h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"The Flinstones was the story of everyday stone-age people, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, which became a cult classic and the characters have become part of today's culture"
That's a very tortuous and convoluted sentence. I would also argue that it's a cult classic - it's far too mainstream for cult status. I'd suggest:

'The Flintstones was an animated series telling the story of everyday stone-age people. It was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and the characters have since become some of the most well known in popular culture.'

Entry: The Flintstones - the TV series - A5376710
Author: Galaxy Babe - U128652

(for the scouts)

Done, BH

I think the idea is great, the backround on each charecctr is astounding (and a little scary, cuase of how good it is). Over-all I think the story would be a funnny, corky and cool addition to the guide!

Thank you!

Scary, eh? I'm getting some names this week

Lovely entry, GB! I'm humming the theme tune as I type!! The only thing I'll add to what the others have said is that I'd like to see some background on the voice artists as they were chiefly responsible for the fantastic characters. Hop over to imdb for some interesting snippets.
SBE

"The menfolk were best friends and were both members of the Water Buffalo Lodge"
That mention of the Water Buffalo Lodge seems a bit incongruous, considering that the Lodge was a relatively small part of the show and yet it's being introduced here at the very first mention of the characters, where the most important or relevant information usually goes. Admittedly I haven't watched The Flintstones for a while, but I recall them going bowling together more than going to the Lodge. How about adding bowling before the Lodge? 'The menfolk were best friends and keen bowling buddies, and were both members of the Water Buffalo Lodge - a secret society simlar to the Odd Fellows or the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes'.

"e.g. a character would take a photograph"
House style here at h2g2 is 'eg' - no full stops, but I think the Sub-editor is likely to change that to 'for instance'.

"In the made-for-TV movies"
'In the subsequent made-for-TV movies'

"Each episode lasted 30 minutes"
Were they actually 30 minutes long, or was that running time of the programme, including commercials? American-made shows of 30 minute run time usually only contain about 20-23 minutes of actual content.

"The occupants lifted up the car and then ran"
They didn't lift it up, they just ran, although judging by the fact that car was often seen to be moving without any help from the occupants, either every road in Bedrock was downhill, or the wheels had frictionless bearings which ran indefinately once the driver got up to speed.

And you can quote me on that

"Bedrock's newspaper, the Daily Granite undisturbed"
Needs a comma after 'Granite' to complement the one after 'newspaper.

"and the pelican washing machine"
If you're going to mention that, it really needs an explanation in a footnote.

"her errant husband, no matter how many times Fred let her down"
'husband, and no matter how many'

"She was affectionate and had an infectious giggle. She wore her red hair up in a bun at all times"
Those two sentences can be merged together - 'She was affectionate, with an infectious giggle, and wore her red hair up in a bun at all times'

"Wilma and Betty disguised themselves as men in order to join their husbands' Water Buffalo lodge"
All the time? Or was that just from one (or a small handful of) episode(s)?

"Pebbles arrived in the series' third season"
'in the show's third series'. 'Series' is British English, 'season' is American. Strictly speaking, 'show' is American too I guess, but 'programme' doesn't quite sound right when talking about something like The Flintstones. 'Season' also appears in several other sections.

"Pebbles and Dino got into all sorts of trouble, as Dino was often left in charge"
We haven't been introduced to Dino yet, and we're not told who he is there either. Perhaps a '(see below)' after the first mention of his name.

The bullet point about Betty being a babe really shouldn't be. A bullet point, that is. You can't have a list of one thing.

"Barney and Betty adopted a baby they called 'Bamm-Bamm', who had been abandoned on their doorstep"
We've already been told that in the previous section.

"Mel Blanc as Barney Rubble/Dino (1960; 1963-1966)."
Who was Barney in '61 and '62?

advertized - advertised

I'm uncomfortable with the similarity between the two main paragraphs in the Theme Tune section and the first two paragraphs of this http://www.topthat.net/webrock/faq/faq6.htm . When I've used information like that in my own research I've almost completely rewritten it rather than just changing a word here and there.

definately - definitely

"She was elected honorary Mayor of Bedrock"
Can you explain that? If you're elcted to office you're *the* mayor/president/whatever. An honorary position is one that you've been given without election and usually has no real power.

I think 'Spin-offs' should be a Header rather than a subheader since it has nothing to do with the theme tune.

The bit about Barney Rubble and the actors who voiced him still isn't accurate.

Mel Blanc was Barney for the entire run of the show, except for five or six (accounts vary) episodes where he was played by Daws Butler while Mel was recovering from a car crash.

