1980's Saturday Morning Historical Preservation Society

The Flintstones Comedy Show (not to be confused with the Flintstones Comedy HOUR of 1973) was on the air Saturday mornings from 9am till 10:30 (AN HOUR AND A HALF?!?!?) on your local NBC affiliate in 1980. This revival of the classic Hanna-Barbera stone-age family featured six different segments: The Flintstone Family Adventures (standard Flintstones stories featuring the Flinstones & the Rubbles doing late-70's/early-80's stuff), Bedrock Cops (Fred and Barney are now police officers assisted by the Shmoo as a trainee under the direction of Sgt. Boulder), Pebbles, Dino and Bamm-Bamm (Teenage Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm solving mysteries with Dino, in the tried-and-true HB Scooby-Doo formula), Captain Caveman (a prequel to the 1970's "Captain Cave-Man & The Teen-Angels" cartoon that showed Captain Caveman in his natural stone-age setting), Dino and Cavemouse (The Flintstones version of Tom & Jerry), and The Frankenstones (a hybrid of The Addams Family, The Munsters and The Flintstones).

My biggest complaint about this cartoon was that it seemed to be on ALL MORNING LONG. Flintstones were okay in small doses, but 90 MINUTES??? Three different half-hour time slots where I could have been seeing ANYTHING ELSE??? Nope, that's too much.

(Also aired in a much shorter 30-minute version at 8:00 in 1981/1982, and then as "The Flintstone Funnies" from 1982 till 1984 - check out the hilariously inept re-working of the intro!)

I *still* have not found any video proof that this cartoon ever actually existed, even though it was on NBC from December 8, 1979 to November 15, 1980. Almost an entire YEAR this cartoon was on the air, and nobody on The Internet has proof!

From what I've heard, this may be because each 90-minute episode included less than 5 minutes of "New" footage, and the rest of the show was yet ANOTHER Hannah-Barbera repackaging of 1970's half-hour cartoons. The Toons involved were:

The New Fred & Barney Show


The Schmoo


...And because they had another 30 minutes to fill, I dunno... how about... OOH! THE THING!


(Not the REAL Thing from the Fantastic Four, but the one that many 80's kids vaguely remember. The teenager who had rings which, when he touched them together and said "THING RING DO YOUR THING!" would transform him in to the orange, rocky creature)

My assumption as to why there's no video proof of this show is because NOBODY CARED :(

HOWEVER! Maybe this is your favorite cartoon ever, I dunno. Leave your thoughts, memories and whatnote re: The All New Fred & Barney, The Schmoo and/or The Thing here! Just don't go and vote for it, because I'll NEVER be able to find a video of it :(