answering public acclaim by returning
for its sixth year on ABC television is
the Flintstones one of the big reasons
the show is such a smash of the voices
used to portray the Stone Age characters
our guest today is one of those voices
none other than Alan Reed known to
television fans as Fred Flintstone mr.
Reed has been called the man of a
thousand voices and I'm sure we could
get him to show us a few welcome to our
show Fred Oh
welcome to were you the bedrock because
that's where I'm gonna take you today
mr. Reed you're about to embark on still
another season with that famous
character hey you mean Fred Flintstone
yes I love doing Fred I've been having a
ball with him it's our sixth season it's
been a career where they all in color
yes I think right from the start we were
in color what time will the show be on
the network of course will be ABC where
we've been right from the start and I
think we're going the same time as last
year 7:30 to 8:00 on Friday night I
understand that you've guided on the
stages of spear carrying the old
pioneering days of network radio you've
been in some motion pictures also I
believe about 40 I imagine the technique
of turning out a creation like The
Flintstones is quite a different bit
than making a conventional movie start
with the voice you know they don't we
don't mouth to finish the artwork they
start with the voice and there's a
reason for that the artists take from
our voices and draw accordingly for
instance if we have a take it let's say
Barney and I are driving along and Mel
says hey that monsters in back of us and
I'm being brave and I say I don't care
if that monster if it gets close to me
why I'll and I turn around and see him
and I say why I'll
now the artist has to be able to match
this kind of thing you see you mentioned
Mel as this Mel Blanc
well black yes Bell plays Barney it's
been a pleasure working with him for a
lot of years - he's a very very clever
and talented man I think that all of the
Flintstones voices are fine evidence of
the talent in the cast who are the other
voices on the show but Jean Van der pile
plays my wife Wilma and she also plays
pebbles our baby and Mel of course plays
myriad voices besides Barney there's all
kinds of animals and he does Dino and a
whole bunch of things on imagine anytime
an unusual sound is required vocally
Mel's there to do it you work in so many
mediums and so well and all of them
which share when you enjoy the most
radio there's never been anything as far
as I'm concerned to take the place of
radio it left things to people's
imagination and the artists when he
didn't have to do the actual physical
work of memorizing words if you could
read from a script the little rehearsal
could get so much more into it so many
subtleties into it I love radio the
voice of Fred Flintstone is certainly
well known now and as a man of a
thousand voices I know you made other
voices famous I used to do a thing
called Falstaff Openshaw that had quite
a following and here it's still the same
basic voice although he would sound to
blow the bugle - to trumpet the head is
false therefore I shall I dump it this
kind of thing sure sounds like a lot of
fun to me do you have a good time when
you're doing it Alan we have a ball
we're all radio veterans on the show I
didn't mention before who played
Barney's wife Betty originally be
benaderet plated with us for the first
few years and then when she got her own
show petticoat junction she got so busy
and couldn't do it anymore and then we
have a girl called Jerry Johnson who
doesn't does it very well but it's it's
like an old-time radio gathering we hit
the ball around we have fun we sit
leisurely and read the script over and
Joe
with it and then finally uh we're
familiar with it me get up and do it
your work hasn't been limited to radio
and voice work that's for sure you have
quite a bit of background in a
legitimate theater as well and oh yes
I've played in every of every phase of
theater I started many many years ago at
the Provincetown theater in New York
City and I worked with the theater guild
a lot in New York I had the title role
in the pirate with the Lunt's and
Broadway for a couple of years and with
Freddie March and Florence Eldridge and
Oprah harvests and with Walter Huston
who was a very very dear lifelong friend
of mine since the time we first worked
together to his untimely death when I
did Saroyan's play loves old sweet song
and I've played Shakespeare for the
guild - I was stored as Falstaff in the
Merry Wives of Windsor I replaced
Charlie Coburn who had been touring the
play all over the country and he got to
Hollywood and he didn't want to go on
anymore so I took over and toured it on
the way back and up into Canada and then
back into New York for six weeks it was
very exciting obviously your performance
is on a stage of more than added to the
role in voice of Fred Flintstone well I
wish we had more time but unfortunately
