It’s crazy to think about how influential The Flintstones is. A solid chunk of my favorite shows ever might not exist without it. The show genuinely holds up too. I’ve been rewatching it and it gets multiple laughs out of me per episode.
Had SO MUCH fun revisiting parts of the series while I made this video. Bought the Blu-ray set not long ago, and plan to power through it very soon! It really is surprising how WELL it’s held up!! That’s what happens when you don’t rely on “topical” stories and gags.
Jackie Gleeson bears a striking resemblance to John Goodman, who played Fred in the first live action Flintstones movie. Interestingly they also share the same initials: JG.
i find it crazy that a lot of these extremely popular, famous, and influential cartoons are often turned down. wonder how many world-changing cartoons we'll never be able to see!
I read a music review calling a young musician the most terrible thing they ever heard and it offended their ears. They were reviewing Beethoven. Arguably not terrible lol.
Every famous actor, musician, artist, etc experiences many many rejections before they find 'success'. It's part of the process, no matter how talented you are. Persistence and luck are more important than talent.
"The Curse of Creativety" - watch (listen - few or no pics at all) the video - depressingly realistic. As I was told at "18" - "It's 5% talent, the rest is hard work", but they didn't know of/remember to say "and luck/lack of bad luck".
@@jul2447 I watch so many things about music that I can’t remember what UA-cam channel it was on. You might try putting in his name and reviews, maybe it will pop up. Happy listening. That’s definitely not my favorite music but it’s an important part of history
Fred also made an appearance in an entire episode of Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy but he only spoke gibberish and no one actually referred to him by name.
@@KyogresHideout_Vegito2121 Yeah, it's the only non-gibberish thing he says in the whole episode. Billy asks what his name is and he says "Ohhhhh... Fred." and then Billy comments on how he can't understand his mumbo jumbo language.
The Flinstones were on at lunch time in Canada for like 30years. Growing up, and still to this day, I knew every episode pretty much by heart. When they stopped playing it a lunch hour, it was almost as if you had lost a close relative, or a limb or something. It was weird. Flintstones are a true classic. Pioneers.
Flinstones is so incredibly iconic its a crime. Its humor and adult content is still relevant to this day and its character designs are timeless& amazing! I love the franchises and give credit to Iwao Takamoto for his iconic redesigns that make them forever memorable!
And it's adult without being a McFarlane level if taste. I think that was a big misstep. Like when Sony thought that Paul Feig understood the essence of Ghostbusters.
The American release of A Man Called Flintstone was the first mega-hit. The reaction was completely unexpected. It was the first movie that had people lined up around the block, with theaters hastily adding showings to accommodate the crowds. I remember waiting in line for hours myself (at 8 years of age).
Making The Flintstones more adult and crude (animation included), will never work. The basics of it, remains multi-generational. Making it change, just for change sake will always bomb.
They already did change it for change sake and it made it boom in popularity, actually. The Flintstones began as adult-oriented (but not necessarily crude) and eventually became super family or kid focused. Edit: The video literally mentions this multiple times lol
'The Honeymooners' was heavily influenced by Laurel & Hardy. In his authorized biography, How Sweet it Is, Jackie Gleason made no secret of his love for then when he was a kid.
Hands down, no contest: The first, original series was the best version of the Flintstones iterations over the years, but the most fascinating fact that I took from this video was that Fred and Wilma were the first TV couple in situation comedy to be seen sleeping in the same bed(oh my!). Overall, the best tribute and history I've seen on our favorite stone age family.
Seconded!! Has to be said though, PP felt like a cartoon with far more heart than The Flintstones. While I liked both as a kid, even then I would have much preferred the Pink Panther; the Flintstones' 'prehistoric' take on modern (American) working-class life was mildly funny and perhaps mildly innovative and the visual humour of the pre-historic tech didn't wear quite as quickly as one might have supposed - but I can go back to the Pink Panther cartoons as an adult and still get something from them (and The Ant and the Aardvark and - especially - The Inspector) in a way with which I just can't with the Flintstones. The Flintstones unfortunately was born out of hackwork; I mean to be fair to H-B, in an effort to make a living in their early days they had to make a virtue of economic necessity, but it had the result of making 'cheap' their house style, and it feels like that attitude was to pervade the ethos of the whole company. I know little about the gestation of the Pink Panther or Inspector Cluseau other than that they were spin-off creations from the eponymous live-action movies with Peter Sellers. However, it may not be a popular view but I don't think it's too much to say that the cartoons were hands-down funnier than the films from which they originated! It's difficult to quantify exactly what it is that sets the Pink Panther apart from The Flintstones... Though it's possible, I suppose that that big, motion picture capital can't have been *entirely* irrelevant! Still, you look at the obvious points of comparison, naturally there are going to be stylistic differences, but while the Flintstones characters are *crude* , the Pink Panther characters are by contrast *simple* - simple, but not simplistic. To me, the drawings of characters like Big Nose and Cluseau show an appreciation of *style* and a love for form and line. The Flintstones meanwhile look like they wouldn't be out of place in South Park! The difference in approach comes through, if anything, even more clearly in the backgrounds. Flintstones and HB backgrounds in general are of course known for their pared-back minimalism. The Pink Panther backgrounds of course are by necessity simple as well, we're talking TV shorts here, not Disney features! Nonetheless there is something paradoxically almost Baroque in PP's backgrounds - without EVER becoming overly busy, they seem to have something of the quality of a Victorian engraving about them! I haven't even mentioned here some of the other things that that put the PP Stable head and shoulders above their contemporaries. The surreal genius of the gags, the sheer imagination inherent in the antagonists; these are some of the things that for me make the Pink Panther a thing of joy! I have already wrote far too much though (sorry- writing this in a hospital bed at 4am- time perhaps lays a little heavily on my hands!) I should say of course before I finish though - sadly- that needless to say, 'THEY' would go and ruin the Pink Panther et al. The introduction of voices, something which would also ruin Tom & Jerry... Bland, generic artwork; one doesn't have to know the details to smell a rat, or rather a corporate vulture of some sort. My comments here should be taken as applying to the early material only, ie pre-1971, approximately...
Did they ever show an elderly Fred Flintstone? I always assumed he died middle age. Which was 18 to 23 back then. Good nutrition gave them them length of bone, but the still died like rubes. Well fed hustling rubes, but rubes none the less. You know?
Thanks for taking my suggestion of the Japanese commercials. Shame that some of the worst ones have seemed to have disappeared from YT, though. Having said that, I very much find it disappointing that Flintstones really only exist in modern media as a cereal and vitamins. The cereal commercials barely feature the characters anymore, and it's usually a silent cameo or archival footage of the TV show. I really miss Barney scamming Fred out of his cereal, probably as payback for all the times Fred mooched off Barney over the years.
@@ironheadrat3420 That Christmas one ran for several years. It even has a variant version where Santa was given a different voice for some reason. (I think all the dialog and lyrics were exactly the same, so I don't know why this version was created.)
Perhaps the best example of how long and effective this show's influence was: in the mid-2000's, when he was well into his eighties, my father--likely suffering from Alzheimers at the time--could still remember the Flintstones Vitamins jingle ("Yabba dabba doo, yabba dabba doo, Flintstones Vitamins are good to chew!") No other series or tie-in had that kind of staying power.
