The Flintstoneshas been off the air and in syndication since 1966 . But Flintstones Vitamins stay on the shelf and in home .
Meet the Flintstones
The Flintstoneswere , just like the theme song claimed , a modern Stone Age menage .
Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their best friends and next - room access neighbor , Barney and Betty Rubble , live in working class suburban splendor in the city of Bedrock . Wilma was the consummate housewife , rocking “ off-white ” with her cavewoman - elan wearing apparel and using a baby elephant as a vacuity cleanser ; Fred , her lovable lobworm twin , worked at a local quarry and enjoyed bowling . A baby dinosaur , Dino , was the family firedog and a sabertooth tiger , Baby Puss , the family true cat . Later , picayune Pebbles Flintstone and Bamm - Bamm Rubble joined the cast .
But despite the fact that it was a toon and featured more rock - found puns than your average adult - oriented situation comedy , The Flintstoneswas not originally for Kyd . In fact , when it premiered on ABC in 1960 , it took the Friday nighttime , 8:30 to 9 pm slot , and was meant to be a kind of Stone AgeHoneymooners . And it was pop — but mostly with teenager . This , according to the Museum of Broadcast Communication , heralded a teddy away from live - action children ’s programming towards aliveness .
The Merchandising
The show ’s popularity with kids logically gave rise to a vast collection of Flintstones marketing — alarm clocks , cookie jars , trading cars , house of cards gum , toy , and , of course , vitamin .
Though they ’ve obviously been around eternally , vitamins , think a mathematical group of organic substances necessary to the function of a normal metabolism , were “ discovered ” by science in the 18th and 19th centuries . By the midriff of the twentieth century , however , vitamin had been removed from scientific sketch and placed squarely in the region of commerce . vitamin in tab class , a 20th one C invention , were peddled not by aesculapian personnel , but by retailer , such as grocery store giant Kroger .
vitamin were also gamy profit items , with a market ready for diversification . In 1960 , the vitamin behemoth Miles Laboratory , owners of the One - a - mean solar day label , developed Chocks , the first cuttable vitamin aimed at child . And , even as Doctor of the Church , Food and Drug Administration officials , and scientists tussled over the say medical benefits of vitamins , Miles was making a pot off its confect - like chewables .
With a hold on the tyke ’s vitamin grocery , it was n’t surprising , therefore , that the party would choose to pair up with one of the most popular children ’s display at the time . In 1968 , Miles paired up with the modern Stone Age family , producing chewy vitamins in a variety of savor and in the shapes of the character .
The Flintstones were a solid , trustworthy lot who tyke believed in and the vitamin were pretty much an exigent striking . Miles Laboratory , which later introduced Bugs Bunny vitamins as well , eclipse the children ’s vitamin class for year , until it was acquired by Bayer as a subsidiary in 1979 . Though Miles was no more , Flintstones Vitamins remained a food market drawing card — and still are , though new character reference like SpongeBob SquarePants and bunch are start up to herd in on the action . today , there are seven varieties of the flavour and vitamin - pack sketch shapes : Flintstones Sour Gummies , Flintstones Gummies , Flintstones Complete with Choline ( Choline , a nutrient found in tit milk and , of row , cauliflower , is good for brain development ) , Flintstones Plus Extra C , Flintstones Plus Calcium , Flintstones Plus Iron , and My First Flintstones .
Perhaps some of the explanation for the Flintstone Vitamins continued winner is in their nostalgia for the generation of children who grew up with them — and who are now parents themselves . There ’s even aFacebook groupfor those who run through the vitamins as a kid . And then there ’s that jingle — “ Ten million strong and growing ! ” — which , incidentally , was compile by Martin O’Donnell , the same guy who composed the medicine for the intensely pop Halo telecasting secret plan serial .
Betty’s Not a Vitamin
But there was one not bad injustice underlying the Flintstones Vitamin empire : Nearly all the Flintstones characters — include the off-the-wall Martian character , Great Gazoo — all at one metre had fruity , calcareous likenesses . All , except Betty . Poor Betty , specify to always play 2nd fiddle to Wilma , did n’t even warrant her own vitamin .
There were ( at least ) two possible reasons why Betty did n’t have her own vitamin : First , manufacturers claimed that Betty ’s waistline was too slender and hold open breaking during production . Second , Betty was virtually indistinguishable from Wilma .
Though there was a small Betty for vitamin movement , including an Atlanta rock dance orchestra that called itself Betty ’s Not a Vitamin , it was n’t until actress and comedienne Rosie O’Donnell , who played Betty in the 1994 live action mechanism photographic film , brought Betty ’s plight to the tending of the nation that anything was really done about it . O’Donnell , during a television interview about the film , complained that all the other characters were represented , but not Betty . A savvy marketing agency take over the opportunity to involve the consumer in the direction of the mark and launched a nationwide movement to determine Betty ’s luck . The agency set up prehistoric fashion voting booths in regional shopping shopping mall across the land , as well as a 1 - 800 number , to earmark consumers to decide whether Betty should be let in the club .
The public did n’t allow her down . More than 3,000 kids and their mothers vote in person and more than 17,000 call were log , with 91 percent in favour of bringing in Betty . She became a type in December 1995 , replacing the Flintmobile .
Notably , Betty ’s Not a Vitamin was named one of the 100 good banding names byPastemagazine .
Yabba Dabba Doo!
While the Winston ads were n’t so much a trouble , mass later object to the Flintstones push drug , even if they were multivitamins . The vexation there was that commercial for Flintstone Vitamins were misleading in terms of the existent health benefits of the vitamin . Miles Laboratory , in the early seventies , was force by FDA and Federal Trade Commission scrutiny to rend aside from advertising during children ’s programming , such as the Saturday morning cartoons hr .
