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In The Flintstones, mostly you just see the Flintstone family and the Rubble family. The show was pretty rife with one-off characters, usually named in a punny form. In fact, there are only a handful of characters outside of the Flinstones and Rubbles who appeared more than once or twice.
The Great Gazoo is the most famous of those, or rather the most infamous. In its sixth and final season, The Flintstones had run out of ideas. Where The Brady Bunch added a new kid, Cousin Oliver, The Flinstones added a wisecracking alien only Fred could see and talk to. Suddenly, Gazoo was a supporting character, and the writing was on the wall.
Gazoo wasn’t the first stab at shaking things up in a weird way, though. Do you recall the Gruesomes? They were a “creepy but friendly” family who moved in next door to The Flintstones. Basically, they were the Addams Family. There was even an Uncle Ghastly in the mix!
Of course, there is Fred and Barney’s boss Mr. Slate. Originally there were two boss characters. The one we now think of as Mr. Slate was originally Mr. Rockhead. Mr. Slate was a short guy. They swapped their names and got rid of the original Mr. Slate. That opened up the door for a new Rockhead, Joe Rockhead. Yes, Fred and Barney have a friend outside of their duo, and that’s Joe. Sam Slagheap isn’t really their friend. It seems like Wilma and Betty don’t have other friends.
Anyway, how did this show last so long?
