Home Entertainment : ‘Flintstones’ Videos Are Rolled Out

In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re in the middle of a “Flintstones” blitz.

In the past month, there’s been no escaping the advertising of products tied into “The Flintstones.” It’s all shamelessly plugging the movie due out next week, featuring a star-studded cast playing the characters of the ‘60s animated TV series about a Stone Age family.

The best thing about this blitz is Turner Home Entertainment’s re-release of four videos from the old TV series. For $13 a tape, you get two 25-minute episodes. Watching on video is much better than seeing the episodes on TV because stations cut them to make room for more commercials.

Cassettes of “The Flintstones” have been available in the past, but when Turner Broadcasting System Inc. bought Hanna-Barbera in December, 1991, a two-year moratorium was imposed on releasing the company’s videos.

“Since they’ve been off the market so long, we can market them now like they were new,” said Stuart Snyder, Turner Home Entertainment’s senior vice president and general manager. “The movie should create a whole new market for them.”

You’d think Turner would continually flood the market with new “Flintstones” videos over the next few months, but Synder said the company only has plans to release four more at the end of the year, regardless of the movie’s box-office figures.

Schindler’s List

MCA/Universal is still trying to figure out what to do with Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning “Schindler’s List,” which will probably come out on home video this fall. According to distributor sources, the company is trying to decide whether to price it for the sales market or make it strictly a rental.

One of the problems with gearing it to sales is that it runs more than three hours, making it a two-cassette movie and forcing the price higher than the usual $20-$25 for a single-cassette film. The betting among industry sources is that it will be a rental, probably coming out in November or December.

Special Interest Videos

* Missing Johnny Carson? Buena Vista video offers a sampling of the former king of late-night TV in a four-video set, due next Friday. Three are collections of Carson’s favorite bits, priced at $15 each. The fourth, his final show, is available only in a $60 set with the other three.

* If you get a kick out of oogling the palatial digs of the filthy rich, you’ll enjoy perusing “America’s Castles” (A&E;, $30).

* There’s an insight-filled hour of dialogue between authors Deborah Tannen and Robert Bly, who wrote “Iron John,” about getting along with your mate in “Men and Women: Talking Together” (Mystic Fire, $30); (800) 292-9001.

* “The Secret Life of 118 Green Street” (ABC, $20) is a clever, creepy documentary, narrated by Buck Henry, zeroing in on the tiny insects that quietly live with us.

* The two sides of the band Chicago--playing its great old jazz-rock tunes and its current pop-rock material--are featured in a well-done, expanded PBS special, “Chicago in Concert at the Greek Theatre” (Warner Reprise, $25).

What’s New On Video

“A Dangerous Woman” (MCA/Universal). The tale of a simple-minded, small-town clerk (Debra Winger), whose guilelessness gets her into trouble. What starts out as an interesting, offbeat story about the clerk’s dealings with her sister (Barbara Hershey) and a lusty handyman (Gabriel Byrne) turns into a grim, contrived melodrama.

“RoboCop 3” (Orion). The 1987 original was a great action film, but the quality has slipped badly in the two sequels. This time the cyborg-cop, played by Robert John Burke, battles vicious real-estate developers. Some decent action sequences but the edge and the wit are long gone.

“Look Who’s Talking Now!” (Columbia TriStar). In this series, toddlers’ thoughts have been voiced by actors. This time it’s talking dogs, with the voices of Danny DeVito and Diane Keaton. They join the family, again headed by parents played by John Travolta and Kirstie Alley. Even if you liked the first two, you might not find much humor in this very low-brow comedy.

Upcoming

Just announced: Coming on July 13: Buena Vista’s “Sister Act 2,” starring Whoopi Goldberg; Paramount’s “Searching for Bobby Fischer,” with Joe Mantegna, and New Line’s “Blink,” featuring Madeleine Stowe. FoxVideo’s “Sugar Hill,” starring Wesley Snipes, is due July 6:

Also: “The Piano” and “Rudy” (Wednesday); “Short Cuts” (June 1); “Wayne’s World 2” and “My Life” (June 8); “Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” (June 14); “The Getaway,” “Dangerous Game” and “The Air Up There” (June 15); “Six Degrees of Separation,” “Geronimo: An American Legend” and “Tombstone” (June 22); “The Pelican Brief,” “Philadelphia,” “In the Name of the Father” and “Iron Will” (June 29); “Grumpy Old Men,” “House Party 3” and “Romeo Is Bleeding” (July 6); “Heaven and Earth” and “Car 54, Where Are You?” (July 13); “On Deadly Ground” (July 20); “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway” (July 27); “Beethoven’s 2nd” (Aug. 9); “Jurassic Park” (Oct. 4); “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (Oct. 28).