I Think There Should Be A New Flintstons Cartoon
After All There Is A New Scooby Doo Called
What's New Scooby Doo.

Take Care
Aaron The New Repoter

I dunno...every time they've done a new "Flintstones" series, it's always lacking the magic of the original...and the producers get the idea to "update" certain elements of a classic series and ruin the whole vibe for everyone.

Me, I'm grateful for the classic 166. And maybe "Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm"...

(And "The Flintstone Kids" had its moments, as well...)

the reason why so many classic cartoons that are remade seem to fail is because of the voice actors. Mel Blanc voiced all the Warner Brothers characters except a few females that June Foray did. Mel also voiced Barney Rubble, Dino, Captain Caveman, Mr. Spacely, Deputy Droop-a-long on "Richochet Rabbit", Heathcliff, Sneezley on "The Breezley and Sneezley Show", and other Hanna Barbera characters. Alan Reed and Henry Corden did Fred Flintstone. Jean Vanderpyl was Wilma. John Stephenson was Mr. Slate. The voice 'acting' was a large part of why older cartoons were so good. You don't hear this much but four or five voice actors were responsible for all the major cartoon characters: Mel Blanc, Daws Butler, Don Messick, John Stephenson, and Paul Winchell are the top five. Each of these legends talked up to 15-20 characters for their respective employers Warner Brothers, Hanna-Barbera, Walter Lantz, Walt Disney. Paul Winchell, in fact, voiced roles as diverse as Dick Dastardly and Gargamel to the lovable bouncing tiger: Tigger from "Winnie the Pooh".

That's true. And replacement voices don't carry the same thrill the originals did...at times I find Henry Corden's Fred a little strident. But when the producers find a dead-on replacement for a classic character, sometimes the magic is reignited (Frank Welker does an excellent Barney Rubble).

But where most of these revivals fall apart is in the writing department...the original "Flintstones" was a more-or-less adult program that all audiences could enjoy; every revival since has been strictly kid-vid, lacking the gentle satire and, yes, subversivness of the first series. It's a FRANCHISE, now. Same with the classic "Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies" characters...Bugs and Daffy exist only to sell WB merchandise now, artistic integrity be damned.

It's the old "Mickey Mouse" syndrome...in the beginning Mickey was wild and uninhibited, but with the success of Walt' Disney's studio, the Mouse was homoginized to the point of ineffectuality. And, sadly, it's the same with "The Flintstones."

[B]I Think There Should Be A New Flintstons Cartoon

How bout

1: I was a Teenage Fred Flintstone (The Teenage Years)
(Why Not We Had the Kids !!!!)
2: Flintstone Grandkids aka: A Chip off of the old Flinstone
3: Senior Moments with Fred Flintstone
4: Freds Social Security
5: Freds Dead
6: Rubbles to Riches (The Rubbles strike it rich)
7: Flintstone Heights aka Peyton Place in the Stone Ages
8: Barney aka: How I Made A Purple Dinosaur Talk
9: Rubble Bubble aka: The Flinstone Game Show
10: Adieu Gazoo aka: Leave Us Alone You Pesky Green Thing

Hows that...Dscuss amongst yourselves...

Yaaaabaaaaaa Daabaa Dooooooooooooooooo !!!!!

Just a correction: Daws Butler did half the malevoices in the 1950s Warner Bros.cartoons before he worked at Hanna-Barbera, Arthur Q.Bryan was the voice of Elmer Fudd until 1959, and Bea benaderet did the females thru thru 50s in all cartoons with females.

Half of the characters it seemed (like Woody Woodpcker,Fred Flinstone, Yogi and Bugs) wound up nice while others like Daffy Duck wound up too mean (Sylvester should have been in the Bugs and Speedy series in Daffy'as role, for Pete's sake).

You're right, Steve. It's like I said before...all those characters became FRANCHISES, existing only to make money...so the days of Bugs Bunny actually being witty or Fred Flintstone actually being a big jerk are looong gone....:(

Originally posted by W.J. Griffin
That's true. And replacement voices don't carry the same thrill the originals did...at times I find Henry Corden's Fred a little strident. But when the producers find a dead-on replacement for a classic character, sometimes the magic is reignited (Frank Welker does an excellent Barney Rubble).

But where most of these revivals fall apart is in the writing department...the original "Flintstones" was a more-or-less adult program that all audiences could enjoy; every revival since has been strictly kid-vid, lacking the gentle satire and, yes, subversivness of the first series.


I think you hit the nail on the head with the writing. And listening to Henry Corden's Fred is like nails on a blackboard for me -- whiney and shouty and nothing like Alan Reed's original. Jeff Bergman did Fred for the recent "Flintstones on the Rocks" movie, and it was a near-flawless recreation of Alan Reed's voice. It was incredible.

I would be all for it, but on a few conditions:

-I would want it to be a prime time cartoon
-I wouldn't want it "kidded down" like all the other revivals have been
-You need to find actors who can replicate the original voices, as has been stated above.
-Make it faithful to the original series. No teenage Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.

I say, leave well enough alone.

Originally posted by Brian Damage
I say, leave well enough alone.

Ditto to that. I couldn't fathome a new Flintstone's cartoon. It definitely would NOT be the same, obviously.

Of course it wouldn't be the same. But, that doesn't mean it wouldn't be good, and that it wouldn't open up this classic for new generations to see. And, if anyone saw "Flintstones on the Rocks," the actual drawing may have been poor, but the voices were DEFINITELY great, and the story wasn't too bad. But, quite frankly, if they were to do a new series, I wouldn't mind a post-"Hollyrock-a-bye Baby" (well, I guess there was a Christmas special that took place after that, but I would like a series after that) series.