The Flintstones (TV series)

The Flintstones (TV series)
Say hello to one of the first animated sitcoms!
Country: United States Release Date: September 30, 1960 – April 1, 1966 Network(s): ABC Created by: William Hanna Joseph Barbera Distributed by: Hanna-Barbera Screen Gems Starring: Alan Reed Jean Vander Pyl Mel Blanc Bea Benaderet Gerry Johnson Don Messick Seasons: 6 Episodes: 166 Next show: The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show

The Flintstones is a Hanna-Barbera show produced from 1960 to 1966. The show focuses on a caveman family named the Flintstones who live in Bedrock and are friends with the Rubbles loosely based on the comedy show; The Honeymooners. It was also the first animated show to hold its prime time slot. As of today, The Flintstones is considered to be one of Hanna-Barbera's most memorable cartoons.

Sypnosis

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Why It Deserves A Yabba-Dabba-Doo Day

1. The concept of a prehistoric family sitcom looks a lot more appealing, especially for the days it premiered.
2. A great inspiration taken from the The Honeymooners, an older live-action sitcom aired in the 50's.
   • It even contributed to making up the boundaries of other modern animated sitcoms, both for adults and kids, like The Simpsons, Family Guy, King of the Hill, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo and The Jetsons (three of which are also Hanna-Barbera shows), Bob's Burgers, American Dad!, South Park, The Cleveland Show, Gumball, and the list keeps going.
   • This is also one of the very first animated sitcoms to make use of the famous laugh tracks.
3. A lot of great and memorable characters such as Fred, Barney, Wilma, Betty, Dino, Pebbles, and Bamm-Bamm.
4. Great voice acting by Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, Gerry Johnson, Don Messick (the titular character of Scooby Doo which is another Hanna-Barbera series), and Bea Benaderet.
5. The foreign dubs are great (that could match or exceed the original), like the Latin America dub and the Hungarian original dub.
   • This is also the very first show to make use of the laugh tracks.
6. A lot of cleverly hidden adult jokes and funny moments.
7. Like most of Hanna-Barbera's shows at the time, the show has colorful and unique backgrounds, this time fitting the faithful to the time of dinosaurs.
8. The opening theme song from the third season is very catchy.
9. The closing sequence of the show is funny.
10. The show spawned many spin-offs such as:
    • The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971–72) (one season)
    • The Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972–73) (one season)
    • The New Fred and Barney Show (1979) (one season)
    • The Flintstone Comedy Show (1980–82) (two seasons)
    • The Flintstone Kids (1986–88) (two seasons)
    • What a Cartoon! – featuring Dino: Stay Out! (1995) and Dino: The Great Egg-Scape (1997)
    • Cave Kids (1996) (one season)
    • The Rubbles (2002–03)
    • Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs (2020)
11. It spawned its very own breakfast cereals from Post, known as the Pebbles cereals.
12. Appropriate use of music, laugh tracks, and sound effects.
13. The character designs look very simple for Hanna-Barbera standards.
14. Clean, detailed, and smooth animation done by the late William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
15. Memorable quotes such as "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!" and "WILMAAAAA!"

Qualities That Are Not Yabba-Dabba-Doo

1. Although the original series was good, the live-action films are awful.
   • The 2001 film, The Flintstones: On the Rocks, while better than the live-action films is mediocre.
2. There were ads involving the characters from the show promoting Winston Cigarettes which caused a lot of controversy (But it may be understandable because in the beginning, the program was not aimed specifically at children. Plus, the cigarettes weren't a huge issue as they are now.
3. The Great Gazoo character that was introduced in season 6 is annoying, and being an alien has no relation to the stone age. He ended up leading to the series' cancellation.
   • He even made a reappearance in the Viva Rock Vegas movie.
4. Some episodes may unintentionally have bad morals like:
   • It's okay for other people to do things for you, and not learn to do them on your own ("The Happy Household")

Reception

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Trivia

• The Hungarian original dub is known because the entire series was rewritten in the rhyming form full of wordplays and puns. It became so popular.
• It was one of Hanna-Barbera's first-ever prime-time animated shows, as well as one of their first major productions since leaving MGM in 1957.
• The show received its merchandising line as well as several spinoffs, and a 1994 live-action film.
• It received its cereals from Post, Fruity Pebbles, and Cocoa Pebbles.
• In addition to The Honeymooners, the 1960 Looney Tunes short, Wild Wild World, was also the inspiration for this.
• There was a planned Seth Macfarlane reboot in 2013 in a similar style to that of Family Guy, The show he created, but for an unknown reason, it was canceled.

Videos

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