Above: the cover of the first Flintstones Little Golden Book. Published just before the show hit the airwaves, it counts as the modern stone-age family's first adventure. It also calls Dino, "Harvey," and includes Fred Junior, who was written out of the tv show at the last minute.

William Hanna and Joseph Barbera experienced years of success as animators for MGM, winning awards for their Tom and Jerry. In 1957, the studio unceremoniously dropped their animation department; it was cheaper to run old cartoons before the movie, or not at all. At that point, Hanna-Barbera formed their own studio and set their eyes on televison, which in the 1950s produced very little in the way of original animation. Primarily, TV reran cartoons originally created for theatrical release. In order to make their shows profitable, they developed limited animation which, while often criticized for its cheap and cheesy look, opened up a whole new market for American animators, many of whom had lost their livelihood as the industry found it cheaper to rerun old cartoons before movies, or none at all.

After Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and others brought the pair success with the kiddie market, they decided to expand their horizons. They were going to bring animation to primetime, and do a cartoon intended for all ages.

Originally called The Flagstones, it concerned a suburban family, loosely modelled on The Honeymooners, who live in a prehistoric era which resembles more than a little contemporary America. The show proved a hit. As Hanna and Barbera had hoped, the kids tuned in, and their parents and older siblings started watching along, responding to gags and situations that, if tame by the standards of kids raised on The Simpsons, certainly would have brought a blush to Tom and Jerry's cheeks. In the episode "Pebbles's Birthday Party," Fred has to plan events for both his little daughter and his lodge brothers. The inevitable mix-up has a clown performing tricks for the Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo while scantily-clad girls jump from Pebbles's cake and dance for the toddlers. The Flintstones lasted from 1960 to 1966, immediately moved to feature film with A Man Called Flintstone, and birthed numerous spin-offs, mostly aimed at the Cocoa-Pebbles-eating set. In 1994, the grandchildren of original fans could watch the birth of the original characters' grandchildren in Hollyrock-A-Bye Baby.

Of course, a series that runs that long is bound to produce a history filled with inconsistencies and retcons.

The continuity issues began with the first season. The Hanna-Barbera staff had very little time to get the show together before its premiere date, and a good many details were changed at the last minute or developed once they were on the air. A mysterious "Fred Junior" appears in some early promotional material and in the first Flintstones Golden Book, released before the show aired. Junior was dropped at the last minute, and no Flintstone child appears until the third season, when Wilma becomes the first cartoon character to experience an on-air pregnancy. The pet dinosaur, Dino, is named "Harvey" in early promotional work. He does not appear for several episodes, and then later, in "The Great Snorkasaurus Hunter," he is discovered for the first time. The animators also took some time deciding if he is blue or (as in most episodes) purple (or, as in that Golden Book, green). Doubtless this mattered less at a time when most people watched the show in black and white.

Flintstones historian T.R. Adams identifies 16 different names for the stone quarry where Fred works. His crotchety boss is originally identified as Mr. Slate-- but in his first appearance he resembles more Mr. Spacely, the boss from The Jetsons. Slate quickly settles into his standard appearance, though his name changes at times from Boulder to Granite to Rockhead. His rarely-used first name has been J.J., George, and Sam-- though the 1980s spin-off, The Flintstone Kids, establishes that his name is, in fact, Nate.

The geography and topography of the Flintstones' Bedrock (like that of the Simpsons' later Springfield) shifts as required. Even the exterior and interior of Fred and Wilma's domicile, the show's single most used location, varies wildly from episode to episode. While the Rubbles live next door, the house on the Flintstones' other side changes appearances and in some episodes, doesn't exist at all. Later, when the Addams Family/Munsters-like Gruesomes move in, it retroactively became an old haunted house. In the 1980 TV movie, The Flinstones' New Neighbors, yet another monster family, the Frankenstones, move into yet another haunted house in the same location.

Fred's foot-powered car shifts from four-seater to two-seater as required. And that Loyal Order of the Water Buffalo to which he and Barney belong? Its full name varies. At one point, it even becomes an Order of Dinosaurs.

The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971-1972), a Saturday morning cartoon, was the first of the Flintstones spin-off series. The show featured the teenage Pebbles ("Yabba-Dabba-Doozy!" Sally Struthers did the voice) and Bamm-Bamm (Jay North, the serial-killer- obsessed former child star who had played TV's Dennis the Menace) tooling around Bedrock with their pals. The show never really knew what to do about Bamm-Bamm's super-strength, established in the original show. Sometimes it figured in an episode, but the writers just as frequently forgot or ignored it. The old cast reappeared, though original series pets Dino, Baby Puss, and Hoparoo were nowhere to be seen. They had been replaced by Pebbles' baby mammoth, Wooly, and Bamm-Bamm's barking dinosaur, Snoots. These creatures would disappear in later Flintstones shows, and the original pets would reappear without explanation.

The Gruesomes turn up in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show, and present another anomaly. While Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are now teenagers, Goblin "Gobby" Gruesome has not aged a bit since the original series-- Pebbles, in fact, is hired to babysit him. Well, the Gruesomes always were a little weird.

The Flintstones' Little Big League, a tv movie from 1978, fills in the time between the original series and Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's teen years. Here, the kids play on rival little league baseball teams, coached by their respective fathers. The preteen Pebbles proves quite an athlete, which contradicts an episode of The Pebbles and Bamm Bamm Show, where the teenage Pebbles takes over the little league team coached by Fred, despite her lack of baseball knowledge.

Various series and specials followed, and in 1986-88, The Flintstone Kids appeared, chronicling the childhood adventures of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty. The show's premise retroactively changed the original series' established prehistory. The 1964 episode "Bachelor Daze" had flashed back to Fred and Barney's first meeting with Wilma and Betty, shortly after they graduated from high school (The live-action movie, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas(2000) depicts yet another first meeting).

The Flintstones have survived long enough that the grandchildren of original fans can now watch the grandchildren of original characters. Decades after their first appearance, they remain a part of the pop-culture landscape.

Portions of the following article appear in more detailed pieces I've written, located here and here. These may be of interest to those who want a more detailed account of the Flintstones phenomenon

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