we don't and I must say it's been a real
pleasure Alan Reed and I'm sure you and
Fred will be better than ever this year
with the Flintstones so long now and
we'll be watching for the next show all
right
yeah but David this is dick Stroud
reporting from television Center in
Hollywood returning you to our main
studios the Loyal Order of fans for The
Flintstones are heralding the start of
another season of their favorite
television show this fall in the ABC
television network this means they'll
have eyeballs glued in unison to watch
The Nutty shenanigans of Fred and Wilma
Flintstone Barney and Betty Rubble and
little pebbles and bamm-bamm over ABC
television in special honor of the
upcoming occasion we have in the studio
one of the stars of that highly
entertaining series oh you must mean
Wilma Flintstone by any chance the one
and only in the person of Jean Van der
pile
welcome to our program well thank you
it's so nice to be here and who else are
you gene well there's always that little
pebbles of course I would have
recognized her anyway and from time to
time your several other people in the
Flintstones as well oh yes sometimes
I'll do five or six on one show
depending or is if they have many women
who script which Jerry and I are always
wanting and who's Jerry that's Betty
Betty Rubble Jerry Don phone plays her
part
who does the the men's voices well Mel
Blanc of course is our Barney Rubble and
Alan Reed plays my husband Fred two of
the finest characters in show business
The Flintstones is an extremely
successful television series and it's
the product of the fertile imaginations
of a couple of talented guys named
Hannah and Barbara they are the
producers but they were originally
cartoon animators were things they're
both so busy doing other things now and
running this big corporation Joe Barbera
Barbera of course still directs our show
and sometimes he's not able to but most
of the time neighs there he doesn't miss
much I should think this kind of a show
would be a lot of fun for the actors is
it oh we just have a ball I think we
enjoy it
enjoy making it as much as well I'm sure
more than people watching it do we have
fun we really do you ever get lost when
you've got several voices to do in a
single show and come up with the wrong
voice yes that this happens quite often
I remember Oh one time on one of the
shows that we did I happen to have seven
voices on one show and even though some
of them were short in other words one
character would come in early in the
show and about an apartment five or 10
minutes later another one would come in
and by the time we'd get to the second
half of the script I'd forgotten what
I'd done with the voice number two you
know so we'd stop and have to play it
back and there not go out and pick it up
again
how do you come up with voices for these
characters who decided well how to do it
you know the tone of voice we record
first just as though it were the old
radio dates we
create the whole thing and move at the
pace we want to make the character as we
want to and then with the tape recording
that we have made the artists hesitate
and he draws to makes the little mouth
movements to our voice how long does it
take you to tape a complete half-hour
show well now I would say that it takes
some 2 to 3 hours depending on
particular script some are more
complicated than others when we first
started and the characters were just
becoming established some of times it
took five or six hours but now we have
it down to a system and it goes much
faster well now how long does it take
the producer program from start to
finish they tell me that we record first
that's the very first thing that's done
outside of the storyline and the
original script of course and from the
moment we record until 1/2 hours
completed they tell me it takes 6 weeks
for all the processes that have to go on
that's why we have to start recording so
early in the season all of you people in
the Flintstones have a marvelous ability
to communicate character by use of your
voice alone they tell me you develop
this as actors in the days of radio
drama is that correct I happen to start
a good good number of years ago right
out of radii mean right out of high
school into radio when radio was in the
early days it was easy to get in and I
stayed with it for a good number of
years and did as all of us did almost
everything in all kinds of voices all
kinds of dialects you had to do that in
those days to get jobs you know and that
of course is what's helped us all so
much in this cartooning business well
you've all certainly become masters of
your craft and I assure you I'll be
joining the mob sets I'd at ABC
television to watch The Flintstones when
their new season gets underway and
Eugene Vander Pyle alias Wilma
Flintstone
alias pebbles and Illya sure many other
anonymous characters are very sincere
thanks for appearing with us today thank
