Yabba-Dabba-Doo! Happy 50th to the Flintstones

Happy anniversary to the Flintstones, who were the first prime-time animated series fifty years ago (and who remembers the anniversary song from the show?) Inspired by “The Honeymooners,” it was a stone-age story of two couples, bombastic Fred and his wife Wilma and his dim-but-sweet best friend Barney Rubble and his wife, Betty. The fun of the show was seeing the crazy re-creations of modern life with the “technology” usually involving some prehistoric creature acting as garbage disposal or record player needle (record players with needles now seem kind of stone age, but that’s another story). Guest stars like Ann-Margret (as Ann Marg-rock) and Ed Sullivan (Ed Sully-stone) and the later appearances of babies Pebbles and Bam-Bam filled out the cast. Two live-action movies never captured the rough charm of the original, which still holds up well as silly fun.