My Top 10 Flintstones Episodes.

The Flintstones is one of my favorite TV shows, and I am more than happy that the series will be airing on Me-TV starting September 30th. To celebrate why I love this show so much let's look at my top ten episodes. As is always with lists like this, these are just my opinions. If you disagree with any of these, or if your favorite isn't own here, don't take any offense. There are lots of great Flintstones episodes and to only do 10 is leaving off quite a few excellent episodes.

10. No Help Wanted In this episode, Fred in an effort to get Barney a raise, instead gets his friend fired. Fred then helps Barney get a new job, not knowing that now Barney with have to reposes Fred's TV set. Lots of fast paced slapstick and a great joke about hungry lions make this episode a pure delight.

9. Christmas Flintstone To make some extra Christmas money, Fred gets a part time job as a department store Santa. While in my mind the last two seasons of the show pale in comparison to the preceding four, this episode is a definite exception. I am a sucker for all things Christmas and this episode is just dripping over with Christmas. This may not be as funny as the other episodes on this list, but what it lacks in laughs it more than makes up for in charm. Plus it is nice to see Fred get a job where he is truly appreciated. This episode would be somewhat remade as the made for TV movie, A Flintstone Christmas (1977), but that movie would not quite recapture the charm of this episode.

8. Swedish Visitors "I am Ollie, he is Sven." A very funny episode in which Wilma rents the house to some musicians while the family goes on vacation. A catchy song, lots of great jokes, quotable lines and a cameo by a smarter than your average Hanna-Barbera cartoon character, make this episode a complete delight.

7. The Hot Piano A fast paced and very funny episode. This episode takes some notes from the classic Laurel and Hardy short, The Music Box. While that short is a masterpiece until itself, the slapstick of Fred and Barney trying to sneak the piano into the house without waking Wilma is some of the funniest this show has done. However this slapstick sequence is not the only highlight as the scene with the salesman is very funny as well.

6. Dial "S" For Suspicion This episode takes to parodying two classic movies from the 1940's. Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and Alfred Hitchcock's Suspicion. This is a very clever episode, with tons of great jokes. Plus Fred being paranoid always leads to some great laughs.

5. Fred's New Boss It is extremely relatable to see Fred having to deal with his friend being promoted over him. Many of us have gone through something like this and it is difficult. Not only is this one of the most relatable episodes but it also one of the funniest. This is a joke a minute episode that never lets up on the laughs.

4. Mother-in-Law's Visit So many sitcoms relied on the old trope of a feud between the husband and the mother-in-law. However no sitcom did this better than the Flintstones. The episodes with Fred's mother-in-law were always a pure delight as they offered a great battle of wits between the two characters. In this episode Fred wants to prove to Wilma the two can get along and goes out of his way to be nice to mother. Mother is nowhere near as nice to him though and Fred being Fred has trouble keeping his cool. Fred repeating "I love my dear sweet mother in law" over and over is hilarious. In the end Fred finally wins the battle of wits in one of the show's funniest moments.

3. Love Letters on The Rocks In this episode Wilma discovers an old love letter from Fred. She leaves it out on the counter. Fred doesn't remember writing it tough and when he sees it thinks Wilma is cheating on him. To find out who it is Fred hires a Cary Grant like detective. This episode is one great joke after another.

2. Alfred Brickrock Presents Possibly the show's most laugh out loud funny episode. Hanna-Barbera loved to parody Alfred Hitchcock. In fact a reoccurring character in their Yakky Doodle cartoons would be a caricature of the master of suspense. While Dial "S" for Suspicion borrowed from Suspicion, this episode borrows from Rear Window. This episode has a darker sense of humor than any of the others I listed, but it works perfectly. The ending is one of my favorite Flintstones endings.

1. Little Bamm-Bamm It was rare for this show to have emotional moments as it mostly centered on humor. However this episode has one of the best emotional moments I have seen in a TV cartoon. This is when Betty and Barney wish on a star for a baby. They know it is hopeless and silly, but they are so desperate they do it anyway. This scene shows that we not only find these characters funny but we truly care about them. This moment is not forced but so naturally comes out of the characters that it is irresistible. Other than that scene this is a typically funny Flintstones episode with quite a few great gags and cartoon silliness, but it is that scene that makes this episode stand out as something special.    

-Michael J. Ruhland