Bedrock

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You may also be looking for the undeveloped television series Bedrock.
Bedrock

Planet Earth
Continent North America
Country United States/Ameroka
County Cobblestone County
Population 25,000
First appearance TF: "The Flintstone Flyer" (1960)

The Flintstones

The Flintstones (DC Comics)

Bedrock is a prehistoric town and the central location of the Flintstones animated franchise. It resembles a medium-sized American city, with various amenities paralleling that of such, but with a Stone Age twist. It is where most of the franchise's characters live, namely the Flintstones and Rubbles.

Features

Bedrock is the county seat of Cobblestone County, and stated in the season one episode "The Tycoon" to be 200 feet below sea level.[1] Presumably, the nearby town of Red Rock was located in Cobblestone County as well. However, no further information was ever given for any of these locations, besides being set in a prehistoric version of the United States. Prehistoric animals such as dinosaurs are also a common sight in Bedrock. For instance, dinosaurs were seen being used as cranes at the Slate Rock and Gravel Company (also known as "Rockhead and Quarry Cave Construction Company" in earlier episodes of the original series).

The climate of Bedrock is somewhat undetermined, since various Flintstones episodes and media have portrayed it differently. Palm trees and cycads are common yard trees, suggesting a warm climate. However, episodes and movies set during Christmas depicted plenty of snow in its climate.[2] Sometimes the wilderness on Bedrock's outskirts appears to be desert-like, whereas at other times it resembles a tropical/subtropical jungle (such as in the opening scenes of The Man Called Flintstone).

The people of Bedrock tend to be very friendly, if not without having some quirks. They tend to participate in various charities, parades, and so forth. The city is home to a number of service organizations, including the Loyal Order of Water Buffalos, which counts among its memberships on Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble.

Law and government

The city's police department helps protect the residents; their headquarters is the Bedrock Police Station. For a period of time, Fred and Barney were members as part-time police officers along with their partner and brief pet, Shmoo in the spin-off, The Flintstone Comedy Show.

Bedrock has also been shown as having a volunteer fire department, although the episode in which the volunteer fire department was introduced ("Arthur Quarry's Dance Class") suggests the uselessness of such a service in a city of stone buildings; instead, its members use it as an excuse to create a social club. However several other episodes feature a more traditional, full-time firefighting service. Also located near Bedrock is Camp Millstone Army Base, where Fred and his best friend Barney Rubble were stationed after they were mistakenly inducted into the Army in the season one episode, "The Astra' Nuts".

Bedrock's city government played a role in The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show episode "Mayor May Not," where Pebbles became the city's temporary student mayor for a week.

Regarding health care, Bedrock had the Rockopedic Hospital, where Pebbles was born.[3]

Media

Bedrock has a sizeable concentration of media despite its small size. Bedrock has at least several radio stations, several television stations, and several newspapers.

Television programs produced in Bedrock included the cooking program The Happy Housewife Show (which, for a time, starred Wilma Flintstone),[4] and the teen dance program Shinrock.[5] Other favorite programs of Bedrock citizens, though not produced there, include such fare as Peek-a-Boo Camera,[6] and variety program The Ed Sulleystone Show.[7]

One of Bedrock's newspapers is The Daily Granite, edited by Lou Granite in the Captain Caveman segments of The Flintstone Comedy Show. For a time, The Daily Granite employed Wilma and Betty Rubble as reporters.

There are also two recording companies located in Bedrock, the Keen Teen Record Company and the Flippo Record Company.

Cultural and educational institutes

Bedrock apparently has two schools: Bedrock Elementary School which Fred and his childhood friends along with Philo Quartz attended in the past from The Flintstone Kids; and Bedrock High School, the alma mater of Fred and Wilma, and later their daughter Pebbles; along with her friends, Moonrock Crater, Wiggy Rockstone and Penny Pillar. Universities in or near Bedrock include Prinstone University, as well as its arch rival school Shale University; both universities are members of the Poison Ivy League.

Business

Businesses in Bedrock include bowling alleys, pool halls, health clubs, hotels, supermarkets, one catering service — Cobblestone Caterers (as the owner proclaimed, "we're the only caterer in town!"),[8] a costume store, and an amusement park. Several department stores service Bedrock; among them include Macyrock's (where Fred once worked as a department store Santa during the Christmas season in "Christmas Flintstone," for example) and Gimblestone's (where Pebbles briefly worked as a teenager). Bedrock also features the Pyrite Advertising Agency, where Pebbles works as an adult in the TV movie I Yabba-Dabba Do! In the season one episode "The Tycoon," Bedrock is introduced by a narrator as having "a butcher, a baker and a pizza pie maker."

The most notable business in Bedrock is the Slate Rock and Gravel Company, a gravel pit run by Mr. Slate and where Fred works in.

