"The Flintstones" Turn 50!

[DToTheJ]

(And they don't look a day over the Stone Age, do they? )

"The Flintstones" debuted on ABC on this day in 1960:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/af...ocId=CNG.29e5f9ae941bd52cd3e12c591e89ab19.101

FYI - the first episode will air tonight at 8:30 PM on Boomerang.

 

[mleach]

Interesting thing about the Flintstones....there are some people out there who consider the show to be a FLOP !! Like this comment I had found recetnlu on Archive.org......

"...those ads had came from the big time flop-cartoon show The Flintstones...."

I sent the poster a private message asking how can the Flintstones be considered a flop considering that the show ran for six seasons, the spin-offs like Pebbles & Bamm Bamm, the movies, products bearing their name.......

"....Well dude...the Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network Shows says it was a flop. are you calling them liars? Huh are you? The show never made it into the national top 25. Are you calling Neilsen liars too? Are you? "

I sent another message saying how ABC-TV back in those days was a smaller netwrok than it was today so as a result while shows like The Flintstones and the Brady Bunch may have not been "top 25 shows nationwide"but they did well enough in cities that had ABC to have lasted for many years.

reply back..

"...cut the f***king crap !! EVERYONE HAD ABC back then....it was that their programming sucked ass !!..that is why the Flintstones was a flop !! "


Noticed in his profile the person in question is 24 years old...why am I NOT surprised?

 

[oldiesfan6479]

"The Flintstones" debuted on ABC on this day in 1960.
FYI - the first episode will air tonight at 8:30 PM on Boomerang.

Will tonight's airing include the Winston commercials with Fred and Barney? ;D

 

[Tim L]

Interesting thing about the Flintstones....there are some people out there who consider the show to be a FLOP !! Like this comment I had found recetnlu on Archive.org......

"...those ads had came from the big time flop-cartoon show The Flintstones...."





Noticed in his profile the person in question is 24 years old...why am I NOT surprised?

That's funny..About the Time of the Digital TV conversion on June 2009 I wrote an article in my Vintage Cleveland Broadcasting Blog about the conversion and it's historical significance, etc..I had a commenter insist that I was wrong, that WKYC-TV 3 was never on Channel 4, WJW-TV 8 was never on channel 9, though I'd presented TV Guide Ads and old test patterns that proved him wrong..People just think what they want to think and dont let the truth stand in the way..

 

[Prais]

mleach,
Nope, not everybody had abc in 1960.

For example, Rockford, IL and Grand Rapids, MI only had "secondary" affiliations, and given the "flop" statement, maybe they were not cleared. This for other markets, too. I also wonder where abc came from for the Battle Creek, MI area. Their pesent afilliate wasn't around then, so you would have neeed a tall antenna to get it from Elkhart, IN. I bet the Michigan Upper Peninsula, Montana and Wyoming would be in a similar fix.

Not sure if the Flintstones were on then in those markets. It depends on MANY variables. I remember that WREX, 13 in Rockford was VERY heavy into cbs, and only cleared a few abc shows (sounds logical, too). They even ran some "prime time" shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

 

[mleach]

mleach,
Nope, not everybody had abc in 1960.

For example, Rockford, IL and Grand Rapids, MI only had "secondary" affiliations, and given the "flop" statement, maybe they were not cleared. This for other markets, too. I also wonder where abc came from for the Battle Creek, MI area. Their pesent afilliate wasn't around then, so you would have neeed a tall antenna to get it from Elkhart, IN. I bet the Michigan Upper Peninsula, Montana and Wyoming would be in a similar fix.

Not sure if the Flintstones were on then in those markets. It depends on MANY variables. I remember that WREX, 13 in Rockford was VERY heavy into cbs, and only cleared a few abc shows (sounds logical, too). They even ran some "prime time" shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Prais..

Yes I know ABC wasn't available to everyone back in the 50's, 60's, heck even into the 70's. However there are those out there ( those mainly in their 20's and younger ) who just can't believe that there really was a time when ABC wasn't availble to everyone, when there were no such thing as color TV, when cigarettes were allowed to advertise on TV and so forth. of course most of these people weren't around back then to had experienced it either.

 

[FreddyE1977]

mleach,
Nope, not everybody had abc in 1960.

For example, Rockford, IL and Grand Rapids, MI only had "secondary" affiliations, and given the "flop" statement, maybe they were not cleared. This for other markets, too. I also wonder where abc came from for the Battle Creek, MI area. Their pesent afilliate wasn't around then, so you would have neeed a tall antenna to get it from Elkhart, IN. I bet the Michigan Upper Peninsula, Montana and Wyoming would be in a similar fix.

