THE FLINTSTONES

The Flintstones, an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, is one of the most successful animated television series of all time. Loosely based upon the successful live-action sitcom The Honeymooners, The Flintstones originally ran in American prime time for six seasons, from 1960 to 1966, on the ABC network.

The show is set in a town called Bedrock in the Stone Age era, but with a society identical to that of the United States in the mid-to-late 20th century; in the Flintstones’ fantasy version of the prehistoric past, dinosaurs, saber-toothed tigers, woolly mammoths, and other long extinct animals coexist with cavemen, who use technology equivalent to that of the 20th century, largely through the use of various animals. The characters drive automobiles made out of stone or wood and animal skins and powered by foot. Although the characters were set in the Stone Age, that never stopped the show’s creators from producing a Christmas episode during the original series’ run as well as several more Christmas specials in the decades that followed.

One source of the show’s humor was the ways animals were used for technology. For example, when the characters took photographs with an instant camera, the inside of the camera box would be shown to contain a bird carving the picture on a stone tablet with its bill. In a running gag, the animals powering such technology would look directly into the camera at the audience, shrug, and remark, "It’s a living," or some similar phrase. Another commonly seen gadget in the series was a baby woolly mammoth being used as a vacuum cleaner.

PREHISTORIC VOCABULARY

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flintstones