2:57: Great choice of clip. The editing on these just keeps getting better and better. I agree that The Flintstones does have a timeless feel to it. While I do tend to prefer full animation from theatrical cartoons like the Looney Tunes, shows like The Flintstones heavily benefited from good writing and attention to character personality. While the later seasons of the original show did seem to get more kid-friendly, they at least still did a good job maintaining the adult characters’ personalities. One thing I will slightly disagree on is that Bea Benaderet’s Betty voice was more “generic.” I get what you mean in that her voice wasn’t really like Trixie from The Honeymooners, but Benaderet did have a very warm, motherly-like voice that definitely worked well in portraying her relationship with Barney, much better than Gerry Johnson did. She could get angry at times and it could work, but Benaderet also did convey the feeling of someone who was always just trying to watch out for her husband and make sure he was staying out of trouble. Gerry Johnson’s voice was definitely generic; she was Betty’s equivalent of Marla Frumkin as Velma. There certainly is a way to still make this show work today, but sadly, many adaptations are either too kid-friendly or too adult-focused (I haven’t seen On the Rocks, but judging from those clips you showed, it looks horrible). There’s got to be a way to meet the right balance just like the original series did. If Looney Tunes Cartoons proves anything, it’s that with enough effort, you can recapture the magic of the original cartoons, even if the animation process is extremely different from what it was back then. Great job as always. Looking forward to more Evolutions in the future.
Lots of interesting information here. I enjoy seeing storyboard sketches and things like that. Cannot deny that this series was a phenomenon in its day, and has continued to charm audiences. It's a big part of American pop culture ... well, the entire world, I suspect. My first intro to this prehistoric show was via reruns on weekday afternoons, after school back in the 1970's. As I grew up I realized I enjoyed season 1 the most because of its loose look and the varied black lines on the characters, plus those sponged background designs of home interiors were cool. And it was much more cartoony and zany than the rest of the seasons. I mean, in one episode Fred walks across the back lawn toward Barney's yard, walks up the stone wall/fence, over it, and then down it, without any gravity affecting him. I think many fans were drawn to things like the household appliances and tools that were made up of birds and animals and dinosaurs. Barney would be trimming his hedge with a bird that had a huge beak, or Wilma would vacuum the living room with a little elephant. Any admirer of the show, particularly its earlier episodes, will recall the Car Hop Song from the episode "The Drive-In": "Here we come, on the run, with a burger on a bun, and a dab of coleslaw on the side. Oh, your taste we will tickle with a cold dill pickle, and all of our potatoes are french fried-fried-fried; our burgers can't be beat 'cause we grind our own meat-- grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. And when you drive away, a tip upon our tray, we hope to find-find-find-find-find ...." I want to mention and praise some of the talent that lent their voices to supporting characters on The Flintstones, seasoned character actors who did a super job: Howard Morris (better known as Ernest T. Bass, he did dozens and dozens of Bedrock characters over the years, from toddlers to hillbillies to wealthy snobs); also from Mayberry were Hal Smith and Howard MacNear (Otis and Floyd, respectively), MacNear always seemed to play a doctor on the show; and I can't forget Frank Nelson, whom we all know as The "Yessssss?" Man from classic television ... Frank played store clerks and such on the show from time to time, including the memorable anniversary piano episode in which he does a duet with Barney of "Strolling Through the Park" in the music shop. We should include comedy icon Harvey Korman who did The Great Gazoo, among others. Also, Verna Felton portrayed Wilma's often surly mother Mrs. Slaghoople. There's more talent-- but these are some outstanding examples worth mentioning. And finally, one important thing that made the show special was the background music scoring by Hoyt Curtin. Simply wonderful! He was talented. He created so many enjoyable themes and melodies that were used in The Flintstones as background music or as bridges between scenes.
My favorite era is the original, more specifically the first season. I love the rawer drawing and each animator's first episodes are my favorites. The Barney voice heard in this evolution is Daws Butler as a fill-in since Mel Blanc was unable to work due to his car accident in 1961. His was far more Art Carney-like in its inflections than Blanc's later version. Some of the season 2 episodes were dubbed over by Blanc after his return, but a few of them remained with Butler's Barney. The On The Rocks show was also an attempt to return the characters to a more season one look and feel. But, yes indeed, they made it far more adult. I didn't mind the adult aspects at all, but I really disliked the gross-out humor modern animators seem to be addicted to. Worth a viewing, though.
Where could I find the On the Rocks special? The grossout humor irks me in what I've seen of it too but it otherwise looks fascinating and I'd love to watch it!
Even My aunt Melissa, who absolutely DESPISES animated shows and movies and is NOT afraid to say so, ADORES The Flintstones. I myself love animation and appreciate just how much work goes into it.
I am a fan of the original series. In the original series, Dino first appeared as a talking dinosaur, with a refined accent. It seems like Pebbles and Bam Bam shift between adulthood and childhood. Interestingly, Elroy and Judy Jetson have been the same age over the decades. Trivia: The Scooby Doo franchise gave a shout out to the Flintstones. Scoob has a cousin named Yabba Doo, who's the sidekick of a small town sheriff in the Southwestern United States. Also, there's an American female hip hop artist who goes by the name Pebbles. In the right hands, I believe that the Flintstones franchise can go on.
You mean Pebbles (Perri Reid) who did the song "Mercedes Boy" and managed the girl hip hop group TLC, who filed bankruptcy to sever themselves from Pebbles' draconian management?
The Flintstone's Christmas Carol stands as my favorite take on the original story just slightly ahead of the Muppets. No other parody really touches on Scrooge's sister or the idea of Scrooge making amends with Belle.
The Flintstone's Christmas Carol even includes the small bit of dialogue between Mr and Mrs Cratchit (played by Betty and Barney Rubble) discussing Tiny Tim's (played by Bam-Bam) behavior in church, Bob saying that Tiny Tim said that it would be good for people to remember on Christmas day "who made lame men walk and blind men see.", thus mentioning a man who, according to the premise of the Flintstones, won't be born for at least a million years later.
I never really got how the first live action movie and Flintstones on the Rocks were considered 'too adult' or 'off-brand' by critics. They were both actually closer in tone to the 1960 series' first two seasons aim at adults rather than being family-friendly. If anything, they actually a bit more on-brand by the Flintstones' standard. While neither also didn't quite go as Family Guy level overboard about it either. Now I'd be more scared about the Seth McFarlene-style take on The Flintstones if I _really_ didn't want the modern stone age family to become too adult and off-brand for its own good (and sophomoric I may add).
"thru the courtesy of Fred's two feet" is one line no one remembers! Flintstones also sponsored Winston Cigarettes & Busch Beer also Fred's car changed quite often! The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones was the last time Mel Blanc & George O'Hanlon did the voices The Flintstones movie was the last one that Liz Taylor did
The Flintstones Winston commercials were among those things that stuck with me in the 8th grade from a smoking documentary. I was fried for a moment. Apparently, the Winston account was scrapped when the show went towards a more family-oriented direction (Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm).
Yknow, I personally love Flinstones on the Rocks! It was more adult oriented, but was willing to experiment with new sequences! Also,it's hard to ignore Wilmas very lovely 💘 redesign!
I don't know about Wilma's redesign, but I did enjoy (with a bit of guilt) On the Rocks. As a kid I always wondered what characters were like when the cameras shut off. I realize how that sounds, but I also got super excited when I'd see the promo for "Batman... in Living Color" on my tiny black and white tv, thinking I'd finally be able to watch Color TV. I kept wondering why I always missed that episode. 😔
@@GoodJuju.8D Yeah, I also found On the Rocks a guilty pleasure. It reminded me of Ren & Stimpy's style of animation and humor. I don't think I would ever want to see the Flintstones franchise permanently become this version---in addition to the adult suggestiveness, the characters were much more harsh---but as a sort of one time stand-alone experiment, I found parts of it to be quite funny. If the Flintstones were always considered satirical, then this was kind of a satire of a satire.
funny story about John Goodman in The Flintstones. Steven Spielberg sorta "suckered" John into the role and at first John was pretty livid about it, but once production started, he started enjoying the role and now it's one of his favorite movie roles he ever did.
