The Flintstones versus The Jetsons

episode where daughter Judy is gangbanged and gets an abortion killed the show

Because Jane stopped that crazy thing OP!

Rosie the Robot crossed the border and changed her name to Consuela.

Isn't it funny that a lot of the "futuristic" depictions of the future came true ? Computers, video calling, cell phones, etc...none of that stuff was around. All were missing are the flying cars...and they've been trying to develop those for years,

I still say [italic]The Jetsons[/italic] is a prequel.

sorry....add interplanetary travel, but again, thats something we've been working on...its happening now.

I'm sad they never attempted a Jetsons film in the late 90s or early 00s.

Network TV never lets sci-fi shows last very long.

A live action film I mean... let's fan cast it!

[Quote]Network TV never lets sci-fi shows last very long.

Tell me about it!

Because BCE furnishings are classic and mid century modern has gone in and out of style.

ABC put it against [italic]Dennis the Menace[/italic] on CBS and Walt Disney on NBC, a guaranteed death sentence for a cartoon. That one season was still worth 20 years of reruns.

I've only seen reruns but with the Jetsons everyone was a stick in the mud or an outright asshole, like the robot maid. The Flintstones had heart and followed the exact formula of Leave It to Beaver or I Love Lucy, typically 50s issues slightly modernized via a cartoon format via comedy.

My mom was born in the early 60s. I've caught her watching Flintstones reruns, never The Jetsons. Scooby Doo was my favorite from the ancient cartoons.

Rosie was basically a parody of Shirley Booth's [italic]Hazel[/italic] character. It makes sense since Screen Gems produced both of them.

I totally agree with R13. The Flintstones seemed like they were real people and not a cartoon.

The Flintstones had great scripts and setups because they were largely plagiarized, sometimes word for word, from The Honeymooners. It got so bad and obvious that eventually The Honeymooners producers and Gleason prepared a lawsuit. It never went to trial and the rumor was that there was a large settlement payout behind the scenes.

This is all well documented if you want to google.

The Flintstones were a rip-off of The Honeymooners. At least The Jetsons was original. That being said... I own both of them on Blu-ray and DVD. lol

Wasn't The Jetsons just basically Blonde in the future?

Loved all three as a kid, but The Jetsons & Johnny Quest were my favorites.

MeTV will be running The Jetsons again starting on Sunday 2/21 at 11:30am (right after The Flintstones).

Here's the official, polite version of The Honeymooners ripoff story from Wikipedia but in fact money did change hands behind the scenes to stop the plagiarism suit.

[quote]The show imitated and spoofed The Honeymooners, although the early voice characterization for Barney was that of Lou Costello.[21] William Hanna admitted that "At that time, The Honeymooners was the most popular show on the air, and for my bill, the funniest. 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."[citation needed] Joseph Barbera disavowed these claims in a separate interview, though, stating, "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."[22] Jackie Gleason, creator of The Honeymooners, considered suing Hanna-Barbera Productions, but decided that he did not want to be known as "the guy who yanked Fred Flintstone off the air".[

I loved Johnny Quest as a kid

I love all of the HB family type sitcoms. Flintstones, Jetsons, The Roman Holidays, and Wait Til Your Father Gets Home

^^^forgot to add that Venture Bros comes close to Quest, but not quite there...but close

[quote]Wasn't The Jetsons just basically Blonde in the future?

At least to the extent that the voice of Jane Jetson was provided by Penny Singleton, who played Blondie in a series of movies produced from 1938 to 1950.

I loved when Fred would sit on the toilet and proclaim "Yabba dubba doodie!"

^^ It's always such fun when 6-year-olds post on DL. ^^

The Flintstones : The Honeymooners :: Top Cat : Sgt. Bilko/Phil Silvers Show

Has everyone forgotten the crossover TV-movie "The Flintstones Meet the Jetsons"? I wore the VHS of that out as a kid.

