Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Toon Rock: Presenting......The Flintstone Canaries (1963)

From season 4 of The Flintstones:

Fred (Alan Reed) forms a barbershop quartet, but there's a problem. Barney (Mel Blanc) can only carry a tune singing in the tub. The newly formed Flintstone Canaries land a deal to do a commercial jingle, and, well, it doesn't end well........!

To give you some idea, here's the audition:



Henry Corden, who'd later be the full-time voice for Fred, reportedly did the singing in place of Reed. Blanc, on the other hand, had plenty of experience, having done some in-character numbers for Warner Bros. (Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, et al). Shoot, for all we know, he could've released an album or two that'd be a collector's item today!

Rating: B+.

2 comments:

magicdog said...

I always enjoyed this one! I appreciate barbershop quartets so this episode made it work. Besides, at the time of its original airing, Doo Wop was still on the radio... and is Doo Wop not a grandchild of barbershop quartets?

I didn't think the ep ended badly - though I was disappointed The Flintstone Canaries were only good enough for a Soft Soap commercial - but at least they were on TV! Even today, that's the boast; why else is there reality TV airing now?

I would have loved it if The Flintstones had a soundtrack back in the day.

I have no evidence to support it, I have a hunch that the same backup singers for The Impossibles were used as the backup for The Flintstone Canaries.

hobbyfan said...

The irony of it all is, there now is such a thing as Softsoap (note the spelling), made by Colgate-Palmolive. Now, how d'ya suppose they came up with the name?