Entertainment

In terms of entertainment, Bedrock features a drive-in movie theater where films would play. Other features include the amphitheater, the Bedrock Bowl and several nightclubs, ranging from middle-class to high-end exclusive clubs for the city's wealthy residents. The 1994 live-action film featured the exclusive nightclub Cavern on the Green, featuring its house band, "The B.C. 52s."

In the episode "The Big Bank Robbery", at the other end of the scale, there was The Poiple Dinosaur, a dive located by the wharf that was known for attracting seedy, criminal types.

Dining

Bedrock features plenty of dining options, including a drive-in restaurant serving brontosaurus ribs (as seen in the original series' closing credits), as well as several diners. The two live-action films also showed Bedrock with two fast-food restaurants, including RocDonald's and Bronto King. Bedrock also has a number of upscale restaurants, including the Rockadero, Maison-LaRock and Le Chateau Rockinbleau.

Sports

Bedrock has fielded a major league baseball team, the Giants (though in an earlier episode the team is known as the Boulders). The 1981 television special Wind-Up Wilma also shows Bedrock has a baseball team named the Dodgers. It also features a professional football team, the Brontos. Boxing matches are also popular in Bedrock. The season three episode, "Nuthin' But the Tooth" features Fred and Barney trying to see a match featuring boxer Floyd Patterstone.

Known locations

Appearances

TV series

Movies

Specials

Shorts

Theme park rides

Comics

Books

Video games

History

Behind the scenes

In popular culture

WARNING: The following section contains content that may be seen as mature or offensive to some readers. Reader discretion is advised.
Main article: List of pop culture references to Flintstones
  • In the Open All Night episode "Buckaroo Buddies," Bud sings along with a shortened version of "(Meet) the Flintstones."
  • In the Cheers episode "Sam at Eleven," he says he feels sorry for The Flintstones because viewers will switch the TV to watch him instead, leaving Bedrock a lonely town.
  • In episode four of The New Show, there is a sketch of "Walter Cronkite's World of Bloopers," in which Walter Cronkite presents some bloopers of The Flintstones episodes, with newly recorded audio over old scenes. Cronkite also has Wilma (played by Penny Marshall) on the show, referring to her as the First Lady of Bedrock. She presents a blooper of Fred prank calling Barney, making him believe actor Dustin Hoffman is on the line.
  • In the TV special The Joe Piscopo New Jersey Special, in a nightclub that is supposed to be in Hollyrock, California, Joe Piscopo plays Fred presenting The Flintstones: The Lost Episodes, with Danny DeVito as his co-host, Barney. They show a clip from one of their favorite never-before-seen episodes, which involves Fred and Barney at Fred's house, discussing Fred's anger over 18-year-old Pebbles dating a Neanderthal.
  • In the Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures episode "Don't Touch That Dial," Mighty Mouse is sent to a parody show called The Jetstones, where the world in which the Jetstones and Dribbles live resembles Bedrock, but the land floats in the air the same way the buildings are raised high in Orbity City like in The Jetsons.
  • In the April 2, 1989 comic strip of Garfield, the opening panel spoofs The Flintstones, with Garfield and Arlene in a Bedrock-like setting and dressed like Fred and Wilma, respectively, as Garfield complains to Arlene that her dogasaurus (Odie) ate his car.
  • In the movie Adventures in Dinosaur City (AKA Dinosaurs), there is a cartoon the three central kids watch that is called Dino Saurs, where anthropomorphic dinosaurs and cavepeople live in houses similar in design to the houses in Bedrock.
  • In the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode "Equilibrium," "Townof Bedrock" appears as a student's name on a computer monitor when Sikso and Bashir are searching the enrollment records for all Trill music academies while searching information on Joran Belar.
  • In the Malcolm in the Middle episode "Grandma Sues," The boys and Piama listen to "(Meet) The Flintstones" play on TV.
  • In The Boondocks episode "The Uncle Ruckus Reality Show," new BET President Wedgie Rudlin comes up with several different ideas in his first meeting, he pitches to his staff an idea for a new cartoon that is "loosely" inspired by The Flintstones, in which Dino is now a rottweiler or pitbull, and Bedrock is changed to Africa to "keep it real."
  • In The Ricky Gervais Show episode "Monkey News," Karl Pilkington goes on a tangent about how there had to be a crossover point between humans and dinosaurs to humans and dogs, which baffles cohosts, Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant, with the latter believing he was simply influenced by watching The Flintstones, with a cartoon illustration of Pilkington dressed like Fred and doing things in Bedrock like driving the Flintmobile, letting out Baby Puss, and pouring cement into a pelican.
  • In The Cleveland Show episode, "A General Thanksgiving Episode," Holt introduces himself to an attractive woman as Fred Flintstone because "[he] can make [her] bed rock."
  • In the Teen Titans Go! episode "Serious Business," mankind was primitive until the first toilet was made, with the worlds of Flintstones and Jetsons representing the before and after.
  • In The Middle episode "The Shirt," Mike gets a lot of jokes when suddenly wears a Hawaiian t-shirt instead of his usual flannel shirt. After they go on a double date with another couple, Mike complains about all the jokes they made, which Frankie says it's unusual, the same way if Fred Flintstone walked around Bedrock in something other than his "leopard man-dress" he wouldn't get any remarks from Wilma, Barney, and Betty.
  • Bedrock is listed on a screen above the lever Pete uses to send LeBron James to Tune World in the film Space Jam: A New Legacy.
  • In celebration of Warner Bros.' 100th anniversary, they produced a special short which reimagined Looney Tunes characters as Flintstones characters living in Bedrock.