R5 I've seen speculation that The Flintstones and The Jetsons actually occurred in the same futuristic timeline. The "haves" are the Jetsons living high up in their sky city above the post-apocalyptic remains down below in "Bedrock" where the Flintstones and Rubbles are eking out lives using remnants of technology tossed out from above and adapted for use. The so called pre-historic beasts are actually mutants and/or androids.

R29 That only works if you consider R28 not canon.

I'd rather live in Bedrock, it seemed more fun than Future City.

Yes, the Jetsons was a rip off of Blondie as much as The Flintstones was a rip off of The Honeymooners.

Years ago I remember watching some parody of The Jetsons where the camera pans down from their space lofts in the sky to the decrepitude below. I thought it was Family Guy, but it wasn't. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Found it!

[quote] Scooby Doo was my favorite from the ancient cartoons. [/quote]

Ancient cartoons – the ones I watched in syndication growing up in the 60's – were Popeye theatrical shorts (w/Bluto) (1942-57), Casper the Friendly Ghost theatrical shorts (1945-59), and Baby Huey (1950-59).

The later Popeye the Sailor cartoons (w/Brutus) (1960-63) were different in animation and tone from the earlier ones.

My little gayling self adored Davey & Goliath (1961-73) from our friends in the Lutheran Church of America, especially the episode in which Davey's friend, Larry, makes fun of the Japanese kid who pronounces his name "Rarry" and he gets into trouble for teasing.

R14

Jean Vander Pyl who provided voice of Wilma Flintstone also did Rosie the Robot and some others on The Jetsons.

Just think how much money she (now her estate) would have if voice actors had gotten a piece of action instead of straight scale pay.

The Flintstones has never been out of television rotation somewhere in world. The Jetsons while not nearly as popular still showed up often enough. Indeed MeTV will begin broadcasting that show starting this weekend.

OP

Everyone at once recognized The Flintstones for what it was, a rip off of The Honeymooners... That played a huge part in why that series was popular from almost day one of broadcasting.

Jackie Gleason was well aware that The Flintstones had ripped off his creation, and constantly was being egged on by various friends, professionals in the business, etc.. to sue for copyright infringement. True prince of a man that Mr. Gleason was he always shot down such ideas saying he didn't want to be known as the man who took The Flintstones away from children.

Of course just as with Looney Toons and Bugs Bunny original cartoons The Flintstones was *not* strictly created nor intended for children, but Mr. Gleason's point was taken.

[quote]The Flintstones was *not* strictly created nor intended for children

My mother always says that its big selling point was "a cartoon for grownups."

R37 your version has been the official version of the story for decades yet the rumors have been for decades that Gleason was paid a handsome settlement to drop his planned lawsuit, perhaps including future royalties, and both sides would talk nice about the situation.

[quote] My mother always says that its big selling point was "a cartoon for grownups."

As indeed it was.

R38

Again so were early LT/Bugs Bunny cartoons from 1940's

Ditto for Tex Avery cartoons....

Or....

Hanna-Barbara was really influenced by The Honeymooners, Yogi Bear was clearly based on Art Carney's Ed Norton.

You have to remember also that television was still relatively new...it was only around about 10-15 years at that point. The Honeymooners were popular at the time, so it was copied. It is practically impossible to watch a sitcom and not recognize the storyline or jokes from other shows.

"The Jetsons" didn't last for one simple reason: those stupid good-lookings didn't have Madame Yes.

R43

Hanna-Barbera made no secret they ripped off popular television characters of the day.

More:

Hello Dum Dums!

CDAN published a blind a few months ago about a 50s sitcom that notoriously copied plots, jokes and even physical business from another show. The reveal was I Married Joan/I Love Lucy. The blind also had some particularly nasty things to say about Joan Davis, who starred in the former.

The Dungeons and Dragons Animated Series was my favorite as a kid

R44 It still happens, even though TV has been around for a lot longer now. In the 1980s everyone ripped off Dallas. In the 1990's, first there were all the ripoffs of Roseanne and then Friends. Then they did the same with CSI. Once a show is popular, TV execs just want to copy it.

