The world of The Flintstones is depicted as a prehistoric version of Earth that takes place in the "Modern Stone Age".
- 1 Description
- 2 Locations
- 3 Technology
- 4 Flora & Fauna
- 5 Cuisine
- 6 Gallery
- 7 External Links
Despite taking place 30 million years prior to the 20th century (also said to be only a million years ago in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones), Bedrock itself exists in a "Modern Stone Age" version of Earth, as such it has many of the modern conveniences, themes and locales of the 20th century, even possessing many of the same countries and locations from the real world which weren't even discovered or named yet at the time of prehistory, although most of these locations will appear with altered names to make them fit with the stone age-theme of the setting.
For example, the Americas are still referred to as such but locations within them have altered names, like Hollywood being called Hollyrock, Las Vegas being called Rock Vegas and San Antonio being called Sand-and-Stony-o. Texas also had its own equivalent in the form of Texarock which was far larger than its real world counterpart and covered the vast majority of Stone Age America. Places like China and Russia also follow this theme, possessing their original names as countries but with locations within them having stone age names. Europe and Mexico however are called Eurock and Mexirock respectively. Australia has also inconsistently been referred to as Rockstralia (known as Australiarock, The Down Under or by its real name). Same with Japan often being referred to by its real name or as Japanarock. Hawaii also remains the same but its capital is referred to as Honolurock and it is apparently visible from Bedrock via binoculars.
While exact maps or full views of the setting's planet have never been shown in full, there have been some rare glimpses of maps and views of the globe seen in media like the sequel shows (such as The Flintstone Comedy Show), the 90's films, games and other media, which shows the planet's continents being connected and differently shaped, possibly a reference to the real world Pangaea. Despite some advances in stone age technology, most primitive humans in the Stone Age believed the earth was flat, as revealed in "Time Machine" and other subsequent media.
The history of the world was much like that of the real world but with Stone Age equivalents, such as wars, Roman Empires, Middle Ages (with kings, castles, knights, etc), the wild west era, etc but with a Stone Age twist, such as using small broncosauruses instead of horses and World Wars being called Stone Wars. However things like pilgrims, Indians and a few others remained the same, like cowboys still being called such rather than brontoboys or cowasaurusboys (although cow may just be short for cowasaurus).
And also this world's history having many of the same historical figures but with Stone Age names. The politics, religions and social norms were also the same as those of Earth in the 20th century, but with America's leaders operating in Washingstone instead of Washington, churches and temples being made of rocks like most other architecture of the Stone Age, and people having much of the same behavior and dialect of the middle 20th century but with a few slang words revolving around rocks.
Despite this, the episode of the fifth season, "Time Machine" suggested that history in this world would still end up following a similar formula as the real world and starting over despite already having gone through such events, with a regular Roman Empire, Middle Ages, and a regular 20th century, with the first two periods not even having the same modern comforts of the Stone Age, making the term "history repeats itself" all the more true here, but considering that the events of the world of The Flintstones takes place millions of years prior to their own 20th century, it stands to reason that the Stone Age society would fall apart at some point, degenerate and start over. Regardless, the iconic city of Bedrock would still stand even millions of years into the future.
Specials, games and other media indicated that in the far future, the world of The Flintstones would become the world of The Jetsons. It was also implied through Captain Caveman that this setting would also eventually become the world of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels somewhere in-between The Flintstones era and The Jetsons era.
The modern stone age had many of the modern conveniences of the 20th century, but in primitive stone age form, such as cars with stone wheels that were powered by one's own feet, modern furnishing which was all made out of stone, telephones made out of shells or houses made of rocks. But the most notable "technological" feature of the Flintstones is that the vast majority of appliances and devices are actually domesticated animals of all kinds which have been made to serve a specific role, like brontosauruses serving as construction cranes, mammoths serving as showers and sinks, monkeys being made to serve as traffic lights or doorbells, crabs, lobsters or small herbivorous dinosaurs serving as lawnmowers, pigasauruses made to function as garbage disposals, tiny dragons made to function as stoves, birds serving as recording devices or transmitters, electric eels made to function as electric ovens, strange radiation emitting lizards made to function like microwaves, and many more countless uses and functions.
Although these animal appliances usually had mixed feelings about their lot in life, it appears that they weren't completely subservient to their primitive human owners, in fact they implied that they worked for some form of employee unions which paid them to function as appliances. How this was carried out exactly is unknown, but in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, many of these appliances left the Flintstones home after the Jetsons (who were temporarily living there and unemployed) were unable to pay their bills, indicating that these appliances stay in service to their human owners (and are possibly paid) via bills.
