Bedrock

Bedrock at night during the credits featured in the first and second seasons plus the two episodes of the third season of the original series.

## Other information

### First appearance

*The Flagstones* (pilot)
*The Flintstones*

**Bedrock** is the fictional prehistoric city which is home to the characters of the animated television series *The Flintstones*.

## Size

Though the first two seasons' opening credits of the original series stated the town's population as only 2,500 people (though it did swell to 30,000 in a dream sequence in the episode of the sixth season, "*Rip Van Flintstone*"), Bedrock was generally presented as a medium-sized American city, with all the amenities of such, but with a "prehistoric" twist. For instance, dinosaurs were seen being used as cranes at the town's most well-known employer, "Slate Rock and Gravel Company" (also known as "Rockhead and Quarry Cave Construction Company" in the series' earlier episodes).

## Layout

Not much is known of the layout of Bedrock. The street the Flintstones and the Rubbles live has been given various names in the original series, including "Cobblestone Lane", "Cobblestone Road", "Stone Cave Road", "Greasepit Terrace", "Gravelpit Terrace", and "Rocky Way". The town is shown consistently to include areas of suburban development, as well as a well-developed downtown core, complete with multi-story skyscrapers. The city is also served by a freeway system that is shown in numerous episodes to be subject to gridlock, despite Bedrock's modest stated population. In one episode in the original series, it is depicted as even having its own subway system.

Next door to the Flintstone residence was Tombstone Manor, home to the Gruesomes, who were parodies of the Addams Family: Weirdly, Creepella, and their son, Goblin (a.k.a. Gobby), as well as a strange assortment of relatives and pets. Later spinoffs would introduce the Frankenstones, similar monster-themed neighbors of the Flintstones.

## Location

Bedrock is the county seat of fictional Cobblestone County, and stated in the episode of the first-season, "*The Tycoon*" to be 200 feet below sea level; presumably, the nearby town of Red Rock was located in Cobblestone County as well. However, no further information was ever given for any of these locations, besides being set in a prehistoric version of the United States. Near Bedrock lies Granitetown, given in one episode as the one-time childhood hometown of Barney Rubble and Fred's boss, Mr. Slate.

## Features

The climate of Bedrock is somewhat undetermined, since different Flintstones episodes and media have portrayed it differently. Palm trees and cycads are common yard trees, suggesting a warm climate. However, episodes and movies set at Christmas time depicted plenty of snow. Sometimes the wilderness on Bedrock's outskirts appears to be desert-like, whereas at other times it resembles a tropical/subtropical jungle (as shown in the opening scenes of the 1966 animated film, *The Man Called Flintstone*).
The people of Bedrock tend to be fairly friendly, if not without having various quirks. The denizens of Bedrock have a strong sense of civic spirit and tend to participate in various charities, parades, and so forth. The city is home to a number of service organizations, the best known of which (in the context of the spin-offs) is the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos (known as "The Loyal Order of Dinosaurs" in the series' earlier episodes), which counts among its membership including Fred and his friend, Barney.

### **Law and Government**

A police department helps protect the residents; for a period of time, Fred and Barney were members as part-time police officers along with their partner and brief pet, Shmoo in the spin-off, *The Flintstone Comedy Show*.

Bedrock has also been shown as having a volunteer fire department, although the episode in which the volunteer fire department (just as introduced in the episode, "*Arthur Quarry's Dance Class*") was introduced suggests the uselessness of such a service in a city of stone buildings; instead, its members use it as an excuse to create a social club. However several other episodes feature a more traditional full-time firefighting service.
Also located near Bedrock is Camp Millstone Army Base, where Fred and his best friend Barney Rubble were stationed after they were mistakenly inducted into the Army in the episode of the first season, *"The Astra' Nuts"*.

Bedrock's city government played a role in the episode, "*Mayor May Not*", from *The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show* where Pebbles became the city's temporary student mayor for a week.

Regarding health care, Bedrock had the Rockapedic Hospital, where Pebbles was born.