The Flinstones was wholesome family tv.

There's an entire fan theory that states that the Flintstones are in the FUTURE from the Jetsons, not the past.

It's actually pretty entertaining to listen to all the "proof" behind the theory.

I had a crush on Elroy and Barney Rubble. Ritchie Rich too.

R53, search for the Tommy Westphall Universe. He was a minor character on St. Elsewhere, an autistic child or teen who was fascinated by a snow globe. The last shot of the series is a close up the snow globe, revealing that at its center is St. Elgius hospital. This has led some to speculate that the entire series existed in Tommy's mind. And due to crossovers, appearances by real life characters, etc., 50 to 90% of contemporary television is all in the same universe and thus in Tommy's mind. There are critics who disagree yet many, many people think it's a plausible concept. It's a real rabbit hole to go down.

R55 - The bigger "universe" theory aside, the conclusion of St. Elsewhere is indeed that the whole prior series was all actually in Tommy's mind. His father and grandfather are shown not to be unrelated doctors, but blue collar family members, and the last shot inside St. Eligius depicts what seems to be an earthquake before cutting to Tommy shaking his snow globe. The idea of a overarching unified TV universe was something me and my friends (and I'm sure plenty of other 70s kids) joked about because in wide exteriors shot on the Universal back-lot you could plainly see that I Dream of Jeannie lived right next door to Bewitched, with the Partridge Family and Nanny and The Professor further down the street.

Because Fred and Wilma Flintstone were more relatable.

I wonder if the people at iRobot get a kick out of how many people name their vacuums "Rosie".

Thanks, r56. I had completely forgotten the the two doctors changing into the blue collar father and grandfather and more interestingly St. Elgius having an earthquake with the camera cutting to Tommy shaking the Snow Globe.

You're welcome R55 -- I loved the show and haven't seen the series since it aired, but the ending was so startling I remember it clearly all these decades later.

There's a town I know

where the kids all go

called Bedrock!

Twitch! Twitch!

How popular was the Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm show during its run?

There was a warmth to "The Flintstones" that "The Jetsons" lacked. The future of "The Jetsons" seemed cold, impersonal and uninviting.

RI RON'T ROW!

This is why the Flintstones were more popular.

Wow...when you look for "Flintstones Porn" it opens up a whole horrifying world of really disturbing images.

And, don't EVER click on Simpsons Porn because it's even grosser.

People are FUCKED up, man.

Oh, stop being so Victorian prim and proper and grow a sense of humor, r66. Most of that stuff is boring because it's witless but it's a bit late to be horrified by naked cartoon characters. And very occasionally some of it is funny.

Naked Fred and Barney are hot. Especially naked Fred. Woo hoo!

Does anybody have any naked Bluto?

R66, I apologize for not getting your post. i hope.

What about Hong Kong Phooey, Captain Caveman, and Laff-a-Lympics? Those were my faves.

Forgot about 'Top Cat'. Another one of my favorites. I'm going to have to pull out my 'Top Cat' DVDs today and catch up.

R67 / R69 I'm guessing you actually went and looked and discovered all the really horrible incest/pedophilia implied sex "parodies" of popular cartoon stars.

Must go wash eyeballs now.

Please let there not be Fred/Barney slash fiction.

I love these kinds of threads on DL.

The Flintstones and Scooby Doo remain my favourite cartoons. They still hold up, they're still funny, and they both have charm and warmth to them that carry them through generations.

Eldergays-- when the Flintstones was on TV in prime time, was it marketed as a kids show or was it for adults the way the Simpsons is?

"The Flintstones" was marketed as a sitcom for adults, R75. The characters even appeared in commercials for one of the show's sponsors, Winston cigarettes.

^^ The description of this as a 1950s commercial is incorrect. "The Flintstones" debuted in the fall of 1960. ^^

I've always found the canned laughter in these cartoons to be charming.