Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
It was The Flintstones' 50th birthday yesterday and to acknowledge that, the Christian Science Monitor has, somewhat curmudgeonly, published this story on it.
In the spirit of the annoying person who sitting next to you while watching a movie finds it his duty to explain the scientific impossibility of this scene, or the implausibility of that scene, or the plot gap at this point and that--we all know that person--the Christian Science Monitor's story not only misses the celebratory point of this occasion, but deflates the charm of The Flintstones by highlighting its five dumbest moments. I kid you not. Here they are:
1. The Flintstones smoked. "Few casual fans remember this detail, but, during The Flintstones' first two seasons, Fred and Barney had a taste for nicotine. In this early black-and-white "integrated commercial" at the end of an episode, Fred and Barney tiptoe out of sight to enjoy a smoke – well, not just any smoke."
2. The Great Gazoo. "Why is an alien in a TV show about stone-age humans?"
3. The Flintstones feature dinosaurs. "This is not so much dumb as it is simply anachronistic."
4. The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm show. "They grow up so fast. Hungry for another hit, Hanna Barbera greenlit several Flintstones spin-off shows."
5. Sexism in The Flintstones. "Fred makes it clear that he really does love Wilma and will go to hilarious lengths to please her. But he and Barney regularly share a misogynistic undertone – not exactly a lesson TV should pass on to kids, or anyone else for that matter."
I usually enjoy reading the Christian Science Monitor--but seriously? Chris Gaylord, I don't know where your sense of humor went (or if you ever had one), but please find it immediately. You're being a downer!
Needless to say, "Kids loved The Flintstones" was not one of the more significant observations in Gaylord's piece, as that, I suppose, would have been to state the obvious. Can't wait until the Queer and Gender Studies departments at colleges around the country do their thing to the hapless Fred and Barney.
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Comments :
May '10
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
Darn right. We all love the Flintstones (no past tense there). We all also love Bugs Bunny, Rocky and Bullwinkle, and Unca Scrooge and the boys.
I encourage all of you who can to find and watch possibly the greatest cartoon of all time, "What's Opera, Doc?" Who can't love Fred in his foot-powered car (Ken Salazar's central renewable energy plan for us all)?
Or Elmer Fudd standing upright over the prone body of Bugs (the latter wearing blond braids as a Viking lass), singing from the majestic Pilgrim's Chorus, "Kill the waaaabit....." and then "Wetoin, my wub....."
May '10
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
The Flintstones was the Honeymooners with better set design.
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
Even as a teen, I found the idea of a laugh track for a cartoon kind of odd. Were we supposed to think there was an audience watching the cartoon with us? If so, was it an animated audience? And how in the heck did someone come up with the idea of Flintstones vitamins (which, by the way, continue to be wildly successful)?
May '10
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
I think it's time to take out the Flintstone franchise with Jonas Bros. vitamins.
May '10
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
We all love the Flintstones? Actually, me, not so much; it was actually the first time I remember my mom kinda of creating a distinction between something that was good, and something that was dreck. This was dreck, as it played in daily reruns on Channel 5 in NYC, and I suppose, in "repeats" in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Thus the beginning of ParisParamus' elitism...
I haven't watched the Flintstones in, probably, 30 years, but looking back on it, it does seem kind of a window into the 1950's; maybe I would like it now?
Thanks for the flashback, Ms. Esfahani Smith!
May '10
Re: Yabadabadoooo - Flintstones Turn 50!
Which came first, The Flinstones or the plastic car?