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TV The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, or Tom and Jerry: Which is Hanna-Barbera's most iconic franchise?

Which IP is more iconic?

  • The Flintstones

    Votes: 2 4.8%

  • Scooby-Doo

    Votes: 29 69.0%

  • Tom and Jerry

    Votes: 11 26.2%

  • Other

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    42
WestEgg

WestEgg

King of the Krocs
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In the history of animation, few studios produced as much iconic content as Hanna-Barbera. Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss, Topcat, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, The Jetsons, Jabberjaw, Josie and the Pussycats, Captain Caveman, Wacky Races... the list goes on. But undoubtedly, there are two goliaths who stand at the top, that have stood the test of time and remain relevant to this day.

In the Red Corner, we have The Flintstones

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The Modern Stone Age Family. The first animated sitcom on prime time TV. They've had a long running series, multiple spin offs, several animated movies, a few live action ones, mountains of merchandise, heck they are even the most famous form of Children's vitamins, AND the mascots of Fruity and Coco Pebbles, appearing in every supermarket in the world that carries American cereals. The Flintstones are basically the Simpsons before the Simpsons, and definitely true icons of television and animation. It's hard to imagine any cartoon more iconic and influential than the Flintstones, right?

Well...

In the Blue Corner, we have Scooby-Doo!

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Coming on in the late 60s, Scooby-Doo became a huge hit for Hanna-Barbera, and was largely responsible for kicking off a cavalcade of "Group of teenagers plus talking animal/thing solves mysteries" imitations. Just as the Flintstones were based around The Honeymooners, The Scooby-Doo gang draws some clear inspiration from Archie Comics. But like the Flintstones, Scoob and the gang has been getting new shows, movies, merchandise, live action movies, etc for decades. The series briefly went dormant in the 90s but came roaring back with the direct to home video "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island", and has basically been in production since.

EDIT: I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT THEM:
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So, which of these titans of televisions, these Apexes of Animations, these Kings of Cartoons gets your nod for the most iconic?
 
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Scooby Doo is way more iconic.

But Tom & Jerry is more iconic then both, surprised not to even see it mentioned. Edit -- Oh, specifically the studio rather then the people.
 
It's Scooby, every few years there's some sort of adaptation or reboot of the IP. I can't remember the last time I saw something with the Flintstones, though Flintstones has the more iconic theme song so there's that.

Actually had no idea Tom And Jerry was created by Hanna and Barbera!
 
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Tom and Jerry is insanely popular in Japan and China where scoob and f. Stones is nothing. Also old T and J shorts are actually funny.
 
sir_crocodile said:
I think technically they created it at MGM so the OP still stands if it's work specifically at HB studios
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I had to look it up, it looks like yes, they were created by Hanna and Barbera, but not by the Hanna-Barbera company. So it's a borderline case, but I've already edited the thread, so I'll allow it.
 
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I would imagine if you're under a certain age it's Scooby-Doo, and if you're over a certain age it's the Flintstones.

It's just that, at this point, the Flintstones demographic isn't exactly young.
 
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Just from outside the US, at this point Scooby feels a bit more relevant than Flintstones in that ‘young people go on supernatural adventures’ has a wider appeal in 2023 than ‘pretty standard family sitcom with a twist’. Also a lot of the Flintstones merchandising is pretty much only relevant in the US. It’s theme song is eternal though!

In terms of icons Tom and Jerry has them beat just through slapstick having immediate global appeal by cutting through language barriers.
 
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I had heard the Wacky Races reboot was actually pretty decent, as was the Jellystone one.
 
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Speaking of Wacky Races, it’s spin-off ‘Stop the Pigeon’ has the dubious honour of its repetitive theme song being stuck in my head since I was a kid. The cartoon was probably shown only briefly here but if I had to live with it so do you all.

“So stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Howww?

Nab him
Jab him
Tab him
Grab him
Stop that pigeon now!”
 
PixelKnight said:
Speaking of Wacky Races, it’s spin-off ‘Stop the Pigeon’ has the dubious honour of its repetitive theme song being stuck in my head since I was a kid. The cartoon was probably shown only briefly here but if I had to live with it so do you all.

“So stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Stop the pigeon
Howww?

Nab him
Jab him
Tab him
Grab him
Stop that pigeon now!”
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Watched that shit on Boomerang all the time
 
Would "The Smurfs" be considered an "iconic" Hanna-Barbara franchise? The Smurfs lasted for 8 seasons...from 1981 to 1989.

Keep in mind that they are still making movies and TV shows out of The Smurfs.

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Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
Watched that shit on Boomerang all the time
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Apparently its actual name was “Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines”, and “Stop the Pigeon” was just the name of the theme song. But I always remember it as StP because of the lyrics, and StP was actually its working title that informed them! I guess Dastardly and Muttley were a known quantity after Wacky Races.
 
Scooby Doo these days is probably the only one who is keeping the HB torch even alive. There's Jellystone, but even that isn't much in the way of supporting the individual properties.
 
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Scooby Doo is the one getting the new shows but it’s Tom and Jerry that’s closer to my heart
 
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Before the Warner Bros Discovery merger, there was a Flintstone's reboot in development.