Despite this over-reliance on animals in place of technology, electricity was shown to exist, with most stone age houses surprisingly having AC/DC outlets for plugging certain equipment that actually did run on electricity and seemingly had no animals operating them, however such devices were rare and few, with the only known examples being televisions, guitars and occasionally radios (which would either be electric or run by a small bird serving as the radio host). Electrical items were apparently powered by electric eels. Because of the rarity of electrical equipment, repairmen that specialized in TV repair were very rare, with Frank Frankenstone being the only known TV repairman in Bedrock at least.
According to modern stone age history, it was Thomas Edistone who first invented the revolutionary candle and Albert Einstone was responsible for many other revolutionary marvels.
Flora & Fauna
Palm trees, cacti and cycads were the most common plants that suggested either a warm or cold climate. However, episodes and movies set at Christmas time that depicted plenty of snow. Sometimes the wilderness on the outskirts appears to be desert-like, whereas at other times it resembles a tropical or subtropical jungle or forest.
The world of The Flintstones is inhabited by a wide assortment of animal life, mostly consisting of prehistoric life forms both real and fictional, with real ones such as brontosauruses, pterodactyls and woolly mammoths co-existing alongside fictional ones like "cowasauruses", "snorkasauruses" and "mouseasauruses". Regardless, some of the fictional ones would still share a similar appearance to real animals, such as the snorkasaurus resembling a plateosauridae.
Brontosauruses, pterodactyls, stegosauruses, saber-toothed cats, dodo birds, woolly mammoths, snorkasauruses, lizardsauruses and pelicansauruses were the most frequently appearing and mentioned prehistoric animals in the setting, however many others also existed but made far less frequent appearances compared to these recurring critters, such as triceratopses which were recurring but not as frequent and behaved and were treated in the same manner as bulls in the wild or as domestic animals, and T-Rexes were even rarer but did appear a few times (but only once in the original series with a single mention).
It should also be noted that many of the animals seen in the modern stone age were more intelligent than they let on, with many being capable of speech (at least among themselves, although some dinosaurs could actually be understood by primitive humans, with the most notable examples being octopusauruses and parrotsauruses). Despite the intelligence of these dinosaurs and their usefulness for primitive men, it was implied several times throughout the original franchise that these dinosaurs were slowly going extinct much like their real world counterparts, with several dinosaurs in the franchise often commenting that they would go extinct from exhaustion or abuse from their human owners, and others like roostersauruses mentioning that they would eventually be replaced by regular roosters once they evolved. In the film The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, which is alternate retelling of Fred and Wilma's marriage, one megalomaniacal caveman reveals that he is poisoning the water supplies of all the dinosaurs to bring about their extinction within the next few decades.
Several modern animals like mice, bears and cows did exist in the modern stone age but they also had dinosaur counterparts, such as mouseasauruses, bearasauruses and cowasauruses, with the only difference often being the presence of spots, spiky ridges on their backs and (occasionally) reptilian tails or saber-toothed fangs. One peculiar example were felines, with their being regular cats, saber-tooth cats and "catasauruses", with the latter having reptilian tails. Chickenasauruses were rarely seen but often mentioned. Small fire-breathing dragonasauruses were occasionally seen to service as cooking tools rather than common wildlife. Sea Serpents were creatures that plagued the seas and were considered a tall tale by most cavemen.
Primates such as monkeys and orangutans were fairly common, but were far smarter than real life, with orangutans seemingly being treated like humans in the rare instances they were seen, especially in the 1994 film where they were treated as being on par with humans and allowed to work alongside humans and even adopt. Monkeys would also be referred to as monkeysauruses despite there being nothing dinosaur-like about them.
Bugs were much like their real world counterparts but could be far larger, with antasauruses and mosquitosauruses being as large as a caveman's head or larger. One unicorn was briefly seen in The Flintstone Comedy Show whose worn out horn was being used as a drill by a mammoth. The most unusual creature within this setting was the Shmoo, a species of white marshmallow-like animals that could change into any form and serve any use.
Rocksylvania was also home to a large population of batasauruses, as well as other strange creatures which could only be described as monsters, such as the many pets owned by the Gruesomes and the Frankenstones.
The world of The Flintstones was primarily carnivorous, although salads and fruits were also eaten, but not as commonly as meat. The most commonly eaten animals in this setting were brontosauruses (serving the same role as cattle), with all manner of food products being made out of them, such as bronto ribs, bronto steaks and most notably bronto burgers. Despite this, cowasauruses did exist but they were only rarely mentioned as food when compared to brontosauruses.
Dodo birds were also the most common bird-based food product (serving the same role as chickens in terms of food), with roasted or fried dodo birds being frequently eaten and dodo bird eggs being the most commonly eaten eggs. Stegosaurus ribs were also fairly popular, as were mastodon steaks and rock dogs (essentially hot dogs although the animal they were made from was unknown). Pterodactyls could also be eaten in the same manner as dodo birds. Lizard gizzards were also one of Fred's favorite meals alongside sweet and sour ribs (according to Wilma in The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones).
- For more information about species of animals and dinosaurs, see Category:Species.