Seth MacFarlane to not reboot The Flintstones after all

[Mira]

I've never liked The Flinstones or Hanna Barbera in general. The characters are all boring and the animation is terrible; although the terrible techniques led to much faster and easier animation when executed properly. I almost think Seth's version will be better than the original.

[Dr. Horrible]

does this mean tyler perry is also going to reboot the jetsons?

[DAntae]

no. fat albert.

[PreciousBodilyFluids]

yes on the whole flintstones is a steaming pile of brontasaurus shit heheh, but it does have some solid animation principles going for it. good character designs, compositions and perty backgrounds!



again, not really trying to defend it, but

[TriforceBun]

Is The Flinstones the first animated show to have that sort of "muzzle-line" around a character's mouth to imply stubble (similar to Homer's)?

[PreciousBodilyFluids]

well earlier hb characters like ranger smith had 'em, as did non human characters like yogi bear and huckleberry hound. done mostly as a cost-cutting measure (so they wouldn't hafta animate the whole body!)

[Postmaster]

The more I think about it I realize I never really had much affinity for Hanna-Barbera. I watched lots of their stuff because I watched anything that was a cartoon when I was a kid, but I don't think I had any enthusiasm the way I did for the Chuck Jones/Tex Avery lot, really of any animation I watched it always ranked pretty low. I don't have any real memories of it. With Loony Tunes though there's bits that really stick in my head and probably influenced me in loads of subconscious ways. Hanna-Barbera though just seems so business minded and workmanlike in comparison. They were kind of what Dreamworks are to Pixar today. I'm not really informed enough to be sure of that judgment, but Seth does seem like pretty much the perfect fit to be taking on this project.

[Mt. Doom]

Hanna Barbera stuff was never ground breaking. Just something to watch when nothing else was on

[Adam R]

looking at the list, i like tom and jerry and wacky races. maybe top cat too, i dunno. i used to watch scooby doo too but i dunno if i really liked it all that much. i'm surprised at the volume of rubbish that makes up the rest, i suppose i never thought about it much before.

[JimBob]

I think Seth MacFarlane might do a good job with the rebooting of the Flintstones but I think it won't be as funny as the original Flintstones but I will watch every episode if it's good or even if it's OK. Another series they should reboot is the Jetsons.

[Postmaster]

Yeah I hate new experiences. I just want rehashes of things I've seen before because it reminds me of childhood.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Wacky Races had one of the best over the top villains ever voiced by the great Paul Winchell. I always liked many of the Hanna Barbera animals like Yogi Bear and Secret Squirrel. Some are pretty funny for all the wrong reasons in hindsight though...I'm looking at you Squiddly Diddly...

The Perils of Penelope Pitstop was also unique for basically giving us Emperor Palpatine decades before Star Wars did with The Hooded Claw, and he's played by Paul Lynde who was a pretty damn funny guy. There's a reason why the character of Roger took so much from him and is easily the best character from the greatest MacFarlane toon on today.

[brody]

so barney was spongebob and fred was squidward

also WHAT THE FUCK ARE THEY LAUGHING AT

[Sniper Squirrel]

to be honest this probably won't be anyhing worse than Flinstone Kids or viva Rock Vegas

[Postmaster]

Saw someone mentioning this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peb...Bamm-Bamm_Show which surely must be one of the most desperate spin-offs ever.

[Property of Ned Flanders]

well, i for one like the raunchy flintstones cutaways whenever they appear on family guy, and the two or so that seth did for cartoon cavalcade. i hope he makes it raunchy. i don't give a shit, it sounds hilarious to me. i wish they'd cancel cleveland and plop this in it's place before he churns out something even more mediocre than cleveland

[Cartoonnetwork]

y it's clear to me that The Flinstones, like Stanley Kramer films, is a dull, vacuous byproduct of that time that can only hold the interest of someone like John K, whose approach to animation consists almost entirely of studious frame-by-frame studies of storyboard principles. taken as a 22-minute installment-by-installment experience, the show is just another generic animated sitcom that can fairly be labeled the Family Guy of its time.

Oh, come on, give me a break. At least the Flinstones was classy, had charismatic characters, good and sincere dialogues and cute designs.

If not for The Flinstones The Simpsons and Family Guy would have never existed or would be pretty different to what they are now.

And this is coming from someone who actually find The Flinstones a little boring because of the limited animation, but the dialogue, script and characters are imaginative, clever and funny. At least for a while, not all the seasons were equally good.

[Dark Homer]

If not for The Flinstones The Simpsons and Family Guy would have never existed or would be pretty different to what they are now.

nobody's disputing that, but just because something begat good things doesn't necessarily mean it itself a good thing

otherwise "train pulling up to station" would be the greatest film of all time

[Postmaster]

If it hadn't been for 'A Kiss in the Tunnel' there'd be no porn industry.

[TheForbiddenDonut]

i'm not claiming the two to be identical or even of the same quality. just that they are both popular animated sit-coms that are safe, generic, and unambitious, and they conform to most of the dull comedic attitudes of their times.

[Cartoonnetwork]

Well, "Train pulling up to station" had an important influence on the technique of subsequent films, while other films and series had an influence on the contents of subsequent movies or series.

I admit I have never seen The Honeymooners, cause I believe it's not extremely popular outside of USA. At least I can say it's not popular in Spain. But I think the characters and dialogue in The Flinstones are funny and well thought and the drawings were pleasing. Some of its characters, gags and plots were imitated in The Simpsons and they worked, not because there was a very good reinterpretation (which , usually, there was) but because they were imitating something good to begin with.

