Any Flintstones Production That Isn’t “The Flintstones”

The original “Flintstones,” which ran on ABC from 1960-1966, is a great show, and not only because there wouldn’t be a “Simpsons” without it. Unlike most televised animation of the time, it took its cues not from other cartoons, but from great sitcoms, like “The Honeymooners.” Hanna-Barbera knew that just because “The Flintstones” was a cartoon, that didn’t mean they’d have to constrain the show to only appeal to children.

Unlike every “Flintstones” spin-off and special, that is. Notable turds in this category include “The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show” (1971-1972), “The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone” (1979), and “The Flintstones: Fred’s Final Fling” (1980), as well as the John Goodman and Mark Addy-starring films in 1994 and 2000. Nobody cared about Fred meeting the Thing; people watched the show because (a) it was funny, and (b) it was oddly relatable, that even in the Stone Age, an overweight oaf could be loved by a charming female. Seth MacFarlane, who will remake the show for Fox in 2013, understood this when he said, “I think America is finally ready for an animated sitcom about a fat, stupid guy with a wife who’s too good for him.” Like anything from the guy who brought us “Family Guy,” I’m skeptical, but it can’t be any worse than “The Flintstones: Jogging Fever.”

Hanna-Barbera wanted to make an updated version of “The Jetsons.” CBS, however, asked that they instead find a way to mooch off the success of “The Partridge Family.” The two awful ideas came together, and like the beauty of a child being born, “Partridge Family 2200 A.D.” came out of TV’s womb, all wet and slimy and screaming. Nothing about the show makes sense—Why are they in the future? Was including “A.D.” in the title really necessary, other than they needed something to rhyme with “see’ in the theme song? Why was Danny Bonaduce allowed to have a platform to do anything?—and because it was such an obvious “Jetsons” clone (another question: why did Hanna-Barbera rip off their own show?), nobody watched. I’d rather much the year 2200 look like it did in The Matrix than the shudder-inducing future of “Partridge Family 2200 A.D.”

One of TV’s more regrettable trends over the past 30 years was when networks thought it was a good idea to “baby-fy” shows. It began with “Jim Henson’s Muppet Babies” in 1984 (the first time I ever heard of Star Wars was in an episode of that show) and has since given the world “Baby Looney Tunes” and “Yo Yogi!” Hanna-Barbera, never one to not take an idea from another company, came up with “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo,” featuring pre-teen versions of the Mystery, Inc. Gang. The show had one funny joke (every episode, Fred would blame a character named “Red Herring” for a crime he never committed), but what still doesn’t make sense to me is why Hanna-Barbera would create an entire series around an annoying younger version of Scooby-Doo when they already had the equally annoying Scrappy-Doo in their arsenal? There’s only one diminutive character worse than Scrappy…

Yes, there have already been movies about Godzilla (28, actually) — not including the American whatever-that-was. But never was there a character as terrible, as irritating, as nauseating as Godzooky, Godzilla’s nephew. He’s the Cousin Oliver of the Godzillasaurus Bunch, singlehandedly dragging down an entire show with his wacky demeanor and unnecessary comic relief actions. I remember seeing an episode of “Godzilla” as a kid and just staring at the screen when Godzooky tried to breathe fire and instead just coughed up smoke. If you can’t make a seven-year-old laugh, particularly a seven-year-old who thought Mr. Ticklesnezzer from “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” was the FUNNIEST character ever, you’ve got problems.

Also: Godzilla was a good guy in the show. I later learned he became a protagonist beginning with the series’ fifth film, 1964’s Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster, but what the f**k? The best part of any Godzilla or King Kong movie was obviously when the beast stepped on some poor innocent human who, instead of running out of the way, just looked at the giant foot that was about to crush them and screamed into the air—and they took that away from me. When I make my own Godzilla show or movie, it’ll be nothing but people being smashed and it won’t star Matthew Broderick as an action hero.

