Almost everyone is familiar with The Flintstones .
The animated classic, which focused on Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their close friends and family, took place in the Stone Age town of Bedrock.
The popular series soon became a cultural phenomenon that spawned a movie, theme parks, and even those Flintstone vitamins.
Come learn more about the show with these 10+ random facts.
Yabba Dabba Doo!
*The Flintstones* is one of the biggest animated shows that was ever created.
But just because everyone loves it, that doesn’t mean people know everything about it!
Luckily, this great list will expand your knowledge! Let’s get right into it!
1. The show originally went by another name.
There were a lot of changes before the creators finally settled on The Flintstones .
First, the show was called The Gladstones . This, however, was changed after it was discovered that a comic strip had the same name.
Then, it was called *The Flagstones*.
The show had one final swap before the pilot aired in May of 1994.
It was finally named The Flintstones , which, let’s be honest, has a much better ring to it.
2. Anderson Cooper was outraged by the line “gay old time” in the theme song.
“For over a half century now, The Flintstones theme song has cavalierly touted that when you’re with them you will have a ‘gay old time,’” the openly gay CNN anchor said on air.
“This sort of flip treatment of the homosexual lifestyle, and that it could possibly apply to a family in the stone age, is offensive and outrageous,” he continued.
This outrage eventually caused Warner Brothers Animation to substitute the word.
2. The show was unearthed by the Cartoon Network.
After 30 years since it had originally been produced, the show was found in a New York storage warehouse.
They found the pilot, which was a 1-minute-and-45-seconds of animation.
“It was this mythological sort of thing animators had heard of it, but nobody had actually seen it,” Mike Lazzo, the Cartoon Network’s head of programming, told *Entertainment Weekly*.
He likened it to the “search of the Holy Grail.”
Once everything was found, the pilot aired in 1994.
3. It paved the way for the cartoons we watch today.
Before The Simpsons aired, The Flintstones was the longest-running prime time animated series .
In fact, it was the predecessor that paved the way for a lot of cartoons, including The Jetsons and Family Guy .
4. It was Alan Reed who invented the catchphase, “Yabba Dabba Doo.”
Reed was the one who voiced Fred.
It was his mother who used to say, “A little dab’ll do ya,” which gave the voice actor the brilliant idea to twist that into the show’s most iconic lines.
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5. Pebbles was originally supposed to be a boy.
This all changed after Ideal Toy Company intervened. They said that toys based on a female character would sell more merchandise.
This ended up being true, as the dolls went on to sell millions.
6. Mel Blanc, the voice of Barney, was in a head-on collision during filming.
He recalled in his book, That’s Not All Folks , that he would record his lines at the hospital where he was recovering.
“Tangles of wires were scattered all over the floor, and chairs and microphones were arranged around my hospital bed.” he wrote.
“Every couple of hours Joe would ask if I was too tired to carry on, but I insisted on completing the show.”
7. Jean Vander Pyl, the voice of Wilma, was also on *The Jetsons*.
She voiced Rosie the Robot on the show, along with Mrs. Spacely.
But playing Wilma is definitely the role the late actress is known for best, and for good reason.
8. The show was a huge money-making machine.
The Flintstones phenomenon was a major cash cow.
It spawned theme parks, live shows, merchandise, and Fruity Pebbles cereal. It even led to those Flintstones vitamins that everyone loved as a kid.
9. *The Honeymooners* had a big influence on the show.
In case you don’t know what The Honeymooners is, it was a popular sitcom that was on the air while The Flintstones was first produced.
Due to the working-class husband and wife dynamic, fans have always seen similarities between the two.
Barbera told Emmy TV Legends:
“So many people say, ‘Did you copy The Honeymooners?’ I said, ‘Well, if you compare The Flintstones to The Honeymooners, that’s the biggest compliment you can give me,” Barbera said .
“But The Honeymooners don’t have all the gags that we had in there
10. Barbera even once hired a writer from *The Honeymooners*.
Unfortunately, this didn’t work the way he’d hoped.
“We paid him $3000 and he was terrible,” Barbera recalled to Emmy TV Legends .
“And the reason being is, he just wrote words. It was all dialogue. He had no visual gags, no nothing.”
11. The show once advertised smoking.
Back in the ’60s, characters promoting cigarettes was simply part of the norm.
Since Winston Cigarettes sponsored the show, Fred and Barney would light up a cigarette at the end of each episode.
This all changed when the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act was enacted in 1970, banning cigarette ads on TV and radio.
Soon, Fred and Barney ditched the cigs and promoted something healthier: Welch’s grape juice.
12. A lot of the puns on the show are about rocks.
For starters, the show took place in Bedrock, and Fred’s boss is named Mr. Slate.
Plus, many of the guest stars had names about rocks! For example, Cary Grant’s character on the show was called Cary Granite.
13. The theme song we all love to sing was not the original.
The original song was titled “Rise and Shine” and it had no lyrics. It was also used for the end credits.
It was later changed to “Meet the Flintstones”, which is the one that we will never stop singing.
14. National Geographic named one of their Neanderthals “Wilma”.
In 2008, they went ahead and named one of the reconstructed pictures of a Neanderthal called Wilma , in honor of The Flintstones .
That’s just how powerful the show is all this time later.
15. Harvey Korman, who voiced The Great Gazoo, is a lot more popular than even he thought.
“Some years back, I traveled for Hanna-Barbera,” Korman said . “They had these huge conventions and seminars where collectors collect cels, and the cels with The Great Gazoo on it are worth lots of money. Collectors on eBay and stuff want my autograph.”
16. It took nine years for the movie to happen.
Even though it made a ton of money in the end, it was not easy making it happen.
It went through multiple drafts, directors, and even plot lines. Luckily, in the end, their hard work paid off.
17. They were turned into a comic book.
Back in 2016, DC Comics decided to take the jump and create The Flintstones #1 .
As you can see from the artwork, they definitely got an upgrade and look a little closer to modern humans!
18. ‘The Flintstones’ crossed over with the wrestling world.
In 2015, a DVD was released titled _ The Flintstones and WWE: Stone Age SmackDown_ and it featured a ton of WWE stars in animated form.
This includes the legend, John Cena.
Do you know any other random facts about *The Flintstones*?
Or were you pleasantly surprised by all of the facts that we presented you with in this article?
Either way, let us know down below in the comment section! We would love to hear from you!