An adult animated series called "Bedrock". It would have aired on Fox alongside The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Bedrock will follow the Flintstone family two decades after the original, with Fred on the brink of retirement and 20-something Pebbles embarking on her own career. As the Stone Age gives way to a shiny and enlightened new Bronze Age, the residents of Bedrock will find this evolution harder than a swing from Bamm-Bamm’s club.
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Source: Deadline

Bedrock-3.jpg
 
Hanna Barbera. That is a name that has so much meaning to me and the pop culture of America in the 20th century. There has been a lot of great content that came out of that company for a long time. I could reminisce about those cartoons for hours.

I'd say that Tom and Jerry is the most iconic, but Scooby Doo has had the most staying power.
 
Tom and Jerry is probably as iconic and part of the history of animation as Looney Tunes, but Scooby Doo hasn't been off the air for more than a year since it started (either in re-runs or with new content for the vast majority of the time).

PixelKnight said:
Apparently its actual name was “Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines”, and “Stop the Pigeon” was just the name of the theme song. But I always remember it as StP because of the lyrics, and StP was actually its working title that informed them! I guess Dastardly and Muttley were a known quantity after Wacky Races.
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There's a great episode of a weird spinoff show called Yogi's Treasure Hunt where Yogi and Dick Dastardly are presented as the presidents of neighbouring South American themed countries Bearzil and Dickaragua. Dick kidnaps and brainwashes Yogi and others with a loop of Stop The Pigeon.
 
aus89 said:
There's a great episode of a weird spinoff show called Yogi's Treasure Hunt where Yogi and Dick Dastardly are presented as the presidents of neighbouring South American themed countries Bearzil and Dickaragua. Dick kidnaps and brainwashes Yogi and others with a loop of Stop The Pigeon.
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This is what they should be teaching in school

Lol at Dickaragua
 
Absolutely no love for the Flintstones. I figured Scooby would be the favorite, but I thought at least some people would side with the Flintstones.
 
WestEgg said:
Absolutely no love for the Flintstones. I figured Scooby would be the favorite, but I thought at least some people would side with the Flintstones.
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I feel like Flintstones really failed to adapt with the times. It was on reruns on Cartoon Network all the time when I was a kid, but with the move to streaming being the primary way to watch TV, I don't think people are actively rewatching it or coming back to it, and I can't think of any notable adaptations in the last couple of decades other than that one serious gritty comic (which was surprisingly good).
 
Mekanos said:
I feel like Flintstones really failed to adapt with the times. It was on reruns on Cartoon Network all the time when I was a kid, but with the move to streaming being the primary way to watch TV, I don't think people are actively rewatching it or coming back to it, and I can't think of any notable adaptations in the last couple of decades other than that one serious gritty comic (which was surprisingly good).
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Flintstones/Jetsons feel more Addams Family level to me than something like Scooby Doo which has been a part of culture one way or another for more than half a century at this point, year on year, without going away. The Flintstones/Jetsons were summarily replaced in terms of cultural importance by The Simpsons but are a fun, well liked relic of a different time that every now and then get a new lease on life (see Wednesday for Addams Family)
 
Mekanos said:
I feel like Flintstones really failed to adapt with the times. It was on reruns on Cartoon Network all the time when I was a kid, but with the move to streaming being the primary way to watch TV, I don't think people are actively rewatching it or coming back to it, and I can't think of any notable adaptations in the last couple of decades other than that one serious gritty comic (which was surprisingly good).
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aus89 said:
Flintstones/Jetsons feel more Addams Family level to me than something like Scooby Doo which has been a part of culture one way or another for more than half a century at this point, year on year, without going away. The Flintstones/Jetsons were summarily replaced in terms of cultural importance by The Simpsons but are a fun, well liked relic of a different time that every now and then get a new lease on life (see Wednesday for Addams Family)
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It is interesting how stuff expands beyond its core appeal. It’s true that The Simpsons took the ‘animated family sitcom’ crown over 30 years ago, but part of its endurance has been the way it leans into heartwarming moments, familiarity and catchphrases sometimes, while also focusing on characters beyond the core cast and putting new twists on cliches, or just being outright weird. The main appeal beyond a dated sitcom setup (Fred and Barney work all day and scheme about something. Their wives go shopping!) of the Flintstones was the Stone Age/dinosaurs twist, and by the time The Simpsons and Jurassic Park in the early 90s were media juggernauts merchandising anything you could imagine, The Flintstones just felt a bit dated.

Weirdly that Dinosaurs sitcom, starting in 1991, riffed on the same family sitcom setup about the same time. Pretty forgettable compared to the prior strength of The Flintstones and the latter of The Simpsons and Jurassic Park, but it’s kinda part of an early 90s media shift that Scooby Doo’s inherent silliness was more resilient to, as it’s enduring appeal isn’t really a single twist on a dated setup that’s been upended by either modern or cynical takes on it, or more flexible ones that are able to move with the times more (The Simpsons). The Flintstones is still a mammoth (sorry!) touchstone though, but one maybe for older audiences now. My kid knows exactly who the Scooby Doo cast are (even if she wouldn’t get references to the original 60s series), but if I said ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!’ she’d look at me like I’d just confirmed her theory that her dad was a bit odd :D
 
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I feel like Scooby Doo is timeless and relatively super flexible which helps it win out here. I love Tom and Jerry a lot too, but it hasn’t been very active lately and I haven’t seen any of the old episodes in years. I was never a big Flintstones fan even if I’ve probably seen most of the episodes, so that wasn’t in contention for me.
 