Not sure if the Flintstones were on then in those markets. It depends on MANY variables. I remember that WREX, 13 in Rockford was VERY heavy into cbs, and only cleared a few abc shows (sounds logical, too). They even ran some "prime time" shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

A friend of mine who grew up in West Michigan told me that one of the happiest days of her childhood was when
Channel 41 in Battle Creek came on the air and she was finally able to watch The Flintstones and Bewitched.

 

[Tim L]

Myself and others have written about this before but It seemed that every station in Western Pennsylvania had secondary affiliations with ABC in the late 1950's before WTAE-4 in Pittsburgh came along..

 

[FreddyE1977]

"The Flintstones" debuted on ABC on this day in 1960.
FYI - the first episode will air tonight at 8:30 PM on Boomerang.

Will tonight's airing include the Winston commercials with Fred and Barney? ;D

If Fred and Barney are 50 they'll be rolling out ads for Gaviscon and Maalox soon...

 

[cd637299]

There was a time when NBC reran some Flintstones episodes on Saturday morning, episodes that may have been their picks from any of the 6 seasons....but (a) the line "through the courtesy of Fred's two feet" was deleted, thereby throwing everything out of sync*, and (b) any closing from seasons 1 & 2 were "Copyright MCMLXII" which wasn't necessarily the case.

Now that a full original "Rise and Shine" theme (for Seasons 1 & 2) are restored, all that is left is to get actual credits for each episode of those seasons, not the tacked-on one (all as Copyright MCMLX by the way). But I understand that Earl Kress helped set it up, and expensive as it was to re-create, I shouldn't complain.

Personally, I was wondering if there was 1 certain episode that the above MCMLXII came from, or was it created as a gang-credit....

[*I was told by a member of another group that NBC cut it because it sounded like "ABC" in the lyrics!!!]

cd

 

[Prais]

Freddy E1 said "A friend of mine who grew up in West Michigan told me that one of the happiest days of her childhood was when
Channel 41 in Battle Creek came on the air and she was finally able to watch The Flintstones and Bewitched."

It's too bad the economy tanked and the business community didn't support ch 41 very well and now WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids operates it from Grand Rapids still using abc programs, and wood's local news. Sad.

 

[Braves2005]

There was a time when NBC reran some Flintstones episodes on Saturday morning, episodes that may have been their picks from any of the 6 seasons....but (a) the line "through the courtesy of Fred's two feet" was deleted, thereby throwing everything out of sync*, and (b) any closing from seasons 1 & 2 were "Copyright MCMLXII" which wasn't necessarily the case.

Now that a full original "Rise and Shine" theme (for Seasons 1 & 2) are restored, all that is left is to get actual credits for each episode of those seasons, not the tacked-on one (all as Copyright MCMLX by the way). But I understand that Earl Kress helped set it up, and expensive as it was to re-create, I shouldn't complain.

Personally, I was wondering if there was 1 certain episode that the above MCMLXII came from, or was it created as a gang-credit....

[*I was told by a member of another group that NBC cut it because it sounded like "ABC" in the lyrics!!!]

cd

This is one of the rare times that a show was in syndicated reruns but also in network reruns too with The Flintstones starting their run in reruns in the fall of 1966 followed by the NBC reruns from January 1967 to September 1970.

I've also notice that in syndication (more recent syndicated reruns) that they took out the closing theme from the last season where Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are singing Let The Sunshine In over the closing credits with MCMLXV and MCMLXVI Hanna-Barbera Productions at the end. And although Screen Gems Productions appears, as I recall there was no Screen Gems moog music whenever I watched in syndication in the late 1970's and later on for that matter.

And how come that the Rise and Shine theme from the first two seasons didn't show up in syndication along with the opening credits? The syndicated episodes all the way through started with the Meet The Flintstones theme.

 

[Markieo]

[/quote]


I've also notice that in syndication (more recent syndicated reruns) that they took out the closing theme from the last season where Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are singing Let The Sunshine In over the closing credits with MCMLXV and MCMLXVI Hanna-Barbera Productions at the end. And although Screen Gems Productions appears, as I recall there was no Screen Gems moog music whenever I watched in syndication in the late 1970's and later on for that matter.

[/quote]

When WNEW Channel 5 had "The Flintstones", they had the Screen Gems S From Hell (as well as the season 4 and 5 Dancing Sticks) with the background music. They used those films all the way up to 1986!

 

[onairb]

Interesting thing about the Flintstones....there are some people out there who consider the show to be a FLOP !! Like this comment I had found recetnlu on Archive.org......

"...those ads had came from the big time flop-cartoon show The Flintstones...."

