Flintstones recap: the story so far

No. 01 · 1960 · Series

The Flintstones recap

Fred Flintstone, loud, scheming and quick to lose his temper, operates a dinosaur crane at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company and lives in Bedrock with his patient wife Wilma and their pet dinosaur Dino. Next door are his best friend Barney Rubble, easygoing and loyal, and Barney's wife Betty, Wilma's best friend. The show borrows its setup from The Honeymooners and plays it in the Stone Age, with the jokes built on prehistoric versions of modern life: cars powered by the driver's feet, a bird beak for a record player, a mammoth trunk for a shower. Episodes follow Fred's get-rich-quick plans, his bowling, his lodge, the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes, and his run-ins with his boss, Mr. Slate. The family grows over the six seasons. Wilma has a daughter, Pebbles, in 1963, and the Rubbles adopt Bamm-Bamm, a foundling with enormous strength, later that year. Spooky neighbours called the Gruesomes move in, and in the last season the Great Gazoo, a tiny green alien exiled to Earth, attaches himself to Fred and Barney. It was the first animated sitcom in American prime time and ran on ABC from 1960 to 1966, for 166 episodes.

How The Flintstones ends

The Flintstones ended without a finale. The last episode, "The Story of Rocky's Raiders", aired on April 1, 1966: while waiting for a visit from Fred's grandfather, the family reads his diary and acts out his adventures leading a unit in a Stone Age world war. Four months later the theatrical film The Man Called Flintstone was released, and the characters returned in many spin-offs, from The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show (1971) onward.

No. 02 · 1966 · Film

The Man Called Flintstone recap

A theatrical musical spy spoof made by Hanna-Barbera and released by Columbia Pictures in 1966. Rock Slag, a secret agent who looks exactly like Fred, is injured while chasing the henchmen of the Green Goose, a master criminal. His chief recruits Fred to take Rock's place and meet Tanya, the Green Goose's lieutenant, who has offered to betray him. Fred, not understanding who the Green Goose is, turns his family's camping trip into a free holiday in Europe, and the Flintstones and Rubbles head to Paris and then Rome. Fred tries to keep the mission secret from Wilma, who catches him with Tanya, while the agency's disguise expert, Triple X, keeps helping. Fred and Barney track the gang to an abandoned amusement park, are captured and discover that Triple X is the Green Goose himself, planning to launch a missile disguised as a fairground space ride.

How The Man Called Flintstone ends

Fred and Barney trick the Green Goose and his crew into the missile and reset it to fire into outer space, carrying the villains away. Fred comes home to a hero's welcome in Bedrock and the family goes on holiday, though the film ends with Fred being chased by people who still think he is Rock Slag. Released four months after the TV series ended, it served as a farewell to the original run.

No. 03 · 1971 · Series

The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show recap

Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble are now teenagers at Bedrock High, and the show follows them instead of their parents, through dates, school, first jobs and the misunderstandings of a teenage romance. Bamm-Bamm is still enormously strong. Their friends include Penny Pillar, small and clever; Wiggy Rockstone, who believes in astrology and talks in an operatic voice; and Moonrock Crater, an inventor whose devices tend to fail. Their rivals are two spoiled rich kids, Fabian Fabquartz and Cindy Curbstone, who has a crush on Bamm-Bamm. The friends also form a band, the Bedrock Rockers, and each episode includes a pop song, in the style of other early-1970s Hanna-Barbera shows. It aired on CBS on Saturday mornings in 1971, for one season of 16 episodes.

How The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show ends

The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show ended without a finale after one season; its last episode, "The Birthday Present", aired on January 1, 1972. For the next season CBS reworked it into The Flintstone Comedy Hour, which gave more time to Fred, Barney and their wives and mixed new teen segments with reruns. The teenage Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm returned as adults in I Yabba-Dabba Do! (1993), which marries them.