I used to watch "The Flintstones" on some old VHS tapes and Cartoon Network back when I was a kid. Recently, my family and I have been watching reruns on this channel called MeTV, which is dedicated to shows from the 1950s-70s. This retrospective couldn't have come at a better time. You can't beat the original show, although I still have a soft spot for the Jetsons crossover (my first viewing of both shows btw), "A Flintstone Family Christmas," and that "Rockula" special.
I can honestly respect The Flintstones for Revolutionizing the landscape of animation as we know, later cartoons like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad took heavy inspiration from it, all while putting their own unique twist on the family animated sitcom aspect.
Am early so i might as well say it, YABBA-DABBA-DOO. Also just think about the fact that if we didnt have the flintstones we most likely wouldnt have the simpsons or even family guy
I would love to see you do an evolution of Wacky Races. Or of the various "Scooby Clones" Hanna-Barbera put out in the 1970s (Jabberjaw, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, etc.)
Never knew it was a night time adult show! I only remember the original Flinstones as a Saturday morning cartoon rerun endlessly. Wasn't old enough to have seen when it first appeared. The 1970s & later versions were junk - had not idea they even existed. Great job on this vid! *The opening theme of The Flinstones still makes me happy*
The original has always been the big one for me, but, believe it or not, "On the Rocks" comes in a close second. The more adult bent of the first two seasons was a clear influence with this one which I somewhat appreciated, and its style was close to Genndy Tartakovsky's "Dexter's Lab." (I'm pretty sure it was done by the same animation unit as that latter show.) "Stone Age SmackDown" comes in third; as a WWE fan, I got a huge kick out of seeing Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, and other stars getting the Bedrock treatment. Daniel Bryan's character, with his ginormous beard and only using the "yes" gesture for communication, is the real highlight of that production. (Missed opportunity: they should've paired the "Boulder Twins" (Nikki and Brie Bella) with the Boulder Brothers from "Wacky Races" for maximum crossover potential.)
For a while the Pebbles commercials were kind of like the current Flintstones series. They never stopped referencing current events- you had a Game Boy, Fred had one made of rocks and sticks.
Very interesting! The Flintstones is awesome and seeing how they came to be was fascinating. As for favourite Flintstone moments, there are so many! I think my first introduction to them was through A Man Called Flintstone, but watching your video, I was reminded of the Flintstones Comedy Hour with Dino and Cave Mouse. I do have a soft spot for Cave Mouse! Thank you for a trip down memory lane. Yabba Dabba Do!😁
Do The Jetsons next. I think that The Jetsons meet the Flintstones is the best crossover in cartoon history. Does anyone remember that Fred Flintstone came out in an episode of The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy?
So Dave since you did three of my four favorite Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Scooby-Doo The Flintstones and Tom and Jerry I would love to see you do the fourth one The Jetsons
Fred Jr.: She took everything away from me. Kopa: I know how that feels. Daisy's nieces: Ditto for us. PJ Pete: At least your families love you. Felix the Cat: You guys have families?!
i actually enjoyed flintstones on the rocks as a kid. i still have the vhs recording of it, not knowing at the time that it would never be aired again. looking back, i can't believe my mom would let me watch it. 😂
21:55 Yeah, I know. That's another thing I remember about all of these late 70s / early 80s cartoons. Everybody was in a band. I realize now (as you point out) that everyone was trying to recapture the "lightning in a bottle" moment when "Sugar Sugar" actually became a REAL top 10 pop song, not to mention that devoting a five minute section of the cartoon to a musical interlude (complete with animation segments that could be used over and over again in various episodes) made making all of the cartoons much easier. In addition to this cartoon and The Archies cartoon, there was Josie and the Pussycats, ua-cam.com/video/qEdWvYA0icg/v-deo.html (the whole comic book itself was retooled from "an Archie clone" to make this concept more accessible) img0.etsystatic.com/036/0/9603370/il_570xN.613739662_sb16.jpg Remember Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kids???? ua-cam.com/video/Pds3zI7YxaY/v-deo.html The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan??? ua-cam.com/video/M8dweVMviBQ/v-deo.html Fat Albert had a rock band. ua-cam.com/video/pMx9mqyLQ-g/v-deo.html The Brady Kids had a cartoon complete with rock band. ua-cam.com/video/VS1C01-D59Q/v-deo.html The Partridge Family -------- so........... I need to explain this............... Due to the ......... "success" ...... of this cartoon, the people at Hanna-Barbara came up with the idea of taking "The Jetsons" and "aging" them as well. Elroy would now be a teenager, Judy would be a young adult, and the two of them would also be in a rock band with friends. Something, however, "fell through" and that idea was scrapped, buuuuuutt.............. due to the existence of the "templates" and the success of the Brady Kids cartoon............ the "logical" idea was to make a cartoon................. where the Partridge Family live in the future?????????? ua-cam.com/video/spJznoiaTPk/v-deo.html The 70s were very weird.
I'd say late 1960's/early 1970's, not only with the Archies(1968), but also the Hardy Boys animated series (1969), the Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972), Josie and the Pussycats (1970), Groovy Ghoulies, Mission: Magic (1973), the Brady Kids (1972), the Beagles (c. 1966-67), the Cattanooga Cats (1969) and a few others before moving on to Jabberjaw (with the Neptunes, 1976), and later on, to Jem and the Holograms (1985 as part of the Super Saturday cartoon show, and later as a stand-alone series, 1986)
I didn’t know that they were inspired by real people how surprising 😱😨 I guess every toons always are inspired by real people sometimes and there personalities any way nice video keep up the good work there Dave 👍☺️
Is weird how Hannah Barbera is repsonsible for both making mainstream audiences see cartoons as kids stuff but also making adult oriented cartoon shows mainstream as well.
21:39 The one thing that I never understood about the spin-off set some 15 years later (which I used to watch on Boomerang a lot) was that Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty still looked the same age. When Nickelodeon made a RugRats spin-off in which everyone aged about ten years, the parents were made to look older. Some had bits of grey hair and Angelica's mom hilariously got a face-lift. I just think that they should have given Fred and Barney a few streaks of grey hair as well. It was weird seeing them look the same despite several years gone by.
Something entirely overlooked was the introduction of Stoney. It was minor, and only in the Christmas Special, but important I think to mention for anyone wanting the complete lore. Stoney is adopted in to the Flintstone family in it and even if we never see that era of Flintstones again, with every series past going back to Pebbles and Bambam as children, it's worth mentioning that Fred did eventually have a son.
If I were to give the complete lore we’d be here for hours. I simply cannot cram every single piece of information, and talk about every single minor character in these videos. I have to draw the line somewhere and decide what is and what is not relevant to the story I’m telling.
@@DaveLeeDownUnder Oh, I totally understand! And comment sections are a good place to find lore or characters that would be nitpicking in a documentary already condensing hours and hours of a show in to thirty minute or less. I think it's important to mention because canonically it's where the story left off, and he is added to the family.
Seriously, as you said, the Flinstones revolutionized the television landscape by showing that a cartoon could make prime time.I would like to say Fruity Pebbles even though they are technically a cartoon based cereal still to this day rank among the greats. Even though it is Flinstones merchandising, it's like it still fits with Kellog's brand and the others.
