Barney Rubble
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Bernard "Barney" Rubble, a fictional character in the popular television animated series The Flintstones, is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. His best friends are his next door neighbors, Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Barney lives in the fictional prehistoric city of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexist with barefoot cavemen and the cavemen enjoyed "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles and washing machines.
Barney's personality was based on that of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners, played by Art Carney. As such, Barney tended to be much more jovial minded and easygoing than his friend Fred, who was slightly smarter than Barney in some matters and slightly dimmer than him in others. Like Ralph Kramden on The Honeymooners, Fred was constantly on the lookout for get-rich-quick schemes, while Barney, like Norton, found life quite satisfactory as it was but participated in said schemes because Fred was his friend.
Barney's interests included bowling, playing pool, poker, tinkering around in Fred's garage and playing golf, though there were episodes where Barney didn't know how to play golf. He, like Fred, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos lodge and its predecessor in earlier episodes, the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs. He is also a talented pianist and drummer. In the first episode of the original series he was an inventor of a hand-powered helicopter. Though clearly depicted as being in better shape than Fred, he isn't shown to be quite as enthusiastic sportsman as Fred is. This distinction can be attributed to Fred's fondness of food, though Barney is shown to be at least as capable of excessive appetite on a number of occasions.
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[edit] Biography
While the mid-1980s spinoff series The Flintstone Kids depicts Barney as a child, the series seems to be mostly apocryphal due to its presenting Barney as a childhood friend of Wilma and Betty (vs. the original series' assertion that they first met as young adults). Still, the series' assertions that Barney had at least one younger brother, Dusty, was a childhood friend of Fred, and was the son of artist Flo Slate Rubble and car dealer Robert "Honest Bob" Rubble might be taken as valid. The original series also suggested in one episode that Barney was the nephew of Fred's boss, Mr. Slate, though subsequent episodes and spinoffs don't seem to support this claim. As a kid Barney worked in "Rock City".
As young adults, Barney and Fred worked as bellhops at a resort, where they first met Wilma and Betty. Eventually, Barney married Betty (as Fred did Wilma).
Several episodes and spinoffs suggest that Barney, along with Fred, spent some time in the army early in their marriages.
While the subject of Barney's occupation (or even if he had one) was never given during the original series, subsequent spinoffs suggest Barney went to work at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company quarry alongside Fred at some point after the original series; possibly in some office role. An episode of the original series does have a brief scene of Barney working at the Granite Building. When speaking to an upper-crust snob in another episode, Betty declares Barney is in "top-secret" work; but that might have been a cover for a low-level job or unemployment, or perhaps an in-joke meaning that Barney's job was unknown even to the show's writers. In one episode, Barney's boss tells him to "put down his broom," which implies some sort of janitorial works is involved. In a majority of spin-offs and movies, Barney has been portrayed as working in the quarry as a dino-crane operator, alongside Fred.
Around the fourth season of the original series, Betty and Barney found an abandoned infant on their doorstep, by the name of "Bamm-Bamm." A court battle ensued between the couple and a wealthy man who also had wanted to adopt Bamm-Bamm. Barney and Betty were successful in their efforts to adopt Bamm-Bamm because the wealthy man gave up (after winning the case) upon learning his wife became pregnant, after which he became a staple character on the series. In the fifth season, the family buys a pet hopparoo (a combination of a kangaroo and dinosaur) named Hoppy.
[edit] In other media
In "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" Billy knocks on Barney's door and makes weird noises and faces because he thought they didn't speak English, so Barney hits Billy in the head with a club then Betty asks who it was and Barney says "Proof against evolution." Barney was smiling the whole time even when he broke the club hitting Billy (at the end of "Modern Primitives / Giant Billy and Mandy All-Out Attack"). He has also appeared in the show in a much earlier episode A Grim Prophecy, where he appeared in Grim's death list.
[edit] Trivia
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- Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone appear as pitchmen for Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles breakfast cereals. Barney usually tries to trick Fred out of said cereal through various tactics, usually via a disguise.
- Canadian punk rock band Hot Nasties have a song called "Barney Rubble is my Double"; this song has also been covered by another Canadian punk rock band, The Evaporators, on their album Ripple Rock.
- The friendship between Fred and Barney was put to the test in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones when, in the future, Fred works for Spacely Sprockets and Barney works for the rival company, Cogswell Cogs. However, there is no reference ever made on The Flintstones that Barney worked for the rival company of where Fred worked, as is stated by one Flintstones website.
- In the episode of The Flintstones that copies the story of Rip Van Winkle, Fred dreams that he wakes up in a world where Barney is a millionaire. Everyone in the dream refers to him as B.J. Rubble. Therefore we can assume that Barney's middle initial is J. Even though it was a dream, Fred would likely know his best friend's middle initial.
[edit] Portrayal
Voice artist Mel Blanc was the principal voice of Barney Rubble, although Daws Butler briefly assumed the role while Blanc recovered from a car wreck.[1] Since Blanc's death, Frank Welker, Jeff Bergman and Kevin Michael Richardson have all performed the role.
In the 1994 live action Flintstones movie, Barney was portrayed by Rick Moranis. In the 2000 prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, he was portrayed by Stephen Baldwin.
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
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