Flintstones revival

[Anthonynotes]

Let's say that somehow, Time-Warner, in its infinite wisdom, decides it's had enough Scooby-exploitation (after "Scooby Doo 3: Rise of the Scrappys" bombed at the box office), and decides to revive their other big money-making franchise, the Flintstones (currently only existing either on "Boomerang" reruns, which all of six people can watch, and Pebbles cereal/cereal ads)...

Given the various other spinoffs have hopped all over Fred and the gang's lifespan in its depictions of the brood (ranging from Fred as a 10-year-old to Fred as a grandfather), would you prefer Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to be:

1. Not born yet: making the whole thing retro like "On the Rocks", whatever
2. As babies/toddlers/preschoolers: the "traditional" depictions of the kids; Pebbles goes "ga ga", while Bamm-Bamm slams the floor with his club.
3. As grade schoolers/middle schoolers: see remarks below
4. As teenagers
5. Grown and out of the house (and thus not seen/rarely seen)

Personally, I'd go with "3", followed by "5". Probably easier for the writers to write for someone besides babies (judging from what I've heard of the "Simpsons" writers not overly fond of/having a hard time writing for Maggie), plus it seems all cartoons nowadays have to have kids that're preteens/middle schoolers in order to make it on the air. That, and when I was a preteen-aged kid, when I first heard there would be a show called "The Flintstone Kids", my first thought was "Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as kids my age? That sounds pretty cool..." Of course, I turned out to be mistaken. ;-)

Runner up is "5": it'd allow one to write "old school"-style Flintstones stories, i.e. focused on Fred, Barney, Betty & Wilma, without worrying about something like finding Pebbles a babysitter every other episode to go bail out Fred & Barney/hearing everyone constantly asking "where's Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm?" if setting "1" were chosen...


Of course, "2" is easy to go with, since it's the "present-day" setting for the Flintstones crew (and that's what everyone thinks of when they think of Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm)... I didn't go with "4" figuring that the various 70's and 80's spinoffs pretty thorougly covered this area of their lives...

-B.

[Dee]

I'm a fan of the earliest stuff. I never liked Pebbles or Bam Bam and I'd be glad to see the Flintstones come back without em.

[Dr.Zar]

Pebbels and Bam-Bam, whilst they did'nt drag the show down, were irritating.

Ditch them, and keep The Great Gazoo.

[radiocnoc]

Let's let them live on by themselves...

If a re-make is impossible to avoid, make them PRE marriage, or RETIRED. There's no need to re-live the Flintstones in the middle of them jumping the shark.

[wrenchien]

better yet, remake the flintstones in our modern era... somewhat parodied in the dexter's lab episode 'dad is disturbed..'.. they live in modern houses, in a modern era.. the joke is, that dinosaurs are being kept as pets in society more and more, thanks to genetic engineering, and that betty, wilma, fred and barney were thawed out from ice floes and neatened up for the modern era.... also, birds are gaining setinence and are volunteering for jobs to help society out, since they can not just comment about the foibles of their bosses.. but know the meaning of a dollar bill.

[Peter Paltridge]

Add giant robots, give everyone huge pupils, make Gazoo this disgustingly cute gurgling furry thing, and add hours of stock animation footage of Wilma transforming into the Wonder Rock Power Person Woman.

[Mad Monkey 7]

Well, The WB did try a revival in the late 90's with Pebbles and Bam Bam in a preschool eductional series. Unfourtanely it didn't go over well and everybody except hardcord Flintstones know about it.

I would like to see a series that follows the continum that was last seen in " A Flintstone Family Christmas" where Fred and Wilma adopt a young boy on Christmas. Both Hanna and Barbera said in a Flintstone book that forget name of, that they would like to see a show focus on Pebbles and Bam Bam and their kids. Pebbles and Bam Bam have twins, so that would be interesting.

[Jave]

If they make a new series, have them like at the beginning of the original show, the marriages and their pets, but no kids! That was when the show was at its best, not like the later episodes which weren't a lot funny.

And every Flintstones spin-off stinks, BTW.

[CookieS]

No kids?! Are you people nuts? Pebbles and Bam Bamm were some of the most memorible characters. Of course their role in the series wasn't crucial, but they were part of the "gang" that made Flintstones great, and unlike Scooby/Scrappy formula, Pebbles and Bam Bamm were always part of the Flintstones, not some hokey last-chance attempt at ratings. They're a large part of the series and one of the foundations that brought all the main characters closer to each other.

As for the Great Gazoo..give me a break. He's more akin to Scappy's role. I say if you don't have the children in the first season, bring them in by the second. Geez.

[Frank]

I heard in the late 70's Flintstones, they made Fred Flintstone nice, according John K. What do you think about the 70's Fred Flintstone?