I used to love the old Flintstone episodes as a kid. And on Saturday mornings I would watch Coco Pebbles commercials in between Bedrock Cops segments. Good times.
The Flintstones are my all time favourite cartoon series so I've been looking forward to this Evolution Series and you didn't disappoint. Brilliant video, I got to relieve a lot of the specials and mini spin-off series that I'd forgotten about. I wish they were all available on DVD, but I had enough of a struggle just getting the original 6 seasons. They weren't available in the UK when I first started trying to source them, and I had to get region zero. A while later, they all started releasing in the UK. Typical 😅. I wasn't aware of any of the projects posts 2010, so that was interesting to find out about. I hope they do something similar to 'Scoob' with The Flintstones.
It explains the vague confusion I had about it growing up (but never considered). The Schmoo(?), Captain Caveman and Bam Bam-teen-toddler-teen-rockstar.
A childification show of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty, cartoons where Barney and Fred are police officers with The Shmoo, a Rugrats rip-off and "On the Rocks" is the most off-brand piece of media?
I do agree that the Flintstones have plenty of life left in them. Heck, they inspired the Simpsons and Family Guy for pete's sakes, that's some serious relevance! For me the classic episodes still are my favourite iteration and frankly my favourite Hanna Barbera cartoon alongside Top Cat:)
My favorite will always be the original one that started it off. I like the other spin offs. I would say that my second would be "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. I enjoyed it as much as the original. My third will be "The Flintstones Kids" cause of it being around my time as a kid. It was my introduction to the characters but I do remember watching re-runs of the originals back when I was little. You have done two of my top 2 favorite HB shows ever now. Scooby Doo and The Flinstones. Thanks for this. As always great videos and all around great visuals from your videos. Thanks again Dave! I Yabba Dabba Liked It!
Another great video. Man i love these history of cartoon videos. Some notes--Flinstone kids and cave kids was not a new idea. It was based on a old comic book in the 60s called cave kids. Flinstones did a bush bear cartoon special also that never aired on tv but shown at bush beer factories tours as well as showing up in "alice in wonderland or what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this" and was on yogi's space race and laff-a-lympics and yogi's all star christmas caper but other then wonderland (with them in a outfit) they more or less looked the same so i can see why you skipped them. Grim adventures of billy and mandy had fred show up for a full episode also. It's kind of a mean spirited episode however. Thanks again for the videos. Maybe you do casper the ghost or smurfs in the future?
I always think of The Flintstones as coming before everything else. Thank you for reminding me how relatively new they still are compared to some other classics.
You mentioned how they floated the idea of the Flintstones as Romans, you mentioned the futuristic version The Jetsons, but really should have at least given a nod to Roman Holidays, the Flinstones concept that H&B eventually made in Roman times!
I have and sometimes I works and I get a strike But it seems like I can only so it once cause if I do it again in the same game I will either get a spare or a miss
Not sure how you can do that in bowling shoes... But once I tried the classic “Hanna-Barbera run-in-place-before-dashing” trick, and I actually got a strike
It’s crazy to think about how influential The Flintstones is. A solid chunk of my favorite shows ever might not exist without it. The show genuinely holds up too. I’ve been rewatching it and it gets multiple laughs out of me per episode.
Had SO MUCH fun revisiting parts of the series while I made this video. Bought the Blu-ray set not long ago, and plan to power through it very soon! It really is surprising how WELL it’s held up!! That’s what happens when you don’t rely on “topical” stories and gags.
@@DaveLeeDownUnder the Blu Ray set is where it’s at. It’s nice having everything all together and in terrific quality.
Jackie Gleeson bears a striking resemblance to John Goodman, who played Fred in the first live action Flintstones movie. Interestingly they also share the same initials: JG.
I agree
Cool. But I think Jeff Garlin could play a great Fred Flintstone. His initials are also JG!
Wasn’t that intentional?
Fred was based on Jackie Gleason.
John Goodman and Jackie Gleason are polar opposite. John Goodnan? yuk! he activates m6 gag reflex
The original Flintstones will always be my favourite version. I grew up watching the Flintsones!!
i find it crazy that a lot of these extremely popular, famous, and influential cartoons are often turned down. wonder how many world-changing cartoons we'll never be able to see!
I read a music review calling a young musician the most terrible thing they ever heard and it offended their ears. They were reviewing Beethoven. Arguably not terrible lol.
Every famous actor, musician, artist, etc experiences many many rejections before they find 'success'. It's part of the process, no matter how talented you are. Persistence and luck are more important than talent.
"The Curse of Creativety" - watch (listen - few or no pics at all) the video - depressingly realistic. As I was told at "18" - "It's 5% talent, the rest is hard work", but they didn't know of/remember to say "and luck/lack of bad luck".
@@kellykerr5225 I wanna watch it
@@jul2447 I watch so many things about music that I can’t remember what UA-cam channel it was on. You might try putting in his name and reviews, maybe it will pop up. Happy listening. That’s definitely not my favorite music but it’s an important part of history
Fred also made an appearance in an entire episode of Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy but he only spoke gibberish and no one actually referred to him by name.
He actually DOES say his name is Fred in that episode too. Though Billy ignores it.
@@ArtificialOrangeStudios Wait he did? It's been years since I saw the episode so I only remember the gibberish.
@@KyogresHideout_Vegito2121 Yeah, it's the only non-gibberish thing he says in the whole episode. Billy asks what his name is and he says "Ohhhhh... Fred." and then Billy comments on how he can't understand his mumbo jumbo language.
The Flinstones were on at lunch time in Canada for like 30years. Growing up, and still to this day, I knew every episode pretty much by heart. When they stopped playing it a lunch hour, it was almost as if you had lost a close relative, or a limb or something. It was weird. Flintstones are a true classic. Pioneers.
Flinstones is so incredibly iconic its a crime. Its humor and adult content is still relevant to this day and its character designs are timeless& amazing! I love the franchises and give credit to Iwao Takamoto for his iconic redesigns that make them forever memorable!
And it's adult without being a McFarlane level if taste. I think that was a big misstep. Like when Sony thought that Paul Feig understood the essence of Ghostbusters.
I am so happy that you are covering The Flintstones (one of my favorite animated shows of all time)!
The American release of A Man Called Flintstone was the first mega-hit. The reaction was completely unexpected. It was the first movie that had people lined up around the block, with theaters hastily adding showings to accommodate the crowds. I remember waiting in line for hours myself (at 8 years of age).
Fred Flinstone makes a cameo in The Banana Splits Show when Drooper tells the password is Fred’s catchphrase “Yabba Dabba Doo”
The Flintstones definitely revolutionized modern cartoons.
Quite Literally.
It's underrated nowadays.
Especially the Simpsons and family guy
Facts
Yeah. And killed the golden age of animation in the process.
Making The Flintstones more adult and crude (animation included), will never work. The basics of it, remains multi-generational. Making it change, just for change sake will always bomb.
Same with the Rugrat's which unfortunately is getting Rebooted.
No way, lots of people would pay to see more mature flintstones
Yeah Just make something everyone can enjoy
They already did change it for change sake and it made it boom in popularity, actually. The Flintstones began as adult-oriented (but not necessarily crude) and eventually became super family or kid focused.
Edit: The video literally mentions this multiple times lol
It can be adult, the first 2 seasons show that it can work. It’s the ‘crude’ part that’s not needed.
No mention of Fred's guest appearance in the Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, unless that'll be in his dedicated evolution video.
He didn't mentioned Betty Boop's appearance in Project Runway All-Stars.
@foldabotZ I believe you mean... Jake Steel lol
@@blazinggecko ...Who?
