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The Gruesomes (fictional characters)
Encyclopedia
The Gruesomes are a family of fictional characters who appeared on The Flintstones
television series. They debuted in 1964 during the show's fifth season. They are similar to other monster families who appeared on television during the same time period, including The Addams Family
and The Munsters
.
A modern version of the family, renamed The Creepleys, appeared on the Laff-A-Lympics
series.
, the Gruesomes are a family consisting of married couple Weirdly
and Creepella
, son Goblin
(a.k.a. Gobby), and uncle Ghastly, who is only seen as a hand in "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes" and a shadow in "Meet the Gruesomes".
They first appear in an episode of The Flintstones titled "The Gruesomes". In this episode, Weirdly and Creepella Gruesome, along with their son Gobby, move into Tombstone Manor, which is next door to the Flintstones. Trying to be neighborly, Fred and Barney agree to babysit Gobby, whose strange pets (including Schneider the spider and Occy the octopus) make for a tortuously eventful evening.
The family reappears in the episode "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes". The Hatrocks, who are hillbilly friends of Fred, come to visit but soon become an annoyance to everyone. Fred enlists the Gruesomes to scare them away, but they are unsuccessful. Fred finally discovers The Hatrocks' aversion to rock music, and uses it to chase them back to the hills. This episode is notable because Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Pebbles, Bamm Bamm, Dino, Hoppy and the Gruesomes sing "She Said Yeah Yeah Yeah", which is a takeoff of The Beatles
' "She Loves You
".
After The Flintstones ended, the Gruesomes returned for a final appearance on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
in 1971. In the episode "The Birthday Present", Wooly (Pebbles' elephantine prehistoric pet, presumably a wooly mammoth or a mastodon
) takes the gift that Pebbles had bought for her mom
and buries it in the back yard. Pebbles believes it is stolen by her neighbor the creepy Mrs. Gruesome, so she offers to babysit Gobby for the Gruesomes so that the kids can infiltrate the Gruesome mansion and search for the gift. Thinking that Mrs. Gruesome may have Wilma's gift with her, the gang then crashes a Gruesome family reunion, and Bamm-Bamm is mistaken for a cat burglar. The misunderstanding is cleared in the end and, per her mother's birthday wish, Pebbles vows to judge people more fairly.
The family differs greatly in their appearance on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show appearance compared to their prior appearances on The Flintstones. On The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Creepella has Caucasian skin and black hair (in contrast to the green skin and red hair shown previously on The Flintstones), and speaks with a faux-Transylvanian accent instead of her traditionally high-pitched voice. It is this version of the character that the modern-age villainous Laff-A-Lympics character Mrs. Creepley is based upon. Weirdly and Gobby also differ in appearance; Weirdly's green skin has a muddier tone and his hair is changed from dark green to light brown on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, while Gobby is changed from having light blue skin and purple hair to pale green skin and bright blond hair. In a further lapse in continuity from their prior appearances on The Flintstones, Gobby is still depicted as a child on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and has not grown into a teenager, even though he was depicted as a couple years older than Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm during the family's original appearances. Additionally, Pebbles perceives the family as scary and untrustworthy, even though they had previously been depicted as strange but harmless friends of the Flintstones and Rubbles.
The Gruesomes are replaced in later spin-off series by The Frankenstones
, another monster-themed family who move next door to the Flintstones.
segment on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics
. The Creepleys consist of Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, and their son Junior Creepley. They are members of the Really Rottens team.
They appeared in the 1978 Laff-A-Lympics comic book series by Marvel Comics
.
took their name after the animated family.
The Flintstones
The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that screened from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966, on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones was about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend. It...
television series. They debuted in 1964 during the show's fifth season. They are similar to other monster families who appeared on television during the same time period, including The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
and The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
.
A modern version of the family, renamed The Creepleys, appeared on the Laff-A-Lympics
Laff-A-Lympics
Laff-A-Lympics was the co-headlining segment, with Scooby-Doo, of the package Saturday morning cartoon series Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show was a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC television series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one...
series.
Character history
Inspired by a previous Hanna Barbera monster family, Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil ScientistMr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist
Mr. & Mrs. J. Evil Scientist are a family of fictional characters inspired by The Addams Family cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker. They appeared on the Snagglepuss and Snooper and Blabber animated television series and starred in their own comic book.-Television history:The Evil Scientist...
, the Gruesomes are a family consisting of married couple Weirdly
Gomez Addams
Gomez Addams is the fictional patriarch of The Addams Family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams for The New Yorker magazine in the 1930s....
and Creepella
Morticia Addams
Morticia A. Addams is the fictional matriarch of "The Addams Family", created by cartoonist Charles Addams and based on his first wife Barbara .Morticia is the wife of Gomez Addams and mother of Wednesday Addams and Pugsley Addams...
, son Goblin
Pugsley Addams
Pugsley Addams is a member of the fictional Addams family, created by cartoonist Charles Addams.Pugsley is the oldest child of Morticia and Gomez Addams. He is a pre-teen boy who is almost always seen wearing a striped T-shirt and shorts...
(a.k.a. Gobby), and uncle Ghastly, who is only seen as a hand in "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes" and a shadow in "Meet the Gruesomes".
