The Flintstones

***The Flintstones*** is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series takes place in a romanticized Stone Age setting and follows the activities of the titular family, the Flintstones, and their next-door neighbors, the Rubbles. It was originally broadcast on ABC from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, and was the first animated series to hold a prime-time slot on television.

The continuing popularity of *The Flintstones* rests heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting. *The Flintstones* was the most financially successful and longest-running network animated television series for three decades, until *The Simpsons*, which debuted in late 1989, outlasted it. In 2013, *TV Guide* ranked *The Flintstones* the second-greatest TV cartoon of all time (after *The Simpsons*).

It was shown on Channel 5 in the UK, as part of their *Shake!* block.

## Overview

The show is set in a comical version of the Stone Age but, has added features and technologies that resemble mid-20th-century suburban America. The plots deliberately resemble the sitcoms of the era, with the caveman Flintstone and Rubble families getting into minor conflicts characteristic of modern life. The show is set in the Stone Age town of Bedrock (pop. 2,500). Dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures are portrayed as co-existing with cavemen, saber-toothed cats, and woolly mammoths.

Animation historian Christopher P. Lehman considers that the series draws its humor in part from creative uses of anachronisms. The main one is the placing of a "modern", 20th-century society in prehistory. This society takes inspiration from the suburban sprawl developed in the first two decades of the postwar period. This society has modern home appliances, but they work by employing animals. They have automobiles, but they hardly resemble the cars of the 20th century. These cars are large wooden and rock structures and burn no fuel. They are powered by people who run while inside them. This depiction is inconsistent, however. On some occasions, the cars are known to have engines (with appropriate sound effects), requiring ignition keys and gasoline. Fred might pull into a gas station and say, "Fill 'er up with Ethel", which is pumped through the trunk of a woolly mammoth marked "ETHEL". Whether the car runs by foot or by gas varies according to the needs of the story. Finally, the stone houses of this society are cookie-cutter homes positioned into neighborhoods typical of mid-20th-century American suburbs.

## Characters

### The Flintstones

* Fred Flintstone – The main character of the series and the husband and father in the title family, Fred is an accident-prone operator of a bronto-crane (a dinosaur used as an excavating machine) at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company who is overweight and likes to eat copious amounts of marginally healthy or unhealthy food. He is quick to anger (usually over trivial matters) but is a very loving husband and father. He is also good at bowling and is a member of the fictional "Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes" (Lodge No. 26) (Loyal Order of Dinosaurs in Season 1), a men-only club paralleling real-life fraternities such as the Loyal Order of Moose. His famous catchphrase is "Yabba Dabba Doo!". His another catchphrase is "Wilma!" during the end of the closing credits from season 3 until the show's ended.
* Wilma Flintstone – Fred's wife and Pebbles' mother, she is more intelligent and level-headed than her husband, though she often has a habit of spending money (with Betty's and her catchphrase being "Da-da-da duh da-da CHARGE IT!!"). She often is a foil to Fred's poor behavior but is a very loyal wife to him. She is also a very jealous woman, who is easily angered if even a hint exists of another woman (especially a pretty one) having anything to do with Fred.
* Pebbles Flintstone – The Flintstones' infant daughter, is born near the end of the third season. You can normally see her wearing a bone in her hair holding up her ponytail and a light green and black colored shirt with turquoise and black diaper. She (much like her family) does not wear shoes or pants. Pebbles also marries the Flintstones' best friend's son Bamm-Bamm Rubble.
* Dino (pronounced "dee-no") – The Flintstones' pet dinosaur, acts like a dog. A running gag in the series involves Fred coming home from work and Dino getting excited and knocking him down and licking his face repeatedly.
* Baby Puss – The Flintstones' pet saber-toothed cat is rarely seen in the actual series, but is always seen throwing Fred out of the house during the end credits, causing Fred to pound repeatedly on the front door and yell "Wilma!", waking the whole neighborhood in the process.

### Relatives of the Flintstones

* Pearl Slaghoople – Wilma's hard-to-please mother, Fred's mother-in-law, and Pebbles' grandmother, she is constantly disapproving of Fred and his behavior. Their disastrous first meeting was recounted in the episode "Bachelor Daze", which originally aired on March 5, 1964. They briefly reconciled in the episode "Mother-in-Law's Visit", which originally aired on February 1, 1963, until she found out that she became Fred's "nice fat pigeon" when he suckered her out of money that he needed to buy a baby crib for Pebbles. They reconciled again at the end of the TV movie *I Yabba Dabba Do*.
* Uncle Tex Hardrock – Fred's maternal uncle and a member of the Texarock Rangers, he constantly holds Fred's future inheritance over his head.

