Barney Rubble - Biography

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 (versus the original series' assertion that they first met as young adults). Still, the series' assertions that Barney has at least one younger brother, Dusty, was a childhood friend of Fred, and was the son of artist Flo Rubble and car dealer Robert "Honest Bob" Rubble might be taken as valid. It is suggested in the original series that Barney grew up at 142 Boulder Avenue in Granitetown. 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 young adults, Barney and Fred worked as bellhops at a resort, where they first met Wilma and Betty, who were working as cigarette girls. 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, though said references may be to Barney and Fred's military service in the first season episode "The Astr'nuts."

While the subject of Barney's occupation (or even if he had one) was never given during the original series, the majority of subsequent spinoffs suggest at some point after the original series, Barney went to work at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company quarry alongside Fred as a fellow dino-crane operator. An early 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. It could also be possible that both Fred and Barney work at the quarry, but may work in different sections of it, under different bosses. In one episode, Barney's boss tells him to "put down his broom," which implies some sort of janitorial work is involved.

During 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. For a number of episodes after Bamm-Bamm's debut, there is no sign of him on the show. In the fifth season, the family buys a pet hopparoo (a combination of a kangaroo and dinosaur) named Hoppy.

When Bamm-Bamm grew into a teenager, Barney joined the Bedrock police force with Fred for a period of time as part-time officers. Both characters were paired with the Shmoo from Li'l Abner. He later became grandfather to Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's children, Chip and Roxy.

Although he and Fred are best friends, even he (Barney) lost his patience with him sometimes. The best example comes in "I Yabba-Dabba Do!": after losing his patience with Fred for ruining Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's wedding, he decided to leave Bedrock. He changed his mind after Fred apologized.

In several of the original episodes of the series, Barney can be seen with his eyes depicted as two ovals or (occasionally) circles shown only as dark circular outlines. Other episodes show his eyes as being completely filled in with black, very similar to Wilma's eyes. However, there are three occasions where he was seen with whites in his eyes, in the episodes "The Engagement Ring," "Ventriloquist Barney" and "A Haunted House Is Not a Home". In "The Engagement Ring," the whites in Barney's eyes appear when Fred suggests that he spar with a fearsome boxer in order to earn enough money to buy Betty a belated engagement ring. In "Ventriloquist Barney," the whites in Barney's eyes appear when he describes the terrifying facial features of wrestler Bronto Crushrock. In "A Haunted House Is Not a Home," the whites in Barney's eyes appear when Fred hits him on the head after Barney frightens him by gargling in the bathroom too loudly.