Looney Tunes: "The Wearing of the Grin"

Premiered July 28, 1951

It is a dark and stormy night and 12 miles to Dublin.   

Porky Pig (Mel Blanc) spies a "quaint old" castle in the distance and decides to see they can give him a place to stay for the night. 

On the way to the castle, he sees a sign that says "Beware the Leprechauns" and scoffs at the idea. 

Upon arrival, Porky is greeted by a "picturesque caretaker of the auld sod" who introduces himself as Seamus O'Toole  (an uncredited John T. Smith).  O'Toole informs him that nobody lives in the castle - apart from himself and the leprechauns. 

Porky scoffs at this again and demands to be taken to a room, slamming the front door.  This causes a mace above the door to fall, knocking Porky out cold. 

The caretaker is revealed to be a couple of leprechauns (calling themselves O'Pat and O'Mike) who, in true fairy fashion, decide to mess with Porky's head after concluding that he has come to steal their pot of gold. 

When Porky comes to, he is escorted to a room by HALF of the caretaker and doesn't notice at first. When he does notice, Porky is terrified and hides in the bed, which turns out to be a trap door! 

Porky drops down a shaft, landing in a leprechaun courtroom.  There the leprechauns charge and convict him of attempting to steal their pot of gold and sentence him to the "wearing of the green shoes." 

At first Porky admires the nice shoes, but soon comes to realize that they are cursed, as his feet begin a frantic Irish jig that dances him through a nightmarish landscape full of Irish symbols while O'Pat and O'Mike laugh at him. 

Will Porky be able to escape the leprechaun's trickery?  Or is he doomed to the "wearing of the green shoes" for all eternity? 

RigbyMel says: 

This Chuck Jones-directed short is the last solo appearance of Porky Pig in the classic era of Looney Tunes.  Porky was Warner Brothers' breakout star when he debuted, but had since been eclipsed by Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny.  

"The Wearing of the Grin" also stands out since there are not all that many St. Patrick's Day themed cartoons out there.   Some might argue that the short doesn't explicitly take place on March 17th, but with all the leprechaun mischief and Irish symbols (like harps and shamrocks), I think it has enough Irish detail to qualify as a "holiday" short.  

The green shoes plot point in this short borrows heavily from Hans Christian Andersen's 1845 fairy tale "The Red Shoes," which concerns a pair of ballet slippers that never let their wearer stop dancing.  His jig through an amazing surrealist Salvador Dali-inspired landscape is quite memorable.  

It's also interesting to note that the title of this short is a reference to "The Wearing of the Green," an old Irish street ballad. 

The animation is a lot of fun to watch and the voice work is - as always - great.  If there's a complaint to be made about this short, it's that the "Irishness" is a bit overly broad and stereotypical, but as this is a cartoon, broad and stereotypical work reasonably well for comedic purposes.  

"The Wearing of the Grin" is a silly and enjoyable short and is worth including in your holiday viewing this March.  

RigbyMel's rating: 

3 shamrocks

A Flintstone Christmas

Premiered December 7, 1977.  

"It's my favorite time of the year

It's that magical time of good cheer

I guess part of the reason's

The heart of the season

Of Christmas is practically here."
-sung by Fred Flintstone

Christmas has come to the town of Bedrock and Fred Flintstone (Henry Corden) and Barney Rubble (Mel Blanc) are excited about the holiday season.  

Their wives Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and Betty (Gay Hartwig) are organizing the Ladies Auxiliary Party for the Bedrock Orphanage.  They want Fred to play Santa Claus at the party, but Fred refuses.  He says his co-workers would never let him live it down.  When Fred goes to work, his boss Mr. Slate summons Fred into his office.  Slate says his wife also wants Fred to play Santa at the orphanage party.  Fred's fear of his boss is enough to convince him to play St. Nick.  

On Christmas Eve, Barney and Fred are preparing to go to the party, when they find a man in a Santa suit buried in a snowdrift in the Flintstone's yard.  He's sprained his ankle, has a bad cold and needs help.  The man claims to be the real Santa Claus!  

Fred and Barney think he's an escaped mental patient until they see Santa's sleigh and reindeer on the roof! 

Barney suggests that due to his injury, Santa should get a replacement to deliver gifts and nominates Fred.  Using Santa magic, he creates an elf suit for Barney and puts his suit on Fred.

Their worldwide journey is going fine until they encounter a blizzard.  The storm is so turbulent that it causes Santa's bag of toys to fall out of the sleigh!  

Fred and Barney contact Santa via CB radio and he tells them to fly to his North Pole workshop to collect more toys.  

Barney and Fred meet Mrs. Claus (Virginia Gregg) at the North Pole.

