Unearth the Surprising Secrets Behind The Flintstones That Will Rock Your Stone Age World!
The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones Was The End Of An Era
Although The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones has largely been forgotten in the decades since it first aired, there is one bittersweet milestone that makes it important within both the legacies of The Jetsons and The Flintstones.
Namely, that it was the last project to feature either of these cartoons’ original voice casts. Indeed, Mel Blanc would pass away just two years after the TV movie’s release. No further Flintstones content would come out until the live-action movie in 1994.
Wilma Was The First Pregnant Animated Character
According to Envisioning The American Dream, The Flintstones was not only ahead of its time by showing a couple sharing a bed and addressing infertility but also by portraying a cartoon character’s pregnancy for the first time.
Until Wilma was depicted as undergoing a hospital birth, cartoons symbolized the arrival of a new baby by having a stork character deliver them. Lucille Ball’s landmark inclusion of pregnancy as a topic in I Love Lucy had also only happened a decade prior.
Pebbles’s birth was a global sensation
According to Envisioning The American Dream, TV stations around the world held contests in anticipation of the birth of Pebbles. On the night Wilma revealed her pregnancy to Fred on January 25, 1963, a voiceover announced that the family’s coming baby could win one lucky viewer a trip around the world.
Although various stations had viewers guess her potential gender, name, and birth weight, it was only the last of these considerations that the show was officially concerned with. And when a Florida butcher correctly guessed Pebbles’s weight, he received his globe-spanning trip as promised, plus $2,000.
The Flintstones Was Loaded With Celebrity Guest Stars
In addition to the aforementioned Bewitched crossover, The Flintstones would feature a bevy of celebrity guests throughout its run, just as The Simpsons would decades later. And like the reigning champion of long-running animates series, it was considered oddly prestigious to get a guest spot on The Flintstones.
Along with Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York, some notable guests included “Georgia On My Mind” songwriter Hoagy Carmichael, Ann Margaret, and Tony Curtis. Of course, Curtis would voice a character named Stoney Curtis, and Margaret would voice Ann Margrock.
The Flintstones Briefly Chased A Big TV Trend
For all the show’s innovations and the trails it blazed, The Flintstones were also not immune to trend-chasing. And since slightly macabre comedies like The Addams Family and The Munsters were all the rage in the early-to-mid 1960s, Hanna-Barbera decided to add a spooky family of their own.
The result was the creation of the Gruesomes, who are pictured here. But Weirdly, Creepella, their son Gobby, and their pet octopus Occy were short-lived additions to the cartoon, only appearing in two episodes between 1964 and 1965.
The Writers Kept Forgetting Where The Flintstones Lived
Although they were typically shown in the same house throughout the series, The Flintstones’ address in Bedrock was never really consistent throughout the show’s run.
One episode would put them at 201 Cobblestone Lane, while another described them as living at 345 Cave Stone Road. Other alternate addresses were 39 Stone Canyon Way, 1313 Cobblestone Way, and 35 Cobblestone Rd. Although Cobblestone seemed to be the most consistent name, they apparently couldn’t decide whether it was a lane, a way, or a road.
How Hanna-Barbera Landed On The Name “Pebbles”
Back when Pebbles was planned to be a boy, the most likely candidate for her name would have been Fred Flintstone Jr. But when the decision was made to make her a baby girl, Hasnna-Barbera drew from the cartoon’s established canon and added a cute little twist.
Wilma’s maiden name was Pebble and when Pebbles was born, Fred described her as “a pebble off the old Flintstone.” With these considerations in mind, Pebbles seemed like a no-brainer for the new baby’s name.
All glassware was banned from the set of The Flintstones
While there was no such restriction in the studios of Hanna-Barbera, there was a strict rule against glassware of any kind on set when it was time to film the 1994 movie.
That’s because it would only match the characters they were portraying if all the actors filmed their scenes barefoot. And since the lack of shoes would increase the risk of serious injuries if any glass were to break on set, the production didn’t give that problem an opportunity to take place.
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