Dumbest. Resolution. Ever.

Even as a kid, I thought the writers totally copped out in the end. An inanimate object, seemingly not even computerized, has feelings? It longs for an era long before its individual creation? The intensity of that wish is enough to grant it magically, albeit taking just enough time for everyone to say goodbye? And Fred surmises all this just from the glow?

Hanna-Barbera ran with a lot of cheap ideas, but this one takes the cake. The only in-story justification I can devise is that the Great Gazoo might have enabled it, with more stealth than usual.