@@foldabotZ it's what Billy named Fred in the episode
Yabba dabbba, Yabba dabba!
Alan Reed also did a cameo as Fred in Laff-A-Lympics before he died, the rest of the series was voiced by Henry Corden
I'll pulverize you >:D
Yes, I read someplace that Alan Reed's voicing Fred for this Laff-A-Lympics cameo (sometime in 1977) was actually the last time he ever played Fred.
I loved the Flintstones growing up in the 80s and at over 40 years old I still love the original 6 seasons of the Flintstones
'The Honeymooners' was heavily influenced by Laurel & Hardy. In his authorized biography, How Sweet it Is, Jackie Gleason made no secret of his love for then when he was a kid.
Hands down, no contest: The first, original series was the best version of the Flintstones iterations over the years, but the most fascinating fact that I took from this video was that Fred and Wilma were the first TV couple in situation comedy to be seen sleeping in the same bed(oh my!). Overall, the best tribute and history I've seen on our favorite stone age family.
I hope you do The Pink Panther, and his friends.
Seconded!!
Has to be said though, PP felt like a cartoon with far more heart than The Flintstones. While I liked both as a kid, even then I would have much preferred the Pink Panther; the Flintstones' 'prehistoric' take on modern (American) working-class life was mildly funny and perhaps mildly innovative and the visual humour of the pre-historic tech didn't wear quite as quickly as one might have supposed - but I can go back to the Pink Panther cartoons as an adult and still get something from them (and The Ant and the Aardvark and - especially - The Inspector) in a way with which I just can't with the Flintstones.
The Flintstones unfortunately was born out of hackwork; I mean to be fair to H-B, in an effort to make a living in their early days they had to make a virtue of economic necessity, but it had the result of making 'cheap' their house style, and it feels like that attitude was to pervade the ethos of the whole company.
I know little about the gestation of the Pink Panther or Inspector Cluseau other than that they were spin-off creations from the eponymous live-action movies with Peter Sellers. However, it may not be a popular view but I don't think it's too much to say that the cartoons were hands-down funnier than the films from which they originated! It's difficult to quantify exactly what it is that sets the Pink Panther apart from The Flintstones... Though it's possible, I suppose that that big, motion picture capital can't have been *entirely* irrelevant! Still, you look at the obvious points of comparison, naturally there are going to be stylistic differences, but while the Flintstones characters are *crude* , the Pink Panther characters are by contrast *simple* - simple, but not simplistic. To me, the drawings of characters like Big Nose and Cluseau show an appreciation of *style* and a love for form and line. The Flintstones meanwhile look like they wouldn't be out of place in South Park! The difference in approach comes through, if anything, even more clearly in the backgrounds. Flintstones and HB backgrounds in general are of course known for their pared-back minimalism. The Pink Panther backgrounds of course are by necessity simple as well, we're talking TV shorts here, not Disney features! Nonetheless there is something paradoxically almost Baroque in PP's backgrounds - without EVER becoming overly busy, they seem to have something of the quality of a Victorian engraving about them!
I haven't even mentioned here some of the other things
that that put the PP Stable head and shoulders above their contemporaries. The surreal genius of the gags, the sheer imagination inherent in the antagonists; these are some of the things that for me make the Pink Panther a thing of joy! I have already wrote far too much though (sorry- writing this in a hospital bed at 4am- time perhaps lays a little heavily on my hands!)
I should say of course before I finish though - sadly- that needless to say, 'THEY' would go and ruin the Pink Panther et al. The introduction of voices, something which would also ruin Tom & Jerry... Bland, generic artwork; one doesn't have to know the details to smell a rat, or rather a corporate vulture of some sort. My comments here should be taken as applying to the early material only, ie pre-1971, approximately...
too long
You forgot to add the pinnacle of Fred's cartoon evolution. GRAND DAD.
FLEENSTONES!!
Did they ever show an elderly Fred Flintstone? I always assumed he died middle age. Which was 18 to 23 back then. Good nutrition gave them them length of bone, but the still died like rubes. Well fed hustling rubes, but rubes none the less. You know?
Actually look in the corner of the thumbnail
Thanks for taking my suggestion of the Japanese commercials. Shame that some of the worst ones have seemed to have disappeared from YT, though. Having said that, I very much find it disappointing that Flintstones really only exist in modern media as a cereal and vitamins. The cereal commercials barely feature the characters anymore, and it's usually a silent cameo or archival footage of the TV show. I really miss Barney scamming Fred out of his cereal, probably as payback for all the times Fred mooched off Barney over the years.
I can still recite the Christmas one verbatim.
@@ironheadrat3420 That Christmas one ran for several years. It even has a variant version where Santa was given a different voice for some reason. (I think all the dialog and lyrics were exactly the same, so I don't know why this version was created.)
Perhaps the best example of how long and effective this show's influence was: in the mid-2000's, when he was well into his eighties, my father--likely suffering from Alzheimers at the time--could still remember the Flintstones Vitamins jingle ("Yabba dabba doo, yabba dabba doo, Flintstones Vitamins are good to chew!") No other series or tie-in had that kind of staying power.
2:57: Great choice of clip. The editing on these just keeps getting better and better.
I agree that The Flintstones does have a timeless feel to it. While I do tend to prefer full animation from theatrical cartoons like the Looney Tunes, shows like The Flintstones heavily benefited from good writing and attention to character personality. While the later seasons of the original show did seem to get more kid-friendly, they at least still did a good job maintaining the adult characters’ personalities.
One thing I will slightly disagree on is that Bea Benaderet’s Betty voice was more “generic.” I get what you mean in that her voice wasn’t really like Trixie from The Honeymooners, but Benaderet did have a very warm, motherly-like voice that definitely worked well in portraying her relationship with Barney, much better than Gerry Johnson did. She could get angry at times and it could work, but Benaderet also did convey the feeling of someone who was always just trying to watch out for her husband and make sure he was staying out of trouble. Gerry Johnson’s voice was definitely generic; she was Betty’s equivalent of Marla Frumkin as Velma.
There certainly is a way to still make this show work today, but sadly, many adaptations are either too kid-friendly or too adult-focused (I haven’t seen On the Rocks, but judging from those clips you showed, it looks horrible). There’s got to be a way to meet the right balance just like the original series did. If Looney Tunes Cartoons proves anything, it’s that with enough effort, you can recapture the magic of the original cartoons, even if the animation process is extremely different from what it was back then.
Great job as always. Looking forward to more Evolutions in the future.
The Flintstones - a great, funny and memorable show and also must be the favorite of the Young Earth Creationists 😂
Unless of course you're an Old Earth Creationist, then your dig loses its edge.
Dave just a question but are you ever gonna do a cartoon evolution on Alvin and the chipmunks
Great video Dave The Flintstones have always been my favorite cartoon series from Hanna-Barbera
Lots of interesting information here. I enjoy seeing storyboard sketches and things like that. Cannot deny that this series was a phenomenon in its day, and has continued to charm audiences. It's a big part of American pop culture ... well, the entire world, I suspect.
My first intro to this prehistoric show was via reruns on weekday afternoons, after school back in the 1970's. As I grew up I realized I enjoyed season 1 the most because of its loose look and the varied black lines on the characters, plus those sponged background designs of home interiors were cool. And it was much more cartoony and zany than the rest of the seasons. I mean, in one episode Fred walks across the back lawn toward Barney's yard, walks up the stone wall/fence, over it, and then down it, without any gravity affecting him.
