Season One of The Flintstones begins with the series second pilot episode, The Flintstone Flyer, in which Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble use their newly invented flying machine to sneak out on a social commitment with their wives Wilma and Betty. The seasons third episode, The Swimming Pool, is actually a remake and expansion of the series original four-minute sample episode prepared for potential sponsors,in which Daws Butler rather than Alan Reed supplied the voice of Fred and June Foray instead of Jean VanderPyl was heard as Wilma. As for the actual first full-length pilot episode, The Great Tycoon, it remained unseen until unveiled as Episode #22 on February 24, 1961. Longtime fans of the series will be interested to note that The Flintstones uses a different opening-credits sequence and different theme song (Hoyt Curtins Rise N Shine than in later years. Also the characters are drawn in more blunt, rough-hewn fashion, and the humor is more geared for grownups than children. A sure giveaway that Hanna-Barbera wanted the series to be regarded as adult fare was in their choice of sponsors: One-a-Day Vitamins and Winston Cigarettes (collectors can still revel in those rare cast commercials showing Fred and Barney puffing away on coffin nails and enthusing over the pleasures of filter-tip smokin). Finally, it is worth mentioning that the character of the Flintstones pet dinosaur Dino makes his first official appearance in The Snorkasaurus Story. Unlike the later Dino, this incarnation has the power of speech--indeed, he acts and sounds just like Sgt. Ernie Bilko, the scampish con artist created by comedian Phil Silvers. The series wastes no time in using its Stone Age milieu to poke fun at modern life. Both Elvis Presley and his manager Col. Tom Parker are given a good going-over in The Girls Night Out; the TV detective series Peter Gunn is skewered in the person of private eye Perry Gunnitte (so tough that he only drinks rocks on the rocks) in Love Letters on the Rocks; the then-current genre of gimmicky monster movies is spoofed in The Monster from the Tar Pits; a jazz musician who sounds an awful lot like Miles Davis shows up in Hot Lips Hannigan; the cops in The Hot Piano speak in low, clipped, Dragnet-style tones; and a certain prominent dance instructor of the era is satirized in Arthur Quarrys Dance Class. Also, Season One yields several of the musical highlights so beloved of Flintstones aficionados. The best melodic moments include the Carhop Song (Here we come, on the run/with a burger on a bun) in The Drive-In; Freds off-key rendering of Sextet from Lucia in The Split Personality; and the interminable Happy Anniversary quartet in The Hot Piano. Telecast in black and white (though filmed in color), the first season of The Flintstones finished up as the nations 18th highest-rated program, right between Bonanza and The Red Skelton Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide