Blu-ray release marks Flintstones' 60th
Fans can have a “Yabba-Dabba Doo” time as the Flintstones celebrate their 60th anniversary.
“The Flintstones: The Complete Series” has been released on Bluray, with all 166 episodes available in high definition for the first time.
The program, originally broadcast on ABC from Sept. 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, was the first animated series to be shown in a regular primetime television slot.
Two married couples — and in later seasons, their young children — navigate the problems of their prehistoric time in “The Flintstones,” which made the jump to comic books shortly after its television debut in 1966. Dell, Archie, Marvel, Harvey, Charlton and DC have all held the license to the property at different times over the years.
The characters have stayed visible in the 60 years since, with additional animated and live-action films and the ubiquitous Flintstones vitamins.
Everyman Fred Flintstone works with his best pal, Barney Rubble, in the Bedrock quarry in 10,000 B.C. Their wives, Wilma and Betty, and children, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, make up the rest of the pair of families at the heart of the “Flintstones” property.
In 2016, writer Mark Russell and artist Steve Pugh revamped the Flintstones with a new, satirical take that drew a lot of attention in the
comics market.
Russell, known for his political satire “Prez,” brought commentary on consumerism, art, culture and more to “The Flintstones.
Russell discussed the series in an interview with The Oklahoman in 2017. The series treats the world of the Flintstones and the town of Bedrock as if it were the world's first civilization.
“They discover that
there's a civilization that predated anything we've ever known about before in the town of Bedrock. And basically everything that we have now in civilization, whether it's marriage, technology, religion, these things — the people of Bedrock were the first to get them.”
Russell's issues of “The Flintstones” remain available in two graphic novel collections. In 2017, Russell wrote a crossover special of “The Flintstones” in which they met DC's time-traveling hero Booster Gold.
Those who prefer
the traditional Fred in comics can haunt the back issue bins, as more than 150 “Flintstones” comics have been published over the past 60 years. Fans also can seek out “The Flintstones and the Jetsons” Vol.
1, a comic collection from 2017 featuring the classic versions of both families from the 1990s comic series.
Matthew Price, matthew@matthewLprice. com, has written about the comics industry for more than two decades. He is the co-owner of Speeding Bullet Comics in Norman.