The New Fred and Barney Show: The Complete Series Blu-ray Review: Bedrock Faultlines

Almost 20 years after their groundbreaking prime-time series triumph, the Flintstones gang attempted to recapture the magic in this revival series. Unfortunately, the Hanna-Barbera production quality deteriorated so much by the late ‘70s that some faultlines are clearly showing in the Bedrock. Animation is inconsistent, with key animation close to the original series in most episodes but in-between animation woefully subpar. Writing is also hit or miss, including some lackluster anachronisms unceremoniously shoehorned into the (Flint)Stone Age.

To its credit, the show utilizes the original Barney and Wilma voice actors, Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Pyl, along with excellent new hire Henry Corden taking over Fred’s role from the late Alan Reed. Gay Autterson takes over Betty’s role from the also-deceased Bea Benaderet but is a poor match. Thankfully, the girls and Dino don’t appear much, as indicated by the title. The kids are even more invisible, with the infant Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm only appearing in inconsequential cameos in a few episodes for maybe 15 seconds total screen time.

The boys are still employed at the quarry, and run afoul of their old boss a few times, but the show is mostly about their buddy adventures away from work and home. That’s where the anachronisms come into play, with plots seemingly supplied by Scooby Doo writers that pit the duo against vampires, witches, werewolves, a mischievous genie, and fake ghosts. There’s also a ridiculous full-episode attempt to parody ‘70s CB radio culture that should have been left in the writers’ room.

There are good episodes, including “Moonlighting,” which follows the boys picking up secret extra jobs when Mr. Slate cuts their pay due to a misunderstanding, as well as “Barney’s Chickens” that recounts Barney’s misadventures in hypnotism. Unfortunately, while those gems feel very much in the spirit of the original series, they’re outweighed by the preponderance of late-stage Hanna-Barbera assembly line writing slop. Combined with the scattershot animation, it’s no wonder that the series ended after two short seasons totaling only 17 episodes.

Those two seasons are spread across two Blu-ray discs, but aren’t in the original broadcast order or even organized into seasons. Since there are no recurring storylines, the episode order is largely immaterial, but purists are sure to grouse anyway. No bonus features are included. The transfer quality is a rare case where images are far more vibrant than expected, with colors so vivid they nearly sear retinas. Dino is almost dayglo, and even Fred’s orange clothing and blue tie are super bright. No noticeable flaws are present in video or audio, with soundtracks delivered in crisp DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono.

While it’s fun to have the boys back in new adventures, those tales don’t always measure up to the high bar set by the original series. The Bedrock setting and era are largely underutilized in favor of generic monster stories, and the frequently low-quality animation isn’t worthy of the marquee stars. There’s a fair amount of Flintstones charm, mostly thanks to the voice actors, but the series largely proves that you just can’t go home again.