The birth of Pebbles? The emergence of the Great Gazoo? It never did?

....Jon Hein, founder of jumptheshark.com, claims in his 2002 book that the introduction of "The Great Gazoo" in the fall of 1965 was the reason "THE FLINTSTONES" was cancelled after that season. Others claim the birth of "Pebbles", in February 1963, was the beginning of the end for the show. Still others say that "Bamm-Bamm", introduced that October, was the catalyst. Some say it was "Hoppy"'s first appearance, in September 1964. There are those who believe that when Gerry Johnson replaced Bea Benaderet as "Betty"'s voice in the 1964-'65 season, that's when the series started to decline.

You know what? I don't think ANY of those were the reason for the series' eventual cancellation. No, the way I see it, the show never "jumped the shark".

One possible reason as to why the series ended after its sixth season, was that William Dozier, who had become an "overnight" success as producer of "BATMAN", the surprise mid-season hit of ABC's 1965-'66 schedule, was guaranteed a time period for his next potential "hit"- an adaptation of the radio and comic book icon "THE GREEN HORNET"....and the only time available was Fridays at 7:30pm(et), which happened to be when "THE FLINTSTONES" was on. The show's ratings sagged a bit, due to competition from CBS' "THE WILD WILD WEST" in the fall of '65. And even though "big name" guest stars like Tony Curtis, Elizabeth Montgomery & Dick York [from "BEWITCHED"] and "SHINDIG!"'s Jimmy O'Neill appeared as their Stone Age counterparts that season to good ratings, ABC wanted something more "flashier" to compete with Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Even though "THE FLINTSTONES" was still drawing a decent audience, the network decided to give their time slot to Dozier and "THE GREEN HORNET" for the fall of '66. And you know? While "THE FLINTSTONES" began its legacy to new generations of kids in network and syndicated repeats (and new spinoffs, starting on CBS' Saturday morning schedule in the '70s), "THE GREEN HORNET" lasted just one season.

:tv:

Never Jumped!:D

While I wasn't a big fan of Gazoo, Harvey Korman's unique voiceovers added a lot to the show. I think the Flintstones jumped in the 70's when they started doing all the Saturday morning sequels, such as 'Fred and Barney Meet the Schmoo' and 'The Flintstone Kids'.

While I wasn't a big fan of Gazoo, Harvey Korman's unique voiceovers added a lot to the show. I think the Flintstones jumped in the 70's when they started doing all the Saturday morning sequels, such as 'Fred and Barney Meet the Schmoo' and 'The Flintstone Kids'.

Those are SEPARATE Series, and since they came out AFTER the Original Flintstones was cancelled you really cannot blame the other series on it. It would be like saying the original Star Trek jumped the shark after ST: The Next Generation and all it's spinoffs made their debut. Nope, those other shows "Jumped the Shark" by themselves!:lol:

BTW IMO NONE of the STAR TREK shows ever "Jumped", I'm just using them as an example. :D

As far as I am concerned the original Flintstones never jumped the shark. There were a few episodes here and there that weren't spectacular, but from beginning to end, it was a great cartoon.

More than likely...when The Great Gazoo came along. Many people were turned-off with the character.

It never jumped. This was the best animated sitcom of all time IMO.

I think the title of this thread should be...

"When Did 'The Flintstones' Jump the Sharkasuarus?"

As far as I am concerned the original Flintstones never jumped the shark. There were a few episodes here and there that weren't spectacular, but from beginning to end, it was a great cartoon.

EVERY TV Show I ever watched has had at least one episode that wasn't that great. But who's to judge. Even the best Students have had that one Class they "Bombed". But that wasn't the end of the world, they just recouped their losses and moved on. :cool:

Those are SEPARATE Series, and since they came out AFTER the Original Flintstones was cancelled you really cannot blame the other series on it. It would be like saying the original Star Trek jumped the shark after ST: The Next Generation and all it's spinoffs made their debut. Nope, those other shows "Jumped the Shark" by themselves!:lol:

BTW IMO NONE of the STAR TREK shows ever "Jumped", I'm just using them as an example. :D

Different series, same franchise. In other words the original series never jumped, but all of the Saturday morning sequels caused the Flintstones franchise to jump.

The original Flintstones never jumped .The last season was just as good as the earlier seasons.If the show was not cancelled I think it could have easily ran for at least another 3 years.

Never jumped just a victim of network politics.

Yeah, the original series never jumped. The Flintstones "Jump the Shark" moments were plenty with all the sequel series, like when they "mellowed out" Fred.

Yeah, the original series never jumped. The Flintstones "Jump the Shark" moments were plenty with all the sequel series, like when they "mellowed out" Fred.

Fred became more "mellow" when Hanna and Barbera were forced to replace
the late Alan Reed with actor Henry Corden (in the later shows). The character was just never the same after that (kind of like the two Darrens
on Bewitched).

I felt the shark jumped when Wilma gave birth to Pebbles and the Rubbles adopted Bamm Bamm. The show transformed from more of an animated adult comedy to a kids show.

Fred became more "mellow" when Hanna and Barbera were forced to replace
the late Alan Reed with actor Henry Corden (in the later shows). The character was just never the same after that (kind of like the two Darrens
on Bewitched).
Seeing your signature, now I know who your avatar is (I'm familiar with her as well, Susan Silo).

BTW It started jumping when they started focusing a little too much on the cute aspects ("Ann-Margrock", 4th Season, "Sammantha", 6th season, though, respectively, I admit I do enjoy the Fred-Barney-Ann/Annie singing and seeing Sammantha and Darrin in those..)

Almost nothing but the first three complete seasons of "The Flintstones" ran through the mid to late classic 1960s Sat.AM and syndication cycles, then around 1971, I started (at age 10) to see the whole series and while I had SOME remembrance of "Dr.Sinister","Sammantha","No Biz Like Showbiz","Bedrock Hillbillies" and some others, characters like Gazoo and Hoppy Hopparoo comepletely made me go "What the F-? I don't reall recall THESE!" By that time more earlier Hanna-Barbera like the later Flintstones and the 1958-60 shorts like Yogi were coming back, and more and more, and it had been 1966 since I'd seen a lot of this and *I* had been watching cartoons and sitcoms throughout the sixties!(I was born in 1960, thru the middle of the first season of the Flintstones, in December.)

Didn't care for the Gazoo episodes generally speaking, they were too preachy and not that funny. The one GG episode I kinda liked was when GG took the Flintstones/Rubbles to the future/then-present.