The Flintstones premieres as the first primetime animated TV series

On 30 September 1960, viewers met a modern Stone Age family for the first time. The Flintstones, created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, premiered on ABC in an evening slot, becoming the first animated situation comedy built for prime-time television rather than the Saturday-morning children’s schedule.

The show was openly modelled on the live-action hit The Honeymooners, swapping a Brooklyn apartment for the prehistoric town of Bedrock, where dinosaurs doubled as machinery and Fred Flintstone bellowed his catchphrase. Crucially, each episode told a single half-hour story aimed at the whole family, treating animation as a vehicle for adult comedy.

It proved cartoons could hold an adult audience in prime time.

Hanna-Barbera produced it with limited animation, reusing simplified movements to cut costs and make a weekly schedule feasible. The gamble paid off: the series ran for six seasons until 1966 and earned an Emmy nomination, opening the door for later prime-time cartoons from The Jetsons to The Simpsons.