Trivia

William Hanna wanted to do a family-style series, but he and Joseph Barbera couldn't agree on the setting or the costuming. Suddenly, Hanna exclaimed, "Let's do it in a caveman setting! They won't wear clothes, they'll just wear animal skins!" After that great idea everything from then on "perfectly fell into its place."

The imminent birth of Pebbles was a major worldwide sensation. TV networks around the world held viewer contests to pick names, weights, sexes, and other aspects of the birth. The night that Wilma told Fred she was pregnant (January 25, 1963), the end of the show featured a voiceover where a narrator said, "That's right, folks, the Flintstones ARE going to have a baby, and you can win a trip around the world!" The contest was to pick Pebbles' birth weight, and the winner, a Florida butcher, did receive a round the world trip plus $2,000 spending cash. William Hanna & Joseph Barbera appeared live on the March 8 show to announce the winner (Pebbles was born on the February 22 show.) Of course, this voiceover has been removed from subsequent airings since that night.

Fred and Wilma Flintstone were the first animated married couple ever shown on American television in the same bed together. They have been mistaken as the first couple ever shown in bed together on any American TV show, but that title goes to Mary Kay and Johnny (1947).

The famous theme song "Meet the Flintstones" wasn't introduced until season three. The song was first introduced on a children's record, performed by the TV cast, and included verses about Barney and Betty Rubble as well as Dino. The first two seasons used an instrumental piece of music titled "Rise and Shine" that resembled the later Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show theme "Overture." When the series went into syndication, a standardized set of opening and closing credits was used for most episodes in order to remove references to first season sponsor Winston cigarettes, thus all episodes now begin with "Meet the Flintstones". Although "Meet the Flintstones" was not used as the show's theme until season three's debut, Dino Goes Hollyrock (1962), it was the theme song for the final 106 episodes. The DVD release of season one reveals that the melody of the song was a major part of the show's score as early as the second episode, The Flintstone Flyer (1960).

To capitalize on the then-current craze of "ghoul comedies," such as The Addams Family (1964) and The Munsters (1964), the Gruesomes (Weirdly, his wife Creepella and their son Gobby) were introduced in the fifth season as the Flintstones' newest neighbors. But they appeared just twice. They were in The Gruesomes (1964) and The Hatrocks and the Gruesomes (1965).