[Anthonynotes]

I heard in the late 70's Flintstones, they made Fred Flintstone nice, according John K. What do you think about the 70's Fred Flintstone?

Not sure I call Fred forcing his best friend Barney into money-making schemes and/or arguing with Barney (which continues clear into the 80's as seen in "The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones") as "nice", but I'd say Fred's temper was toned down somewhat after Pebbles came onto the scene...

Re: the kids:
I don't have a problem with Pebbles or Bamm-Bamm---though I think they were at their most interesting/amusing either as infants or teenagers (though seeing Pebbles not do much more than look cute as a baby wore thin...). Seeing 'em as preteens might be interesting---it's the one life stage of the brood that hasn't been explored much (except for the "Little Big League" special), and it's the one spinoff I was eventually hoping to see as a kid (besides them as adults)---instead, I got the "Flintstone Kids". :-)

Either way, at least we'd get to see nifty 2004-style "Stone Age" gadgets (wonder what a neolithic PDA looks like...).

In the mid-90's, they made a short-lived series called "Cave Kids", featuring the (toddler) Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm's antics (and various "life lessons" learned, supposedly); it apparently either mostly aired outside the U.S., in some obscure timeslot, or something, since I've never seen it...

Re: Gazoo: I can live without seeing him show up again, though I didn't hate him...

Then again, the Flintstones is probably the only cartoon show I can think of where the characters were aged/shown in various stages of their life heavily (vs. most cartoons not aging at all or limited to sporadic flashbacks/flash forwards, a la the "Simpsons"), unless "Batman Beyond" (with an old Bruce) or the old "Superboy" Filmation cartoons from the 60's counts...

-B.

[Shaggy&Daphne]

Then again, the Flintstones is probably the only cartoon show I can think of where the characters were aged/shown in various stages of their life heavily (vs. most cartoons not aging at all or limited to sporadic flashbacks/flash forwards, a la the "Simpsons"), unless "Batman Beyond" (with an old Bruce) or the old "Superboy" Filmation cartoons from the 60's counts...

-B.[/QUOTE]

The characters in Scooby-Doo aged too. If you pay attention, you'll notice it was obvious that the gang was aging yearly like real life. Infact their was an episode in the 9th season of the show, which was the season Scrappy was brought in, the gang was all on their way to visit an OLD HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND. In the beginning of the episode Daphne says "Isn't this exciting, my old high school girl friend is now a prefessional pilot." I have a cousin who is becoming a prefessional pillot, and I know for a fact that it takes atleast five years to become one. So that would mean that Daphne and her friend had to have been out of school for atleast five or six years at this point in the show and so Daphne most likely graduated from highschool in 1974. Oh, and it's also very well known that the gang did infact grow up in the 70's. In the episode when they had met Davy Jones, while the gang was standing in the entrance of Haglethorn Castle I believe it was Fred who said "Maybe we should come back later." and Shaggy replies "Yeah, like how about 1987!" Even cartoon characters have to be placed in a certain decade, time period, and generation. The Scooby-Doo gang are from the Babyboomer generation.

[woodywoodpecker]

yes please, a Flintstones revival would be great.

How about reviving Huckleberry Hound too, I love the blue, Southern drawl speaking dog.;)

[Tobias]

The characters in Scooby-Doo aged too. .

Let's not forget 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo'....

On second thought, yes, let's forget 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo'.

[Anthonynotes]

Let's not forget 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo'....

On second thought, yes, let's forget 'A Pup Named Scooby Doo'.

Well, I guess I forgot to account for flashback episodes and series/episodes set explicitly in the characters' pasts (which the Flintstones, Scooby Doo [via "Pup"] and the Simpsons, among others, have all had...).

Yep, the Scooby gang IMO do seem to be out of high school (even "What's New Scooby Doo" seems to suggest that---I doubt most parents let their teenagers go to Mardi Gras on their own ;-) ); probably college age (we see them visit a friend who's in college in one of the recent DTV movies...).

Re: the Simpsons:
Yep, the characters have a past here, but no one seems to be aging at all in the present...

Re: the Flintstones:
As noted above, they've jumped all over the place with these guys; I presume they're in their thirties when Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm are infants, which probably makes them in their 50's at least when the kids are adults/they become grandparents. If one wishes to count it (I'm not, save for names of relatives/etc.), there's also "the Flintstone Kids"...

[Gmfox8@cox.net]

I would love to see a Flintstones Revival That would be Great.

[Donald Duck 12]

There should be a What's New Fred, What's New George, What's New Yogi, What's New Johnny, the list goes on. Anyways Pebbles and Bam Bam should be toddlers, otherwise Flintstones loses all innocence. Well, all except for Dino that is.