No. 04 · 1986 · Series

The Flintstone Kids recap

Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty as ten-year-olds in Bedrock, with Dino as a puppy. Fred is already bossy and boastful, Barney is already his loyal sidekick, and Wilma and Betty are already the sensible ones. Their friends include Nate Slate, Philo Quartz and Dreamchip Gemstone, a girl with a crush on Fred. The neighbourhood bully, Rocky Ratrock, and his gang, the Bad Rotten Bunch, cause most of their trouble. Each half hour mixes segments: the main Flintstone Kids story; Flintstone Funnies, in which the kids imagine themselves in fantasy adventures, often movie parodies; Dino's Dilemmas, about the puppy's misadventures; and Captain Caveman and Son, a show the kids watch on TV. The series aired on ABC from 1986 to 1987, for 36 episodes over two seasons, and a 1988 anti-drug special, "Just Say No", followed.

How The Flintstone Kids ends

The Flintstone Kids ended without a finale after its second season in 1987, as planned. It was replaced by A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which gave Scooby-Doo's gang the same childhood treatment, though ABC brought back reruns of The Flintstone Kids in late 1988 after another show failed. The kids appeared once more in the 1988 anti-drug special "Just Say No", and the franchise later gave Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm the same treatment in Cave Kids (1996).

No. 05 · 1987 · Film

The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones recap

A 1987 TV film. In the 21st century, Elroy Jetson finishes a time machine and the Jetsons set off on a holiday, landing in the Stone Age, where they meet the Flintstones and Rubbles. Fred and Barney have just been fired by Mr. Slate for skipping work to play in a poker tournament where Slate was playing too. Fred passes George off as a distant cousin and uses his space-age gadgets to help Slate win the company picnic, hoping to get his job back, but the plan backfires and Slate fires him again. Back in the future, the Jetsons' building manager Henry Orbit and the robot maid Rosie build a device to retrieve the Jetsons, and it brings the Flintstones and Rubbles to the future instead. Now both families are stuck in the wrong era. In Bedrock, George becomes Slate's partner and a local celebrity. In the future, Mr. Spacely makes Fred his spokesman, and when his rival Cogswell signs Barney, the two friends fall out.

How The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones ends

Henry fixes the time machine and Rosie travels back to find the Jetsons, who return home driving Fred's car. Spacely builds a hit line of Stone Age-style cars based on it, the families foil Cogswell's attempt to steal the design, and Fred and Barney make up. George hands his partnership with Slate to Fred and Barney, which gets them their jobs back. The time machine breaks for good, but Fred's car has absorbed its power, and the Flintstones and Rubbles set off to return to the Stone Age.

No. 06 · 1993 · Film

I Yabba-Dabba Do! recap

A 1993 ABC TV film. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, now grown up, get engaged, but Fred has lost the family savings betting on a sports team and is too proud to admit he cannot pay for the wedding. He tries to raise the money in secret, is turned down for a loan, gets fired by Mr. Slate after losing his temper, and asks Barney for help, only to learn that Barney's savings were lost to a con artist. Wilma's mother Pearl arrives, Fred and Barney come to blows at Bamm-Bamm's bachelor party, and with both families fighting, Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm elope to Rock Vegas. When the truth about the money comes out, Wilma throws Fred out and Barney ends their friendship. Fred decides to go after the couple, and the others forgive him. In Rock Vegas, Fred and Barney run into a gang of wedding thieves, and all four end up in jail.

How I Yabba-Dabba Do! ends

In jail, Fred explains everything he was trying to do, the real thieves confess, and everyone is released. Barney's casino winnings arrive, and he gives Fred half to pay for the wedding. Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm marry in Bedrock and Fred gets his job back. The couple then announce they are moving to Hollyrock, and Barney gives them the rest of his winnings, which starts Fred and Barney fighting again. The sequel, Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby, aired later in 1993.

No. 07 · 1993 · Film

Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby recap

A 1993 ABC TV film and the sequel to I Yabba-Dabba Do! Pebbles, now living and working in Hollyrock, announces she is pregnant, and the Flintstones and Rubbles come to stay, driving the young couple up the wall with advice. Bamm-Bamm is trying to sell a screenplay, and Fred and Barney try to help by pitching it themselves, with embarrassing results, including a chase through a TV studio. Meanwhile Fred mistakes a giant stolen pearl for a bowling ball, and a pair of jewel thieves working for a crook called Big Rock start following him to get it back. As the thieves close in, Pebbles goes into labour, and the families race across town to get her to the hospital.