you very much goodbye Wilma thank you so
much it's been very nice to be here
this is Dijkstra reporting from
Television Centre returning you to our
main studios some of the people behind
the voices of the great cartoon
characters are tremendous people and
fine actors and actresses in their own
right
one such is our guest today she is Jerry
Johnson whose voice is the voice of
Betty Rubble on the Flintstones cartoon
series that we see over ABC television
every week Jerry were honored to have
you with us well it's a delight to be
here thank you the character you play
certainly comes across with a marvelous
impact from the viewer standpoint how do
you visualize the character to give her
that much zip I think she just couldn't
be more enthusiastic but she's not
goody-goody she can get very angry at
Barney and put him right in his place
she can settle bamm-bamm down but she's
just wait and away we go with everything
you know she just thinks everything is
gonna be a big adventure I know this is
only your second season in the role but
you're doing a fantastic job it isn't
easy to take over a character created by
someone else but the minute you came on
with Betty Rubble I felt boy that's it
she's great
no that's wonderful because I had said I
was so frightened of you know someone
else had the part before and I was so
frightened of going into something that
some I'd never before taken a role that
someone else had played and you sort of
are afraid of comparisons the producers
Hannah and Barbara are not only a couple
of the most imaginative people in show
business but obviously they know talent
when they see it now what's the
technique of putting a show like this
together how is it done we take a show
when we break it up into three parts now
my contract says that I can play as many
as six voices and that's I prefer to do
that when I get up there and I'm talking
to myself that's really fun
you actually do other voices in the same
program oh yeah I might be talking along
as videos Grindle partying and could it
be there and empty mrs. Slade and a new
Prince that's coming to town
mrs. Slade would come in and she would
dominate everything instead of rubble
quit out of her wits and of course you
have to change the voices instantly I
don't see how you doing it's like
changing slides you have a picture of
Betty Rubble in your mind and then it
changes to a picture of a Brooklynese
téléphone-appareil did you know the cast
people then record their voices
individually or do you do all of it at
the same time
all at the same time like an Acting
Company and if you sit in the studio and
watch us since most of us are also
visual actors you will find us running
in place at the microphone of crying
real tears pounding our fists fleeing
our hands and arms out doing all the
things that you would do if you were
playing it on the screen or on the stage
who are the other members of the cast
the voices well Fred Flintstone the
title man is Alan Reed and my husband of
course is the famous Mel Blanc and Wilma
is Jean Van der Pyle and she also does
pebbles that dorable little baby voice
that that I think the whole nation has
gone crazy over who does the who does
the voice of Bam Bam Bam Bam is by a
young man named Don Messick who also
does all sorts of assorted bleeps and
peeps and animal noises and electronic
sounds and blowing things that you'd
think only would come out of outer space
now for the benefit of anybody from
outer space who may have never heard you
what does what is your character sound
like well you know whenever anybody asks
me to talk like Betty redline I I never
know what to say because that's kind of
like baby baby doesn't know what to say
until Wilma tells her except she thinks
Barney is just wonderful and then BAM is
the most adorable baby have you ever
gotten confused and come out with a
wrong voice for the right character oh
well we make mistakes of course and we
go back but they the people with whom I
work are so very good that I sort of try
to stand on my toes
I love the perfectionism with which they
try to work on this series because if
there's one little thing I think isn't
going to get the laughs or they think
the scene has dropped or anything
they'll go back and go over and over and
over and they'll take as long as it
takes to get the quality they want
well it certainly pays off because the
Flintstones is one of the most
consistently polished and consistently
funny shows on the
there and of course tribute goes to the
producers to ABC television and to such
fine performers as yourself Jerry
Johnson were certainly glad you were
able to stop by and we enjoy the visit
immensely it's just fun for me to talk
about the Flintstones because these
people run through my head even at night
there's our dream folks anyway Jerry
Johnson the voice of Betty Rubble on ABC
TV's The Flintstones this is dick Stroud
reporting from television Center in
Hollywood returning you to our main
studios