In 1982, Gary Coleman, the diminutive, sassy star of “Diff’rent Strokes,” starred in the treacly made-for-TV movie, “The Kid with the Broken Halo.” It was about as popular as Coleman was small, but NBC still gave the movie an animated spin-off, dubbing it “The Gary Coleman Show,” in an attempt to lure all the wild Arnold Jackson fans to a show about a displaced angel (Coleman) who must do good deeds before returning to Heaven. Wikipedia says, “The character of Haggle, voiced by Geoff Gordon, was the first cartoon character to rap,” a fact that seems impossible to verify, but one I often pray to St. Willis to be true. Whether there were any rapping angels on the show is beside the point—what matters is that “The Gary Coleman Show” lasted as long as “Firefly,” “The Tick,” “Wonderfalls,” etc.

“Happy Days” isn’t a good show. It was never as funny as people want to believe it is, and its complete oversight of anything that was happening in culture in the late 1950s and early 1960 was, and remains, insulting to viewers. The famous “jumping the shark” incident happened in the show’s fifth season—“Happy Days” would run for six more after that, before it finally rocked around the clock no more in 1984. That being said, “The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang” is even worse. It teamed the Fonz, Richie, and Ralph Malph with a talking dog named Mr. Cool and a futuristic female called Cupcake, and they all traveled through time together. Then they died on their way back to their home planet. The End.

“The Jetsons” and “The Flintstones” will always resonate with viewers, even though they were set in the future and long ago-past, because they’re both shows about a family. Time hasn’t been kind to “Casper and the Angels” and “Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels,” however. They had wild, ridiculous premises about a friendly ghost and an unfrozen caveman assisting a pair of motorcycle-riding female badasses and a trio of mystery-solving female badasses, respectively. They should have been awesome, but they turned out to be horrible, blatant attempts at capitalizing on the success of “Charlie’s Angels.” And because they were animated, you couldn’t even masturbate to them. It’s like producers don’t even listen to focus groups.

An entire franchise built around hand slapping, face smacking, and nose grabbing, with absolutely no mind paid to how hurt the heroes get, should be hilarious. But the Three Stooges have never really done it for me. I much prefer Laurel and Hardy, who did just as many physical gags at roughly the same time period, but were somehow less obnoxious. I also prefer Hanna-Barbera’s “Laurel and Hardy” animated series to “The Robonic Stooges,” starring Larry, Moe, and Curly as bionic crime-fighters. By the time the show aired, all three of the original Stooges had died, making “Robonic” disturbingly maudlin. The bad animation, stale jokes, and not-quite-right voice acting didn’t help things, either. “Robonic Stooges” does prove one thing, however: no matter the decade, there will be shows and movies about superheroes, and they will probably suck.

In real life, Butch Cassidy was a train and bank robber, and although his gang, the Wild Bunch, claimed they never killed anyone, this is totally untrue: they murdered at least a dozen individuals. Clearly, Butch would make for a great animated hero! An animated hero who plays guitar and sings lead vocals in a band! But no! Butch Cassidy isn’t that Butch Cassidy—it’s just a total coincidence. Cassidy and the Sundance Kids weren’t a real band, at all; that was just their alias. Instead, they were undercover CIA agents who used the musical group as a front. The real crime: that just because they added an “s” to the end of “kid,” the show avoided a lawsuit.

http://warmingglow.uproxx.com/2011/07/ten-hanna-barbera-shows-even-worse-than-the-smurfs/3

Correct me if I'm wrong but IMO Two Stupid Dogs was Hanna-Barbera's "Swan Song". :horse:

“Happy Days” isn’t a good show. It was never as funny as people want to believe it is, and its complete oversight of anything that was happening in culture in the late 1950s and early 1960 was, and remains, insulting to viewers. The famous “jumping the shark” incident happened in the show’s fifth season—“Happy Days” would run for six more after that, before it finally rocked around the clock no more in 1984. That being said, “The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang” is even worse. It teamed the Fonz, Richie, and Ralph Malph with a talking dog named Mr. Cool and a futuristic female called Cupcake, and they all traveled through time together. Then they died on their way back to their home planet. The End.

