Thursday, September 30, 2010

http://www.google.com/search?q=The+Flintstones&ct=flintstones10-hp&oi=ddle

http://www.google.com/search?q=The+Flintstones&ct=flintstones10-hp&oi=ddle

The Flintstones


The Flintstones is an animated American television sitcom that ran from September 30, 1960 to April 1, 1966 on ABC. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, The Flintstones is about a working class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next door neighbor and best friend. It has since been re-released on both DVD and VHS.

Critics and fans alike agree that the show was an animated imitation of The Honeymooners with rock puns thrown in. William Hanna admitted that "At that time "The Honeymooners" was the most popular show on the air, and for my bill, it was the funniest show on the air. The characters, I thought, were terrific. Now, that influenced greatly what we did with "The Flintstones"...."The Honeymooners" was there, and we used that as a kind of basis for the concept." However Joseph Barbera disavowed these claims in a separate interview, stating that "I don't remember mentioning "The Honeymooners" when I sold the show, but if people want to compare "The Flintstones" to "The Honeymooners," then great. It's a total compliment. "The Honeymooners" was one of the greatest shows ever written." Its popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern-day concerns in the Stone Age setting


Overview

The show is set in the Stone Age town of Bedrock. (In some of the earlier episodes, it was also referred to as "Rockville"). In this fantasy version of the past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long extinct animals co-exist with barefoot cavemen. Like their 20th century peers, these cavemen listen to records, live in split-level homes, and eat out at restaurants, yet their technology is made entirely from pre-industrial materials and largely powered through the use of various animals. For example, the cars are made out of stone, wood, and animal skins, and powered by the passengers' feet.

Technology

Often the "prehistoric" analogue to a modern machine uses an animal. For example, when a character takes photographs with an instant camera, inside of the camera box, a bird carves the picture on a stone tablet with its bill. In a running gag, the animal powering such technology breaks the fourth wall, looks directly into the camera at the audience, shrugs, and remarks, "It's a living." Other commonly seen gadgets in the series include a baby woolly mammoth used as a vacuum cleaner; an adult woolly mammoth acting as a shower by spraying water with its trunk; elevators raised and lowered by ropes around brontosauruses' necks; "automatic" windows powered by monkeys on the outside; birds acting as "car horns," sounded by the driver pulling on their tails or squeezing their bodies; an "electric" razor made from a clam shell, vibrating from a honey-bee inside; a washing machine shown by a pelican with a beakful of soapy water; and a woodpecker whose beak is used to play a gramophone record.

"Stone-age" names

The Stone Age setting allowed for gags and puns involving rocks. For example, San Antonio becomes Sand-and-Stony-o: the country to the south of Bedrock's land is called Mexirock. Travel to "Hollyrock," a parody of Hollywood, usually involves an "airplane" flight — the "plane" in this case is often shown as a giant pterosaur. The last names "Flintstone" and "Rubble" are in line with these puns. So are the names of Bedrock's celebrities: "Cary Granite" (Cary Grant), "Stony Curtis" (Tony Curtis), "Ed Sulleyrock/Sulleystone" (Ed Sullivan), "Rock Pile/Quarry/Hudstone" (Rock Hudson), "Ann-Margrock" (Ann-Margret), "Jimmy Darrock" (James Darren), "Alvin Brickrock" (Alfred Hitchcock), "Perry Masonary/Masonite" (Perry Mason as played by Raymond Burr), "Mick Jadestone and The Rolling Boulders" (Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones), "Eppy Brianstone" (Brian Epstein) and "The Beau Brummelstones" (The Beau Brummels). In some cases, the celebrity featured also provided the voice: "Samantha" and "Darrin" from "Bewitched" were voiced by Elizabeth Montgomery and Dick York. Examples from the above list include Ann-Margret, Curtis, Darrin, and the Beau Brummels. Other celebrities, such as "Ed Sulleystone" and "Alvin Brickrock", were rendered by impersonators.