I sent the poster a private message asking how can the Flintstones be considered a flop considering that the show ran for six seasons, the spin-offs like Pebbles & Bamm Bamm, the movies, products bearing their name.......

"....Well dude...the Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh's Complete Directory to Prime-Time Network Shows says it was a flop. are you calling them liars? Huh are you? The show never made it into the national top 25. Are you calling Neilsen liars too? Are you? "

I sent another message saying how ABC-TV back in those days was a smaller netwrok than it was today so as a result while shows like The Flintstones and the Brady Bunch may have not been "top 25 shows nationwide"but they did well enough in cities that had ABC to have lasted for many years.

reply back..

"...cut the f***king crap !! EVERYONE HAD ABC back then....it was that their programming sucked ass !!..that is why the Flintstones was a flop !! "


Noticed in his profile the person in question is 24 years old...why am I NOT surprised?

He was obviously a moron...probably loves 'South Park'. :
If this clown could read, he'd find in the Brooks and Marsh listings that 'The Flinstones' was a top 25 show its first two seasons...and made # 30 in the third(all as an 8:30 ET show), before ABC decided it was more for kids than for 'grown-ups' and only ran it in 7:30 slots.

 

[Corky Marlowe]

If Fred and Barney are 50 they'll be rolling out ads for Gaviscon and Maalox soon...

Or Viagrock.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

mleach,
Nope, not everybody had abc in 1960.

For example, Rockford, IL and Grand Rapids, MI only had "secondary" affiliations, and given the "flop" statement, maybe they were not cleared. This for other markets, too. I also wonder where abc came from for the Battle Creek, MI area. Their pesent afilliate wasn't around then, so you would have neeed a tall antenna to get it from Elkhart, IN. I bet the Michigan Upper Peninsula, Montana and Wyoming would be in a similar fix.

Not sure if the Flintstones were on then in those markets. It depends on MANY variables. I remember that WREX, 13 in Rockford was VERY heavy into cbs, and only cleared a few abc shows (sounds logical, too). They even ran some "prime time" shows on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Prais..

Yes I know ABC wasn't available to everyone back in the 50's, 60's, heck even into the 70's.

Heck, ABC hasn't been available in parts of the Terre Haute, IN market since 1995 (when the former WBAK-38 switched to Fox). Same deal with parts of the Quincy/Hannibal market (particularly those areas who could not receive the likes of KTVO-3 Kirksville, MO/Ottumwa, IA and the ilk) until KHQA-7 started its own ABC affiliate on a digital subchannel in late 2007.

 

[FreddyE1977]

For a long time ABC was difficult to get in parts of Central PA and Eastern Ohio if you did not have
cable, because WTAE in Pittsburgh was aggressively enforcing claims that this was their territory,
even though they did not put a very good signal into a lot of those areas. WTOV and WTRF had
secondary ABC affiliations, but I don't recall them running much except ABC's College Football on
Saturdays. And until WATM 23 picked up the ABC affiliation in Altoona it was pretty much the same
to the East. We used to have a lot of very unhappy campers around these parts whenever the
Steelers were on Monday Night Football.

 

[cd637299]

@Braves2005:

You mean that every episode in Season 6 closed w/ "Let the Sunshine In"? Really? I know that in syndication, they showed it at the close of the "Seeing Doubles" ep (which really had nothing to do with the plot). I know that in syndie, both MCMLXV & 'VI were shown, so it wasn't gang credits.

As to why no "Rise & Shine," I think it was simply because (a) all prints were in black and white (ABC had no color until Season 3---only the episodes themselves were shot in color, as Hanna & Barbera knew the upcoming value of color), and (b) all the episodes w/ R&S featured "brought to you by..." + the sponsor. Any editing would look bad (but then again, the blank 4 seconds in those syndie prints throw my argument out!).

cd

 

[therealjm12]

For some reason I was never a major fan of the Flintstones, although I was a kid when it aired originally. I just thought it was ok. I definitely felt it jumped the shark when Pebbles & Bam Bam came along. As far as the art of animation goes, the show had just as well been on the radio. Give me Bugs, Daffy, Foghorn, Tweety, etc.

 

[Smittian]

Interesting thing about the Flintstones....there are some people out there who consider the show to be a FLOP !! Like this comment I had found recetnlu on Archive.org......


"...cut the f***king crap !! EVERYONE HAD ABC back then....it was that their programming sucked ass !!..that is why the Flintstones was a flop !! "


Noticed in his profile the person in question is 24 years old...why am I NOT surprised?

I don't know how many markets nationwide were without ABC in 1960. In Texas alone, Austin, Corpus Christi, Laredo, Waco, Brownsville/McAllen, Beaumont had only a part-time ABC affiliate or none at all. Not sure about some of the markets in west Texas.