Without Barney Rubble and friends 60 years ago, there would probably not have been Bojack Horseman, Family Guy or even The Simpsons
Anyone who was a child in the 1970s onwards probably remembers The Flintstones as a Saturday morning cartoon staple, a yabba-dabba-doo time of prehistoric frolics and gleefully anachronistic dinosaurs. But when it initially aired 60 years ago, the adventures of Fred and Wilma, the titular Stone Age family, were aimed at adults. They are the direct ancestors of the golden age of adult-oriented animation we enjoy today.
When it was first broadcast on the ABC network on 30 September 1960, it went out at 8.30pm, after bedtime for most kids. It was the first prime time show from the studio set up by the creators of Tom and Jerry, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and they had spent months trying to convince the networks that an animation aimed at a grownup audience could work.
