known.
Template:Season 3 (The Flintstones (1960))