Nearly every long-running TV franchise eventually has a Christmas episode. It works out both because of the typical yearly schedule of network shows, which usually wrap up the first half of their season in early-to-mid December, and because Christmas is such a dominant part of the culture. Even shows that almost never aired new episodes in December, like The Sopranos and Mad Men, produced Christmas episodes (which aired in April and August, respectively).
So its no surprise that The Flintstones, the animated sitcom about a family of cavemen living in a city full of other cavemen, enjoying all the comforts of the modern 60s lifestyle, except with everything either made out of rock or done by talking animals, would also produce a Christmas episode, despite the fact that the show took place thousands, if not millions, of years before the birth of Christ. Of course, it also takes place in a a world where people have pet dinosaurs, so historical accuracy isn't really on the table here. The one Christmas episode of the original run aired on Christmas night, 1964, during the show's fifth season.
After the show's cancellation in 1966, the show would become even more popular in syndicated reruns, leading to a number of Saturday morning revivals throughout the 70s and into the 80s. Some of them aged the two toddlers from the original series, the Flintstone's daughter Pebbles and the Rubble's son Bamm Bamm, into high schoolers, while others kept them as young kids. In the meantime, animated Christmas specials were becoming more lucrative, so it was only a matter of time before The Flintstones got their very own.
1977's A Flintstone Christmas kept the kids as kids, though slightly aged up from toddlers to kindergarten aged. The premise had Fred reluctant to play Santa at Wilma and Betty's charity's party for underprivileged kids, until his boss Mr. Slate personally asks him to do so. Naturally, he does a 180 attitude change and is now enthusiastic about being Santa. But those plans get waylayed when the real Santa falls off Fred's roof and sprains his ankle, leaving Fred and Barney to take up the mantle.
Yep, it's another "Substitute Santa" special, one that manages to anticipate the plot of The Santa Clause 17 years ahead of time, though Fred doesn't become the new, permanent Santa in this one. To the special's credit, it doesn't stumble into every single cliche that particular storyline usually leads to, though there are plenty. There's also the ticking clock element of the fact that Fred is supposed to be playing Santa at the party, not playing Santa everywhere else in the world.
For whatever reason, A Flintstone Christmas is pretty much a full-fledged musical, with no less than five songs padding its runtime up to an hour. Not one of the songs is memorable or worthwhile. Another quirk has Santa and Mrs. Claus drawn like modern humans, not cavemen the way the other characters are drawn. Also, in the one touch that truly belies what decade this was made in, Santa has a CB radio conveniently installed in his sleigh.
16 years after A Flintstone Christmas came A Flintstone Family Christmas, which very well might have taken place 16 years later, as Pebbles and Bamm Bamm are now all grown up, married, and have toddlers of their own. They also spend most of the special off-screen, stranded at an airport. Back in Bedrock, Fred and Barney are held up by someone in a Santa outfit, who turns out to be a "caveless" kid named Stoney. After hearing the kid's tale of woe, Wilma invites him to stay with the Flintstones for Christmas, over Fred's fairly understandable objections. As it turns out, Stoney has a heart of gold (of course), but has no idea how to do the right thing. This leads to an escalating series of incidents that eventually leaves Fred and Stoney in jail on Christmas Eve.
It seems clear that A Flintstone Family Christmas was intended as a pilot for a new series focusing on Fred and Stoney. There's no reason to think such a series wouldn't have worked. Stoney was an unabashed ripoff of Bart Simpson, to be sure, but he was different enough that a series centered around him could have had some sparks of originality. Instead, this turned out to be the end of the line, despite (or perhaps because of) the success of the live-action film the following year. The next special, A Flintstone Christmas Carol, which is too long to be an entry on here, reverted Pebbles and Bamm Bamm back to toddlers, and the handful of subsequent Flintstones media have kept them that age.
I don't want to oversell A Flintstone Family Christmas. At half an hour, with no songs, it is considerably better than A Flintstone Christmas. But it is still a latter-day Flintstones special, which means lots and lots of rock-based puns. If you're a Flintstones fan, and have time to only watch one special, A Flintstone Family Christmas is the obvious choice. However, if you're not a Flintstones fan, neither special will convince you to change your mind.
Next time: Santa vs. Technology
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