The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show | Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! …Show 71

Flintstone! Pebbles Flintstone!

She’s the modern, stone-age teen Lucy.

Next door - to Bamm-Bamm Rubble/

They will make their mark in history.

Let’s ride - with their buddies down the streets/

Through the courtesy of Bamm’s two feet.

When you’re with Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm,

Have a yabba-dabba-doozy time,

A dabba-doozy time....

But look out foooor Schleeeeprooooock!

Hi everyone and welcome to...

 Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! …Show '71

Today... Two of our favorite prehistoric babies grew up before our eyes. 

After watching these two be super-cute & adorable and
super-strong & destructible, respectably on The Flintstones, 
Pebbles Flintstone (daughter of Fred & Wilma) and
Bamm-Bamm Rubble (adopted son of Barney & Betty)

have become a bright, bubbly and beautiful young woman &
a cool, laid-back and handsome young man, respectively.

The series features our newly-minted prehistoric teenagers going to high school, hanging out and driving around with their friends, chowing and dancing at the local hangout and living out the best of their young lives. But whenever an “opportunity” arises, Pebbles gets a scheme cooked up and does her darndest to see it through, to Bamm-Bamm's pleas to just not do them and (most importantly) not be a part of them. But she somehow gets him in the act and - inevitably - her plans fail, until a new plan is cracked (and failed) until things somehow turn out much better and all is right for Peb, Bamm and their friends and family... until the next opportunity arises.

Pebbles (voiced by Sally Struthers - Gloria Stivic on All in the Family) is exactly like her father. Whenever a moment arises to the advancement or detriment of herself, her friends or family, she gets a twitch in her eyes, a look on her face, and the sound of her odd shaking. She’s got an idea for a wild scheme to fix things (read: try... and fail). Unfortunately for her (also like her father), her schemes never go to plan -- making things worse and putting her and her friends in more trouble. (And sometimes if it isn’t her screwing up, leave it to Schleprock {the local jinx} to ruin everything with his horrid bad luck.) Her worst moment is in “Coach Pebbles” when she takes over for Fred as coach of his little league baseball team. Because she’s his daughter. She thinks she’ll do well by coddling the boys -- but she’s horrible (at the job and the game); and she picks Wiggy and Penny (and not Bamm-Bamm and Moonrock) as her assistants (even though they know as very little about the game as she does!).

Pebbles’ schemes do come from a place of kindness and goodwill; And I’ll give her this: I admire her feverish determination to make things right, even if she makes things worse first. She tries so hard, and you would think to leave things be or at least learn when to quit ahead. I’ll say this: at least she’s not like Wilma. Sure, she’d be a much more sane and wiser person, but that wouldn’t make things entertaining. Fortunately, we have Bamm-Bamm in the role to try (and fail) to stop Pebbles from enacting her crazy schemes. Speaking of...

Bamm-Bamm (voiced by Jay North - TV’s Dennis the Menace), on the other hand, is just like his father (and mother): he’s sweet, smart (or at least smarter), sensible, caring, and always there for his best friends-- including his girlfriend (I’ll get to that soon). Also, like his parents, Bamm has all the common sense in the world to know Pebbles will puff out a wild and crazy scheme to gain something or get them out of a jam - and inevitably fail, and calls her out on her idiocy when they come or when she just won’t give up and run for help. But no matter what, he sticks by her -- because that's what good ball-and-chains-- I mean, good friends do. (Even if the better option is to cut and run.) Oddly enough, the one thing Bamm-Bamm was known most for - his (in)famous superhuman strength - isn’t featured fully here. There are a few scenes of lifting things with ease sprinkled throughout (but not as humongously acted when he was still an infant), but there are more scenes where he doesn’t and should have with no problems. (I guess the writing and producing staffs thought it was better to focus on the more teen-ish aspects of Bamm’s character, and it makes sense. But you shouldn’t have taken away the thing that made him so well-known.)

After watching the two best friends as babies reign us in with their cute charm and adorable presences, it makes so much sense to see the All-Amer-- I mean, All-Stone-Age Boy and the Girl Next Door keep up that charm and become more than friends as teenagers. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm looked so cute as a couple (which makes sense as we see them together a lot), have a great chemistry and rapport. One of my favorite things about the series is the type of relationship they have: Pebbles is a sweetheart who wants to help out everyone (Bamm-Bamm included), but her over-eagerness to to do so screws up everything. Bamm meanwhile wants everything to stay as they are, and wants to have fun with his friends (Peb included) and cares about her enough to tell her straight to her face that her plans will blow up, but he sticks around to help and keep the peace. That's a friendship I'd love.

Fred, Wilma, Betty (with another new voice actress) and Barney too (Yabba-Dabba-Doo!) return for this spinoff (along with their respective voice actors), and it’s great to see the foursome getting screen time alongside their kids. Seeing the adults chat with their adolescent youngsters, encouraging their plans, giving them support, getting back support from them, and just being there with them and for them puts a smile on my face.