### **Media**

For a town its size, Bedrock has a sizeable concentration of media. Bedrock has at least several radio stations (one of which has the call letters "BDRX"), several television stations, and several newspapers. One of Bedrock's TV stations is an affiliate of ABC (the "Abbadabba Broadcasting Company"). Later spin-offs show the people of Bedrock also enjoy cable and satellite television service.

Television programs produced in Bedrock included the cooking program, *The Happy Housewife Show* (which, for a time, starred Wilma) and the teen dance program *Shinrock* (from "*Shinrock A Go-Go*"). Other favorite programs of Bedrock citizens, though not produced there, include such fare as *Peek-a-Boo Camera* (from the episode of the same name) and variety program *The Ed Sulleystone Show* (from "*Itty Bitty Fred*").

One of Bedrock's newspapers is *The Daily Granite*, edited by Lou Granite in the Captain Caveman segments of *The Flintstone Comedy Show*. For a time, The Daily Granite employed Wilma Flintstone and Betty Rubble as reporters. Another newspaper is *The Daily Slab* (which usually ended up clobbering Fred after being "delivered" by Arnold the Newsboy).

There are also two recording companies located in Bedrock, the Keen Teen Record Company and the Flippo Record Company.

### **Cultural and Educational Institutions**

In terms of educational features, Bedrock apparently has two schools, Bedrock Elementary School which Fred and his childhood friends along with Philo Quartz attended in the past from *The Flintstone Kids* and Bedrock High School, alma mater of Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma, and later his daughter Pebbles along with her friends, Moonrock Crater, Wiggy Rockstone and Penny Pillar.

Universities in or near Bedrock include Prinstone University, as well as its arch rival school Shale University; both universities are members of the Poison Ivy League.

Bedrock is also not far from Oceanrock Aquarium, home of Dripper the Sealasaurus.

### **Businesses**

Businesses in Bedrock include bowling alleys, pool halls (including Boulder Dan's, which Fred and Barney almost bought), health clubs, hotels, supermarkets (including Safestone's), one catering service—Cobblestone Caterers (as the owner proclaimed, "we're the only caterer in town!"), a costume store, and an amusement park.

Several department stores service Bedrock; among them include Macyrock's (where Fred once worked as a department store Santa Claus during the Christmas season including "*Christmas Flintstone*" for example) and Gimblestone's (where Pebbles briefly worked as a teenager). Bedrock also features the Pyrite Advertising Agency, where Pebbles works as an adult in *I Yabba-Dabba Do!*.

In the first season episode, "*The Tycoon*" (in which Fred switches places with his double, J.P. Gotrocks), Bedrock is introduced by a narrator as having "a butcher, a baker and a pizza pie maker."

### **Entertainment**

In terms of entertainment, Bedrock features a drive-in movie theater where films such as *The Monster* (as seen on the marquee in the original series' opening and closing credits) and *Tar Wars* (produced by Gorge Lucas, as seen in the 1994 live-action movie) would play. Other features include the amphitheater, the Bedrock Bowl and several nightclubs, ranging from middle-class to high-end exclusive clubs for the city's wealthy residents. The 1994 live-action movie featured the exclusive nightclub Cavern on the Green, featuring its house band, "The B.C. 52s".

In the episode, "*The Big Bank Robbery*", at the other end of the scale, there was The Poiple Dinosaur, a dive located by the wharf that was known for attracting seedy, criminal types.

### **Dining**

Bedrock features plenty of dining options, including a drive-in restaurant serving brontosaurus ribs (as seen in the original series' closing credits), as well as several diners.

The two live-action films also showed Bedrock with fast-food outlets, including RocDonald's and Bronto King.

Bedrock also has a number of upscale restaurants, including the Rockadero, Maison-LaRock and Le Chateau Rockinbleau.

