Fred and Barney Meet The Thing
| Fred and Barney Meet The Thing | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Animation |
| Directed by |
Ray Patterson George Gordon Carl Urbano |
| Voices of |
Henry Corden Mel Blanc Jean Vander Pyl Gay Autterson Joe Baker Wayne Morton Marilyn Schreffler |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 13 (26 segments of The Thing) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer(s) | Alex Lovy |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Hanna-Barbera Marvel Entertainment |
| Distributor |
Taft Broadcasting (original) Warner Bros. Television Distribution (current) |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Original release | September 8 – December 1, 1979 |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | The New Fred and Barney Show |
| Followed by | Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo |
Fred and Barney Meet The Thing is a 60-minute Saturday morning animated package show produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired on NBC from September 8, 1979 to December 1, 1979. It contained the following two segments:
Despite the title, the two segments remained separate and did not crossover with one another. Fred, Barney and The Thing were only featured together during the show's opening title sequence and in brief bumpers between segments. The unusual combination of a Marvel superhero and The Flintstones was possible because, at this time, Marvel Comics owned the rights to several Hanna-Barbera franchises and were, in fact, publishing comic books based upon them; The Flintstones was one of these.
For the 1979-80 season, the series was expanded to a 90-minute timeslot with the addition of The New Shmoo episodes and re-titled Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo.
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track, one of their last productions to do so.
The first segment, a very loose adaptation of Marvel Comics' character The Thing, consisted of stories following the adventures of a scrawny, red-headed teenager named Benjy Grimm (voiced by Wayne Morton) who changes into the monstrous and mighty Thing (voiced by Joe Baker) by touching together magic rings and reciting the words "Thing ring, do your thing!", releasing an explosion of energy that causes orange rocks to hurl in from every direction and transform him into the stone-skinned superhero. When the Thing spoke, his good-naturedly gruff Brooklyn-accented voice was based on that of comedian Jimmy Durante.
The stories centered mostly around Benjy at Centerville High School with his friends, the beautiful brunette Betty (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler), her snooty rich boyfriend Ronald Radford (voiced by John Erwin), and Betty's blond tomboy younger sister Kelly (voiced by Noelle North), with minimal adult supervision provided by teacher Miss Twilly (voiced by Marilyn Schreffler). Only Kelly and her scientist father Dr. Harkness (voiced by John Stephenson) know Benjy's secret identity.
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