My Favorite Animated Series: The Flintstones

    The Flintstones is arguably the most successful cartoon ever! Since 1960 it has made it a massive impact on pop culture. It has had I think 12 spin offs, 13 specials and about 10 films. One cannot deny its timelessness. It was the first cartoon for adults. (Although still pretty clean.) It was the first TV show to show a married couple in the same bed. It was the first show to show a woman pregnant. It pushed all kinds of boundaries, without being offensive. For that, I admire it a lot! Plus the running gags with animals that work for the humans like a elephant as a vacuum ect always makes me smile.

     I love the original content from 60’s and then I also love the content from the 90’s. The 70’s 80’s and everything past early 00’s I don’t love as much. I do think the content from the 60’s is probably a little better than the 90’s but growing up in the 90’s I do think that’s part of the being my age. But I do think the animation and stories are much better than the previous two decades. My parents took us to Kings Island in Ohio when I was almost 3 and I got to meet Fred Flintstone and it just solidified my love for the show. I have collected some Flintstone legos, art, toys, comic books, dvd’s etc over the years.  

Seasons 1 and 2- Put in the foot work, Fred.

The first 75 minutes of this series are perfect! I think seasons 1 and 2 are good. It sets up the series for success. It doesn’t try hard to find relevance it just is. It was an experiment for a prime time show for a cartoon which hadn’t been done before. It explored the world and the characters in a fun, creative way.

Seasons 3 and 4- Hitting the stride!

               Season 3 brings you Pebbles and season 4 brings you Bamm-Bamm. Pebbles birth episode and the episode where Bamm-Bamm shows up on The Rubbles doorsteps are two incredible episodes. I love these seasons. The show was set up to become a household name for decades to come during these two seasons. It is hard not to enjoy these. Seriously watch those 2 episodes. They are incredible. Season 4 is probably my favorite season; I absolutely love it!

Season 5 and 6- Trying new things with establishment

               Seasons 5 and 6 bring you Hoppy and The Great Gazoo. So, it’s cool that the show brought us some more neat characters and tried some new things season 2 and 5 are probably my least favorites. I don’t think they pushed the boundaries of the show like the other 4 seasons. Season 6 tried some new things as well but I think they made better decisions than seasons 2 and 5. Rip Van Flintstone from season 6 is one of my favorites too!

Spin offs, movies, specials ect.

               There is tons more I could talk about but I chose to stick more to the original series. I do love the 90’s animated movies where Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are grown up. There is a trilogy check them out! I also really enjoy A Flintstones Christmas Carol. The live-action films are OK. I enjoy them but they are flawed. The specials and spin-offs over the years I have seen most and they are alright. There are no stand outs to me sadly besides those things from the early 90’s.

Anyway, what do you think?