Happy 4th of July, everyone! I'm taking a break from my "On the job" theme and decided this was probably the best choice to honor American Independence Day! This is Season 5's The Time Machine, written by Bill Idelson and Sam Bobrick. Henry Corden plays a Roman Guard, Christopher Columbus, a Medieval Knight and a wisecracking hamburger vendor. Don Messick plays the time machine inventor and Benjamin Franklin. John Stephenson plays Nero (with a Jack Benny voice), King Arthur, an astronomer and a cop. Doug Young played a hippo, a duck, a Lionasaurus, a Sailor and a Squire.
Plot summary: Fred takes Wilma, Pebbles and the Rubbles to the World's Fair and must endure traffic on the way. Once there, they endure a roller coaster which scares Wilma and Betty. Fred tries his hand at ringing the bell but Bamm Bamm has better luck. They bring Pebbles and Bamm Bamm to a nursery run by a "rocktopus.' They then check out the gadgets of the future, like an "automatic" washing machine operated by prehistoric animals. Later, Fred and Barney shoot ducks who complain "Quack! Quack! I don't care what this job pays. Next year, we're flying South for the Winter!" They come to one attraction which about the future, which is surprisingly empty. All they see there is an inventor who's just invented a time machine. They all go on, with Fred being the most skeptical. They land in a Roman coliseum. Betty observes everybody is dressed in bed sheets! Fred and Barney wind up the victims of 2 lionasauruses and Fred finds out the hard way they're real! Nero puts his thumb down in disapproval. Just before Barney and Fred become a gourmet meal for those sabertoothed felines, they all wind up on Chridropher Columbus' Santa Maria ship. Since they didn't buy tickets, they're all stowaways and must scrub the deck! A crew member plans to chain up Columbus since the crew doesn't believe the world is round. But Columbus does and he plans to chain up the crew. Just before a riot breaks out, Wilma draws Columbus' attention to a nearby plot of land. Columbus declares "Land! Eetz America!" And the crew cheers. Wilma tries taking credit for discovering America but a jealous Columbus pipes up "The hecka you did! I just discovered America! And don'ta you forget it!" Before they're forced back to scrubbing duties, the inventor pulls the lever again and the Flintstones and Rubbles find themselves in Medieval Times. Fred tries on a joustong helmet and must fight a black knight twice his size. With a little luck, Fred is kicked off the horse, shoots high into the air and lands on his opponent. King Arthur is impressed and offers his daughter for Fred to marry. But Fred is already married to Wilma. So King Arthur orders Fred to be beheaded. And the foursome escape again and wind up in Philadelphia, "the city of brotherly love," as Benjamin Franklin calls it. Wilma improves Franklin's philosophy about an apple a day and early to bed. He writes them all down and asks Fred to hold his kite with a key near the end. Then a storm comes and Fred is electrocuted for holding the kite, along with the other 3! Before Benjamin's experiment burns them all to a crisp, they wind up in New York's 1964 World's Fair. A scientist sees them falling from the sky and thinks they're all meteors! 2 ladies see the families and think they're from the Prehistoric Exhibit. "Divine! Kinda cute, too!" A friendly hamburger vendor asks "Don't you get cold in them outfits?," since they have no shoes. "Here you are, Mac, 4 brontosaurus burgers," he jokes. "That'll be 2 rocks, please!" When Fred tries to pay him with 2 rocks, the vendor gets mad and calls the police. So before the police catch them, the lever is pulled one more time. Fred tells the inventor where they've all been and what happened. "And that's how your time machine works, you can have it!"
What I liked: I only have one complaint. The jousting scene in the Middle Ages should've been before the scene with Christopher Columbus. The gags in the different eras are funny, especially the Jack Benny caricature of Nero (he even says *Www-well!"), Henry Corden's Italian accent for Columbus ("Now backa to ya scrubbing!"), the way Wilma inspires sayings for Benjamin Franklin ("You might even say 'Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise!") and the hamburger vendor who at 1st humors them, then gets annoyed when Fred tries to pay him with rocks instead of American dollars! I also liked the ducks and their comment. Finally, the dinosaur coaster would be used in the episode Circus Business. I give this episode 9 brontoburgers out of 10! They're on me, I'll make sure the burger vendor takes the rocks!
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