### **Sports**

Bedrock has fielded a major league baseball team, the Giants (though in an earlier episode the team is known as the Boulders). The 1981 primetime special, "*Wind-Up Wilma*" also shows Bedrock has a baseball team named the Dodgers.

Bedrock also features a professional football team, the Brontos.

Boxing matches are also popular in Bedrock. The episode in the third season, "*Nuthin' But the Tooth*" features Fred and Barney trying to see a match featuring boxer Floyd Patterstone.

### **"Stone Age" names**

The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and word plays involving rocks and minerals. For example, San Antonio becomes "Sand-and-Stony-o"; the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called "Mexirock" (Mexico). Travel to "Hollyrock", a parody of Hollywood, usually involves an "airplane" flight — the "plane", in this case, is often shown as a giant pterosaur, with the fuselage strapped to its back. Sun Valley becomes "Stone Valley" and is run by "Conrad Hailstone" (Conrad Hilton). The last names "Flintstone" and "Rubble", as well as other common Bedrock surnames such as "Shale" and "Quartz", are in line with these puns, as are the names of Bedrock's celebrities: "Gary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonry/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Mick Jadestone and The Rolling Boulders" (Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones, called "Mick Jagged and the Stones" in live-action film *The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas*), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels). Once, while visiting one of Bedrock's houses of "Haute Couture" with Wilma, Betty even commented on the new "Jackie Kennerock (Jackie Kennedy) look". In some cases, the celebrity featured also provided the voice: "Samantha" and "Darrin" from Bewitched were voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York. Examples from the above list include Ann-Margret, Curtis, Darren, and the Beau Brummels. Other celebrities, such as "Ed Sulleystone" and "Alvin Brickrock", were rendered by impersonators. Some of Bedrock's sports heroes include: football player "Red Granite" (Red Grange), wrestler "Bronto Crushrock" (Bronko Nagurski), golfer "Arnold Palmrock" (Arnold Palmer), boxers "Floyd Patterstone" (Floyd Patterson) and "Sonny Listone" (Sonny Liston), and baseball players "Sandy Stoneaxe" (Sandy Koufax), "Lindy McShale" (Lindy McDaniel), "Roger Marble" (Roger Maris), and "Mickey Marble" or "Mickey Mantlepiece" (Mickey Mantle). Ace reporter "Daisy Kilgranite" (Dorothy Kilgallen) was a friend of Wilma's. Monster names include "Count Rockula" (Count Dracula), Rockzilla (Godzilla), Rocky Races Penelope Pitrock (Wacky Races Penelope Pitstope) and "The Frankenstone Monster" (Frankenstein's monster).

## Real life

Several small tourist attractions and/or camper parks have been built in honor of Bedrock. The most famous and oldest is Bedrock City in Custer, South Dakota which opened in 1966 and closed in 2015. There is also a Bedrock City in Valle, Arizona which opened in 1972. Two Canadian Bedrock Cities, both in British Columbia, were closed and/or demolished in the late 1990s. One in Kelowna, British Columbia was closed in 1998, demolished and changed into the Landmark Grand 10 multiplex theatre & a strip mall. The second one located in Chilliwack, British Columbia was closed in 1994 and was changed into a dinosaur theme park called "Dinotown" which has in turn shutdown on September 6, 2010; The owners are exploring options for moving the park.
Another Flintstones themed park in Canada was Calaway Park near Calgary, Alberta. It is still in operation, although the Hanna-Barbera licensing was dropped several years ago.

The reason for the closure of the two Canadian theme parks was due to licensing. "Throughout the '80s and '90s the licensing for any intellectual properties of Hanna-Barbera changed hands numerous times before they ended up in the possession of Time Warner".

In the late 1970s plans were developed for a Flintstone Fun Park to be located in suburban Jackson, Mississippi but never got past the initial planning stage.

## External links

* Information on the Bedrock Theme Parks
* Bedrock City, Custer, South Dakota
* Webrock – *The Flintstones* and Hanna Barbera Page
* Dinotown Chilliwack Official Site
* Dinotown's closure and history