At the orphanage party, the children grow restless since Santa-Fred hasn't arrived.  The kids begin to chant "WE WANT SANTA," and Pebbles worries to Wilma that Santa won't come to the party.

Can Fred and Barney deliver all the presents in time to make it to the party?  

J.A. Morris says:

A Flintstone Christmas is a good, solid, enjoyable holiday special.  I bring some nostalgia to this review because I remember when this special first aired and I was excited about it at the time.  I enjoyed it then and it's still fun all these years later.  However, there are some problems with this special.

In Bedrock, even the pteranodons are feeling the Christmas Spirit!

The plot, which involves Fred substituting for Santa and delivering gifts, is mostly recycled from "Christmas Flintstone," which we reviewed here recently.  The primary difference is that Santa injures himself at the Flintstones' home and Barney accompanies Fred in the round-the-world sleighride. 

That's not the end of the world, since many viewers probably saw this special before watching the 1964 Christmas episode (myself included).  It's also worth noting that "Christmas Flintstone" featured a sleigh driven by flying rein-dinos, in A Flintstone Christmas, it's the traditional flying reindeer.  

Speaking of recycled material, A Flintstone Christmas re-uses three songs from A Christmas Story, a 1972 animated special produced by Hanna-Barbera.  "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus," "Sounds Of Christmas Day," and "Hope" were all featured in A Christmas Story.  It also features two new songs, "A Brand New Kind Of Christmas Song" and "It's Our Favorite Time Of Year" (H-B later re-used the latter song in Yogi's First Christmas).  

The biggest problem I have with A Flintstone Christmas isn't that it re-uses songs.  It's that it contains too many songs that don't really move the plot forward.  They don't relate to the story, they just...happen. 

For instance, during a Christmas street scene, Barney and Fred notice all the Santas working on sidewalks and in department stores and wonder which one is the real Santa.  This leads into their performance of "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus."  It's not a bad song, but it leads to nothing and isn't relevant to the rest of the story.  It would have been easy to have a "call-back" to the song when the real Santa Claus shows up at Fred's house, but that never happens.  

The same can be said for the rest of the songs.  It just feels like the musical numbers are inserted to pad out the special's running time.  "Hope" is the only song that relates to the story, since Wilma sings it when her daughter Pebbles doubts Santa will come.  

Having said all that, it's still a decent special.  If you're a fan of the Flintstones, the Rubbles and their Modern Stone Age lives, you'll enjoy A Flintstone Christmas.  The voice actors all provide solid work.  Henry Corden plays Fred here, taking over for Fred's original portrayer Alan Reed.  Corden took over the role in 1977 and would continue to voice Fred until 1997.  Mel Blanc and Jean Vander Pyl were the original voices for Barney and Wilma, they're also good in this special. 

John Stephenson returns as Mr. Slate and it's always entertaining to hear him scream "FLINTSTONE!"  

Hal Smith, who voiced Santa in "Christmas Flintstone," also portrays him in this special.  

While A Flintstone Christmas is no classic, it's a light, fun and entertaining special.  Fans of Fred and Barney will enjoy watching them save Christmas (again) and the strong voice work makes it worth watching at least once.  There's a good 24-minute special here without all the songs.  The overreliance on songs that distract from the plot keeps me from giving it a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

.5

2 and a half candy canes.

RigbyMel says:

A Flintstone Christmas is a solid enough holiday special.   It's essentially a re-make of the 1964 "Christmas Flintstone" episode with a longer running time in which the trope of helping an injured Santa Claus save Christmas is re-revisited.  

As J.A. Morris says above, the voice talent is super strong in this episode.   The songs are pleasant enough -  I like the "Which One Is The Real Santa Claus?" song in particular - but really do feel like they exist to pad out the running time so the special will fit into an hour long slot (with commercial interruptions).   

This padding is underscored by some pretty obvious recycling of animation, particularly in the Santa's workshop sequence with the elvish activity.  

I was amused by the inclusion of the 1970s CB radio fad being used as a plot device so that Fred & Barney can communicate with Santa while making Santa's Christmas Eve delivery rounds.  

It's interesting to see how things like this that were popular at the time a special was made make their way into these types of programs. 

Fun fact:  According to Wikipedia,  Mel Blanc was an active CB radio fan and would often communicate with kids in the Los Angeles area in the voices of some of his many cartoon characters. 

A Flintstone Christmas is ... fine, but definitely not a holiday classic.  Still, kids will enjoy it as will fans of Hanna-Barbera animation, so it's worth watching at least once.  

RigbyMel's rating:

 

2 candy canes.

The Flintstones: "Christmas Flintstone"

Premiered December 25, 1964.

Needing extra money for Christmas, Fred Flintstone (Alan Reed) takes an extra job.  He works in the gift wrap department and the stockroom at Macyrock's department store.

