Later this year — in time for Christmas, I believe — Warner Home Video will be bringing out the fourth season of The Flintstones on DVD. Today, my friends and fellow writers Earl Kress and Paul Dini recorded a commentary track for two of the episodes on it — "Ann-Margrock Presents" and "Little Bamm-Bamm." The second of these was the one that introduced the Rubbles' very strong adopted son into the series. The first of these was the season opener, guest-starring Ann-Margret, who was then quite a hot movie star, Bye Bye Birdie having come out a few months before. In case you're interested in the chronology here, Bye Bye Birdie came out in April of '63. The voice track for that Flintstones episode was recorded June 28 and then it aired September 19, which is a stunning lack of lead time — less than three months for a job that usually would have taken four or five.
It doesn't look it. By the standards of TV animation of the day, it looks pretty good, with some rather ambitious animation in the musical numbers.
So how did Ann-Margret wind up in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon? One assumes it had something to do with the fine film director, George Sidney. Mr. Sidney had a long history with H-B, going back to when Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera were directing Tom & Jerry cartoons for MGM. Sidney was directing the film Anchors Aweigh for that studio and someone came up with the idea of having its star, Gene Kelly, dance with an animated Mickey Mouse. Mr. Disney wasn't interested in the project so Sidney wound up going to MGM's division and having Bill and Joe and their unit supply the animation. Legend has it that after they thought they were finished, someone noticed that Kelly had done his part of the dancing on a shiny floor so when the images were composited, he had a reflection and his dance partner, Jerry, did not….so the animators had to go back and animate Jerry's reflection, too.
Sidney stayed in touch with Hanna and Barbera. When they started their own studio in the late fifties in partnership with Columbia Pictures, he was an investor and later a company officer. At the same time, he was directing movies for Columbia…like Bye Bye Birdie. If you watch the film some time, see how many "product placements" there are for Hanna-Barbera merchandise.
He was also interested in the career of Ann-Margret. He didn't exactly discover her — several others could claim that honor, including George Burns — but he got much of the credit for promoting her stardom. When Bye Bye Birdie was first previewed, it did not have the opening and closing in which A-M sang the title song. In fact, there was no title song. Sidney decided the movie needed more Ann-Margret so he put up his own money to have the composers of the Broadway show write a title song, and to film his new star performing it. Later, he directed two of her bigger films — Viva Las Vegas (with Elvis) and The Swinger.
He had a pretty good career with loads of acclaimed hit films. But for some of us, his greatest achievement will be that he was almost certainly responsible for Ann-Margrock. If you've never seen the episode, pick up the DVD set later this year. And make sure you enjoy the scintillating commentary tracks.