The Flintstones is an animated, prime-time American television sitcom that was broadcast from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, on ABC. The show was produced by Hanna-Barbera. The Flintstones was about a working-class Stone Age man's life with his family and his next-door neighbor and best friend.
The show's continuing popularity rested heavily on its juxtaposition of modern everyday concerns in the Stone Age setting. The Flintstones was the most financially successful network animated franchise for three decades, until The Simpsons debuted.
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 cavemen. Like their mid-20th century counterparts, 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 animals. For example, the cars are made out of stone, wood, and animal skins, and powered by the passengers' feet (as in the theme song, 'Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet').
The original pilot episode clip was called The Flagstones (which first appeared in 1959 as a 90-second promotion to draw advertisers to the show) and was later reincorporated into the show's first episode (third episode in original air date order). The show's name was changed to The Flintstones shortly thereafter.