Fred is easily distracted and clumsy, which causes him to drop a cart full of merchandise down an elevator shaft.  The store's owner, Mr. Macyrock (Mel Blanc) fires Fred.

Fred doesn't have much luck working in Gift Wrapping either

However, Fred gets a second chance.  Macyrock's Santa Claus is ill and unable to continue, so Fred is hired to play Santa.  

Fred turns out to be the best Santa Macyrock's has ever had.  He sings Christmas songs to the children, tells them stories and has a natural rapport with kids.

He goes home in his Santa suit and fools his wife Wilma (Jean Vander Pyl) and daughter Pebbles (also voiced by Vander Pyl)  into thinking he's the real Mr. Claus. Their friends Barney (Blanc) and Betty Rubble (Gerry Johnson) are also fooled at first.

Fred works as Santa through Christmas Eve. When his shift ends, he's exhausted and falls asleep.  He's woken up by two elves named named Twinky (Dick Beals) and Blinky (Don Messick).  

They tell Fred they are two of Santa elves and take him to a sleigh driven by flying "reindinos." 

Fred learns that the real Santa (Hal Smith) is too sick to make his deliveries and that Fred will serve as his replacement. Fred is reluctant, but Santa assures him that Twinky and Blinky will help him deliver the gifts.

Will Fred be able to deliver all the presents and save Christmas?  

J.A. Morris says:

Syndicated reruns of The Flintstones were part of my weekly (sometimes daily) TV diet when I was a kid, but I don't recall seeing this episode very often.  

It's a fun episode with a familiar plot.  I can think of multiple specials and episodes where Christmas is about to be cancelled because Santa is unable to deliver presents.  However, "Christmas Flintstone" is (as far as I know) and early example of this trope and it's enjoyable.  Alan Reed, who voices Fred, carries this episode and makes us believe that Fred loves playing Santa for kids and that he's still a "big kid" himself. 

Macyrock's toy department carries dolls that look like Pebbles and Bam-Bam!

"Christmas Flintstone" features two new songs sung by Reed, "Christmas Is My Fav'rite Time Of Year" and "Dino The Dinosaur's Christmas Tree."  I'm not sure who wrote these songs.  Some sources say they was written by series creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, others say its author is John McCarthy.  Both songs are good and full of holiday spirit.  I'd love to see a famous recording artist cover "Christmas Is My Fav'rite Time Of Year."  

It's worth noting that Santa Claus is voiced by character actor Hal Smith, who is probably best remembered for his portrayal of Otis Campbell on The Andy Griffith Show.  Smith made a career out of playing Santa in both animation and live action productions.  His IMBD page shows Smith played Santa eighteen times!  

A publicity photo of Hal Smith during his time on The Andy Griffith Show.

Like every episode of The Flintstones, this one features funny interactions between the characters and cool "modern stone age" gadgets and vehicles.  I especially liked the dinosaur escalator at Macyrock's. 

"Christmas Flintstone" is a great holiday episode of a classic series.  It features a familiar story but the songs and the voice actors elevate the material and it gets my highest rating.  

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 candy canes!

RigbyMel says:

"Christmas Flintstone" is a charming holiday offering from the original 1960s prime time run of The Flintstones. Like J.A. Morris, I have fond memories of watching The Flintstones when I was growing up, but this Christmas episode is relatively new to me.  (To be honest, I hadn't seen it until I started blogging about holiday programming!)  

Fred even gets to be Santa on a live TV broadcast!

The helping an incapacitated Santa out plot line is definitely a trope, but it's well executed here.  It's probably also important to remember that these programs are - to some extent - aimed at children, so this may well be the actual introduction to the trope for many young viewers.  

Of course, The Flintstones series also holds the distinction of being the first animated series to hold a prime time slot on television, so it needs to appeal to adults as well as to children.   Parents can appreciate the notion of helping Santa with his duties from a different perspective while watching "Christmas Flintstone". 

It's also amusing that there's a small sight gag thrown in for attentive adults in this episode.  Dino has pinup dino-girl pictures on the wall near his bed! 

Note Bettie Page-esque dino wall art.

Personally, I also really like the mid-20th-century holiday color palette in this episode.  The pink and pastel trees at Macyrock's make me think of other specials (like A Charlie Brown Christmas) that were produced around the same time and share a similar aesthetic.

The songs in this episode are adorable and well-delivered by Alan Reed as Fred.  I agree with J.A. Morris that "Christmas Is My Fav'rite Time of Year" is worthy of being a holiday standard. 

"Christmas Flintstone" definitely stands up to repeated viewing and is well worth including in your holiday programming rotation. 

RigbyMel's rating:

4 candy canes