Seth MacFarlane re-imagining the Flintstones

[samurainoir]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0oF_G4aWSU
Like the John K Yogi the Bear redo, I don't think a Seth MacFarlane Flintstones would be quite a satisfying enough experience for either Family Guy/American fans (who want their edgy raunch), or old-school Flintstones fans and their kids (who want to share their nostalgic "hit").

Thus far, from what we've seen of Macfarlane's use of the Flintstone's on Family Guy, he's thrust them into confronting contemporary situations with sexual rock-puns. It works in quick snippets to see Fred and Wilma in marriage counselling, or Fred confessing to Barney about his attraction to Betty, because of the shock value. Not sure how this could play for half an hour every week.

[thunderbolt]

Not sure how the lowbrow toilet humor will fly with the companies that currently produce Stones merchandise for kids. I'm thinking not to well.

[Brown Bear]

Worst news I've heard in while. What next? Maybe the producer of Trailer Park Boys will revamp Mister Rogers neighborhood.

Respect the classics and leave it the hell alone.

[huedell]

Seth could do THE SIMPSONS better than the Simpsons... no reason he
couldn't do the FLINTSTONES justice.

I think SOUTH PARK is of poor quality.. and mostly lowbrow humor...
but I never woulda had the cajones that you in this thread have had to
say they coiuldn't handle a FLINTSTONES redux.

[HardyGirl]

Worst news I've heard in while. What next? Maybe the producer of Trailer Park Boys will revamp Mister Rogers neighborhood.

Respect the classics and leave it the hell alone.

Amen! (and pass the biscuits!) Why does everything have to be revamped and reworked? Why can't they just re-issue the classics? I mean...if they wanted to fix the film so it wouldn't decay and HD it up a little, that's OK. But the Flintstones are just fine the way they are. He should just stick to his stupid Family Guy and leave well enough alone.

[thunderbolt]

Seth could do THE SIMPSONS better than the Simpsons... no reason he
couldn't do the FLINTSTONES justice.

I think SOUTH PARK is of poor quality.. and mostly lowbrow humor...
but I never woulda had the cajones that you in this thread have had to
say they coiuldn't handle a FLINTSTONES redux.

Sorry, Seth isn't qualified to clean Homer's toilet, let alone Fred's.

[Mikey]

Sorry, Seth isn't qualified to clean Homer's toilet, let alone Fred's.

I have to agree

Family Guy is basically just a smutty ripoff of the Simpsons

[huedell]

T-bolt, Mike... you can say whatever you want...

but Seth's stuff makes me laugh harder than anything the Simpsons has
done in years... and that qualifies him to revamp any old cartoon he is
asked to revamp IMHO... I try to not be too "definite" with this stuff...
but recent posts have forced me say it: "FG and AD have been pumelling
Simpsons when it comes to laughs for YEARS now."

As far as:

...just stick to his stupid Family Guy and leave well enough alone.

Well, he's got AD, and TCS to watch over too, so the check amt. to get
him involved must've been pretty high.

[jwyblejr]

My guess is no one here has seen the episodes of Johnny Bravo that Seth wrote.

[madmarva]

I'll give it a watch when it comes on and it may be great,. but honestly, it doesn't seem like a good match.

McFarlane's made his rep by burstin through the boundaries of taste. A live-action show would never get away with what his animated shows do on network TV. Obviously, sick/dirty humor is his wheelhouse.

Does that match with the Flintstones' brand? I don't think so. The original 60s series was smarter and more artfully written than any of the subsequent Saturday morning iterations, but the Flintstones is clearly considered a kids property today.

Can McFarlane excel producing a kid's show? It takes all his best weapons away from him.

And conversely, does the public really want to see a crude, gross-out PG-13 version of Flintstones?

It kind of reminds me of Richard Pryor being cast in Superman III. Pryor couldn't do what he did best in the film because it couldn't be R-rated, and Pryor and the film suffered for it.

[The Toyroom]

I'm a huge fan of the original series....with the exception of the "Pebbles and Bamm Bamm Show" spin-off (which I think I love for nostalgia reasons more than anything) everything other attempt to update, revamp and continue the Flinstones saga has sucked IMO. All of the one-off TV movies and subsequent Saturday morning attempts (meeting the Frankenstones, who were poor subs for the Gruesomes...meeting The Shmoo...garbage!) were worthless and didn't have the same charm of the original series.

[Brad]

T-bolt, Mike... you can say whatever you want...

but Seth's stuff makes me laugh harder than anything the Simpsons has
done in years... and that qualifies him to revamp any old cartoon he is
asked to revamp IMHO... I try to not be too "definite" with this stuff...
but recent posts have forced me say it: "FG and AD have been pumelling
Simpsons when it comes to laughs for YEARS now."

I agree with you 100%!!!!! FG rules!!!!

[Mikey]

I'm no big Simpsons fan.

To be honest I think the Simpsons should have been cancelled after 5 seasons.

Today, it's totally unwatchable for me.

For Family Guy, I liked it from season-2 to about season-3-4-ish

Today I put Family Guy and Simpsons in the same boat ... Both have been on too long and their newness and edginess is long behind them.

Going back to the original subject, The Cleveland Show is a good example of MacFarlane making an effort to be more clean --- The result is a crazy boring show where most people are still left scratching their heads asking why it was ever made and why is it still on.

[Brown Bear]

Unfortunately for old fashioned guys like me, we live in a society that finds crude, tasteless humor amusing. South Park, Family Guy & Trailer Park Boys are all garbage in my opinion.

I am NOT looking forward to a Fred Flinstone that I can't watch with my five year old.

[ctc]

>The result is a crazy boring show where most people are still left scratching their heads asking why it was ever made and why is it still on.

I think MacFarlane has a habit of over-reaching. The Cleveland Show is really, REALLY blah. I've noticed that for any given three or four week cycle either "Family Guy" OR "American Dad" will be funny; but not both. Adding a fourth show would probably result in him being stretched further, with ALL the shows suffering.

....but maybe he'll go WAY back to the classic Flintstones:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAExoSozc2c

Don C.