Fred and Barney Meet The Thing (1979)

Directed by

Ray Patterson, George Gordon, Carl Urbano

Genre

crossover fiction

Country

United States

Length

1 season, 26 episodes

Rating

6.0 of 10 from 9 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two separate cartoon segments are packaged together under one show despite having no crossover. One part has Fred and Barney having their own adventures while the other follows a boy who uses a magic ring to turn into the superhero The Thing. The title is misleading because the Flintstones and The Thing only appear together in the opening credits and short transitions.

misleading titlefragmentedsegmenteddisjointednostalgiclightheartedplayfulfamiliarformulaic

What happens

Fred and Barney Meet the Thing is an American animated package show, and a spin-off of The Flintstones, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which aired on NBC from September 8 to December 1, 1979. Despite the show's title, the two segments remained separate and did not crossover with one another. The characters of Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble and The Thing were only featured together during the opening title sequence and in brief bumpers between segments. The segments featuring Fred and Barney were episodes of The New Fred and Barney Show while The Thing was an unrelated new series co-produced with Marvel Comics. The actual idea for the series came from then NBC President Fred Silverman who originated the concept for a series involving a "boy with a magic ring", and told Hanna-Barbera it needed a recognizable "celebrated attraction". As Hanna-Barbera had a relationship with Marvel producing comics off their IPs the company was able to negotiate for the likeness of The Thing. For the 1979–80 season, the series was expanded to a 90-minute timeslot with the addition of The New Shmoo episodes and broadcast under the new title Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo. For the following 1980-81 season, both The Thing and Shmoo segments would be removed in favor of The Flintstone Comedy Show. Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, only The New Fred and Barney Show segments of the show contained a laugh track, one of their last productions to do so. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo (1979)
• The Thing (1979)
• The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age SmackDown (2015)
• The New Fred and Barney Show (1979)
• Futurama (1999)
• The Flintstones (1960)
• The Flintstone Kids (1986)
• Trollhunters: Tales of Arcadia (2016)