Drawn Together

Main article: Drawn Together
  • "A Tale of Two Cows:" The town has been destroyed by Live Action Cow and all its residents were killed. As the gang passes by it, Clara says that they deserve it for constantly having a "gay old time".
  • The Drawn Together Movie: The Movie: Toot's story takes place in Bedrock.

The Fairly OddParents

Main article: The Fairly OddParents
  • Channel Chasers (part 2): Timmy zaps himself and the fairies into The Meatflints which is set in a Bedrock-like world.
  • "Land Before Timmy:" Bogged down with the failure of technology, Timmy wishes for a world without, which is now a Flintstones-like world. The Turners are now called the Turnstones who live in a house like the Flintstones. Timmy and Cosmo ride down a dinosaur's back, with the former shouting, "Oo-ba-da-ba-di!"

Family Guy

Main article: Family Guy
  • "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Bucks:" While walking in New York set to Flintstones-esque music, Peter tries to lift Meg's spirits by telling her she'll find her hidden talent when they suddenly walk onto Bedrock.
  • "Peter's Got Woods:" When Brian is busy on another date with his new girlfriend, Peter tries to replace him with Barney. We then see Peter at the Rubbles', where he is waiting for Barney to finish in the toilet, so they can go play darts. Barney is using a pelican as a toilet, who makes a joke about his predicament. A sheep later made a similar joke after hearing Meg was on her period.
  • "Road to the Multiverse:" Stewie and Brian travel to an alternate universe of Quahog, which resembles Bedrock and has a laugh track. Peter and Lois are now called Rock Peter and Rock Lois and are dressed and have the same hairstyles as Fred and Wilma. The word "rock" is placed before and in place of other words as well, so they had rock sex which included Rock Peter rocking Rock Lois up the rock last rock night (which also included a "rockphylactic" in the form of a frog, "Ribbeted for your pleasure.") As you can imagine, Stewie and Brian wanted to get the "rock out of there."

Full House

  • "Our Very First Show:" Joey, Jesse, Danny, D.J., and Stephanie, sing "(Meet) The Flintstones" to soothe baby Michelle. As an homage, the same family members sing the song again to baby Tommy in "Our Very First Show, Again," the pilot episode of Fuller House. The latter episode features a side-by-side comparison with the original.
  • "Happy Birthday, Babies, Part 2:" Michelle has Flintstones-themed party, with the living room being given a prehistoric Bedrock-like decoration. D.J., as Wilma, welcomes the guests and brings out her "Bedrock buddies," which is the rest of her family dressed as Flintstones characters.

The Simpsons

Main article: The Simpsons
  • "Treehouse of Horror V:" During the "Time and Punishment" segment, when Homer gets crazy from time travelling into the Stone Age, he crushes fauna and flora alike in anger, which shapeshifts his house in the present into various different forms including the Flintstones' house.
  • "Mobile Homer:" While taking the RV by themselves, Bart and Lisa find a "Flintstones Fun Map" (which has the Flintstones, Rubbles, their pets, and the Great Gazoo) instead of a real map.

References

  1. ^ The Flintstones: "The Tycoon," season 1, episode 22 (1961).
  2. ^ The Flintstones: "Christmas Flintstone," season 5, episode 15 (1964).
  3. ^ The Flintstones: "The Blessed Event," season three, episode 23 (1963).
  4. ^ The Flintstones: "The Happy Household," season 2, episode 25 (1962).
  5. ^ The Flintstones: "Shinrock-a-Go-Go" season 6, episode 12 (1965).
  6. ^ The Flintstones: "Peek-a-Boo Camera," season 4, episode 14 (1963).
  7. ^ The Flintstones: "Itty Bitty Fred," season 5, episode 3 (1964).
  8. ^ The Flintstones: "Pebbles' Birthday Party," season 5, episode 4 (1964).
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