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How Jean Vander Pyl and Bea Benaderet became Wilma and Betty
How a couple of radio stars became your favorite cave women!
In a 1995 interview with the Asbury Park Press, Jean Vander Pyl revealed, "I was never very bold about telling directors what I wanted. You just didn’t do that in those days. But there were two times that I did." It turns out, both of those times were when she was auditioning for The Flintstones.
Originally, June Foray and Daws Butler starred in the demo pilot, originally called The Flagstones, but were unexpectedly dropped. Hanna-Barbera started auditioning more voice actors from the radio world, and that's how Jean Vander Pyl and Bea Benaderet got into the mix.
Jean Vander Pyl was an accomplished radio and television actress, performing in shows like Leave It to Beaver. Her first cartoon roles were additional voices in other Hanna-Barbera shows like The Huckleberry Hound Show, The Quickdraw McGraw Show, Mister Magoo, and Loopy de Loop. Bea Benaderet was also successfully transitioning from the world of radio into television, starring in The George Burns Show, and, along with June Foray, was one of the main female voice actors for the original Looney Tunes shorts.
Vander Pyl and Benaderet were old friends, having met performing on the radio show The Halls of Ivy. Like many radio stars, they had transitioned into the world of cartoons and now found themselves auditioning for The Flintstones together. Vander Pyl recalled, "When Bea Benaderet, an old friend, and I were reading for Joe Barbera (for The Flintstones), it was the funniest thing. We read back and forth, this way and that way."
Both actresses read for Wilma and Betty until Joe Barbera asked the two actresses which roles they each preferred. Vander Pyl jumped at the opportunity, "So I said, ‘Oh, I want to be Wilma!’ I felt a real closeness to that character. Bea said, ‘That’s fine with me’. So that was actually the way it was cast."
But what was the second time Vander Pyl told Barbera what she wanted? When Pebbles was born, "When we heard there was going to be a baby on the show, we were all excited. The minute I heard that, I thought, ‘Oh, I want to do that baby’." Vander Pyl recalled, "Sure enough, the first time it was in the script, Barbera said, ‘Now, who’s going to do the baby here?’ The minute those words were out of his mouth, I said, ‘I want to do the baby!’ She’s Wilma’s baby, and she should sound like Wilma."
And that's how the two old radio buddies became best friends (and a baby) on The Flintstones!
