The Great Gazoo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2008) |
| The Great Gazoo | |
|---|---|
| The Flintstones character | |
 |
|
| The Great Gazoo | |
| First appearance | "The Great Gazoo" |
| Last appearance | "My Fair Freddy" |
| Created by | Hanna Barbera |
| Portrayed by | Harvey Korman |
| Information | |
| Species | Alien |
| Gender | Male |
| Address | Bedrock |
The Great Gazoo is a character from The Flintstones animated series. He first appeared on the show on October 29, 1965. He has many similarities to Mr. Mxyzptlk of the Superman comics, and may have been inspired by him. The Great Gazoo was voiced by Harvey Korman.
[edit] Biography
Gazoo is a tiny, green, floating alien who was exiled to Earth from his home planet Zatox as punishment for having invented a doomsday machine, a weapon of immense destructive power, and was discovered by Fred and Barney when his flying saucer crashed. His invention was a button which would destroy the universe if pressed, though he insists he made it on a whim with no intent of using it.
Gazoo often appears before Fred and Barney in random, often inopportune moments. He refers to Fred and Barney as "dum-dums" and constantly causes problems for them. Even when he attempts to help Fred and Barney out, he usually ends up causing even more trouble. The only people who are able to see him are Fred, Barney, and the children, because they believe in him. It is also possible that Dino and Hoppy can also see Gazoo, which means that Wilma and Betty are the only major characters who cannot. A running gag is that Fred argues with Gazoo while Wilma believes that he is talking to himself. When their daughter, Pebbles, says "Gazoo," Wilma thinks Pebbles is sneezing.
Gazoo's name actually derives from the 1909 hit song, "King of the Bungaloos," by Charles Straight and Gene Greene. In it, the narrator explains, "I just received a cable 'spatch from my ancestral home. It tells me I'm the great Gazoo, successor to the throne."[1]
Because Gazoo is introduced into the show midway through the final season and is considered quite an absurd character, being a futuristic alien that appears in the middle of the Stone Age, he is often cited by fans and critics of the show as being an example of the show having "jumped the shark." Indeed, the show was cancelled shortly after his first appearance, although it cannot be said with any certainty that Gazoo contributed in any way to the series' conclusion.
The story arc regarding Gazoo's trying to return home is never resolved because of the cancellation of the original series, and the character does not appear, nor is he referred to, in the immediate series follow-up The Man Called Flintstone or any of the later spin-off TV series or animated movies, rendering him effectively dropped from continuity. Apart from the original TV series, he appears in a Fruity Pebbles cereal commercial as part of a promotion for a contest where consumers would have to try to find boxes of all-orange cereal pieces, and more recently has become the mascot for Marshmallow Mania Pebbles cereal. He is also a character in Flintstones vitamins.
[edit] Appearances in other H-B media
- In the Venture Bros. episode "Now Museum, Now You Don't", the large-headed villain Brainulo is referred to as "The Great Gazoo" by an old nemesis.
- In the episode of Space Ghost: Coast to Coast entitled "Pavement", the Great Gazoo makes a cameo - only long enough to be introduced, say the catchphrase "Toodle-loo, dumb-dumbs!" and disappear.
- In the Duck Dodgers cartoon Attack of the Drones, Gazoo appears in a parody of the Jedi Council.
- The Great Gazoo also appears in The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino and Hoppy NES game and the arcade game Flintstones Memory Match
- The Great Gazoo also had a part in the second live-action film, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, where he is played by Alan Cumming and, instead of being sent to Earth as punishment, he has to study humanity's mating habits because he is the most expendable of his people.
- Charlton Comics also published a short-lived comic book focusing on the character in the mid-1970s.
[edit] References
- ^ Greene, Gene, and Straight, Charles, King of the Bungaloos (Music House of Laemmle: Chicago, 1909), p. 1.
