THE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM SHOW

THE PEBBLES AND BAMM-BAMM SHOW

(CBS, September 11, 1971-September 2, 1972)

Hanna-Barbera Productions

MAIN CAST:

Sally Struthers (season 1) – Pebbles Flintstone

Jay North – Bamm-Bamm Rubble

Mel Blanc – Barney Rubble, Zonk, Stub

Gay Hartwig – Cindy Curbstone, Betty Rubble, Wiggy Rockstone

Mitzi McCall – Penny Pillar

Don Messick – Schleprock

Alan Reed – Fred Flintstone

John Stephenson – Mr. Slate, Noodles

Jean Vander Pyl – Wilma Flintstone

Lenny Weinrib – Moonrock Crater, Bronto

For a history of The Flintstones franchise, check out the post here.

            They grow up so fast. 

The characters of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

      With The Flintstones doing well in syndicated reruns—particularly on Saturdays—CBS executive Fred Silverman approached Hanna-Barbera in 1970 about doing a revival. However, he wanted to make it a teen-oriented and musical series to try and duplicate the successes of Filmation’s Archie series and their own Josie and the Pussycats. Joe Ruby and Ken Spears were assigned the task of making the modern Stone Age family even more modern. They radically aged the children of their principle characters to teenagers, and gave them a gang of friends that could play together as a band whenever the story required it. The result was The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.

Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and their gang cruising around Bedrock.

            The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show debuted on CBS on September 11, 1971. It focused on the wacky misadventures of teenaged Pebbles Flintstone (Sally Struthers), her neighbor and boyfriend Bamm-Bamm Rubble (Jay North), and their friends: Moonrock Crater (Lenny Weinrib), a genius inventor; Penny Pillar (Mitzi McCall), an overweight girl obsessed with being thin; and Wiggy Rockstone (Gay Hartwig), a girl who lived by the daily horoscopes. Often, they would find themselves in sticky situations made even stickier by Pebbles’ schemes to get them out of trouble, which often backfired (a callback to the schemes of her father in the original series). Other times, they were at odds with Pebbles’ rival, snobbish Cindy Curbstone (Hartwig), and a biker gang called The Bronto Bunch. The elder Flintstones and Rubbles made the occasional appearances on the show, but they were no longer the focus. Another thing of note is that while Bamm-Bamm did seem to pull off the occasional impossible feat here and there, the super strength he was originally depicted with as a baby was significantly played down.

Groovin' to the beat.

As The Flintstones focused on the juxtaposition of the modern world set amongst a Stone Age backdrop, so too did Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Along with everything viewers had come to expect of the franchise, the show was heavily influenced by its time period. Lingo, teen idols, drag racing and various activities the kids did for fun were taken from the trends of the 1970s. The series was written by Neal Barbera, Walter Black, Larz Bourne, Tom Dagenais, Bob Ogle, Larry Rhine and Dick Robbins, with story direction by Brad Case, Carl Fallberg, Cullen Houghtaling, Alex Lovy, Lew Marshall, Paul Sommer and Irv Spector. The music was composed by Hoyt Curtin and Ted Nichols. It was one of the first Hanna-Barbera productions to utilize their new limited laugh track.

 Proving successful, CBS decided to expand their Flintstones franchise with the creation of The Flintstone Comedy Hour. Along with new adventures featuring the elder characters, the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm characters were given new shorts and a band called “The Bedrock Rockers” that performed during the show in between segments. Reruns of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm aired as the second half-hour of the Comedy Hour. As Struthers had become committed to her role on the sitcom All in the Family before the original first episode ever even aired, Mickey Stevens replaced her for all the new material produced for the Comedy Hour. When the show was renamed The Flintstone Comedy Show, The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm reruns were dropped from its format and later aired as part of the weekday syndicated Fred Flintstone and Friends. It would make the rounds later on cable channel Boomerang.

An issue of the Charlton comic series.

Charlton Comics published 36 issues of a tie-in comic series from 1972-76. A three-issue revival series and a one-shot were published in 1993 by Harvey Comics. Several styles of lunchboxes were released by Aladdin Industries featuring the show’s characters. In 2008, Warner Home Video released the complete series to DVD as part of their Hanna-Barbera Classics Collection. It was re-released in 2017 as part of the Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection. In August of 2024, the series returned to television as part of retro animation network MeTV Toons’ The Flintstones Family Sunday programming block.

EPISODE GUIDE:

“Gridiron Girl Trouble” (9/11/71) – Bamm-Bamm’s dogosaurus follows them to school, and hiding him from the dogcatcher lands Pebbles into playing in the big football game.

“Putty in Her Hands” (9/18/71) – Pebble’s attempt at sculpting falls flat. She convinces Bamm-Bamm to pose as her sculpture to fool Cindy, but statue Bamm-Bamm ends up stolen crooks.

“Frog for a Day” (9/25/71) – Pebbles studies witchcraft to prove her authenticity when her role in a play is cut back resulting in her believing she accidentally turned Barney into a frog.

“The Golden Voice” (10/2/71) – Pebbles forces Bamm-Bamm to sing for her band after hearing him in the shower. Unfortunately, the only place Bamm-Bamm CAN sing is in the shower.

“Daddy’s Little Helper” (10/9/71) – Believing Fred about to be fired, Pebbles gets a job at the gravel pit in order to help save his job. However, she ends up costing him a promotion instead.

“Focus Foolery” (10/16/71) – Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm stumble on a bank robbery, forcing them to hide out in a baby pageant with Bamm-Bamm posing as a baby.

“Pebble’s Big Boast” (10/23/71) – Pebble’s brags about knowing a big rock group to Cindy and is tasked with getting them to play at her party.

“The Grand Prix Pebles” (10/30/71) – Pebbles accidentally gives away Fred and Barney’s new super fuel. Retrieving it, the kids discover a flaw in the formula they must fix before the big race.

“The Terrible Snorkosaurus” (11/6/71) – Pebbles fails to sell a snorkosaurus to Sea Rock World and hides it in her swimming pool, forgetting Fred has a pool party planned for his boss.

“Schleprock’s New Image” (11/13/71) – Pebbles tries to help jinx Schleprock change his luck, but her help only leads to endless mishaps befalling the gang.

“Coach Pebbles” (11/20/71) – Pebbles and her girl friends takes over coaching the little league team when Fred loses his voice, but their lack of baseball knowledge brings the team down.

“No Cash and Carry” (11/27/71) – A con man posing as chief of store security convinces the gang to steal from a department store as part of an effort to help test his operatives.

“Wooly the Great” (12/4/71) – Moonrock’s super shampoo gives Pebble’s pet elephant the ability to fly. After Wooly causes Fred to get angry at him, Wooly runs away to join the circus.

“Mayor May Not” (12/11/71) – Pebbles becomes honorary Mayor of Bedrock and attempts to improve the city…with disastrous results.

“They Went That Away” (12/18/71) – Pebbles volunteers her friends and family to watch Uncle Hatrock’s ranch while he’s away, and she unknowingly hires cattle rustlers as ranch hands.

“The Birthday Present” (1/1/72) – Wooly buries Wilma’s present, causing Pebbles to believe it was stolen by their neighbors, the creepy Gruesomes.

Originally published in 2014. Updated in 2024.