Seth McFarlane to reboot The Flintstones

I've never been able to get into any of Seth McFarlane's TV stuff. Family Guy was always too trendy, American Dad wasn't funny, and the less said about The Cleveland Show the better.What I do know is that he must be the busiest guy on the planet not named Ryan Seacrest or Ryan Reynolds, and that's not even including his feature film debut, Ted, which has Mark Wahlberg in the lead. That movie might actually turn out to be pretty funny, but it's not nearly as interesting as what McFarlane has up his sleeve next.  Deadline is reporting that McFarlane and 20th Century Fox have closed a deal to let him reboot classic animated series, The Flintstones, for TV and film. The TV series goes into production later this year with a planned 2013 premier. 

There's no word yet on what movies could spring forth from this deal, but they'd have to be a damn sight better than the John Goodman/Rick Moranis atrocity from 1994 or it's equally vile 2000 sequel. Both of those were directed by Brian Levant. Go take look at his filmography and see what terror he hath wrought. I can see why the rights holders, Warner Brothers now owns Hanna-Barbara, would be hesitant to have McFarlane's brand of risque humor associated with such an iconic property. But that didn't stop them from greenlighting two shitty flicks so they can't really say much, can they?

In theory, The Flintstones should work pretty well. There are already a number of shows, both live and animated, that feature a blue collar guy slogging through his daily life with his all too sexy wife. At the time of it's original airing, The Flintstones ran in prime time for six seasons, and was a top 30 hit for three of them. It was also known for breaking a number of social boundaries, like depicting Fred and Wilma sleeping together in the same bed(a rarity in those days), and integrating a number of sponsor products into each episode, like in the image below of them smoking Winston cigarettes.