Monday, May 23, 2005

Tues

The 2nd guy to be Fred Flintstone's voice died, Henry Cordon. Henry took over in 1977 when original Fred Alan Reed died. Henry has been doing the Fruity Pebbles commercials all along.

I gotts say, I knew there was a different guy in the past 20+ years. One of my things, one of my super talents (and I think everyone has a super talent or two) is that I know voices and faces. Especially voices. Not bragging, just telling. I can pick out voices on commercials, in voice-overs, you name it. I have a really sensitive audio memory. People's inflections, timbre, cadence. I just know it. I'm good with faces too. I knew for a long time that Fred Flintsone's voice changed, but the guy who was doing the Fruity Pebbles commercials was really good. But his timbre was like a diagonal half-step lower than Alan Reed's. It sounded riht, but was tired ins some way. I just thought Alan Reed might have gotten older and his voice mellowed. But something in me always said "No dude, it's not the same guy." It was in the way some of his vowels were stronger or softer in certain words compared to Alan Reed's. Henry had a bit more melody to his inflections than Alan. Henry's long vowel sounds would rise or fall in pitch over their duration sometimes. Alan's was a solid note from consonant to consonant.
Henry/the Fruity Pebbles commercials would exclaim "Baaahr-nee" with the "nee" a lower pitch than the "baaahr"
Alan's "Baaahr-nee" would stay same note for both syllables.


Anyway, this proved me right.

And double anyway, here's a cool picture of the original Flintstone's couples from back in the day.
flintvoice
Fred, Wilma, Betty, Barney

Good job Alan and Henry. Fred was a great one. Just like Jackie Gleason who he was modeled after.

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