I think many fans were drawn to things like the household appliances and tools that were made up of birds and animals and dinosaurs. Barney would be trimming his hedge with a bird that had a huge beak, or Wilma would vacuum the living room with a little elephant.
Any admirer of the show, particularly its earlier episodes, will recall the Car Hop Song from the episode "The Drive-In":
"Here we come, on the run, with a burger on a bun, and a dab of coleslaw on the side. Oh, your taste we will tickle with a cold dill pickle, and all of our potatoes are french fried-fried-fried; our burgers can't be beat 'cause we grind our own meat-- grind, grind, grind, grind, grind. And when you drive away, a tip upon our tray, we hope to find-find-find-find-find ...."
I want to mention and praise some of the talent that lent their voices to supporting characters on The Flintstones, seasoned character actors who did a super job: Howard Morris (better known as Ernest T. Bass, he did dozens and dozens of Bedrock characters over the years, from toddlers to hillbillies to wealthy snobs); also from Mayberry were Hal Smith and Howard MacNear (Otis and Floyd, respectively), MacNear always seemed to play a doctor on the show; and I can't forget Frank Nelson, whom we all know as The "Yessssss?" Man from classic television ... Frank played store clerks and such on the show from time to time, including the memorable anniversary piano episode in which he does a duet with Barney of "Strolling Through the Park" in the music shop. We should include comedy icon Harvey Korman who did The Great Gazoo, among others. Also, Verna Felton portrayed Wilma's often surly mother Mrs. Slaghoople. There's more talent-- but these are some outstanding examples worth mentioning.
And finally, one important thing that made the show special was the background music scoring by Hoyt Curtin. Simply wonderful! He was talented. He created so many enjoyable themes and melodies that were used in The Flintstones as background music or as bridges between scenes.
Who knew that William Hanna and Joseph Barbara were reluctant to do the Flintstones before they relented due to pressure.
My favorite era is the original, more specifically the first season. I love the rawer drawing and each animator's first episodes are my favorites.
The Barney voice heard in this evolution is Daws Butler as a fill-in since Mel Blanc was unable to work due to his car accident in 1961. His was far more Art Carney-like in its inflections than Blanc's later version. Some of the season 2 episodes were dubbed over by Blanc after his return, but a few of them remained with Butler's Barney.
The On The Rocks show was also an attempt to return the characters to a more season one look and feel. But, yes indeed, they made it far more adult. I didn't mind the adult aspects at all, but I really disliked the gross-out humor modern animators seem to be addicted to. Worth a viewing, though.
Where could I find the On the Rocks special? The grossout humor irks me in what I've seen of it too but it otherwise looks fascinating and I'd love to watch it!
@@spencerpetunia8268 I'm not sure where it can be seen these days. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
Love this show paved the way for my favorite animated properties like the simpsons family Bob's burgers American dad and oblongs
Yes one reboot after another gets crazier and crazier.
Even My aunt Melissa, who absolutely DESPISES animated shows and movies and is NOT afraid to say so, ADORES The Flintstones. I myself love animation and appreciate just how much work goes into it.
Wait why does she hates it?
Fred Flintstone: Grandad!
Mario: Flintstones?!
A fellow man of culture I see
For the memory of bootleg mario
Aka
G R A N D. D A D
Felix the cat: HeT
What the shit?
The theme of this show is sooo iconic, I also enjoy John Goodman as fred! Great evolution video!
I am a fan of the original series. In the original series, Dino first appeared as a talking dinosaur, with a refined accent.
It seems like Pebbles and Bam Bam shift between adulthood and childhood. Interestingly, Elroy and Judy Jetson have been the same age over the decades.
Trivia: The Scooby Doo franchise gave a shout out to the Flintstones. Scoob has a cousin named Yabba Doo, who's the sidekick of a small town sheriff in the Southwestern United States.
Also, there's an American female hip hop artist who goes by the name Pebbles.
In the right hands, I believe that the Flintstones franchise can go on.
You mean Pebbles (Perri Reid) who did the song "Mercedes Boy" and managed the girl hip hop group TLC, who filed bankruptcy to sever themselves from Pebbles' draconian management?
Yabba was Scooby's brother.
Barney Rubble walked into his house one episode dancing and sing the phrase"Scooby Dooby Doo"
DAVE! I’m lovin the cartoon evolutions! Judging by ur community posts, u spend really long making these and I really appreciate it!
Seeing the Flintstones in modern clothes in the Energy video felt very unsettling...
The Flintstone's Christmas Carol stands as my favorite take on the original story just slightly ahead of the Muppets. No other parody really touches on Scrooge's sister or the idea of Scrooge making amends with Belle.
We are kindred spirits!!!!
The Flintstone's Christmas Carol even includes the small bit of dialogue between Mr and Mrs Cratchit (played by Betty and Barney Rubble) discussing Tiny Tim's (played by Bam-Bam) behavior in church, Bob saying that Tiny Tim said that it would be good for people to remember on Christmas day "who made lame men walk and blind men see.", thus mentioning a man who, according to the premise of the Flintstones, won't be born for at least a million years later.
HB was influenced by Art Carney's character Ed Norton in the form of Yogi Bear. Note Yogi's hat and his voice as performed by Daws Butler.
Daws Butler performed as Yogi's hat and voice? What a talent!
I never really got how the first live action movie and Flintstones on the Rocks were considered 'too adult' or 'off-brand' by critics. They were both actually closer in tone to the 1960 series' first two seasons aim at adults rather than being family-friendly. If anything, they actually a bit more on-brand by the Flintstones' standard. While neither also didn't quite go as Family Guy level overboard about it either. Now I'd be more scared about the Seth McFarlene-style take on The Flintstones if I _really_ didn't want the modern stone age family to become too adult and off-brand for its own good (and sophomoric I may add).
Fantastic job!! Thank you for digging up everything Flintstones. Loved it.
I do like The Flintstones and it's one of my favourite animated series from Hanna-Barbera
"thru the courtesy of Fred's two feet" is one line no one remembers!
Flintstones also sponsored Winston Cigarettes & Busch Beer
also Fred's car changed quite often!
The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones was the last time Mel Blanc & George O'Hanlon did the voices
The Flintstones movie was the last one that Liz Taylor did
I always thought it sounded like "thru the courtesy of Pistol Pete," As in Pete Marovich, NBA star at the time.
@@douglasparks8430 nopes
The Flintstones Winston commercials were among those things that stuck with me in the 8th grade from a smoking documentary. I was fried for a moment. Apparently, the Winston account was scrapped when the show went towards a more family-oriented direction (Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm).
Yknow, I personally love Flinstones on the Rocks! It was more adult oriented, but was willing to experiment with new sequences! Also,it's hard to ignore Wilmas very lovely 💘 redesign!
I know right. I feel it gets way to much backlash.
I loved Fred’s voice in that movie
I don't know about Wilma's redesign, but I did enjoy (with a bit of guilt) On the Rocks. As a kid I always wondered what characters were like when the cameras shut off. I realize how that sounds, but I also got super excited when I'd see the promo for "Batman... in Living Color" on my tiny black and white tv, thinking I'd finally be able to watch Color TV. I kept wondering why I always missed that episode. 😔
@@GoodJuju.8D Yeah, I also found On the Rocks a guilty pleasure. It reminded me of Ren & Stimpy's style of animation and humor. I don't think I would ever want to see the Flintstones franchise permanently become this version---in addition to the adult suggestiveness, the characters were much more harsh---but as a sort of one time stand-alone experiment, I found parts of it to be quite funny. If the Flintstones were always considered satirical, then this was kind of a satire of a satire.
funny story about John Goodman in The Flintstones. Steven Spielberg sorta "suckered" John into the role and at first John was pretty livid about it, but once production started, he started enjoying the role and now it's one of his favorite movie roles he ever did.
