The show is set in the town of Bedrock in the Stone Age era. The show is an allegory to American society of the mid-to-late 20th century; in the Flintstones’ fantasy version of the prehistoric past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long extinct animals co-exist with barefoot cavemen, who use technology equivalent to that of the mid-to-late 20th century, largely through the use of various animals. The characters drive cars made out of stone or wood and animal skins and powered by foot.

    

The show is set in the town of Bedrock in the Stone Age era. The show is an allegory to American society of the mid-to-late 20th century; in the Flintstones’ fantasy version of the prehistoric past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long extinct animals co-exist with barefoot cavemen, who use technology equivalent to that of the mid-to-late 20th century, largely through the use of various animals. The characters drive cars made out of stone or wood and animal skins and powered by foot.

Model of Flintstones car at 2008 New York International Auto Show

One source of the show’s humor was the ways animals were used for technology. For example, when the characters took photographs with an instant camera, the inside of the camera box would be shown to contain a bird carving the picture on a stone tablet with its bill. In a running gag, the animals powering such technology would, breaking the fourth wall, look directly into the camera at the audience, shrug, and remark, “It’s a living,” or some similar phrase. Another commonly seen gadget in the series was a baby woolly mammoth being used as a vacuum cleaner. Travel to “Hollyrock,” a parody of Hollywood, California, usually involved an “airplane” flight—the “plane” in this case often shown as a giant pterodactyl. (Other familiar place names are similarly contorted: San Antonio becomes Sand-and-Stony-o; the country to the south of Bedrock’s land is called Mexirock; and so forth.) Lifts are raised and lowered by ropes around brontosaurs’ necks; “automatic” windows are powered by monkeys that dwell on the outside windowsill; birds configured as “car horns” are activated by pulling on their tails. An electric razor is depicted as a clam shell housing a honey-bee vibrating it as the edges are rubbed against the character’s face.

Being set in the Stone Age allowed for various gags and puns that involved rocks in one way or another, including the names of the various characters being “rock” puns. These included celebrities of the 1960s such as “Cary Granite” (Cary Grant), “Stony Curtis” (Tony Curtis), “Ed Sulleystone” (Ed Sullivan)”, “Rock Hudstone” (Rock Hudson), and “Ann-Margrock” (Ann-Margret). Other celebrity/puns on The Flintstones were “Alvin Brickrock” (Alfred Hitchcock); “Perry Masonary” (Perry Mason); and a new neighbor lady “Sam” (Samantha of Bewitched).^[1]

[edit] Closing credits

In the show’s closing credits, Fred tries to put the “cat” (actually a saber-tooth tiger) out for the night. The cat jumps back into the house through the window, opens the back door, and deposits Fred on the doorstep. Fred winds up getting locked out and yelling for his wife to come open the door: “Wilma! Come on, Wilma, open this door! Willllll-ma!” By the time the theme song “Meet the Flintstones”^[2] was used,^[clarify] Fred cut the yelling to: “Willllll-ma!” (This gag was mentioned in the lyrics of the “Flintstones” theme song used for the closing credits. “Someday/Maybe Fred will win the fight/Then that/Cat will stay out for the night.”)

Although the cat, Baby Puss, was seen in the closing credits of every episode, it was rarely actually seen in any of the storylines. This running gag of having the lead character of the series ending up being helpless during the end credits in every episode due to the hijinks of a family pet would later be repeated by Hanna-Barbera in the series The Jetsons in which George Jetson ends up being caught on a treadmill that ends up spinning out of control. He also (as does Fred in this series) cries out for his wife, by asking her to stop the mechanism with the line, “Jane! Stop this crazy thing!”

On an extra note, it seems that the titles seen on Boomerang are reissues (versions of titles that are used when the sponsor no longer has the program). On a website, there are titles that are different than what people see every day. On these ending credits, the show has one final commercial where the announcer states: “‘The Flintstones’ has been brought to you by Winston, America’s best tasting, fast working cigarette”, and Fred recites the jingle. Then the sequence of everyone going to sleep occurs, with a sign with “Winston” flashes on and off outside of Bedrock. Then after Fred says “Wilma! Come on, Wilma, open this door! Willlllll-ma!”, there is applause and then for its final title card it says “This has been an ABC Television Network presentation”.

[edit] The characters

[edit] The Flintstones

• Fred Flintstone – The main character of the show.
• Wilma Flintstone (née Pebble, later Slaghoople) – Fred’s ever-patient wife.
• Pebbles Flintstone The Flintstones’ infant daughter.
• Dino – The Flintstones’ pet dinosaur, which barked like a dog.
• Baby Puss – The Flintstones’ pet saber toothed cat.
• Pearl Slaghoople – Wilma’s mother.
• Tex Hardrock – Fred’s uncle on his mother’s side.

[edit] The Rubbles

• Barney Rubble – Fred’s best friend and next door neighbor
• Betty Rubble (née Elizabeth Jean McBricker) – Barney’s wife.
• Bamm-Bamm Rubble – the Rubbles’ abnormally strong adopted son.
• Hoppy – The Rubbles’ pet Hopparoo (a kangaroo/dinosaur combination creature)

[edit] Other characters

• Mr. Slate – Fred Flintstone’s boss at the stone quarry.
• Joe Rockhead – a friend of Fred’s.
• Arnold – the paper boy.
• Sam Slagheap – the Grand Poobah of the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes.
• The Great Gazoo – an alien exiled to Earth who helps Fred and Barney, often against their will.
• The Gruesomes – the Flintstone’s strange next-door neighbors (inspired by the then-popular monster sitcoms The Addams Family and The Munsters)
• Zeke Flintstone-Fred’s uncle that owned San Cemente (a pun on the California town, San Clemente, that was the site of Richard Nixon’s “Western White House.”

[edit] Opening teasers

Each episode of The Flintstones opened with a short scene, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes prior to the main titles. During the first three seasons, this was footage that took place later in the episode, usually from somewhere in the middle. Serving as a preview, the opening teaser did not clue viewers in on the actual plot.

Beginning with the fourth season, the majority of opening teasers were scenes specifically written to open the episode (examples include “Ann Margrock Presents,” “Sleep On Sweet Fred”). This change was not consistent, as a handful of episodes still previewed footage that would be seen later in the episode (“Glue For Two” and “10 Little Flintstones”), while on five occasions, this “preview” footage was never seen during the remainder of the episode at all (“Daddy’s Anonymous,” “Peek A Boo Camera,” “Once Upon A Coward,” “Fred El Terrifico” and “‘The Hatrocks,” a.k.a. “Bedrock Hillbillies”.

[edit] Voice cast

• Fred Flintstone – Alan Reed
• Wilma Flintstone – Jean Vander Pyl
• Pebbles Flintstone – Jean Vander Pyl
• Barney Rubble/Dino – Mel Blanc
• Betty Rubble – Bea Benaderet (seasons 1-4) Gerry Johnson (seasons 5-6)
• Bamm-Bamm Rubble/Hoppy/Arnold – Don Messick
• Mrs. Slate – Jean Vander Pyl and Bea Benaderet
• The Great Gazoo – Harvey Korman
• Joe Rockhead – John Stephenson

           Fred and Wilma on tv in black and white

Flinstones are also known for there vitamins as well.