They first appear in an episode of The Flintstones titled "The Gruesomes". In this episode, Weirdly and Creepella Gruesome, along with their son Gobby, move into Tombstone Manor, which is next door to the Flintstones. Trying to be neighborly, Fred and Barney agree to babysit Gobby, whose strange pets (including Schneider the spider and Occy the octopus) make for a tortuously eventful evening.
The family reappears in the episode "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes". The Hatrocks, who are hillbilly friends of Fred, come to visit but soon become an annoyance to everyone. Fred enlists the Gruesomes to scare them away, but they are unsuccessful. Fred finally discovers The Hatrocks' aversion to rock music, and uses it to chase them back to the hills. This episode is notable because Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, Pebbles, Bamm Bamm, Dino, Hoppy and the Gruesomes sing "She Said Yeah Yeah Yeah", which is a takeoff of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "She Loves You
She Loves You
"She Loves You" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney based on an idea by McCartney, originally recorded by The Beatles for release as a single in 1963. The single set and surpassed several records in the United Kingdom charts, and set a record in the United States by being one of the...
".
After The Flintstones ended, the Gruesomes returned for a final appearance on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show
The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series spin-off of The Flintstones produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, which ran for 16 half-hour episodes from September 11, 1971, to September 2, 1972, and four 8-minute episodes from September 9, 1972, to September 1,...
in 1971. In the episode "The Birthday Present", Wooly (Pebbles' elephantine prehistoric pet, presumably a wooly mammoth or a mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...
) takes the gift that Pebbles had bought for her mom
Wilma Flintstone
Wilma Anna Flintstone is a fictional character in the television animated series The Flintstones. She was the red-headed wife of caveman Fred Flintstone, daughter of Pearl Slaghoople, mother of Pebbles Flintstone and a grandmother...
and buries it in the back yard. Pebbles believes it is stolen by her neighbor the creepy Mrs. Gruesome, so she offers to babysit Gobby for the Gruesomes so that the kids can infiltrate the Gruesome mansion and search for the gift. Thinking that Mrs. Gruesome may have Wilma's gift with her, the gang then crashes a Gruesome family reunion, and Bamm-Bamm is mistaken for a cat burglar. The misunderstanding is cleared in the end and, per her mother's birthday wish, Pebbles vows to judge people more fairly.
The family differs greatly in their appearance on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show appearance compared to their prior appearances on The Flintstones. On The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, Creepella has Caucasian skin and black hair (in contrast to the green skin and red hair shown previously on The Flintstones), and speaks with a faux-Transylvanian accent instead of her traditionally high-pitched voice. It is this version of the character that the modern-age villainous Laff-A-Lympics character Mrs. Creepley is based upon. Weirdly and Gobby also differ in appearance; Weirdly's green skin has a muddier tone and his hair is changed from dark green to light brown on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, while Gobby is changed from having light blue skin and purple hair to pale green skin and bright blond hair. In a further lapse in continuity from their prior appearances on The Flintstones, Gobby is still depicted as a child on The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show and has not grown into a teenager, even though he was depicted as a couple years older than Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm during the family's original appearances. Additionally, Pebbles perceives the family as scary and untrustworthy, even though they had previously been depicted as strange but harmless friends of the Flintstones and Rubbles.
The Gruesomes are replaced in later spin-off series by The Frankenstones
The Frankenstones
The Frankenstones are a family of fictional characters who appeared on The Flintstones television series.They debuted in 1979 and appeared in various spin-offs and specials through the early 1980s...
, another monster-themed family who move next door to the Flintstones.
The Creepleys
In 1977, a family similar to the Gruesomes were introduced as part of the Laff-A-LympicsLaff-A-Lympics
Laff-A-Lympics was the co-headlining segment, with Scooby-Doo, of the package Saturday morning cartoon series Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The show was a spoof of the Olympics and the ABC television series Battle of the Network Stars, which debuted one...
segment on Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics
Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics
-DVD release:On January 19, 2010, Warner Home Video released Scooby's All-Star Laff-A Lympics - Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1. The single disc release features the first four episodes of the Laff-a-Lympics segment of the package. Target released an exclusive second volume with the next four episodes...
. The Creepleys consist of Mr. Creepley, Mrs. Creepley, and their son Junior Creepley. They are members of the Really Rottens team.
They appeared in the 1978 Laff-A-Lympics comic book series by Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
.
Appearances in other H-B media
- The Gruesomes appear in two different comic books. They first appear in The Flintstones #24 (published in 1965 by Gold Key ComicsGold Key ComicsGold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing created for comic books distributed to newsstands. Also known as Whitman Comics, Gold Key operated from 1962 to 1984.-History:...
), and then had their own back-up feature in Cave Kids (a series starring young versions of the Flintstones, similar to the later Flintstone Kids animated series).
- The family also star in The Flintstones children's books and coloring books.
Cultural impact
The Canadian 60's-inspired garage-rock band The GruesomesThe Gruesomes
The Gruesomes are a Canadian Garage Punk band formed in 1985 from Montreal, Quebec, Canada.-History:Bobby Beaton , Gerry Alvarez , John Davis and his brother Eric Davis were all between the ages of 16 and 19 and had absolutely no previous musical experience...
took their name after the animated family.