Groom Gloom

Groom Gloom is the second episode of the fourth season of The Flintstones. It aired on September 26, 1963.
== Summary ==
Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble decide to play table tennis. Arnold stops by, and tells Fred the rules of the game. Fred then challenges Arnold to play against him, at one point mistaking a caterpillar for the ball. Arnold tells Pebbles Flintstone he'll teach her how to play someday, and then says that maybe he and she will get married. Fred tells Arnold it'll be a cold day before that happens, and falls asleep in the hammock.
Almost immediately, Fred has a dream. He, Wilma, the Rubbles, Pebbles, Arnold, and Dino are all much older. It's also a cold day, complete with a blizzard. Fred comments on how cold it is, and then decides to go to all the places he frequents. He discovers that Arnold is his replacement at Mr. Slate's quarry, the new captain of his bowling team and the new Grand Poobah at the Water Buffalo Lodge. Even worse, Barney has decided to go to the fights with Arnold. Fred comes in, and Wilma tells him they'll have to tell Pebbles about the birds and the bees. Pebbles hopes she'll learn about them before noon, since at that hour, she and Arnold are getting married. Arnold arrives, and he and Pebbles magically don wedding garb. Wilma goes after them just to get a lift to the beauty parlor. Dino pursues them, but then falls asleep in the street due to his age. Fred takes matters into his own hands, and after getting hit with Pebbles' bouquet when it morphs into a newspaper, finds out the young couple's getting married at the little church. He goes there, but it's another couple that looks like them from the back. He then goes to another church, and finds the elderly Rubbles getting married again. By the time he catches up to Pebbles and Arnold, they've already tied the knot, and are leaving for their honeymoon on a flying elephant. Fred falls off the cliff, and keeps shouting, "Come back!"
Wilma wakes Fred up, and asks whether he's OK. Fred sees Arnold still looking after Pebbles, and angrily orders him to leave, telling him that any boy who'd marry his daughter and fly off on an elephant is not welcome on Flintstone property. Wilma realizes Fred just had a bad dream. Fred confirms this, and then tells Pebbles to promise him she'll never grow up.
== Trivia ==
* The dream sequence in this episode is similar to the one in the later episode "Rip Van Flintstone".
Category:TV Episodes
Category:The Flintstones
Category:The Funtastic Index