Dave just a question but are you ever gonna do a cartoon evolution on Alvin and the chipmunks
There’s already a pretty good video on it
@@dementedpurplechicken really whats the name of it so i can find
I used to watch "The Flintstones" on some old VHS tapes and Cartoon Network back when I was a kid. Recently, my family and I have been watching reruns on this channel called MeTV, which is dedicated to shows from the 1950s-70s. This retrospective couldn't have come at a better time.
You can't beat the original show, although I still have a soft spot for the Jetsons crossover (my first viewing of both shows btw), "A Flintstone Family Christmas," and that "Rockula" special.
I can honestly respect The Flintstones for Revolutionizing the landscape of animation as we know, later cartoons like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad took heavy inspiration from it, all while putting their own unique twist on the family animated sitcom aspect.
Am early so i might as well say it, YABBA-DABBA-DOO. Also just think about the fact that if we didnt have the flintstones we most likely wouldnt have the simpsons or even family guy
It would be a blessing if Family Guy didn't exist
The first 3 seasons of Family Guy are gold.
@@glitchyy4397 family guy was not always as bad as it is today.
Am I a bad person for liking Family Guy as a guilty pleasure?
@@calebkuti7897 nope it's pretty good
I would love to see you do an evolution of Wacky Races. Or of the various "Scooby Clones" Hanna-Barbera put out in the 1970s (Jabberjaw, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, etc.)
Never knew it was a night time adult show! I only remember the original Flinstones as a Saturday morning cartoon rerun endlessly. Wasn't old enough to have seen when it first appeared. The 1970s & later versions were junk - had not idea they even existed. Great job on this vid! *The opening theme of The Flinstones still makes me happy*
The flinstones is a good classic YABADABADOO
I watched the entire series years ago. As I missed alot on tv when I was a kid. Loved every bit. The show has soo much nostalgia for me.
True
Wow! Super-packed with history and information. Loved this video. I'm in my late 50's so I've seen Flintstones from the start. This was excellent!
Thanks so much, JJ! Greatly appreciated!
Very well documented, thanks. Keep em coming!
The original has always been the big one for me, but, believe it or not, "On the Rocks" comes in a close second. The more adult bent of the first two seasons was a clear influence with this one which I somewhat appreciated, and its style was close to Genndy Tartakovsky's "Dexter's Lab." (I'm pretty sure it was done by the same animation unit as that latter show.) "Stone Age SmackDown" comes in third; as a WWE fan, I got a huge kick out of seeing Undertaker, Rey Mysterio, and other stars getting the Bedrock treatment. Daniel Bryan's character, with his ginormous beard and only using the "yes" gesture for communication, is the real highlight of that production. (Missed opportunity: they should've paired the "Boulder Twins" (Nikki and Brie Bella) with the Boulder Brothers from "Wacky Races" for maximum crossover potential.)
In 1966, Fred and Barney appeared as the caterpillar in Hanna-Barbera’s animated “Alice in Wonderland” special.
For a while the Pebbles commercials were kind of like the current Flintstones series. They never stopped referencing current events- you had a Game Boy, Fred had one made of rocks and sticks.
Very interesting! The Flintstones is awesome and seeing how they came to be was fascinating. As for favourite Flintstone moments, there are so many! I think my first introduction to them was through A Man Called Flintstone, but watching your video, I was reminded of the Flintstones Comedy Hour with Dino and Cave Mouse. I do have a soft spot for Cave Mouse! Thank you for a trip down memory lane. Yabba Dabba Do!😁
Do The Jetsons next. I think that The Jetsons meet the Flintstones is the best crossover in cartoon history. Does anyone remember that Fred Flintstone came out in an episode of The Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy?
Yes I love Billy and Mandy.
I loved it when Fred made an appearance in The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy!
Awesome stuff! I love the animation style from season one. The thick outlines and somewhat crude form gives an almost surreal artistic look.
👌...perhaps limited budget brings styles...
When I was a kid my favorite Flintstones episode was the one with Samantha from Bewitched.
So Dave since you did three of my four favorite Hanna-Barbera Cartoons Scooby-Doo The Flintstones and Tom and Jerry I would love to see you do the fourth one The Jetsons
Fred Jr.: She took everything away from me.
Kopa: I know how that feels.
Daisy's nieces: Ditto for us.
PJ Pete: At least your families love you.
Felix the Cat: You guys have families?!
Some suggestions I would like to see:
Top Cat
Jetsons
Charlie Brown
Garfield
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Yogi Bear
Patient yes
*Garfielf*
@@Mr.Tw1sty ?
Good news: he did charlie brown
Yep,
Except Garfield and TMNT...
Dude..I was raised on this..
Youre explanation and documentation is incredible..
Well done my man 👍🏼🖖🏼
i actually enjoyed flintstones on the rocks as a kid. i still have the vhs recording of it, not knowing at the time that it would never be aired again. looking back, i can't believe my mom would let me watch it. 😂
21:55 Yeah, I know. That's another thing I remember about all of these late 70s / early 80s cartoons. Everybody was in a band. I realize now (as you point out) that everyone was trying to recapture the "lightning in a bottle" moment when "Sugar Sugar" actually became a REAL top 10 pop song, not to mention that devoting a five minute section of the cartoon to a musical interlude (complete with animation segments that could be used over and over again in various episodes) made making all of the cartoons much easier.
In addition to this cartoon and The Archies cartoon, there was Josie and the Pussycats,
ua-cam.com/video/qEdWvYA0icg/v-deo.html
(the whole comic book itself was retooled from "an Archie clone" to make this concept more accessible)
img0.etsystatic.com/036/0/9603370/il_570xN.613739662_sb16.jpg
Remember Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kids????
ua-cam.com/video/Pds3zI7YxaY/v-deo.html
The Amazing Chan and The Chan Clan???
ua-cam.com/video/M8dweVMviBQ/v-deo.html
Fat Albert had a rock band.
ua-cam.com/video/pMx9mqyLQ-g/v-deo.html
The Brady Kids had a cartoon complete with rock band.
ua-cam.com/video/VS1C01-D59Q/v-deo.html
The Partridge Family -------- so........... I need to explain this...............
Due to the ......... "success" ...... of this cartoon, the people at Hanna-Barbara came up with the idea of taking "The Jetsons" and "aging" them as well. Elroy would now be a teenager, Judy would be a young adult, and the two of them would also be in a rock band with friends.
Something, however, "fell through" and that idea was scrapped, buuuuuutt..............
due to the existence of the "templates" and the success of the Brady Kids cartoon............
the "logical" idea was to make a cartoon.................
where the Partridge Family live in the future??????????
ua-cam.com/video/spJznoiaTPk/v-deo.html
The 70s were very weird.
I'd say late 1960's/early 1970's, not only with the Archies(1968), but also the Hardy Boys animated series (1969), the Flintstone Comedy Hour (1972), Josie and the Pussycats (1970), Groovy Ghoulies, Mission: Magic (1973), the Brady Kids (1972), the Beagles (c. 1966-67), the Cattanooga Cats (1969) and a few others before moving on to Jabberjaw (with the Neptunes, 1976), and later on, to Jem and the Holograms (1985 as part of the Super Saturday cartoon show, and later as a stand-alone series, 1986)
I didn’t know that they were inspired by real people how surprising 😱😨 I guess every toons always are inspired by real people sometimes and there personalities any way nice video keep up the good work there Dave 👍☺️
I still watch the Flintstones. They currently air on the classic TV network MeTV.