PixelKnight said:
It is interesting how stuff expands beyond its core appeal. It’s true that The Simpsons took the ‘animated family sitcom’ crown over 30 years ago, but part of its endurance has been the way it leans into heartwarming moments, familiarity and catchphrases sometimes, while also focusing on characters beyond the core cast and putting new twists on cliches, or just being outright weird. The main appeal beyond a dated sitcom setup (Fred and Barney work all day and scheme about something. Their wives go shopping!) of the Flintstones was the Stone Age/dinosaurs twist, and by the time The Simpsons and Jurassic Park in the early 90s were media juggernauts merchandising anything you could imagine, The Flintstones just felt a bit dated.

Weirdly that Dinosaurs sitcom, starting in 1991, riffed on the same family sitcom setup about the same time. Pretty forgettable compared to the prior strength of The Flintstones and the latter of The Simpsons and Jurassic Park, but it’s kinda part of an early 90s media shift that Scooby Doo’s inherent silliness was more resilient to, as it’s enduring appeal isn’t really a single twist on a dated setup that’s been upended by either modern or cynical takes on it, or more flexible ones that are able to move with the times more (The Simpsons). The Flintstones is still a mammoth (sorry!) touchstone though, but one maybe for older audiences now. My kid knows exactly who the Scooby Doo cast are (even if she wouldn’t get references to the original 60s series), but if I said ‘Yabba Dabba Doo!’ she’d look at me like I’d just confirmed her theory that her dad was a bit odd :D
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Scooby Doo is also basically a whodunnit for kids and murder mysteries/detective shows have shown to be perennial things that people just love and can watch over and over even if the same things happen week in week out bc its fun to work out the mystery and maybe have a bit of the spooky imagery that Scooby has going on. The Flintstones were basically just puns about the Stone Age/rocks etc... so its not surprising that The Simpsons which is as you say, filled with a lot more heart and depth (on the whole, recent seasons obv ymmv) than Flintstones would supplant them so easily.
 
aus89 said:
Scooby Doo is also basically a whodunnit for kids and murder mysteries/detective shows have shown to be perennial things that people just love and can watch over and over even if the same things happen week in week out bc its fun to work out the mystery and maybe have a bit of the spooky imagery that Scooby has going on. The Flintstones were basically just puns about the Stone Age/rocks etc... so its not surprising that The Simpsons which is as you say, filled with a lot more heart and depth (on the whole, recent seasons obv ymmv) than Flintstones would supplant them so easily.
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Oh absolutely. On top of the mystery/detective element, it was also ‘Monster of the week’ long before The X-files (hey we’re back in the early 90s again! :) ) and then Buffy, and then Supernatural riffed on it. The latter two making pretty sizeable nods to Scooby Doo too.

Agree that The Flintstones was essentially ‘exactly like a normal 1960s sitcom but all tech is stone-age-ified’ (for want of a better term!).
 
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WestEgg said:
Absolutely no love for the Flintstones. I figured Scooby would be the favorite, but I thought at least some people would side with the Flintstones.
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The massive impact and influence that The Flintstones had on modern adult animation (The Simpsons, Family Guy) can't be emphasized enough. The Flintstones was the first primetime animated TV series ever. Before The Flintstones, the idea of an animated series airing at 8:30 PM was completely unheard of. During those years, cartoons only aired during Saturday mornings.

When The Flintstones premiered in 1960, it wasn't originally considered a children's show. It was aimed at adults and general audiences. It was aimed at the same general audiences that watched shows like "The Dick Van Dyke Show", "The Andy Griffith Show", "The Munsters", "The Addams Family", "Bewitched", "I Dream of Jeanie", "Gilligan's Island", etc, etc.

Here is The Flintstones advertising Winston cigarettes.



Here is The Flintstones advertising Busch Beer.

 
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Tom & Jerry was fantastic but personally I don’t consider it H&B. The recent reboots are all terrible.

The Flintstones is just not great, even if you can argue it’s super influential.

Scooby Doo has great theme songs, the first season stands up (based on my kids enjoying it) and the recent series and WB animated movies (not Scoob) are pretty ok.

It’s Scooby Doo all the way.
 
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Probably Tom and Jerry, though it’s hard to have context for international audiences.

Once again imploring everyone to read the Flintstones comic by Mark Russel.
 
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Scooby-Doo

the only Flintstones things I've seen in the last decade are the comic from DC, and the 7 Grand Dad meme
 
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Flintstones insinuates that black folks either weren't present in the same area, were still primates or just didn't exist.

The Jetsons....black folks not make it to the future?

Scooby Doo was my shit
 
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