It’s hard to believe that the very first primetime animated sitcom premiered 50 years ago today.
The Flintstones debuted on September 30, 1960 on ABC. A knock-off of the classic Honeymooners sketches, the show revolves around Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their best friends, Barney and Betty Rubble. The animated series stars the voices of Alan Reed, Mel Blanc, Jean Vander Pyl, Bea Benaderet, Gerry Johnson, Don Messick, and John Stephenson. It inspired many spin-off shows over the years and was the longest-running primetime animated sitcom until 1992 when The Simpsons surpassed it.
In celebration of the anniversary, the Boomerang cable channel is rerunning the very first episode tonight at 8:30pm, the same day and time as the original debut. That’ll be followed by a few more Flintstones episodes and the 1966 feature film, The Man Called Flintstone. On Saturday, Boomerang will run a 24-hour marathon of Flintstones programming.