I think it would be less confusing if you did away with "(1960; 1963-1966)" since it doesn't seem to relate to "Mel Blanc as Barney Rubble/Dino" with any validity, unless it's suggesting that Mel voiced Dino from '63 until '66. I think the Daws Butler information would probably work best in a footnote, and you could this little bit of trivia if you want - Daws was also the voice of Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear.

You also need to introduce Mr Slate into the entry somewhere before the cast section since he's listed there but without giving us any idea of who he is or why he's important enough to be listed among the cast members. You could, for instance, introduce him in Fred's description, as the owner of the quarry wkere Fred works.

One suggestion: The information about the show's origins in the first footnote seems important enough to merit inclusion in the main text.

Am I imagining it, or did The Honeymooners enjoy a repeat broadcast on BBC2 or C4 in the Eighties?

Hmmm

It was originally in the introduction but it wasn't deemed important enough...
(PR backlog)

Can't remember the eighties, sorry PF. I was too busy knocking out and bringing up children and being bombarded by cartoons daily.

I'd still like to see extra info on the voice artists. It says in IMDB for instance that Alan Reed created Fred's signature cry of Yabba Dabba Doo. You don't need to go overboard. Just a few sentences and a link to IMDB for all of them as this section looks like a work in progress at the moment.
SBE

What I meant regarding the Honeymooners was that you clearly felt it important enough to reference it in the introduction, but you hadn't explained why. I was hoping you'd explain it more, not remove the reference completely.

While this is much improved, as I mentioned earlier, it does need a little more work. I'm thinking specifically about some of the paragraphs that read a little too much like the source material (I'm right in thinking you got some of the details from an open source site like Wikipedia? I'm guessing you'll be rewriting these a little more though).

You can mention the Honeymooners reference like this:


Taking its inspiration from popular sitcoms (notably The Honeymooners, one of the biggest sitcoms on American TV at that time), The Flintstones was one of the first cartoon to be shown during primetime television; for many years it held the record for the longest-running cartoon series in American TV history, running for six years, and 166 episodes between 1960 and 1966.


I'd leave off the reference to the Simpsons until later, as you already have a section dedicated to it (more in a moment).

In your introduction, you mention the following "Each episode was broadcast in glorious technicolour, though unfortunately most TV sets were monochrome." Argh - it wasn't technicolour, GB - that's a trademarked term for a certain type of film stock, you'll get our wrists slapped for that . Better to say that it was broadcast in glorious colour as black and white (not monochrome) televisions were on the verge of being replaced by colour sets.

"Fred usually wore an orange and black outfit" - rather than 'outfit' can you stress 'animal skin'?

A few suggestions for the Simpsons section.

The Simpsons finally beat The Flintstones' record for longest-running animated series with an episode first broadcast on 9 February, 1997. The introductory montage of its 167th episode ended with the Simpsons running towards their couch only to find Fred, Wilma and Pebbles Flintstone sitting there.

Four years earlier, in 'Marge vs. the Monorail', Homer paid his own tribute to The Flintstones by shouting 'Yabba Dabba Do' before leaping into his car and singing a reworking of that famous theme tune:

Simpson... Homer Simpson... he's the greatest guy in history... from the town of Springfield... he's about to hit a chestnut tree.

Spin-Offs
The Spin-offs section is a little confused. You should separate the live-action movies from the others as there's a difference of about 30 years between them.

After the end of The Flintstones, the characters were kept alive in a series of specials and spin-off shows, including The Man Called Flintstone (1966) and The New Fred and Barney Show (1979). The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971-76) focused on the Flintstone and Rubble kids as teenagers, which of course added a lot to what we already knew about the characters.

From there you can pretty much copy everything form your final para - "In the subsequent made-for-TV movies... you've guessed it, Wilma Flintstone."

I think only then can you really afford to mention the live-action films:

Inevitably, the characters found their way into live action with two movies. The Flinstones starred John Goodman as Fred, while the prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, starred British Actor Mark Addy as a younger Fred and Stephen Baldwin as Barney enjoying their last experiences of single life before marrying Wilma and Betty, respectively.

Consider this a word-in-progress please.

I don't have time to do this now.

Okay. But do keep at it, because it's worth covering and you've got so far withy this already.

Might you consider handling just one entry at a time? I've got to say I was impressed with the rate you've been submitting entries, but it must leave you with little time to concentrate on each one. When I had more time, I tended to wrote one, submit it to Peer Review, then start work on another, so that by the time the second was ready for PR the first would be ready to go. I'd probably have panicked if I'd had more than that to cope with

You're absolutely right.

Thanks Jimster.