The Flintstones Visit Rock Vegas – August 17, 1962

The Flintstones are certainly a cultural phenomenon that will never quite be extinct.

Every few years, there is talk about reviving the Hanna-Barbara TV series, which endures in reruns thanks to the warmth and universal appeal of the characterizations. There have been many new comic books in recent years, featuring realistic renderings of the Bedrock bunch, that have introduced the characters to today's youth. And while the theme parks have closed in recent years (which I wrote about here), Flintstone Vitamins and Pebbles Cereal help keep the franchise alive.

Sixty years ago, the show was still on network TV in first-run prime time, and thus worthy of promotion in the newspaper. Below you see one of those little publicity drawings that used to appear on the Journal's TV page from time to time. As you can see, this one was promoting a repeat episode where Fred and Wilma vacation in Rock Vegas.

Note the drawing of the Dunes Rocks Hotel, with a statue of a caveman above the entrance. It mimics the actual Dunes entryway pretty well, judging by this vintage postcard.

A cute, live-action film of the Flintstones and Rubbles visiting Rock Vegas was released in 1994.

Anyway, it's fun to look at the rest of the August 17, 1962 TV page above. It all seems very strange now, with so few TV networks and choices that it was possible to publish an at-a-glance digest of an evening's programming.

Note that the 1950s black and white episodes of Dragnet (with Frank Smith as Sgt. Friday's partner) were being shown on Channel 8 at 6:30 p.m. My kind of programming!