Why did Mel Blanc abruptly change Barney Rubble's voice?

Why did Mel Blanc abruptly change Barney Rubble's voice? - From above blackboard with written phrase SILENCE IS CONSENT on center on black background

Anyone who's watched enough of The Flintstones will have noticed that the character of Barney Rubble had three distinct voices over the course of the series:

  • For the first season and the earlier part of the second, Mel Blanc voiced the character in a high-pitched, smart-alecky voice.
  • For five non-consecutive episodes of the second season, Daws Butler voiced the character.
  • For the later part of the second season and onwards, Mel Blanc voiced the character in a lower-pitched, dopey voice.

It's well known that the reason Daws Butler briefly voiced the character is that he was filling in while Mel Blanc was recuperating from a devastating car accident. What I've never seen explained, however, is why Mel Blanc changed Barney's voice after returning to the show.

At first I thought that the change in voice may have been an unintentional side-effect of injuries Blanc sustained during his accident. However, two pieces of evidence count against this:

  1. According to Blanc himself, in an interview he gave about three months after his accident, the accident did not affect his voice: "They kept me in the hospital 70 days. That's a long time. But I'm grateful the accident didn't hurt my voice."
  2. As far as I know, Blanc didn't alter the performance of any of the other characters he voiced at the time.

So why did Blanc change Barney's voice so drastically? Did Blanc himself, or anyone else connected with the production of the show, ever offer an explanation?






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Did Mel Blanc do the voice of Barney Rubble?

In 1960, after the expiration of his exclusive contract with Warner Bros., Blanc continued working for them, but also began providing voices for the TV cartoons produced by Hanna-Barbera; his roles during this time included Barney Rubble of The Flintstones and Cosmo Spacely of The Jetsons.

Who was the first voice of Barney Rubble?

Mel Blanc - Barney Rubble Of course, he was Woody Woodpecker and Barney Rubble, too. "The Man of 1,000 Voices" rarely appeared onscreen as an actor, but he did turn up once as a driver on The Beverly Hillbillies ("Granny Learns to Drive").

Which character had the same voice actor as Barney Rubble?

Mel Blanc played Bugs Bunny and Barney Rubble If you talk about voice acting, and especially if you talk about versatility in the profession, you've got to talk about Mel Blanc.



The Voices of Barney Rubble




Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: Brett Sayles, VOLKAN SORKUN, David McBee, David McBee