Is weird how Hannah Barbera is repsonsible for both making mainstream audiences see cartoons as kids stuff but also making adult oriented cartoon shows mainstream as well.
I love The Flintstones and this video even thought me some things I didn’t know. Fantastic job!
5:42 I'm seeing the inspiration behind Fred Flintstone's outfit.
Hey! You changed the thumbnail! Nice Grand Dad reference.
Nice evolution, Dave. It’s so surprising that Looney Tunes did it first (parodying the Honeymooners), before The Flintstones itself became a hit
The Flintstone's design by Shane Glines wasn't so bad. Till Yabba Dabba Dinosaur ruined everything. Flintstones needs a proper reboot
I think only certain dinosaurs looked good.
21:39 The one thing that I never understood about the spin-off set some 15 years later
(which I used to watch on Boomerang a lot) was that Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty still looked the same age. When Nickelodeon made a RugRats spin-off in which everyone aged about ten years, the parents were made to look older. Some had bits of grey hair and Angelica's mom hilariously got a face-lift. I just think that they should have given Fred and Barney a few streaks of grey hair as well. It was weird seeing them look the same despite several years gone by.
Especially in I Yabba Dabba Doo & Hollyrock A Bye Baby.
Something entirely overlooked was the introduction of Stoney. It was minor, and only in the Christmas Special, but important I think to mention for anyone wanting the complete lore.
Stoney is adopted in to the Flintstone family in it and even if we never see that era of Flintstones again, with every series past going back to Pebbles and Bambam as children, it's worth mentioning that Fred did eventually have a son.
If I were to give the complete lore we’d be here for hours. I simply cannot cram every single piece of information, and talk about every single minor character in these videos. I have to draw the line somewhere and decide what is and what is not relevant to the story I’m telling.
@@DaveLeeDownUnder Oh, I totally understand! And comment sections are a good place to find lore or characters that would be nitpicking in a documentary already condensing hours and hours of a show in to thirty minute or less. I think it's important to mention because canonically it's where the story left off, and he is added to the family.
With the references to Rugrats I would love to se a “Cartoon Evolution” on that franchise
He even edited that clip perfectly to fit the duration of his lines before the Rugrats logo was shown
Seriously, as you said, the Flinstones revolutionized the television landscape by showing that a cartoon could make prime time.I would like to say Fruity Pebbles even though they are technically a cartoon based cereal still to this day rank among the greats. Even though it is Flinstones merchandising, it's like it still fits with Kellog's brand and the others.
I loved the Flintstones of the 1960’s. I grew up watching it. I was born in 1974 so the 60’s Flintstones were the best cartoon
I LOVE the Live Action Flintstones movie ❗️😀😀😀❗️❗️❤️❤️
I used to love the old Flintstone episodes as a kid. And on Saturday mornings I would watch Coco Pebbles commercials in between Bedrock Cops segments. Good times.
The Flintstones are my all time favourite cartoon series so I've been looking forward to this Evolution Series and you didn't disappoint. Brilliant video, I got to relieve a lot of the specials and mini spin-off series that I'd forgotten about. I wish they were all available on DVD, but I had enough of a struggle just getting the original 6 seasons. They weren't available in the UK when I first started trying to source them, and I had to get region zero. A while later, they all started releasing in the UK. Typical 😅.
I wasn't aware of any of the projects posts 2010, so that was interesting to find out about. I hope they do something similar to 'Scoob' with The Flintstones.
I had no idea there were so many iterations! I thought it was basically just the original show and some specials
It explains the vague confusion I had about it growing up (but never considered). The Schmoo(?), Captain Caveman and Bam Bam-teen-toddler-teen-rockstar.
0:43 betty’s giggle is so cute
I agree! It always makes ME giggle!
YABBA DABBA DOO.
Thanks for the history video lesson on The Flintstones Dave.
Looking forward to the voice comparison
I will always get a kick out of the mature subjects warning in front of a friggin Flintstones mini doc.
Flintstones Christmas...watch it every year but the original series is a close second.
I feel “On The Rocks” deserves better. Heck, I even liked that special.
But what would it be like if John K directed the short?
A childification show of Fred, Barney, Wilma, and Betty, cartoons where Barney and Fred are police officers with The Shmoo, a Rugrats rip-off and "On the Rocks" is the most off-brand piece of media?
I was about to comment exactly the same thing, I really enjoyed this TV special.
I liked it too and I wish it would get a DVD release. I had it recorded on VHS until my sister recorded MTV crap over it.
I liked the voice acting in On The Rocks
I do agree that the Flintstones have plenty of life left in them. Heck, they inspired the Simpsons and Family Guy for pete's sakes, that's some serious relevance! For me the classic episodes still are my favourite iteration and frankly my favourite Hanna Barbera cartoon alongside Top Cat:)
MOST FRIENDS LIKE TO CALL HIM TC
My favorite will always be the original one that started it off. I like the other spin offs. I would say that my second would be "The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. I enjoyed it as much as the original. My third will be "The Flintstones Kids" cause of it being around my time as a kid. It was my introduction to the characters but I do remember watching re-runs of the originals back when I was little. You have done two of my top 2 favorite HB shows ever now. Scooby Doo and The Flinstones. Thanks for this. As always great videos and all around great visuals from your videos. Thanks again Dave! I Yabba Dabba Liked It!
Another great video. Man i love these history of cartoon videos. Some notes--Flinstone kids and cave kids was not a new idea. It was based on a old comic book in the 60s called cave kids. Flinstones did a bush bear cartoon special also that never aired on tv but shown at bush beer factories tours as well as showing up in "alice in wonderland or what's a nice girl like you doing in a place like this" and was on yogi's space race and laff-a-lympics and yogi's all star christmas caper but other then wonderland (with them in a outfit) they more or less looked the same so i can see why you skipped them. Grim adventures of billy and mandy had fred show up for a full episode also. It's kind of a mean spirited episode however. Thanks again for the videos. Maybe you do casper the ghost or smurfs in the future?
Who the hell would give this video a thumbs down? The man single handed my gave us a fucking 40 minute documentary on the Flintstones!
I remember watching it as a kid. I still have the VHS-tapes lying around.
Unfortunatly, I have nothing to play 'em anymore...
I always think of The Flintstones as coming before everything else. Thank you for reminding me how relatively new they still are compared to some other classics.
Turner was the one who bought Hanna Barbera first and launched Cartoon Network. Warner then later bought Turner.
You mentioned how they floated the idea of the Flintstones as Romans, you mentioned the futuristic version The Jetsons, but really should have at least given a nod to Roman Holidays, the Flinstones concept that H&B eventually made in Roman times!
Was that Godzilla (HB animated version) kicking a boulder at Fred in the Cartoon Network promo?
Yes it was i remember it from uk version of Cartoon network in 1998-2001
I liked the 3 Pebbles and Bam Bam as adults TV movies and wish that would continue from those.
It's great to see another cartoon evolution on one of the greatest cartoons ever. Maybe Elmer Fudd next! :0
I'll save you the suspense. Elmer Fudd no longer carries a gun.
Neither does Yosemite Sam. The PC crowd did them in.
Let’s be honest. Who hasn’t tried to do the twinkle toes while bowling
Me. But I can't bowl.
I have and sometimes I works and I get a strike
But it seems like I can only so it once cause if I do it again in the same game I will either get a spare or a miss
I haven’t.
Not sure how you can do that in bowling shoes...
But once I tried the classic “Hanna-Barbera run-in-place-before-dashing” trick, and I actually got a strike