The Flintstones

[Maurice Leakey]

I have two 16mm episodes of The Flintstones. Complete with original leaders and tails with no joins into and at the end, but they are both missing the standard intro with Fred on his dinosaur as he finishes his work day. The end of the film just fades out and does not have the usual ending with the credits.
I was wondering if the TV stations had the usual opening and closing titles which were just added for the transmission.
I should stress there is nothing missing physically from the prints, there are no joins from leader or to the tails.

[Steve Lee]

Hi Maurice,
I also have several flintstones episodes on 16mm with exactly the same, no opening and closing credits. It's a real shame as you just want to hear the signature tune at the beginning and end. And you sort of feel short changed, as they are an integral part of each episode.
I believe because of the length of time that the credits run for, and that they never changed throughout the duration of the production, the TV broadcast stations had a generic copy of then that was cut into on the telecine machine.
This must have saved the distribution company money, as there has to be at least 200 feet of film just on the credits per episode.
I also have a couple of top cat episodes that are exactly the same, no credits.
Steve

[Maurice Leakey]

Thank you, Steve.
My thoughts exactly.