The Swimming Pool

"**The Swimming Pool**" is the 3rd episode of the first season of *The Flintstones*. It aired on October 14, 1960.

## Synopsis

Fred and Barney decide to make one pool to fit both their backyards, but then get into a fight and start claiming property of both ends of the pool.

## Plot

Fred and Barney may be best buddies, but they quarrel almost constantly, and the day that Fred arrives home from work, carrying a bag full of groceries and two 10-inch-thick New Rock sirloin steaks, is a prime example of the volatile friendship between the two cavemen. Fred accidentally drops the steaks at the fence to his house and suspects Barney of swiping them when he smells steaks being cooked on Barney's barbecue and is told by Barney that the steaks are of the exact grade and proportions as Fred's missing meat.

Fred becomes violent, demanding that Barney relinquish the "stolen" steaks, before Wilma informs Fred that she found Fred's steaks where Fred left them. Fred refuses to apologize to Barney; so, Barney repossesses Fred's ladder and is chased by a ballistic Fred, who falls into the hole that Barney is digging to form a swimming pool. Fred's disposition mellows immediately as he sweet-talks Barney into sharing a swimming pool, with Barney doing all of the maintenance on the pretense of having a "free" half on Fred's property.

The results are disastrous, with Fred and Barney diving simultaneously off of opposing boards and colliding in mid-air, Fred leaping into the pool emptied by Barney, and Barney's personal pool party that raises Fred's ire. Fred constructs a fence across the property boundary to separate his side of the pool from Barney's, but Wilma angrily orders Fred to remove it.

To strike against his erstwhile pool pal, Fred arranges to ruin Barney's next planned party by having a disguised friend impersonate a police officer raiding the revels. But Barney's party is really a birthday celebration in Fred's honor and Fred joins in the festivities, which become noisy enough for a neighbor to call the police. Fred mistakes the true constable for his friend and brazenly offends and drops the policeman into the pool!

Arrested and jailed, Fred is visited by Barney, who gives to Fred a slice of birthday cake and "bails" Fred out of police custody. Amiable relations are short-lived, however,
when Barney again removes the water from the pool without informing a nose-diving Flintstone.

## Characters

* Fred Flintstone
* Wilma Flintstone
* Barney Rubble
* Betty Rubble
* Swim Togs and Stuff employee (only appearance)
* Charlie (only appearance)
* Charlie's pool table partner (only appearance)
* Angry neighbor (only appearance)
* Sergeant (only appearance)
* Pete's partner (only appearance)
* Pete (only appearance; no lines)

## Locations

* Bedrock
	+ Flintstone home
	+ Rubble home (first appearance)
	+ Swim Togs and Stuff (only appearance)
	+ Rockhead & Quarry Cave Construction Co. (first appearance)
	+ 5th Precinct

## Objects

* Do-It-Yourself Pool Kit
* Public phone
* Fred's birthday cake

## Animals

* Turtlesauruses (as bongos)
* Brontosaurus (as food and transportation)
* Stegosaurus (as a dump truck)

## Cast

 Michael Rye
 Hal Smith

## Notes/Trivia

* The scenes where Wilma brings Fred's meal by the pool and Barney has a mishap with a harpoon gun came from the unaired pilot, "*The Flagstones*", based on the original name of *The Flintstones*.
* This is the first of many names given to the construction company Fred works for, this time being called Rockhead and Quarry Cave Construction Co.
	+ This is the only episode where Wilma wore shoes.

### **Errors**

* Fred knows either 2 Charlies, or animators weren't being consistent.