The Other Characters:
Because this is a spinoff, new characters have to be created of course. So we do have three to start with to accompany Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

- Penny Pillar: Pebbles’ pudgy, perceptive partner-in-crime
-Wiggy Rockstone: Pebbles’ high-voiced astrology-astute acquaintance
- Moonrock Crater: Bamm-Bamm’s bosom buddy and the gang’s intuitive inventor

I like Moonrock more, because even though his character is just “the smart, cola-bottle-glasses wearing inventor”, he gives a slight edge to the girls. Wiggy has nothing more to her than just her astrology reading and operatic voice. And Penny edges her because she has a more interesting characteristic in being self-conscious about her weight, has more notable lines and a more distinct voice (like Brenda from Rhoda); that was my opinion at the start, but one thing I disliked was her calling Moonrock a creep for just stating the truth. The more I watched, the more it irritated me until the aforementioned “Coach Pebbles”, where I reached a breaking point. At that point, she’s my least favorite. (Her lines about her weight went away after a few episodes; then in “They Went That Away”, most of her lines are of her salivating over Barbeque meals. Maybe that’s part of her issues.) They’re real good friends to Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm and .I wish they did get more scenes to develop their characters; Moonrock did get scenes to showcase his inventions, but all we see of Wiggy is her star sign sightings and of Penny is her weight issues and snarking at Moonrock. In fact that’s why Moonrock tops in my mind. Overall, though, they're great friends to Peb and Bamm and only see and want the best for them.

Other than their best cooperative circle, other other characters included:

- Cindy: the main antagonist and Pebbles’ nemesis. She’s known to make Pebbles miserable by bragging about her wealth, her (bought-and-paid-for) accomplishments and her many attempts to flirt with Bamm-Bamm just to piss her off.
- Fabian: the other antagonist, Cindy’s boyfriend and the nemesis of both Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. He’s… there. Kinda like rich arm candy for Cindy with a douchey grin to match.
-- Cindy and Fabian aren’t exactly hated, but there’s nothing about them to be even disliked. All Cindy does is look rich, act rich, flirt with Bamm-Bamm, and talk crap about Pebbles. They are there just to cause insanity to Pebs and Bamm, only to get their (especially Cindy’s) comeuppance in the end of the episodes they appear in, which are few. 

- The Bronto Bunch: A motorcycle gang recognized more for their klutziness on the hogs then being reckless rebels. They’re known mostly for riding (or foot-peddling) across town, and causing goofy mischief (emphasis on goofy) wherever they go.
-- They usually appear very briefly, but are entertaining with their Sweathog-style antics and Keystone Kops-style exits.

- “Bad Luck” Schleprock: A diminutive and depressed gloomy gus who causes catastrophes wherever he goes with his extremely horrid and unfortunate bad luck. 

-- I kinda feel sorry for Schleprock; he just wants to live his life and have friends, but that large rain cloud over him known as his bad luck ruins everything, which is why he acts as depressed as humanly possible. Even his presence causes things in his path to crumble (which I think is a lazy gag, but I get why the producers went to it; it’s not easy to animate the snowball effect gag every time he appears). But he’s sweet and innocent enough to forget all the damages he causes, and everyone recognizes that all the destruction caused by him isn't intentional. And it's cool to see that everyone is nice to him (or is cordial enough to talk to him for a bit before getting out of dodge). He also looks kinda cute despite all the gray and black he wears, like a little human teddy bear.

The main characters also have their own pets -- Wooly (Pebbles' pet baby elephant) and Snoots (Bamm-Bamm's pet brotosaurus). Both are very cute and cuddly and serve their purpose of helping and protecting their respective masters well. Too bad they're no Dino and Hoppy  -- whom are not in the series). And that's a main gripe of mine; makes no sense that the duo's parents are here and their pets aren't. Fortunately, the return in The Flintstones' next spinoff The Flintstones Comedy Hour.

All of the secondary characters are so pretty one-note that if they’re not completely forgettable, all you can remember is what they do:
- Penny the snarky fat chick that can’t control her figure
- Wiggy the stargazer with a voice a high as them
- Moonrock the inventor and victim of Penny’s one-word wrath
- Cindy and Fabian the stone-age Siobhan Roy and Tom Wambsgans (with 99% less complexity and 71% less apathy)
- Schleprock the unwitting hellraiser, and
- The Bronto Bunch, the reason the Sweathogs exist.
And if it isn’t the actions of these characters, it's nothing else. This series has bearly anything going for it character wise, but at least it's mostly consistent.

The Animation:
The ink-and-paint is on par for H-B. While The Flintstones had progressive changes to its animation process over its six-season run, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm kept a more modern, smoother look throughout.
But a plus for me is that the teenagers look more like (at the very least) cartoon versions of real people instead of the adult characters (specifically the male ones -- especially Fred & Barney) That they don’t have large, pointy, exaggerated noses and eyes is a major plus.

The Opinion:
While not as entertaining or memorable as the best seasons of The Flintstones (or even the… less best), Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is still pretty good at least binge-watch once. While the plots are some of the most schlocky, cliched and overdone of the time (this considering I’ve watched a lot of corny yet entertaining sitcoms throughout the 20th century front to back a lot), it does have the characters we know and love in these plots to keep it from being outright forgettable or unwatchable. It's fun and light enough to enjoy (or at lest accept in canon), and still a great thing to see Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm all grown up . Funnily enough, after this show, there would be much more series about baby or kid characters as teenagers or adults. And sure enough, they're better but this is good for the most part. Give it a watch sometime if you're a fan of The Flintstones.

And that's my review of The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. Thank you for coming, and I'll see you again soon for another edition of Andrew’s Funshine All-Star Superstar Supercade Saturday! …Show 71.

Goodbye everyone, and may the classic toons always be yours...