Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo is an American animated package show and a spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera which aired on NBC from December 8, 1979 to November 15, 1980.[1] The 90-minute show is a repackaging of episodes from Fred and Barney Meet the Thing combined with the addition of The New Shmoo episodes (which was originally broadcast as a stand-alone half-hour series).[2]
The series contained the following three segments:
Despite the show's title, the three segments remained separate and did not crossover with one another. The characters of Fred Flintstone, Barney Rubble, Thing and Shmoo were only featured together in brief bumpers between segments, and the original half-hour episodes of The New Shmoo were now split into two-parters, allowing more mingling and mixing of the program's individual segments. In 1980–81, Shmoo joined Fred and Barney as part-time police officers on the "Bedrock Cops" segments of The Flintstone Comedy Show.[3]
During the series' initial run, a television special called The Harlem Globetrotters Meet Snow White (also produced by Hanna-Barbera) was shown in four parts on Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo on four consecutive Saturday mornings (September 27, October 4, 11, 18, 1980), despite having no narrative connection to the show.[4][5]
Like many animated series created by Hanna-Barbera in the 1970s, the show contained a laugh track, one of their last productions to do so.
^Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 333–344. ISBN978-1476665993.
