Was Dino originally blue before becoming purple during early The Flintstones episodes

[Hawkee]

I noticed that when The Flintstones originally aired it's first episodes Dino was a blue dinosaur before adopting his traditional purple color on the later The Flintstones episodes and I want to know why this happened? Was it because Dino was originally blue to match the furniture in The Flintstones house or was Hanna-Barbera trying to save money? I never knew that Dino was originally a blue dinosaur when The Flintstones first aired so this was a surprise to me
Bestie

[DadTheKing]

Hi, Bestie! early Dino had a blue to pink-to-red color, which seems to vary from episode-to-episode during this early period, but was permanently made purple later. Good eye Bestie!
DTK

[AMackII]

Not Do I Know Of but i'm not sure the Dino's skin color was either blue or not.

[TeeVeeCloset]

I can tell you that in the first flintstones little golden book dated 1961 dino is green and they have a son called junior! I have had this book since i was two.

Simply titled The Flintstones, no rubbles and priced at 25 cents!

[stevea]

It appears Dino is only blue in the colorized original openers. They made him the wrong color.

He started out as a reddish brown, very early on, and eventually morphed to purple.

[TeeVeeCloset]

Originally Posted by stevea

It appears Dino is only blue in the colorized original openers. They made him the wrong color.

He started out as a reddish brown, very early on, and eventually morphed to purple.

I hate to disagree with you Steve, but The Flintstones every piece of film was produced in color, no colorization ever took place.

When Boomerang launched, it hung a major portion of its' schedule on Hanna-Barbera classics (Those were the days) The long lost original first 2 season opening/closing was found and was reattached on those boomerang episodes, this was exciting for 70's second generation fans to discover something never seen. Boomerang actually ran commercials stating as originally broadcast. The short 3 minute pilot "The Flagstones" was made in B&W.

Color: The show was broadcast in black-and-white for the first two seasons (1960-1962), although all materials (episodes, commercial breaks, and opening/closing sequences) were always produced in color.

Music: Theme by Hoyt S. Curtin. Opening/Ending: "Rise and Shine" (instrumental, first two seasons and the first two episodes of season 3), "Meet the Flintstones" (rest of the show's run). In some episodes on season 6 ending theme changed in "Open Up Your Heart (and Let the Sunshine In)".

[stevea]

Oh, right, I knew the whole show was produced in color. What I didn't know was that they actually found the color negatives. I thought that when they changed the first two seasons for syndication, the openings and closings (original) ended up on the cutting room floor.

If they had found the openings and closings for each episode, I would think they would match the episodes--but they're generic, the same opening and closing attached to each episode. I read somewhere the actual screen print credit had to be regenerated, to be generic. So, no guest voices or individual episode writer/director credits.

The Jetsons were a different story. The original end credits were replaced when the syndicated seasons were added. But the originals were evidently kept this time (and the episodes were originally in color), so a new Blu-Ray Jetsons set restores the original credits.

Top Cat and Jonny Quest also had credit problems. Top Cat was also originally shown in black and white, and those credits were never restored in color. Jonny Quest was also restored on DVD--I don't know why there was a problem with those.

[merlinjones]

My assumption is that Dino was originally painted a color that translated to the desired shade of gray when broadcast in black and white (even though the film was shot in color).

If you look at color set stills for black and white series, you'll often see very strange color combinations for costumes as they were choosing a wide range of tones for b/w. Likely the same issue here -- when the actual color broadcast seasons arrived designers chose a definitive 'pop' color for the cel paint.

[stevea]

Assuming my theory that the original opening was colorized is wrong, it may have been the very first thing that was shot. So there he was blue. Later when the episodes were shot, they chose a rust color. Still later they settled on purple. Also only a theory.

A few odd things about the openings and closings:

1. I don't think the saber-tooth cat in both closings is ever seen in an episode.

2. The pre-Pebbles newer opener has only the Flintstones (and the cat and Dino) going to the movie, but the lyrics are, Let's ride with the family down the street. Which doesn't match up.

3. The next part of the lyrics above is, Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet. The singers are singing very fast. I don't know what they're singing, but it doesn't sounds like that, although that makes the most sense.

4. I'm going way too deep on this. Forget it and enjoy!

[merlinjones]

"Baby Puss" is indeed seen in a few (but very few) episodes. I saw a gag with the cat a few weeks ago.

The "family" lyrics were always the same for all versions of "Meet the Flintstones" episodes, and yes, indeed "Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet" is the line.

[stevea]

Thanks for that correction. Now I know!

[TeeVeeCloset]

Great Bedrock talk from all!

Yes that line "Through the courtesy of fred's two feet" was a big trivia question just as during the run of all in the family, during the early seasons no one could understand "gee our old lasalle ran great" actually making them re-record the opening with clearer lyrics.

back to the flintstones, yes i found it odd as well that babypuss has such a minor role in the series, yet was so prevalent in the openings and closings, just for fun i guess. Babypuss seemed to be a marketing toy tool, as one of the first major items were the set of 6 knickerbocker? 8 inch rubber figures....babypuss and an orange dino are the rarest to find. Plus Barney has green hair! But these are extremely collectible.

As i've rewatched the series after many years, though i own the individual seasons.....so many oddies, besides dino talking like "Sgt. Bilko" in one early episode, Hoppy is referred as a female in one episode, i just assumed hoppy was male.

and yes it always perplexed me in the opening "riding with the neighbors down the street" with the rubbles finally being shown picked up! I love Hanna-Barbera but they were the first to produce a prime-time animated series and cranked out so many TV icons, with much haste, but it never bothered me but even as a child i noticed the same background loops while driving a car, etc.

Oh and they have sooo many different cars!

Trivia: I could be wrong but will say there are 5 openings to the flintstones...

Rise & Shine
Meet the flintstones 1st standard (no rubbles)
Meet the flintstones 2nd standard (pebbles with building blocks)
Meet the flintstones 3rd standard (add pebbles, no building blocks)
Meet the flintstones 4th standard (add bam-bam to car ride)

any other? and of course the 6th season occasion "Let the sunshine in" closing, a favorite of mine!

[stevea]

Did they also add Hoppy to the openings?

[TeeVeeCloset]

Originally Posted by stevea

Did they also add Hoppy to the openings?

No room for Hoppy in the car or openings! LOL

[stevea]

Or when the Rubbles got Hoppy, the animators said, We're NOT changing it again, and that's that!

If they had put Hoppy in somebody could have said later, we need to have Gazoo flying alongside.