I don't think Family Guy is 100% complete crap, but it certainly is mediocre. The only characters that are somewhat original and/or charismatic are Brian and Stewie, the designs are ugly and boring to look at and the political incorrectness of its humor is unsincere. There are instances of good voice acting, catchy musical numbers, clever gags and even decent animation but they are usually just scenes of some episodes, it's odd for a whole episode to keep the quality.

I can't certainly see how is that an improvement from The Flinstones.

[Dylan]

well, i for one like the raunchy flintstones cutaways whenever they appear on family guy, and the two or so that seth did for cartoon cavalcade. i hope he makes it raunchy. i don't give a shit, it sounds hilarious to me. i wish they'd cancel cleveland and plop this in it's place before he churns out something even more mediocre than cleveland

Yeah but, I could see those cutaways getting boring after about 5 episodes.

[DotheBartman]

Some of its characters, gags and plots were imitated in The Simpsons and they worked, not because there was a very good reinterpretation (which , usually, there was) but because they were imitating something good to begin with.

You do recall all the interviews and commentaries where Matt Groening said he specifically wanted to make sure The Simpsons was NOT like The Flintstones, right?

The biggest influence The Flintstones had on The Simpsons was merely that they were both cartoons in prime time. And in meetings they sold it to FOX as "The Flintstones for the 90s" even though they had no real intention of making it like that. But Groening has talked quite a bit about how excited he was for a cartoon to be airing in prime time as a kid, and then being disappointed with The Flinstones' lameness. The entire goal was to make a show much better than the garbage Hanna Barbera had spewed out. (Similarly, with Futurama, part of the goal was not to make it "bland and boring like The Jetsons," which FOX executives objected to because they apparently loved The Jetsons.)

Calling Homer's best friend "Barney" as a gag aside, most of the similarities between The Simpsons and The Flintstones are merely superficial ones that came about only because both shows were mining from some of the same larger tropes. Such as from The Honeymooners, for instance. The difference is, The Simpsons was creative and funny and really did something different with those tropes, whereas The Flintstones - much like Family Guy - couldn't really be bothered to.

[Cartoonnetwork]

You do recall all the interviews and commentaries where Matt Groening said he specifically wanted to make sure The Simpsons was NOT like The Flintstones, right?

The biggest influence The Flintstones had on The Simpsons was merely that they were both cartoons in prime time. And in meetings they sold it to FOX as "The Flintstones for the 90s" even though they had no real intention of making it like that. But Groening has talked quite a bit about how excited he was for a cartoon to be airing in prime time as a kid, and then being disappointed with The Flinstones' lameness. The entire goal was to make a show much better than the garbage Hanna Barbera had spewed out. (Similarly, with Futurama, part of the goal was not to make it "bland and boring like The Jetsons," which FOX executives objected to because they apparently loved The Jetsons.)

Calling Homer's best friend "Barney" as a gag aside, most of the similarities between The Simpsons and The Flintstones are merely superficial ones that came about only because both shows were mining from some of the same larger tropes. Such as from The Honeymooners, for instance. The difference is, The Simpsons was creative and funny and really did something different with those tropes, whereas The Flintstones - much like Family Guy - couldn't really be bothered to.

I have never read those interviews and commentaries. I have always thought Groening would probably like The Flinstones.

And wow, I knew that there were people that thought The Flinstones were not that great, but I've never known some people hated them so much.

Hanna Barbera certainly did crappy series but The Flinstones is not one of them. Even Wacky Races or Scooby Doo, which I consider pretty mediocre, have some redeeming things...at least some decent characters. But well, Scooby Doo is pretty crappy, certainly, though it had some potential.

They went downhill with the sequels of all these series and other stuff that is less popular.

But Flinstones, Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Finn, Quick Draw McDraw and , to a lesser extent, The Jetsons are fine cartoons to me, especially the first two, and I'm not really a big fan of them like John K or anything, but I find the characters and dialogues pretty charming and smart.

But well, I was talking mainly about how plots of episodes like Blood Feud or Life On The Fast Lane have some things in common with some episodes of The Flinstones.

[that70sguy92]

Not happy about this, but perhaps cautiously curious.

[D DEBBS]

CAR HOP SONG (I looked this up on Yahoo! Search last week)

Here we come
On the run
With a burger on a bun
And a dab of coleslaw on the side

Oh, your taste we will tickle
With a cold dill pickle
And our potatoes are French fried, fried, fried, fried, fried!

Our burgers can't be beat
'Cuz we grind our own meat
We grind, grind,grind, grind, grind!

And when you're on your way
A tip put upon our tray
We hope to find, find, find, find, find!

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

So uuhhh...this is all but dead. Thank you sweet merciful God.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/it-se...ing-the,73018/

[Jesse Pinkman]

i read that at boards and rec and forgot we had a thread here.

it doesn't matter, i wouldn't have watched the reboot anyway.

[comeau]

What does it say about you when you have to try and convince a TV exec that the new show you're working on "won't have any abortion jokes, I promise!"?

Or worse, what does it say about you and your network if you're the TV exec who's hoping the new show was chock full of abortion jokes?

[D'oh Nuts]

I remember reading an article about Seth rebooting the Flintstones and I didn't know how I would feel about that (even though I didn't watch much of The Flintstones to have a nostalgic effect on me). Would Seth go back to his more family-friendly roots or would it just be a raunchy adaptation in the vein of Family Guy?. But then I read another article that Seth was trying to make it more in the vein of The Simpsons and it raised some hope. This could have had the potential of being the only Seth show that I would watch nowadays even though I don't care much about The Flintstones. But nope. Viewers will continue to see more crude humor and forced attempts at being "edgy" to remind viewers that Family Guy is an "adult" cartoon. Thanks, Fox.

Off Topic: I have not seen much American Dad or The Cleveland Show but I've heard good things about their newer episodes on this site. I might watch them someday.