Where To Watch
The Flintstones premiered on this day in 1960 — and you can watch them on MeTV starting today!
They're a page right out of history! And they're back on broadcast television!
Friday, September 30, 1960, was an incredible night to stay home and watch television. The Twilight Zone kicked off its second season. Rawhide kept "them doggies" rolling with its third season premiere. But in between the two, history was made.
That historic evening, Hanna-Barbera boldly took cartoons where they had never gone before — primetime. In the late 1950s, the animation studio had found early success with The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Quickdraw McGraw Show, two shows aimed at children. The Flintstones was something altogether different and bold — a cartoon aimed at adults.
Today, in a world filled with The Simpsons, Family Guy and Bob's Burgers, we take the idea for granted. In 1960, it was revolutionary. Here was a sitcom with characters, plots and jokes like any other (well, in particular, much like The Honeymooners). The only difference? The episodes were drawn by talented artists.
As the show progressed over its six hit seasons, it slowly veered more into a program aimed at the Boomer youth. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm were introduced in seasons three and four, respectively. A catch new sing-along theme song was added in season three. Yes, "Meet the Flintstones" did not come along until then!
This cultural sensation welcomed celebrity guests like Elizabeth Montgomery and Ann-Margret. It spawned cereals, vitamins, toys and countless other collectibles. Now, on its birthday, The Flintstones is back on broadcast television!
MeTV will take you back to Bedrock Weeknights with one full hour of The Flintstones at 6PM Eastern | 5PM Central. Oh, and you can wake up with cartoons on the weekend again with two full hours every Sunday starting at 10AM Eastern | 9 Central.
In the meantime, see if you can ace our big, big Flintstones quiz!
You'll have plenty of time to study up when watching The Flintstones six days a week!
28 Comments
Looking back, it seems this show was well written and it had unique characters, although the goofy stone-rock-flint naming got tiring. The Flintstones also great voice acting, and the sound effects were pretty good. But it seems like it suffered from the same thing so many H-B toons did: inexpensive animation. That is, it wasn't in the same league as the 1950s Looney Tunes as far as high-quality animation quality goes.
Thanks for bring it back, MeTV!
(Get rid of the Stooges. They've been on all summer. It was promised to be only a fill-in show anyway. If they have to stay, run them at the early hours of Sunday morning).
If you put Flintstones on at 6:00 pm weeknights, people don't get home in time. And it's competing with the News in many markets. At least put it on an hour later. And that would be a very happy lead-in to the weekly evenings sitcoms. You'd lock in everybody that way.
So, nothing nostalgic nor fun!
Plus MeTV can be a place for retro kids and teens shows, "ALF", "Saved By The Bell" and "The Flintstones" are just the 1st but soon there will be more!
I was sure Saved By The Bell fell under E/I. Oh, well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reference_desk/Archives/Entertainment/2009_April_4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAExoSozc2c
