The Flintstones Season 3 (1962)

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The Flintstones Season 3 Review

The third season of The Flinstones has its great episodes and is overall quite good, but is never as great as its previous seasons owing to too many weaker parts.

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“It’s true, folks, the Flintstones are gonna have a baby.

And I want everybody in the whole wide world to know it!

YABBA-DABBA DOO!“

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I really liked Dino Goes Hollyrock and as the title self-explains, he starts a movie career and of course Fred misses him a lot. It is an episode where we see for the first time how important Dino is to The Flintstone family and it is both funny and heartwarming. Fred’s New Boss is absolutely terrific and just perfect for this show. Here Barney becomes Fred’s boss and of course the tension arises in a hilarious fashion.

Barney the Invisible has a weaker beginning and it doesn’t really feel like a Flintstones episode, but it is because of that authentic and of course pretty fun. Bowling Ballet is a solid episode with a particularly good use of a tired bowling subplot, but it ended in such a disappointing and odd manner.

The Twitch is again too much of its time with an overemphasis on rock and roll music, but Fred is so good here and the overall storyline is mostly very crafted and it ended satisfyingly. Here’s Snow in Your Eyes is such a traditional entry owing to its convoluted plot points and a lot of shenanigans and it works beautifully with the girls being especially sympathetic this time around.

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The Buffalo Convention makes use of this pretty annoying Buffalo group to tell a familiar, yet fun story that usually works in this format. The Little Stranger feels odd in retrospect for obvious reasons, but as a singular episode, it is pretty original in premise and is executed so well with a perfect use of a very annoying Arnold kid.

Baby Barney is about Barney pretending to be a baby to satisfy Fred’s cousin and, needless to say, it is an incredibly odd and just plain unbelievable episode, but rarely in a good way. As for Hawaiian Escapade, it is an incredibly forgettable affair not worth talking about more.

Ladies’ Day is another quaint and a bit dated episode with this type of humor not being up to today’s standards. Nuthin’ But the Tooth follows a good continuous shenanigans, but it could have been more memorable nonetheless.

High School Fred has such a wonderful premise in which Fred goes back to finish school in order to earn the diploma for a job. It starts off really great and the entire two thirds are excellent, but the last sports-oriented act was immensely disappointing. Dial ‘S’ for Suspicion sees Fred worrying about Wilma wanting to murder him and naturally it produces many good laughs.

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Flashgun Freddie is one of the most purely entertaining and original episodes of this third season and it was so fun watching its clever premise unfold. The Kissing Burglar is hilarious. It is again too convenient in a typical Flintstones fashion, but it is so funny in its crazy ending and although it is now the third or so episode revolving around burgling, it never felt rehashed as the approach here is quite different.

Wilma the Maid is funny, but we’ve seen episodes like this before. The Hero is certainly frenetic, but absolutely terrific as it makes use of Fred’s guilt wonderfully and it is one of the sweetest episodes concerning his friendship with Barney. The Surprise is an absolute classic as it is not only an episode that is dramatic and funny, but also deeply emotional and important as it not only changed the status quo for the family in adding a soon to arrive baby, but it showed us Fred’s sweet and caring nature wonderfully and how he will make an absolutely great father despite not seeming like it. An amazing episode.

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Mother-in-Law’s Visit is another classic as it shows Fred at his best trying to please his mother-in-law who continues to be an exceptionally strong presence and easily the best supporting character on the show. Foxy Grandma makes use of its crazy twist wonderfully and although it is a familiar episode, it managed to be both funny and entertaining nevertheless. And given the importance of Fred’s New Job, the actual episode felt surprisingly weak.

The Dress Rehearsal is another baby-centric episode that doesn’t quite work this time around as Fred and Barney’s misadventures such as this one are a cliché up to this point. Carry On, Nurse Fred shows us the importance of Wilma in the house, but in a boring and unfunny manner.

Ventriloquist Barney is a return to form after a couple of lackluster episodes. And truly Barney’s new skill here provides to be a great comedic routine in fooling Fred. It is one of the funniest episodes of the season for sure. The Big Move is a good commentary, but again lacking in the actual laughs which is something that this season struggled with continually.

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Swedish Visitors had a great advantage of having foreigners in it which is something we haven’t really seen before on this show, but the execution itself is so weak with the actual characters being forgettable and the music again taking over the episode too much. The Birthday Party is just awesome and a perfect finale for the season. Fred is afraid that the gang forgot about his birthday and that provided us with many chuckles and such a fun ending.

In the end, this season of The Flintstones is such a good, if a bit disappointing season that is never as funny or as consistent as the previous two seasons, but it has more than enough classic episode and also important for the future parts that make it a very good run.

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Worst Episodes: Fred’s New Job, Carry On, Nurse Fred, Baby Barney, Hawaiian Escapade and Swedish Visitors.

Best Episodes: Dino Goes Hollyrock, Fred’s New Boss, The Hero, The Surprise, Mother-in-Law’s Visit, Foxy Grandma and The Birthday Party.