Henry Corden had a tough act to follow. Alan Reed created the voice of Fred Flintstone, came up with the now-trademarked phrase, “Yabba Dabba Doo!” and developed the way prime time animated characters still speak – in a conversational tone touched with an affectation that doesn’t get in the way of the regular engagement of TV series audiences. There is no way to understate his contribution.

From the accounts of those who knew and/or worked with Henry Corden, the versatile, solid actor who subbed, dubbed, and eventually became the voice of Fred after Reed’s passing would agree that any Freds to follow would not fully match the original.

He was born Henry Cohen in Canada, growing up in The Bronx. His film career began the same year he moved to Los Angeles, with a small role in the 1947 Danny Kaye hit, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. He became ubiquitous in movies, including The Ten Commandments, The Asphalt Jungle, and The Band Wagon, and TV series from Dragnet, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and Bonanza to I Dream of Jeannie, The Flying Nun, and . He appears below as Mr. Haskell, owner of an ice cream parlor, in a 1973 episode of The Brady Bunch called “Marcia Gets Creamed,” especially notable because of Jan’s rare triumph over Marcia-Marcia-Marcia!

Corden came to Hanna-Barbera’s attention when he was cast for various supporting roles in 1964’s Jonny Quest. Also that year, Alan Reed gave a particular charming performance of two songs in the Flintstones episode, “Christmas Flintstone”. As 1965 approached, two musical animated projects were in production that required Fred to sing “book musical” songs. Corden had the innate musical skills needed, including excellent pitch, that would make recording sessions more efficient and less costly. Though their speaking voices were not identical, Corden’s singing Fred sounded very much like Reed’s speaking Fred. By March 1966, he could be heard in the ABC special, Alice in Wonderland, or What’s a Nice Kid Like You Doing in a Place Like This?

A few months later, he was heard singing for Fred on the big screen in The Man Called Flintstone.

Except for the album Flip Fables and brief sections of Bambi and Hansel and Gretel, it was not possible to schedule (and budget for) Alan Reed to play Fred on records.

Corden first spoke as Fred in 1965’s Hanna-Barbera album, Songs from Mary Poppins. Acting as a replacement voice, he thus was imitative of Reed. But as Reed had done, Corden evolved his performance to more closely match his own conversational tone, which was naturally larger-than-life and often called upon for playing bombastic characters, such as The Monkees’ landlord, Mr. Babbitt. He was the Fred voice HBR fans heard more often on vinyl, along with Daws Butler as Barney. For some reason, Mel Blanc voiced Barney on records only when Reed was playing Fred, though Blanc worked on Flintstones episodes alongside Corden in supporting roles.

Perhaps Corden’s most delightful and enduring original voice characterization is Paw Rugg, who first appeared in The Hillbilly Bears segment of 1965’s Atom Ant Show. Paw’s amusing mumble that Corden punctuated with a “heh-heh-heh” more guttural than the one he used for Fred. One of the best episodes is the surefire showbiz Cinderella story, “Do the Bear” by Tony Benedict. Which Charles Shows expanded into one of the finest and funniest Hanna-Barbera records. Side one can be heard here, and side two here.

Our pal Mark Evanier remembered Corden on his blog, newsfromme.com:

Henry was a charming, funny man who was just a joy to be around. I remember him telling me a long story about working with Bud and Lou in Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion. He played an Arab in the film — he played Arabs and sometimes Germans in an amazing percentage of his screen appearances — and apparently Lou kept forgetting that Henry wasn’t of Arabian descent. “There would be some Middle Eastern name or word in the script and Costello would ask me, ‘Hey, you’re from there. How’s this pronounced?’ And I’d have to keep telling him, “How the hell should I know? I’m from Montreal!”

H-B continued to cast Corden in a variety of cartoon roles, while Alan Reed played Fred in specials and series. Still, when Fred sang, it was usually Corden. Then, in April 1977, each was heard in the syndicated TV special that would be Reed’s last performance as Fred. Energy: A National Issue was also the first Hanna-Barbera project directed by Gerard Baldwin (Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol, The Bullwinkle Show, Linus the Lionhearted, Smurfs).

Technically, the first series with Corden as Fred’s speaking voice premiered in Fall 1977. The five-day-a-week syndicated series, Fred Flintstone and Friends featured an archive of H-B Saturday morning series that were associated with Columbia/Screen Gems (Jeannie, Partridge Family 2200 A.D., Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, The Flintstone Comedy Show, and Goober and the Ghost Chasers, often featuring the Partridge kids). Fred, voiced by Corden, introduced the segments from a TV control room, but all the Flintstone cartoons starred Alan Reed. It wasn’t until December that audiences heard Corden leading the cast in A Flintstone Christmas.

In 1979, NBC premiered The New Fred and Barney Show, the first continuing series with Henry Corden as Fred, Mel Blanc as Barney, and Jean Vander Pyl as Wilma Flintstone. The series was available for a premium on Amazon Plus (but one of the episodes was in German!). Fortunately, it can be enjoyed often on MeTV Toons, along with the classic Flintstones series. Later this month, The New Fred and Barney Show finally comes to physical media when Warner Archive releases it on Blu-ray. It’s available right now for pre-order here.

Henry Corden voiced Fred for the rest of his life, as did Jean Vander Pyl, for TV shows, recordings, and commercials. They did interviews to promote a primetime Flintstones 50th anniversary special, including this one for Entertainment Tonight. They were heard, along with Mel Blanc for many years, in TV ads for Post Cocoa and Fruity Pebbles cereals, and occasional Flintstones Vitamins ads for Miles Laboratories, which was one of their first sponsors. A recent final Jeopardy! answer referred to the fact that the Flintstones have been associated with two national brands longer than any other animated characters in history—over 50 years for each.

Henry Corden was quoted as saying, “My big hobby is my family. That’s it. I don’t know how long I’ve got to go, and whatever time I have, I want to get the pleasure of my children, of my grandchildren and of my wonderful, wonderful wife.” As for being second, you can’t get to Neverland by the FIRST Star to The Right.