The Flintstones

The Flintstones is a 1960-1966 animated sitcom created by and. The show is set in an anachronistic Stone Age and centers around Fred Flintstone, his wife Wilma and their baby daughter Pebbles, along with their neighbours Barney Rubble and his wife Betty. At the time it was the first succesful prime time animated sitcom. It managed to gain adult fans as well as children and remained popular in reruns decades later. No other animated TV sitcom until The Simpsons managed to duplicate their success and during its early seasons The Simpsons was often compared with The Flintstones. In 1996 The Simpsons broke the Flintstones' record as longest-running prime animated sitcom.

Matt Groening watched The Flintstones too as a child, but in the documentary My Wasted Life (2000) he said that he disliked the "TV narrow boundaries, safe and formulaicness" of the show, something he wanted to avoid on The Simpsons.

The Flintstones have been referenced on The Simpsons numerous times.