The Little White Lie

The Little White Lie
Details
Show	The Flintstones
Season	2
Episode number	37
Production number	P-33
Original airdate	November 10, 1961 (ABC)
Recording Date	March 23, 1961
Crew
Animated by	Ed Love
Written by	Herbert Finn
Chronology
Previous	"Flintstone of Prinstone"
Next	"Social Climbers"

"The Little White Lie" is the ninth episode of the second season and the thirty-seventh overall episode of the original series, The Flintstones. It aired on November 10, 1961.

Synopsis

Fred doesn't want Wilma to know that he lied to play poker, so he pretends that his winnings came from a lost wallet--and honest Wilma places an ad for the wallet's "owner."

Plot

Fred, claiming to be too fatigued to do anything but read the newspaper, shower, and retire early to bed, spurns Wilma's request that he and she go to an evening movie performance at Bedrock's cinema, but minutes later, Barney informs Fred of a lucrative poker game at the home of Sam Quartz, lucrative in that Stanley Stonebruise, whom Fred always easily defeats at the game, will be there. To excuse himself from home without antagonizing Wilma, Fred lies about Stanley being ill and wanting to "hold" Fred's "hand". Fred wins 200 "clams" when Stanley has another unlucky night at the poker table but realises that Wilma will know about his falsehood if he arrives home with the $200.

So, he spins another lie, about finding the money on the street in a disheveled, empty wallet provided by Barney, and the web of deception becomes increasingly complex as Fred is obliged to submit an advertisement to the local newspaper about the wallet, with the "rightful owner" to identify the exact amount of money in order to claim it. He cajoles Barney to telephone Wilma and pose as Tilly Schimlestone, a poor, old widow too sick with a broken leg from a skiing accident, to collect the money (her life's savings) in person and having no address of her own to which to deliver it.

Wilma agrees to send the wallet to "Tilly" through General Delivery at the Bedrock Post Office. When Fred, as the widow's mustached nephew, wheels "Tilly" into the Post Office to obtain the $200 package, they are approached by Daisy Kilgranite of the newspaper and her staff of photographers, who want to do a news story about Schimlestone's plight! Fred and Barney flee the minions of the press, with Barney's "Tilly" wig flying off of his head, and the pair are confronted at the door to the Post Office by Wilma and Betty, who are accompanying Wilma's friend, reporter Kilgranite.

Wilma and Betty, in a taxi cab, chase Fred and Barney, Fred running and pushing Barney on the wheelchair, onto a dead-end street, where Fred and Barney collide with a brick wall. When Wilma demands the truth from Fred about the money, he fibs about it belonging to Barney, who gleefully spends it by treating Betty and the Flintstones to an expensive dinner, and Fred's frustration is excruciating!

Characters

• Fred Flintstone
• Wilma Flintstone
• Barney Rubble
• Betty Rubble
• Arnold
• Daisy Kilgranite (only appearance)
• Stanley Stonebruise (only appearance)
• Sam Quartz (only appearance)
• James Slagney (only mentioned)
• Charsie Birthstone (only mentioned)

Locations

Bedrock

• Flintstone home
• Sam Quartz's house (only appearance)
• Bedrock Chronicle (only appearance)
• Bedrock Theater (mentioned)
• Bedrock Post Office (only appearance)

Objects

• Ball of yarn
• Rock Bell Phone
• Knitting needles
• Playing cards
• Poker chips
• Red Wallet (only appearance)

Food

• Bronto-Soup
• Bronto-Ribs

Animals

• Brontosaurus (as Bronto-Ribs, Bronto-Soup and an Acme Auto Trailer)
• Unnamed bird (as a Dictabird)
• Mammoth (as an ink press)

Vehicles

• Flintmobile
• Taxi cab

Media

• Swiss Family Rubberstone (movie)

Cast

Alan Reed	Fred Flintstone Pressman
Jean Vander Pyl	Wilma Flintstone
Daws Butler	Barney Rubble Clerk Cop Cabby
Bea Benaderet	Betty Rubble Arnold
John Stephenson	Stanley Stonebruise Sam Quartz Mac Man Voice
Sandra Gould	Daisy Kilgranite

Notes/Trivia

• According to this show the Flintstone's telephone number is BEDROCK 313.
• Wilma calls the news-slab Bedrock Chronicle, where Daisy Kilgranite works.
• The elephant is named Josephine.
• Wilma makes dinosaurbraten.
• This is last of the five episodes in which Daws Butler voices Barney and the others were "The Hit Songwriters", "Droop-Along Flintstone", "Fred Flintstone Woos Again" and "The Rock Quarry Story".

Allusions

• Newspaper woman Daisy Kilgranite is an allusion and spoof of the late newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen, who was very well-known during the time this episode was made.
• Wilma talks about the movie Swiss Family Rubberstone, with James Slagney which is a spoof on Robert Louis Stevenson's novel, Swiss Family Robinson and also James Cagney.

Errors

• In one scene it is nighttime at the front door and daylight at the kitchen window.
• The local paper that Wilma puts the ad in is called The Bedrock Chronicle, but in the previous show their paperboy Arnold holds a stack of papers called The Bugle and furthermore in the two per they're shown reading is The Rockville Times.
• After they crash the wheel chair Barney is shown with his back on the ground and legs up against the wall. Then when Betty talks to him he is laying the other way flat on his back with just his head up against the wall.
• In the restaurant, Fred's chair disappears from behind him then re-appears after he faints.