I'm so glad there is someone to tell me what is funny and what isn't, I'll stop watching and enjoying Happy Days reruns immediately.:rolleyes:

i'm not going to take the opinion of someone very seriously when they say that they learned about Star Wars from watching Muppet Babies...

- if you don't like Happy Days you are entitled to your opinion, but there are lots of fans of the show even today that would disagree with you.

I say "Scooby-Doo" because it was done WAY too many times!

The remake of "Tom and Jerry" weren't that good either, the 1975 version. It was okay...but Tom and Jerry were buddy-buddy and Jerry wore a bowtie just to be cuter...but I still think Jerry's a little ******* who wants Tom destroyed. (The Filmation "Tom and Jerry" was worse).

Yes..."Yo Yogi" did suck, and of all the times to use my favorite H-B Character (Loopy de Loop) in a Yogi Bear incarnate show...it had to be "Yo Yogi"?

Any of the re-boots of The Flintstones or Yogi Bear (and friends) sucked after the people behind the voices (Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Etc.) were gone.

The 1987-8 CBS-TV Greek tragedy that was Hanna-Barbera's Popeye And Son. It fell flat on all levels: Popeye and Olive as parents...nah. :(

Correct me if I'm wrong but IMO Two Stupid Dogs was Hanna-Barbera's "Swan Song". :horse:

that show was so awful, i didn't even find it funny or interesting.

I disliked the 1978-early '80s version of Popeye mainly b/c it was more of a pedestrian version of the original Popeye toons.

Popeye and Son was even worse. While I like Maurice LaMarche's voice roles (especially as Brain on Pinky and the Brain), his v/o role as Popeye wasn't that memorable. And it's also worse that Popeye even has a son that doesn't really even look like Popeye and dislikes Spinach when on the original Popeye toons, his kids ate Spinach like there was no tomorrow.

ditto for the Flintstones spinoffs, especially the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. They turned Bamm-Bamm from the world's strongest little kid w/ no fear into a mega-wimpy teenager and made Pebbles come off as a total ditz. When I watched The Flintstones Kids on the old Family Channel, it was okay but it just felt awkward in some spots.

Almost all of the Scrappy-era Scooby Doo series was bad too. I did like The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, mainly b/c it was a departure from the usual Scooby formula where it was more serious in nature and the ghosts were actual ghosts instead of goons playing as ghosts. But Scrappy and Flim-Flam was untolerable at times and thankfully this was the very last regular Scooby series to have Scrappy in it. And Scooby Doo Mysteries Inc. was pretty nifty, IMO and much MUCH better than Scooby and Shaggy Get a Clue! was and IMO that version of Scooby made the Scrappy years look like pure gold.

Hong Kong Phooey, while I like the theme song, the show just disappoints me in some areas, especially when Hong Kong Phooey himself gets into jams and yet every episode his trusted sidekick who was a cat is the one who does all the work and gets his credit snubbed from him.

Yo Yogi! absolutely sucked, no question about that. And that show came on during NBC's Swan Song season (1991-92) w/ Sautrday Morning Cartoons, which ironically was also the 1st post-Alvin and the Chipmunks season. When NBC messed w/ the Gummis and Alvin, their run w/ Saturday Morning Cartoons was a done deal.

About "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids",it was pretty bad-and why did it last two seasons?It was a far cry from the late 1950's-1960's H-B glory days.That bit with the guy who had that dog named Elvis who always made the computer named "Mr.Socrates "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids got their assignments from,sneeze and Butch always bawling the guy out got old awfully fast.

I disliked the 1978-early '80s version of Popeye mainly b/c it was more of a pedestrian version of the original Popeye toons.

