REGINA - One day, when scrolling on Facebook trying to fight boredom, I came across a post that featured two photos side by side.
One featured Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and the other featured what looked like a lunchtime meal of soup and sandwiches.
For those of us of a certain age who grew up at a certain time, we got the connection right away.
Yes, it harkened back to the time when the local CTV affiliates would air reruns of The Flintstones each day during the noon hour. Every day during the school year, once class was dismissed for the lunch hour we would race home down the street as fast as we could, so we could be home in time to watch The Flintstones.
In our household, Mom would set up a table in front of our big colour TV in the living room, and my brother and I would sit there and eat chicken noodle soup and cheese sandwiches while watching Fred and Barney.
It was not just me who experienced this, but countless Saskatchewan kids who grew up in the 70s, 80s and 90s in Saskatchewan.
My local station at that time was CFQC, Channel 8, in Saskatoon. Believe it or not, I am old enough to remember when they aired the show during the afternoons. That was a long time ago, but finally the fateful decision was made to move the show to the noon hour and a tradition was born.
It became a daily ritual, one that for me lasted right through the noon hour. After The Flintstones and a few announcements about coming events, they would move on to the local news, sports and weather broadcast. It would end with the farm news report — my signal to head out the door right away back to school.
That daily routine would have a big impact on me, because I gained an interest in news and current events that has lasted to this day.
I ended up watching so many reruns of The Flintstones that entire episodes got burned into my brain. I must have seen every episode at least 20 or 25 times by now. That's a lot of Fred saying “Yabba Dabba Doo!”
Episodes such as: the Flintstone Flyer. Or Hot Lips Hannigan. How about the Swimming Pool.
“Some friendships are written in blood, Barney boy, but this one is written in water — pool water, that is.”
How about the time Fred and Barney became volunteer firefighters so their wives wouldn’t catch them taking dancing lessons?
Or the time Fred raced as Goggles Pizzano during the Indianrocktopolos 500?
Then there were the special episodes, like the birth of Pebbles. Or the arrival of Bamm-Bamm on the Rubbles’ front porch, followed by a court fight for custody in which the Rubbles had to go up against Perry Masonry — “he never loses a case!”
How about the time when the Flintstones and Rubbles went into a time machine and landed at the ‘64 World’s Fair?
How about the time when Fred went on “Shinrock” with Jimmy O’Neillstone, after he created a new dance craze called The Frantic — just by hurting himself?
My favorite episodes were the ones featuring the guest stars — like Stony Curtis. How about the time Ann-Margrock came over to stay with the Flintstones and sing songs to Pebbles. I became an Ann-Margret fan for life after that episode.
Then you had just these zany characters who would show up — like the Gruesomes. Or Rocky Genial, star of Peek-a-boo Camera. How about Dr. Frankenstone? Or “Giggles” Flintstone?
How about the feud between the Hatrocks and the Flintstones?
How about Madame Yes, and Dr. Sinister? “The pit! No, no, not the pit!”
Remember the Way-Outs — “creatures from way, way out?”
A sure low point was when the series introduced The Great Gazoo for multiple episodes. This was a sure sign that The Flintstones had had it.
I didn’t know when I was watching this show that the episodes were all made before I was even born yet.
I also didn’t know the whole original idea was for it to be aimed at adults. That explains why you’d see these old commercials turn up online in which Fred is seen lighting up Winston’s cigarettes.
Maybe this is the real reason this show had a lasting impact on kids, right into adulthood. This show was made to appeal to adults. This was the original prime time cartoon sitcom, long before The Simpsons or Family Guy.
It ran for six seasons on the ABC network from 1960 to 1966 before getting unceremoniously cancelled, but then took on new life in reruns. It was through the reruns that many of us were first exposed to the show.
For a while I thought this was just a Saskatchewan phenomenon, this Flintstones-at-noon stuff. I learned much later this was going on across the country. In Toronto! In Montreal! That’s a lot of kids who experienced Flintstones reruns at noon.
One major peeve of mine in Saskatoon was that CFQC would give the Flintstones reruns a hiatus every summer. They would put on a daily interview show called Summer Fare and then always follow it up at noon with what seemed like utter crap. Usually, it was old movies in black and white featuring the likes of Rex Allen Jr. or Hopalong Cassidy. I don’t even remember what they put on, because I sure as heck didn’t watch it.
Then there was the time CFQC took off The Flintstones and replaced it with Bewitched. I was so happy when CFQC finally reinstated The Flintstones at noon for good.
Those were the days — days when we would tune in The Flintstones at noon, and then tune in later in the afternoon to shows like Get Smart, Hogan’s Heroes, I Love Lucy, I Dream of Jeannie or Gilligan’s Island, and more cartoons like The Pink Panther, Spider-Man and Rocket Robin Hood on the weekends.
One time I tuned into reruns of Petticoat Junction and realized: that voice! Kate Bradley is actually Betty Rubble!
I know we got a lot of lecturing from grownups about how television would give us “square eyes” and be a corrupting influence on our lives forever. Yet I have to think that The Flintstones had a positive impact on a lot of us kids.
I know a lot of people talk about mental health these days and what could be done to improve it. Well, The Flintstones was positive for kids’ mental health. It gave us something to look forward to during the noon hour, and got us in a positive mood to go back to school in the afternoon - and that was usually pretty dull stuff, let’s face it. Young people today are definitely missing out.
The noon-hour Flintstones tradition in Saskatchewan eventually ended. I was living in Ontario by this point and found out about it in a phone call from Dad. He told me that apparently some students in Regina were staging a protest over the removal of The Flintstones from the air.
I felt like hopping on a plane to Regina to join the protest, but it would have been futile.
Nowadays, it’s hard to find old episodes of The Flintstones, but they’re still around on DVDs, online, or on the MeTV channel down in the ‘States.
For me, though, I’ll always associate watching The Flintstones with that more innocent time when I would sit in front of the family TV set every noon hour eating soup and sandwiches.
