The Happy Household

The Happy Household is an episode of The Flintstones.
== Summary ==
Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble decide to look for jobs of their own after an afternoon of shopping. Before this, the men had come home from work early, and the women had hidden their purchases in the trunk of Wilma's small car. Betty displays her typing skills, but then, she and Wilma are encouraged to sing. Betty says that she can't sing, but Wilma can. Wilma belts out "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey", much to the pleasure of Mr. Rockenspiel. Wilma signs a contract, but finds out that it's for her to sing on TV for 39 weeks on The Happy Housewife Show. She tries to back out, claiming that Fred Flintstone won't like it, but the producer tells her that she must adhere to the terms of the contract.
Later, Fred comes home, and sees that Wilma isn't there. He sees a note and a frozen dinner, and figures he's so hungry he'll eat anything. But he forgets to heat up the meal, and goes into a rage. The Rubbles hear this, and Barney Rubble goes over to see him. Both men see Wilma on TV singing the Rockenspiel jingle, and promoting a hearty meal. "My dinner on TV!" Fred exclaims. "Sort of a TV dinner," Barney jokes. Fred gets so angry about Wilma's TV gig that he smashes the TV set, and throws one of its legs at the door when Barney decides to leave.
When Wilma comes home, Fred berates her for neglecting her housework, reminding her that a woman's place is in the home. Wilma tearfully explains how she became Wilma the Happy Housewife. Later, the Rubbles reluctantly decided to feed Fred for 39 weeks. "We'll be ruined, bankrupt!" Barney gripes. When Fred arrives, he complains that there's something missing from the Rubbles' dinner, whereupon Betty ushers him out.
Sometime later, Fred stops at Mother's Place, and meets the owner, Sam Mother. While eating a sandwich, Fred sees Wilma on TV again, smashes the TV set, and hits Mother. This lands Fred in jail, but Betty refuses to bail him out.
Meanwhile, at the TV network, the head honcho contacts the CEO of a rival network just to torment him. So the rival figures, "Every wife has an Achilles' heel. What about her husband?" He pays Fred a personal visit after the latter is released from jail. He offers Fred his own TV show. Then he tells his rival about Neglected Husband, a show about Fred. This leads to the abrupt cancellation of The Happy Housewife Show, with the producer telling Wilma, "Sorry, lady. Show's over," live on the set. This is followed by a test pattern and an official announcement of the show's cancellation.
In the end, Fred and Wilma make up, and Wilma serves Fred a home-cooked dinner while singing the Rockenspiel jingle.
== Trivia ==
* This is the only episode of The Flintstones in which two characters have the same name: Sam.
* An instrumental version of the Rockenspiel jingle was used as closing music on many episodes of The Flintstones, as well as a few episodes of The Adventures of Gulliver.
* Betty claims that she can't sing. However, she sang in several episodes before and after this episode.
* The compact car Wilma drives is never seen again after this episode.
Category:The Flintstones
Category:TV Episodes
Category:The Funtastic Index