I for one actually prefer Hanna-Barbera's 1978-83 version of Popeye to the later Popeye & Son dreck! I regret that my local CBS station, WWL-TV, chose to run the broadcast feed of P&S rather than that of The All-New Popeye Hour from '78 (in favor of its own "Popeye Hour," conveniently in the exact same timeslot: Popeye And Pals!). ohno:

I disliked the 1978-early '80s version of Popeye mainly b/c it was more of a pedestrian version of the original Popeye toons.

Popeye and Son was even worse. While I like Maurice LaMarche's voice roles (especially as Brain on Pinky and the Brain), his v/o role as Popeye wasn't that memorable. And it's also worse that Popeye even has a son that doesn't really even look like Popeye and dislikes Spinach when on the original Popeye toons, his kids ate Spinach like there was no tomorrow.

ditto for the Flintstones spinoffs, especially the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show. They turned Bamm-Bamm from the world's strongest little kid w/ no fear into a mega-wimpy teenager and made Pebbles come off as a total ditz. When I watched The Flintstones Kids on the old Family Channel, it was okay but it just felt awkward in some spots.

Almost all of the Scrappy-era Scooby Doo series was bad too. I did like The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, mainly b/c it was a departure from the usual Scooby formula where it was more serious in nature and the ghosts were actual ghosts instead of goons playing as ghosts. But Scrappy and Flim-Flam was untolerable at times and thankfully this was the very last regular Scooby series to have Scrappy in it. And Scooby Doo Mysteries Inc. was pretty nifty, IMO and much MUCH better than Scooby and Shaggy Get a Clue! was and IMO that version of Scooby made the Scrappy years look like pure gold.

Hong Kong Phooey, while I like the theme song, the show just disappoints me in some areas, especially when Hong Kong Phooey himself gets into jams and yet every episode his trusted sidekick who was a cat is the one who does all the work and gets his credit snubbed from him.

Yo Yogi! absolutely sucked, no question about that. And that show came on during NBC's Swan Song season (1991-92) w/ Sautrday Morning Cartoons, which ironically was also the 1st post-Alvin and the Chipmunks season. When NBC messed w/ the Gummis and Alvin, their run w/ Saturday Morning Cartoons was a done deal.
As for "Pebbles and Bamm Bamm",I agree with you -sort of.The first season was great(to me at least),with Sally Struthers as Pebbles,Jay North as Bamm Bamm and the voices of the ORIGINAL "The Flintstones"-the late Alan Reed as Fred,the late Jean Van Der Pyl as Wilma,the late great Mel Blanc as Barney,and John Stephenson as Mr.Slate,all from the original "The Flintstones" series,as well as a new Betty.However,in second season,when Sally Struthers left,the show ,now a segment of "The Flintstone Comedy Hour",went downhill and became childish.

As for "Pebbles and Bamm Bamm",I agree with you -sort of.The first season was great(to me at least),with Sally Struthers as Pebbles,Jay North as Bamm Bamm and the voices of the ORIGINAL "The Flintstones"-the late Alan Reed as Fred,the late Jean Van Der Pyl as Wilma,the late great Mel Blanc as Barney,and John Stephenson as Mr.Slate,all from the original "The Flintstones" series,as well as a new Betty.However,in second season,when Sally Struthers left,the show ,now a segment of "The Flintstone Comedy Hour",went downhill and became childish.
As far as the rest of "The Flintstones"franchise,(except for the halfway decent "New Fred(this time,the late Henry Corden who had starred on the ORIGINAL "The Flintstones"as the voices of neighbor Loudrock and Mr.Big("tsk Tsk")was Fred's voice because the late Alan Reed who was set to again play the voice of Fred died before the show began production)and Barney(again voiced by the late,great Mel Blanc),Show",which also featured the original voice of Wilma,the late Jean Van Der Pyl,and John Stephenson as Mr.Slate,and someone else as Betty,)it stunk bigtime.I never saw any of the others you mentioned,and I presume I didn't miss much.