The Flintstones
Operation Switchover
TV Flash files “Operation Switchover” as the last listed hour of season 4 — The Flintstones (1960–1966) on ABC, season 4, episode 26, aired 1964-03-12, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E26: listed hour 114 of 166 in the The Flintstones guide, last listed hour of season 4. It aired 1964-03-12 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Bachelor Daze” (S04E25). Next is “Hop Happy” (S05E01).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Fred and Wilma trade roles and Fred must clean the house and make appetizers when visitors come to inspect the house for a contest that Wilma has entered.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Operation Switchover sit in the The Flintstones guide?
S04E26 is listed hour 114 of 166 — last listed hour of season 4, season 4 episode 26.
When did The Flintstones S04E26 air?
Operation Switchover aired 1964-03-12 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Where should I start?
Early Bedrock hours with Fred, Wilma, Barney, and Betty show the sitcom-in-skins contract before the kids arrive. Later seasons add Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm if you want the household as a merchandising unit.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The Flintstones put a blue-collar sitcom in Bedrock and proved animation could own prime time: Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, dinosaurs as appliances, laugh track included. Hanna-Barbera's six-season breakthrough is the blueprint every later cartoon family still raids. Yabba-dabba-doo as American brand, plus the endless Honeymooners-in-skins debate.
So about Bedrock: the group chat has been having the *Honeymooners*-in-skins fight since before the timeline had a name, and nobody is logging off. ABC's *The Flintstones* (1960–1966; 166 episodes) put a blue-collar sitcom in the Stone Age — Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, dinosaurs as appliances, laugh track included — and proved animation could own prime time. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera built the household. Alan Reed's Fred and Jean Vander Pyl's Wilma opposite Mel Blanc's Barney and Bea Benaderet's Betty.…
Filed against
- Alan Reed as Fred Flintstone
Alan Reed’s Fred Flintstone put a blue-collar sitcom in Bedrock and proved animation could own prime time — Wilma, Barney, Betty, dinosaurs as appliances, laugh track included. Hanna-Barbera’s six-season breakthrough, the blueprint every…
- Jean Vander Pyl as Wilma Flintstone
Jean Vander Pyl’s Wilma Flintstone put a blue-collar sitcom wife in Bedrock — Fred, Barney, Betty, dinosaurs as appliances, laugh track included. Hanna-Barbera’s six-season prime-time breakthrough, the blueprint every later cartoon family…
- Mel Blanc as Barney Rubble
Mel Blanc’s Barney Rubble gave The Flintstones its next-door giggle — 1960s catalog Bedrock, a laugh-track sitcom in stone, the pal Fred could not do without. The Jetsons and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century kept the most famous voice in…
- Bea Benaderet as Betty Rubble
Bea Benaderet’s Blanche Morton needled The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show as next-door vaudeville, then The Flintstones’ Wilma and Petticoat Junction’s Kate Bradley made her 1950s–60s catalog warmth a three-stop map. TV Flash files…