the honeymoons only produced new episodes for a year though the show proved incredibly popular during both its original run and subsequent airings it ended in NUMBER_TOKEN and the flintstones was created several years later the flintstones first came on the air in NUMBER_TOKEN and hanna-barbera productions produced it the show went on to become the longest running animated tv program ever before being beaten out by the simpsons seventh season in NUMBER_TOKEN. one might argue that one of the reasons the flintstones proved so successful was that it had borrowed its winning formula directly from the honeymooners there were many people arguing this even back when the flintstones began airing the similarities between the two programs were immediately apparent including to the honeymooner's creator jackie gleason in many ways the flintstones appeared to be a carbon copy of the honeymooners only animated and with a distinct setting instead of ralph and alice cramden you had fred and wilma flinstone like ralph fred was a blue-collar worker who worked tirelessly to support his wife like alice wilma proved more intelligent and down to earth than her husband though admired him for his work ethic in addition to those similarities there were also many similarities between their neighbors the nortons and the rubbles on the flintstones fred and wilma live next to barney and betty rubble this married couple shared a lot of similarities with ed and trixie norton just like ed barney was an easy going foil to fred's more hard-willed and aggressive nature barney typically played the patsy to fred's schemes just like ed did to ralph on the honeymooners likewise betty and trixie were both beautiful women who were often comically deemed to be far too attractive for their significant husbands the main difference between the honeymooners and the flintstones was the latter's distinctive prehistoric setting as well as its animated format the flintstones stayed on the air until NUMBER_TOKEN lasting six seasons and NUMBER_TOKEN episodes and despite its legacy there are still many who view it as a rip-off of the honeymooners one person who noticed the similarities early on was jackie gleason though he decided not to take any legal action apparently gleason had seriously considered suing hanna-barbera productions over the similarities between the honeymooners and the flintstones but he chose to let the matter slide because he didn't want to be perceived as the man who put an end to the beloved prehistoric family whether the flynn stones was a rip-off or not audiences loved it perhaps wisely jackie decided to take the animated homage as a compliment the folks at hanna-barbera were adamant they didn't specifically rip off the honeymooners though they always claimed to be big fans of jackie gleason's hitch show whether hanna-barbera productions was directly ripping elements off of the honeymooners or not they did attempt to recruit several of the writers who had worked on the show hey if you're enjoying this video
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