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Bernard "Barney" Rubble, a fictional character in the popular television animated series The Flintstones, is the diminutive blonde-haired caveman husband of Betty Rubble and adoptive father of Bamm-Bamm Rubble. His best friends were his next door neighbors, Fred and Wilma Flintstone. Barney lived in the fictional prehistoric city of Bedrock, a world where dinosaurs coexisted with barefoot cavemen and the cavemen enjoyed "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles and washing machines. Barney's personality was based on that of Ed Norton on the 1950s television series The Honeymooners, played by Art Carney. As such, Barney tended to be much more jovial minded and easy-going than his friend Fred, who was slightly smarter than Barney in some matters and slightly dimmer than he in others. While the two sometimes argued, Barney usually (though often reluctantly) supported whatever scheme Fred had in mind, with often disastrous results. He was also on occasions verbally and physically abused by Fred. Barney's interests included bowling, playing pool, poker, tinkering around in Fred's garage and playing golf, though there were episodes where Barney didn't know how to play golf. He, like Fred, was also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos lodge and its predecessor in earlier episodes, the Loyal Order of Dinosaurs. He is also a talented pianist and drummer. In the first episode of the original series he was an inventor of a hand-powered helicopter. Though clearly depicted as being in better shape than Fred, he isn't shown to be quite an enthusiastic sportsman as Fred is. This distinction can be attributed to Fred's fondness of food, though Barney is shown to be at least quite as capable of excessive appetite on a number of occasions.