1960: The Flintstones debut on ABC

This revelation is a week late because I’m not always on top of cartoon history but I thank The Guardian for having a thoughtful article about this watershed anniversary.

By the time I was born, The Flintstones was syndicated and shown daily on Channel 3 (WCIA, Champaign, IL). I think it ran forever alongside several weak spinoffs: Pebbles & Bam Bam as teenagers, the Flintstones as kids and the Flintstones working with Captain Caveman to solve crimes. Being a kid, I didn’t “get it” like my parents did; The Honeymooners as cavemen. To me, it was a cartoon, Fred getting smacked on the head was the point.

However, in the early Sixties, Hanna-Barbera making a prime-time show for network TV wasn’t risky. Feature-length films via Disney were enjoyed by all and Americans born before the Sixties saw at least a couple cartoons alongside a newsreel and a serial before the main attraction in theaters. Cartoons didn’t get demoted to “kids stuff” until the Seventies through the Saturday-morning trope I grew up with became a constant. Somewhere along the way cartoons as mainstream entertain got poo poo’d.

Anyway, back to 1960!

Since network executives from the Big Three liked the pilot, I’m just surprised the winning bid came from ABC. Until their roaring success initiated by Happy Days, much of ABC’s programming frequently placed a distant third in the ratings. Either way it paid off, The Flintstones aired for about six years and was the longest-running American, prime-time show until The Simpsons beat it around 1996. Hanna-Barbera’s follow-ups: The Jetsons, The Roman Holidays, Top Cat and Wait Until Your Father Gets Home weren’t as lucky. Yet through syndication and the Cartoon Network, other generations were influenced by everyone’s favorite pre-Historic Family to create new animated families: The Simpsons, Bob’s Burgers, American Dad, Family Guy, F is for Family, The Cleveland Show, Bless the Harts, Oblongs and Duncanville. I didn’t say they were all good.

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