Joe Ruby & Ken Spears, in their initial effort for DePatie-Freleng, clearly mined the Flintstones for plot & story ideas for The Barkleys. Case in point is the episode, "Half-Pint Hero".
Arnie (Henry Corden) thinks that his youngest son, Chester (Gene Andrusco, Amazing Chan & the Chan Clan), could make him a millionaire, just because another boy, having grown to 7 feet tall, has earned a pro basketball contract. It's get-rich-quick schemes like this, which have their roots in, of course, The Honeymooners, that were part of the reason The Barkleys failed. Viewers had seen enough similar plots from the Flintstones and other shows, and, by voting with their remotes, deemed The Barkleys as inferior and unworthy of their attention.
Of course, Arnie didn't have a best friend to be an analogue for Barney Rubble or Ed Norton, and that didn't help.....!
Rating: B.
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