The Honeymooners controversey

[Pug Lover]

The Flintstones is believed to have been a take off of The Honeymooners.Indeed there are simularities.But I've read in the book titled"A Modern Stone Age Phenomenom"{a book that I highly recommend for any Flintstones fan}that Jackie Gleason once tried to sue Hanna Barbera,on the account that he felt that his basic format for The Honeymooners had been unrightfully copied,and therefor stolen.William Hanna and Joseph Barbera both denied imatating The Honeymooners to create The Flintstones.However,since The Flintstones had originally been aimed at adult prime time TV sitcom audiences,many memorable sitcom themes which had been previously used in other shows,were used for The Flintstones.Some episodes resembled The Honeymooners,other episodes were reminescent of I Love Lucy.A lot of episodes had Fred and Barney in situations not unlike that of Laurel & Hardy or Abbott & Costello.Apparently the inspiration for making The Flintstones a prime time show,was how many adults had tuned into Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound cartoons,which were aimed at children.So why not create a cartoon show for adults?

[W.J. Griffin]

Actually, Hanna and Barbera did indeed use "The Honeymooners" as a template for "The Flintstones"...this much IS obvious.

Of course, they made enough changes to the concept (you know, the stone-age thing) so that the show wasn't an exact copy per se.

However, had Jackie Gleason gone thru with his copyright infringement lawsuit, he would have had a good case. The only reason he didn't was because his handlers told him it would be bad publicity on his part, and most performers try to avoid that, despite the old "Any-Publicity-Is-Good-Publicity" chestnut. (and you have to admit that Gleason's camp was awfully quiet about Yogi Bear, an obvious Art Carney impersonation...I guess some people{Mr. Carney and Yogi Berra} CAN take a joke.)