### The Rubbles

* Barney Rubble – The secondary main character and Fred's best friend and next-door neighbor, he is nearly six inches shorter and also overweight; his occupation is, throughout most of the series, unknown, though later episodes depict him working in the same quarry as Fred. He shares many of Fred's interests, such as bowling and golf, and is also a member of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes. Though Fred and Barney frequently get into feuds with one another (usually due to Fred's short temper), their deep fraternal bond remains very evident.
* Betty Rubble – Barney's wife and Wilma's best friend, like Wilma she has a habit of spending money and also is highly jealous of other pretty women being around her husband.
* Bamm-Bamm Rubble – The Rubbles' abnormally strong adopted son, they adopt him during the fourth season; his name comes from the only phrase he ever speaks as a baby: "Bamm, Bamm!"
* Hoppy – The Rubbles' pet hopparoo (a kangaroo/dinosaur combination creature), they purchase him at the beginning of the fifth season. When he first arrives, Dino and Fred mistake him for a giant mouse and are frightened of him, but they eventually become best friends after Hoppy gets help when they are in an accident. He babysits the kids as he takes them around in his pouch, which also serves as a shopping cart for Betty.

### Other characters

Over 100 other characters appeared throughout the program.

* Mr. George Slate – Fred and Barney's hot-tempered boss at the gravel pit, he fires Fred on several occasions throughout the series, only to give him his job back by the end of the episode. A running gag is Slate's ever-changing first name, which was revealed to be Sylvester, Seymour, Nate, Oscar, and George as the series progressed. In the episode "The Long, Long, Long Weekend", which originally aired on January 21, 1966, he is shown as being the founder of "Slate Rock and Gravel Company"; still in business two million years later, the company is operated by his descendant, "George Slate the Eighty-thousandth". In the early Flintstones episodes, the more recognized "Mr. Slate" character was known as "Mr. Rockhead" and was a supervisor of Fred's. Mr. Slate was a short character. During the course of the cartoon, the two men switched identities and the shorter character faded away.
* Arnold – The Flintstones' paperboy, Fred absolutely despises him, mainly because Arnold is frequently able to best and outsmart Fred at a number of tasks and also because he often ("unintentionally") throws the newspaper in Fred's face. Arnold's parents are mentioned in the series, but his mother Doris, a friend of Wilma and Betty's (as evidenced in the episode "The Little Stranger", which originally aired on November 2, 1962), is referenced in name only, never actually appearing onscreen. Arnold's father, however, did appear in the episode "Take Me Out to the Ball Game", which originally aired on April 27, 1962, though his name is never mentioned.
* Joe Rockhead – A mutual friend of Fred and Barney's, Fred usually mentions doing something (such as going to a baseball game) with Joe when Fred and Barney have some kind of falling out. Joe was, at some point, chief of the Bedrock Volunteer Fire Department as shown on the episode "Arthur Quarry's Dance Class", which originally aired on January 13, 1961. His appearance varied throughout the run of the series, but his appearance in the episode "The Picnic", which originally aired on December 15, 1961, was the one most commonly used.
* The Great Gazoo – An alien exiled to Earth, he helps Fred and Barney, often against their will. The Great Gazoo is actually from the future, and is quite dismayed when he realizes he has been sent back to "the Stone Age". He can only be seen by Fred, Barney, Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm, other small children, Dino, and Hoppy. Gazoo appeared in the final season only.
* Sam Slagheap – The Grand Poobah of the Water Buffalo Lodge.
* The Gruesomes – A creepy but friendly family, they move in next door to the Flintstones in later seasons.
	+ Weirdly Gruesome – The patriarch of the Gruesome family who works as a reality-show host.
	+ Creepella Gruesome – Weirdly's tall wife.
	+ Goblin "Gobby" Gruesome – Weirdly and Creepella's son.
	+ Uncle Ghastly – The towering uncle of Gobby from Creepella's side of the family, he is mostly shown as a large furry hand coming out of a well or a wall. His shadow was also seen in their debut episode. He is heard for the only time as a creepy laugh emanating from a well that Fred looks into.
	+ Occy – The Gruesome family's pet octopus.
	+ Schneider – Gobby's pet giant spider.
* The Hatrocks – A family of hillbillies, they originally feuded with the Flintstones' Arkanstone branch in the style of the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Fred and Barney reignite a feud with them in "The Bedrock Hillbillies" when Fred inherits San Cemente from the late Zeke Flintstone where the dispute was over who made the portrait of Fred's great-great-uncle Zeke. The Hatrocks later returned in "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes", where they bunk with the Flintstones during their trip to Bedrock World's Fair and their antics start to annoy them. The Flintstones, the Rubbles, and the Gruesomes were able to drive them away by performing the Four Insects song "She Said Yeah Yeah Yeah". When they found that the Bedrock World's Fair was having the Four Insects performing, the Hatrocks fled back to Arkanstone.
	+ Jethro Hatrock – The patriarch of the Hatrock Family, he had brown hair in "The Hatrocks and the Flintstones" and taupe-gray in "The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes".
	+ Gravella Hatrock – Jethro's wife.
	+ Zack Hatrock – Jethro and Gravella's oldest son.
	+ Slab Hatrock – The youngest son of Jethro and Gravella.
	+ Granny Hatrock – The mother of Jethro and grandmother of Zack and Slab.
	+ Benji Hatrock – Jethro's son-in-law.
	+ Percy – The Hatrock's pet dogasaurus.

