Yaba daba do!

[GSP1954@aol.com]

We're a bunch of idiots on these lists. Almost missed that this week, the 
30th specifically, is the 50th anniv of the premeire of the Flintstones, the 
1st prime time animated situation comedy. And fairly successful too. 
Eisenhower was still President. On ABC, then the weakest of the Big Three. 

It was pretty much a rip-off of The Honeymooners, and Jackie Gleason later 
said he considered sueing, but liked the cartoon and figured what the heck. 
Being for primetime it was not a kids show although it was well suited for 
children, it was written with adults in mind and dealt to a certain extent 
with family issues including problems on the job and marriage issues. Fred and 
the hot Wilma were shown in a single bed when a couple of kids' beds were 
the norm for TV married couples (but I think there was just one in the Donna 
Reed Show, and the two beds were pushed together in the first episodes of I 
Love Lucy). The show lost some of its edge when Pebbles and Bam-Bam (Barney 
and Betty were infertile it seems) showed up. 

Apparently yaba daba do is an agglomeration of the yahoo in the pilot 
script and the Prilcream (sic?) slogan "a little dab will do it" ad-lipped by 
voice actor Alan Reed. 

I loved the show. Remember that a promotional ad showed an aerial view (in 
the B&W the 1st season or so was in) of Bedrock exhibiting the stone based 
technologies. I still don't fully understand how the rock wheel autos worked. 
The giant pterosaur airliners made more sense. Remember watching it at my 
grandparents', who lived a block away from my house. As I recall I already 
was well into drawing dinosaurs (as well as ships usually sinking for some 
reason, aircraft, and strangely elongated whales, my Mom saved all the 
drawings). But there is no doubt that the show further encouraged my enthusiasm 
for 
prehistoric life. The show's general promotion of prehistory in the public 
as large and in budding paleos probably was and continues to be significant. 

And as we now know the Flintstones was prophetic is showing domesticated 
dinosaurs, there's a whole museum in Kentucky proving it. 

For some reason none of the dinosaurs had feathers on them. Am not entirely 
sure if birds had yet evolved, but I think some were extant in the 
Flintolithic epoch.  

So let's all have a gay ol time! 

GSPaul 



 </HTML>