Trying to revive the wildly successful Flintstones franchise, NBC introduced The New Fred and Barney Show in 1979, which brought back all the lovable residents of Bedrock.

Fred, his wife Wilma and their daughter Pebbles lived next door to Barney Rubble, his wife Betty and their abnormally strong son, Bamm-Bamm. The two families were very close and Fred and Barney spent most of their free time together, getting into trouble and usually getting bailed out by their long-suffering wives. Many episodes had Scooby-Dooesque storylines, involving witches, werewolves, monsters and 70s fads, like CB radios.

The animation of the new series was a little sharper and Fred Flintstone was voiced by a new actor (the wonderful Alan Reed had died a few years earlier) but Bedrock stayed mostly the same.

After a few months on the air, The New Fred and Barney Show became Fred and Barney Meet the Thing, which included reruns as well as original episodes. The hour long series consisted of one Flintstones episode and one episode about Fantastic Four team member, the superstrong Thing. Soon after that, the Flintstones and the Thing welcomed a third party to their show which was now called Fred and Barney Meet the Shmoo. That combination does boggle the mind a little but stay strong, dear readers.

The 90-minute super show eventually became The Flintstone Comedy Show which incorporated more characters from Bedrock and aired on NBC until 1982.