First of all, I'd like to wish my wife a happy anniversary! Also, happy anniversary to my friends Jim and Alma Geller! My wife and I watched this one together, Season 1's The Hot Piano, written by Warren Foster, Mike Maltese and Arthur Phillips. Frank Nelson plays the smart allecky clerk at the Music Store. Daws Butler plays 88 Fingers Louie, the Postman, a Cop and the Police Seargeant. Mel Blanc plays the lizard doubling as a xylophone. Hoyt Curtin provides this memorable soundtrack.
Plot summary: Fred and Wilma's wedding anniversary is coming up and Wilma wonders if Fred has forgotten it. He has a track record of forgetting it. He pretends to not have remembered as usual, playing "dumb." However, he takes Barney with him to the Music Store. There, the smart-allecky clerk suggests he forget the anniversary, "like you do every year." Fred announces he'd like to buy a Stoneway piano. Barney tries it out and he and the clerk play In The Merry Merry Month Of May, which drives Fred crazy since they play too long! When the clerk announces the piano is 100 times more than the $50 he has, Fred leaves the store empty-handed and discouraged. However, when a shady guy named 88-Fingers Louie shows them a piano which he offers at $50, Fred's hopes are raised! Unfortunately, 88-Fingers refuses to help Fred and Barney move the piano into the house. So the boys somehow fit the piano in the backseat of Fred's car and store it in the garage, with plans at night to move it into the house. Barney wakes Fred up and they try hoisting it from the window, which doesn't work. So they try pushing it though the front door and it slides out the back door! Wilma briefly awakes and thinks she's seeing things when she sees the piano sail through the house! Then it runs over Barney and goes sailing into the street! Fred catches up to the piano which both of them get pulled over by a cop. The Seargeant accuses Fred of being 88-Fingers Louie and stealing the piano. Fred says he just wanted to surprise his wife on their anniversary. Since it's also the Seargeant's anniversary, he orders the piano be brought to the Flintstones' house. So Wilma wakes up with Fred, Barney and the police force serenading her with the Happy Anniversary song, to the tune of the William Tell Overture. Wilma is ecstatic that Fred remembered after all and gives him a tie. Then, after the song is over, the Police force takes the piano back. The Seargeant calls and says he's caught the real 88-Fingers who confesses he sold the hot piano to Fred. So they release Fred and warn him "If you play with a hot piano, you'll get your fingers burned!" Barney is left to explain what happened to Wilma. So Fred winds up getting a ride from the police to the flower shop!
What I liked: This cartoon is full of spoofs, particularly from the series Dragnet. It's also fun seeing Barney play the Meet The Fiintstones theme on the xylophone lizard who snaps "I hate amateurs!" Fred is also a riot pretending he doesn't remember. Wilma is also funny, frisking Fred for surprises and asks if he brought anything home. Fred says "An appetite like an elephant!" Wilma replies wryly "Too bad he didn't have a memory like one!" It's also a riot seeing them play In The Merry Merry Month Of May over and over and Fred explodes, screaming "Allright! Knock it off!" Another funny gag is Barney getting hurt and Fred rushing him to the nearest Post Office box to scream his pain. Finally, a Postman comes to collect the mail and with it, hears Barney's cries of pain! "I gotta stop eating at those cheap restaurants!," laments the Postman. Finally, the Happy Anniversary song is the most poignant part of the show. If it's your own anniversary, it may choke you up! And that's why I give this episode 10 hot pianos out of 10!
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