Of all the oddball characters in the Flintstones universe, Schleprock is the one I have the softest spot for. He is the gloomy, perpetually unlucky teenager who hangs around Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, and trouble follows him like, well, a storm cloud.
If you grew up watching reruns, you know exactly who I mean. If you did not, let me introduce you to the saddest, sweetest kid in Bedrock. This is a full look at Bad Luck Schleprock: who he is, who made him, and why he stuck with so many of us.
Who Is Schleprock?
Schleprock, usually called “Bad Luck” Schleprock, is a friend of Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble. He is a teenager at Bedrock High, and his whole deal is simple: he has the worst luck imaginable, and it rubs off on everyone near him.
The key thing, and the reason I like him, is that none of it is on purpose. He never means to cause a mess. He just walks in, and the ceiling caves in, or the cake collapses, or the car rolls into the lake. Then he sighs and apologizes.
- A gloomy, good-natured teen with cartoonishly bad luck
- His mere presence makes things go wrong, never on purpose
- Friends with Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm, and the rest of the Bedrock gang
- Always sorry, always smiling through the gloom
Where Schleprock Came From
Schleprock first showed up in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, which Hanna-Barbera launched in 1971. It was the very first spin-off of The Flintstones, and the hook was that Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were no longer babies.
Now they were teenagers at Bedrock High, dating, getting their first jobs, and playing in a band called the Bedrock Rockers. Schleprock was part of their circle of friends, alongside characters like Moonrock, Penny, and Wiggy. The show only ran one season on CBS, but Schleprock proved popular enough to keep turning up for years afterward.
- Debuted in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show in 1971
- The first spin-off the Flintstones franchise ever produced
- Set among the teenage gang at Bedrock High School
- Lived on through later Flintstones shows after the spinoff ended
Who Voiced Schleprock?
Schleprock was voiced by Don Messick, and that is a bigger deal than it sounds. Messick was one of the most important voices Hanna-Barbera ever had, the kind of performer who could disappear into almost any character.
He gave Schleprock that mopey, defeated little voice that makes the bad luck funny instead of sad. You hear it and you immediately feel for the guy.
- Voiced by Don Messick, a Hanna-Barbera mainstay
- Gave Schleprock his glum, apologetic delivery
- One of the most versatile voice actors of his era
Who Designed Schleprock?
Here is the fact that surprised me most. Schleprock’s character model was drawn by Iwao Takamoto, one of the great animation designers of the twentieth century. His name is not famous, but his work absolutely is.
Takamoto had a remarkable story. As a young Japanese American, he and his family were sent to the Manzanar internment camp during World War II, and that is where he learned to draw, taught by fellow internees who had worked in Hollywood. After the war he talked his way into a job at Disney, worked on films like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, then moved to Hanna-Barbera, where he designed character after character.
- Schleprock’s model sheet was designed by Iwao Takamoto
- Takamoto learned to draw while interned at Manzanar in WWII
- Went on to Disney, then became a key Hanna-Barbera designer
- Shaped the look of countless characters you grew up with
What Schleprock Looks Like
Schleprock is short, with fair skin and a look that screams “down on his luck.” His most recognizable feature is a grey and black-striped hat pulled so low it covers his eyes, which only adds to the gloomy mystery of the guy.
He wears a grey shirt that is several sizes too big, with a torn hem that drags along the ground as he walks. In true Stone Age fashion, it is held together with a single white bone instead of buttons. It is a great design, the kind of shabby that tells you everything about a character before he says a word.
- Short, with a grey and black-striped hat covering his eyes
- A baggy grey shirt with a torn hem that drags on the floor
- The shirt is fastened with a white bone, very Bedrock
- A look that broadcasts “bad luck” at a glance
Where to Find Schleprock
Schleprock did not disappear when The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show ended. Hanna-Barbera kept reusing the teenage Bedrock cast, so he popped up across a string of Flintstones programs through the 1970s and into the 1980s.
If you want to track him down, here is where he turns up:
- The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971), his original home
- The Flintstone Comedy Hour, which continued the teen segments
- The Flintstone Comedy Show, part of the Saturday morning cartoons of the 1980s
- The Flintstone Funnies, the early-1980s rerun package
Most of these have aired in reruns on Boomerang over the years, so he is not hard to find if you go looking.
A Few Schleprock Facts I Like
A few extra things I dug up that did not fit anywhere else:
- His catchphrase is a glum little “wowsy wowsy woo-woo,” muttered as whatever he touched falls to pieces.
- The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show leaned hard on rock music and a teen-band format, Hanna-Barbera’s answer to the popularity of the Archies.
- Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, who later created Scooby-Doo, worked as story editors on the very show that introduced Schleprock.
That is the full story on Bad Luck Schleprock, the gloomy kid with the cloud over his head. He was never the star of the show, but he might be the one I remember best. Do you have a favorite Schleprock moment, or another lovable side character from the Flintstones gang? Let me know in the comments.