How Hollyrock-a-Bye Baby ends

Big Rock and his thieves are caught, with Bamm-Bamm helping take them down, and Pebbles gives birth to twins: Roxy, who has her father's strength, and Chip, who has his grandfather Fred's loud mouth. A producer who found the screenplay Fred and Barney left behind loves it, and Bamm-Bamm sells it, while Pebbles is promoted at work. Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty go home to Bedrock as grandparents.

No. 08 · 1994 · Film

The Flintstones recap

Cliff Vandercave, a vice-president at Slate and Co., plans to embezzle the company's money with his secretary, Sharon Stone, and needs a fall guy. Fred Flintstone has just lent Barney Rubble the money to adopt Bamm-Bamm. To repay him, Barney secretly swaps their aptitude test papers, so Fred scores highest and is promoted to an executive job, while Barney is fired. Fred becomes a wealthy, greedy snob. The Rubbles, broke, move in with the Flintstones, and Fred treats them so badly that Barney reveals the test swap and leaves. Wilma takes Pebbles to her mother's. Meanwhile Cliff has Fred sign paperwork that frames him for the theft, and Fred goes into hiding. Brian Levant directed, with John Goodman as Fred, Rick Moranis as Barney, Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma, Rosie O'Donnell as Betty, Kyle MacLachlan as Cliff, Halle Berry as Sharon and Elizabeth Taylor as Wilma's mother Pearl.

How The Flintstones ends

Wilma gets hold of the Dictabird, a bird that heard Cliff's confession, so Cliff kidnaps Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm to get it back. At the quarry, Fred and Barney save the children and Fred wrecks Cliff's machinery, burying Cliff in a mix of waste that sets hard around him. Mr. Slate names the material "concrete" and offers Fred a top job, but Fred turns it down and asks for his old one back, with better conditions for the workers. The prequel, The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, followed in 2000.

No. 09 · 1994 · Film

A Flintstones Christmas Carol recap

A 1994 TV film. The Bedrock Community Players are staging A Christmas Carol, and Fred has the lead as Ebenezer Scrooge. The role goes to his head: he rehearses constantly, neglects his job and his family, forgets to take Pebbles to day care and forgets the presents, becoming nearly as selfish as Scrooge himself. The play itself is shown at length, with Fred's friends in the other parts: Barney as Bob Cratchit, renamed Bob Cragit, Mr. Slate as Jacob Marley, Bamm-Bamm as Tiny Tim and Pebbles as one of the Cragit children. A flu outbreak called the Bedrock Bug sweeps through the cast on Christmas Eve, and Wilma has to step in to play the Ghost of Christmas Past and Scrooge's lost love, Belle, while Fred dashes out mid-show to find gifts.

How A Flintstones Christmas Carol ends

On stage, Scrooge sees his own grave and wakes on Christmas morning a changed man, and Fred, improvising, uses Scrooge's apology to Belle to apologise to Wilma for the way he has behaved. Fred realises his family matters more than the part. The hooded Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come turns out to have been Dino, filling in for a sick cast member. Fred then catches the Bedrock Bug himself and spends Christmas in bed.

No. 10 · 1996 · Series · optional

Cave Kids recap

Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm-Bamm Rubble as preschoolers, with Dino as their babysitter. Instead of the slapstick of the original show, each episode is built around a simple educational lesson for young children, as the two toddlers explore their prehistoric world and use their imaginations while Dino tries to keep them out of trouble. Pebbles, Bamm-Bamm and Dino are the only Flintstones characters in it; the parents are not part of the stories. Each episode ends with a music video tied to its theme. The show was made by Hanna-Barbera and distributed by Warner Bros. to public television stations in 1996, as a short-lived preschool series of one season and eight episodes. It was later rerun on Boomerang and MeTV Toons, and it is also known as Cave Kids Adventures.

How Cave Kids ends

Cave Kids ended without a finale after one season of eight episodes. The last episode, "Cave Kid Christmas", aired on November 17, 1996, and has the children travel to the North Pole, where they cheer up a grumpy Snowbear. Reruns continued into 1999. It was the last time Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm led their own series, and the franchise returned with the live-action prequel Viva Rock Vegas in 2000.

