The Flintstones

About

The Flintstones is a popular 1960s Hanna-Barbera produced animated sitcom which ran from 1960 to 1966 with a total of 166 episodes. The series takes place around the daily lives of the titular family and their activities in a world that juxtaposed prehistoric life with modern technologies and appliances. Since the show's premiere, it has been the subject of at two live-action films, numerous spin-offs and television specials and merchandise the world over.

History

The Flintstones was created by William Hannah and Joseph Barbera as a way of regaining their audience, which were dropping as such shows as The Huckleberry Hound Show and QuickDraw McGraw were failing to get the traction needed for the studio. The show follows the life of the Flintstone family, a "modern stone age family." Set in the prehistoric age, Fred, Wilma and Pebble interact with modern technology, such as cars and telelvisions, though, retro-fitted for the prehistoric themes.

The show premiered on September 30th, 1960 and ran for six seasons, ending on April 1st, 1966. The show remained in some version on the air for the next few decades. Between 1970 and 2000, 12 separate Flintstones-related shows and 13 specials aired on television.

In 1994, the first live-action, major motion picture adaptation of The Flintstones premiered. A sequel, The Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas, followed in 2000.

Reception

The series received generally mixed responses, with Variety calling it a "pen and ink disaster" on the day of its release and critics from as late as the 1980's criticizing it for its bland plots and rigid animation.^[1] The series was envisioned as a family-centered situational comedy to appeal to broader audiences.^[1] On the positive end, the series was the first animated one to be nominated for an Outstanding Comedy Series Primetime Emmy Award in 1961.^[1] In more recent years, the series has found more favorable opinions with IGN ranking it as the 9th best animated series.^[4]

Fandom

In 1995, the first Flintstones fan page, Webrock Online, launched.^[8]

On July 24th, 2012, The Flintstones Facebook ^[7] page launched. As of November 2017, the page has more than 1.8 million likes and 1.9 million followers.

Impact

Online Presence

DC Comic

The Flintstones gained popularity online following the release of a DC Comic starring the characters from the show. The comic received popularity online due to its adult themes and bleak humor, which contrasted heavily to the tone of the original show.^[6]

7 Grand Dad

7 Grand Dad is a 1992 bootleg of the 1991 NES video game The Flintstones: The Rescue of Dino & Hoppy, which replaced Fred Flintstone's with that of Mario. The game became infamous after being played by streamer Vinesauce Joel (shown below, left) whose exasperated reaction to hearing the Flintstones theme song over a distorted image of Mario because the subject of in-jokes among the Vinesauce community. The video later became the subject of SiIvaGunner soundclowns which manipulated songs from the soundtracks of various video games to incorporate the Flintstones theme song(shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References