Bedrock

 Ever since the original series ended in 1966, new episodes of The Flintstones were produced or exist in concept form on-and-off through the decades, usually with a different title and characters as the main focus - beginning with The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.

Over the decades, a timeline was implied; subsequent episodes/series/TV specials would sometimes be noncommittal, either depicting the kids as babies again, or as adolescents/pre-teenagers, or their respective parents as children (The Flintstone Kids), but the farthest Hanna-Barbera went was a trio of TV specials in the 1990's: I Yabba Dabba Doo!, Hollyrock-A-Bye Baby and A Flintstone Family Christmas - depicting the engagement & marriage of Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm, birth of their fraternal twins - Chip & Roxie - plus the arrival of Stoney, a foster child who may or may not have been adopted by Fred at the end of that Christmas special; the details on if Fred became legal guardian of Stoney by the end are fuzzy; even the accompanying storybook published didn't clear this up..maybe the kid took off for Hollyrock.

According to what is, essentially, a press release, Bedrock is hinting that it might eschew all that continuity created by the spinoffs and take an alternate route, as it appears the new focus will be on Pebbles Flintstone as an adult in her 20's (voiced by actress & executive producer Elizabeth Banks) living in a Bedrock on the verge of entering The Bronze Age while her father, Fred Flintstone, is adjusting to retirement; this is a retcon from the spinoffs, which depicted Fred continuing to work at Slate Rock & Gravel Company long after Pebbles started her own family; Wilma & Betty had become partners in a catering business, while Barney (who had last been established working as an insurance agent in the original series, albeit for an unseen "Mr. Pebble") was now co-workers with Fred at Slate Rock & Gravel, later renamed Slatecorp. It's unclear if Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm will remain a double act, like they did in the spinoffs, or if this series will be an opportunity to flesh out Pebbles' personality more, possibly give her a redesign, since she's the star; I always thought the reason why the old spinoffs were intriguing as a curiosity, but not particularly successful/entertaining/inspiring and faded into obscurity, is because the writers never really fleshed out the personality of the 2nd/3rd generation Flintstones characters to fuel interesting stories..

 I'm actually hoping there's some distinction to noting the Bronze era beyond a satirical parallel of "woke" activism. That era is significant for the creation of clothing woven from man-made material, replacing animal-skin pelts/togas, along with innovations in craftsmanship, construction, economics and materials with the use of precious metals. If I was writing episodes for this series, I would suggest Pebbles get a job working at a factory that crafts products out of bronze metal, so her path as an adult has a stronger connection to the series' past..That would be more interesting than wondering if maybe we'll see characters use coins instead of clams! The invention of Paper is also on the horizon; It shouldn't look like The Roman Holidays just yet - they'll still be using Smartrock phones..the Flintmobile's GPS will probably be a miniature pterodactyl with Gilbert Gottfried's voice...

At the end of the day, I'm looking forward to seeing if Bedrock will look like The Flintstones, in terms of aesthetic fidelity. The background art for that teaser image looks nice, but offers no clue what the characters will look like...I am convinced the reason why Seth Mcfarlane's attempt at a reboot of the series went nowhere because the show would've resembled a copy of Family Guy, in look & story-style..and the franchise really dodged a bullet, there.

 We'll soon see if we'll Yabba Dabba Doo or Yabba Dabba Don't have a gay old time...