## Episodes

As part of classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon saturday, Channel 5's *Shake!* block in the UK starts showing episodes. The episodes start from the third episode of season 3, when the show began in color and "Meet the Flintstones" became the opening and closing credits theme song. A total of 104 episodes were made.

1. *Barney the Invisible*
2. *Bowling Ballet*
3. *The Twitch*
4. *Here's Snow in Your Eyes*
5. *The Buffalo Convention*
6. *The Little Stranger*
7. *Baby Barney*
8. *Hawaiian Escapade*
9. *Ladies' Day*
10. *Nuttin' But the Tooth*
11. *High School Fred*
12. *Dial 'S' for Suspicion*
13. *Flash Gun Freddie*
14. *The Kissing Burglar*
15. *Wilma, the Maid*
16. *The Hero*
17. *The Surprise*
18. *Mother-In-Law's Visit*
19. *Foxy Grandma*
20. *Fred's New Job*
21. *The Blessed Event*
22. *Carry On, Nurse Fred*
23. *Ventriloquist Barney*
24. *The Big Move*
25. *Swedish Visitors*
26. *The Birthday Party*
27. *Ann-Margrock Presents*
28. *Groom Gloom*
29. *Little Bamm-Bamm*
30. *Dino Disappears*
31. *Fred's Monkeyshines*
32. *The Flintstone Canaries*
33. *Glue for Two*
34. *Big League Freddie*
35. *Old Lady Betty*
36. *Sleep On, Sweet Fred*
37. *Kleptomaniac Pebbles*
38. *Daddy's Little Beauty*
39. *Daddies Anonymous*
40. *Peek-a-Boo Camera*
41. *Once Upon a Coward*
42. *Ten Little Flintstones*
43. *Fred El Terrifico*
44. *The Bedrock Hillbillies*
45. *Flintstone and the Lion*
46. *Cave Scout Jamboree*
47. *Room for Two*
48. *Ladies' Night at the Lodge*
49. *Reel Trouble*
50. *Son of Rockzilla*
51. *Bachelor Daze*
52. *Operation Switchover*
53. *Hop Happy*
54. *Monster Fred*
55. *Itty Bitty Fred*
56. *Pebbles' Birthday Party*
57. *Bedrock Rodeo Round-Up*
58. *Cinderellastone*
59. *A Haunted House is Not a Home*
60. *Dr. Sinister*
61. *The Gruesomes*
62. *The Most Beautiful Baby in Bedrock*
63. *Dino and Juliet*
64. *King for a Night*
65. *Indianrockolis 500*
66. *Adobe Dick*
67. *Christmas Flintstone*
68. *Fred's Flying Lesson*
69. *Fred's Second Car*
70. *Time Machine*
71. *The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes*
72. *Moonlight and Maintenance*
73. *Sheriff for a Day*
74. *Deep in the Heart of Texarock*
75. *The Rolls Rock Caper*
76. *Superstone*
77. *Fred Meets Hercurock*
78. *Surfin' Fred*
79. *No Biz Like Show Biz*
80. *The House That Fred Built*
81. *The Return of Stony Curtis*
82. *Disorder in the Court*
83. *Circus Business*
84. *Samantha*
85. *The Great Gazoo*
86. *Rip Van Flintstone*
87. *The Gravelberry Pie King*
88. *The Stonefinger Caper*
89. *The Masquerade Party*
90. *Shinrock-A-Go-Go*
91. *Royal Rubble*
92. *Seeing Doubles*
93. *How to Pick a Fight with Your Wife Without Really Trying*
94. *Fred Goes Ape*
95. *The Long, Long, Long Weekend*
96. *Two Men on a Dinosaur*
97. *The Treasure of Sierra Madrock*
98. *Curtain Call at Bedrock*
99. *Boss for a Day*
100. *Fred's Island*
101. *Jealousy*
102. *Dripper*
103. *My Fair Freddy*
104. *The Story of Rocky's Raiders*