No. 11 · 2000 · Film

The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas recap

A live-action prequel about how the couples met. Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, young crane operators in Bedrock, want girlfriends. The Great Gazoo, a tiny alien sent to Earth to study human mating, attaches himself to them; only they can see him. Wilma Slaghoople, a rich heiress, runs away from her overbearing mother Pearl, who wants her to marry the smooth casino owner Chip Rockefeller, and becomes friends with Betty O'Shale, a waitress. The four pair off, and Fred wins a baby dinosaur, Dino, at a carnival. Chip invites everyone to his resort in Rock Vegas, where he secretly sets out to bankrupt Fred at the tables so Wilma will leave him; he owes money to the mob and needs her family fortune. He frames Fred for stealing Wilma's pearls, Fred and Barney go to jail, and Wilma goes back to Chip. Brian Levant directed, with Mark Addy as Fred, Stephen Baldwin as Barney, Kristen Johnston as Wilma, Jane Krakowski as Betty and Alan Cumming as Gazoo.

How The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas ends

Gazoo tells Fred and Barney about Chip's scheme, and they escape from jail dressed as women. Barney and Betty make up, and Fred disguises himself as the rock star Mick Jagged to win Wilma back and propose. She accepts and leaves Chip, who is arrested with his girlfriend Roxie. Fred and Wilma marry at the Rock Vegas chapel, Betty catches the bouquet, and the newlyweds drive off with Dino and Gazoo. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera appear in cameos.

No. 12 · 2001 · Film

The Flintstones: On the Rocks recap

A 2001 Cartoon Network film. Fred and Wilma's marriage has gone stale: they argue constantly, a counselling session ends in a fight, and they both forget their anniversary. Barney and Betty pay for a trip to Rockapulco to save the marriage. There a jewel thief named Xavier steals a diamond, and in a mix-up it ends up in Wilma's luggage. Wilma finds it, assumes it is a gift from Fred and briefly warms to him, but Fred soon spoils it again. Xavier, posing as a charming Englishman, sets out to win Wilma over and get the diamond back, and takes her to dinner. Fred sees them together, is hurt, and drinks at the hotel bar with a woman he meets there, which pushes Wilma toward Xavier.

How The Flintstones: On the Rocks ends

At a dance, Xavier grabs for the diamond, and after a chase he kidnaps Wilma and drives her to a bridge over a volcano. Fred arrives and tells her that he could never afford a diamond, but having her makes him the richest man alive. Xavier knocks Fred out, Wilma beats Xavier herself, and the woman from the bar, an undercover policewoman, arrests him. Fred and Wilma enjoy the rest of their trip, while the Rubbles start bickering.

Post-credits scenes

During the end credits, it is shown that Dino, left to guard the house, threw a party there with his friends and wrecked it, then went off on his own holiday.

No. 13 · 2015 · Film · optional

The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! recap

A 2015 direct-to-video film made with WWE, with wrestlers voicing Stone Age versions of themselves. Fred has promised Wilma a holiday but has no money, and Mr. Slate will not help. At a fair, Fred sets up a boxing challenge using Barney's pet hopparoo, which leads to Barney beating the wrestler CM Punkrock. Fred sees money in it and, with a seafood seller named Mr. McMagma, invents wrestling as a spectator sport, staging events with John Cenastone, Rey Mysteriopal, the Undertaker and others. The first show makes enough for the holiday, but Fred gets greedy and books a bigger event at Bedrock Stadium, announcing a rematch between Barney and Punkrock without Barney's agreement. When Barney refuses to fight, the other wrestlers walk out in disgust at how Fred treated his friend, leaving Fred alone in the ring with Punkrock and his allies.

How The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown! ends

Fred is beaten badly, and Barney, seeing his friend take the punishment, joins the fight and brings the other wrestlers back with him. Wilma and Betty scare off the Boulder twins, Bamm-Bamm knocks down Marble Henry, and Barney's side wins to a roaring crowd. Fred gives up wrestling, sells the idea to McMagma while keeping the profits, and the Flintstones, the Rubbles and the wrestlers all go on holiday together.