The Flintstones at 50

I scoured the internet for examples of why The Flintstones have endured for 50 years, and I found hundreds of heart warming, amusing and clever vignettes.
Having said that, here’s Wilma saying bollocks.

Happy as we are to celebrate The Flintstones 50th Anniversary, I must say I didn’t see it coming. I always thought that before too long Wilma and Betty would hightail into the rockset with the kids, leaving behind the corpses of Fred and Barney bludgeoned to death with their own bowling balls. But what do I know?

The Bedrock gang have been embedded into the human experience, and continue to be referenced in pop culture; especially in Family Guy which let’s be honest is just The Flintstones in the future, just not Space Age as The Jetsons.
Not all of Hanna-Barbera’s creations have been as long standing, you don’t see Space Ghost, or The Magilla Gorilla Show having their faces used on vitamins for kids. Although having checked out some Space Ghost, it should totally be on all the time.

The original series ran for six seasons from 1960-66, at which point it was cancelled probably because they ran out of rock-puns. What I didn’t know until about 10 minutes ago was that everyone’s favourite Stone Age family were dusted off and re-imagined in 1972, with Pebbles and Bam-Bam as teenagers having a “groo-oovy time” (I guess by 1972 “a gay old time” had new connotations). Sound hideous? It was.

Why, if Pebbles and Bam Bam have aged approximately 15 years, are the adults exactly the same? Not even changed their hair. That’s just plain creepy. Maybe that’s how they’ve lasted 50 years. Maybe… just maybe… The Flintstones are rock-zombies.