THE JETSONS MEET THE FLINTSTONES (1987)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *comedy*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

I'm not going to spend much time on this piddling TV-movie, as I did on A MAN CALLED FLINTSTONE or even the three-years-later theatrical JETSONS feature. While I rated both of those movies as "fair" because they'd at least captured a little of the sociological matrix wherein those projects germinated.

The fundamental problem with this project-- and possibly the reason the flick has very few Youtube reviews-- is that you can't get much emotional mileage by having a derivative work encounter its original model. THE FLINTSTONES had swiped a beat or two from the live-action series THE HONEYMOONERS. But because it was also a cartoon based on cavepeople jokes, it soon acquired its own identity: harried middle-class laborer deals with various domestic problems and with various crazy fantasy-situations. After this primitive sitcom proved successful, enjoying six seasons in prime-time, Hanna-Barbera sought to duplicate that success with another prime-time cartoon, but one using Space Age jokes instead of Stone Age japes. If FLINTSTONES patterned itself after HONEYMOONERS, JETSONS followed a template closer to an average "nuclear family" comedy like DONNA REED. But the space-age show only lasted one season in prime-time, though reruns kept the franchise a familiar presence.

The writers may have been aware of the unfortunate parallelism, for the film starts out with both Fred Flintstone and George Jetson, in their respective time-periods, getting grief from their tyrannical bosses. Those set-ups provide what passes for comedy conflict, for none takes place between either of the two families (though Judy Jetson's romantic arc generates its own extremely dull subplot). 

In between the two male protagonists dealing with their bosses, Elroy Jetson invents a time machine and catapults his family and himself back to the Flintstones' time frame. After some initial diffidence, the three families-- Flintstones, Rubbles and Jetsons-- hang out together, and Fred tries to use George's future tech to win a contest and appease his boss. Then the time machine catapults the two caveman families back to the future, and they have to deal with George's boss. All of it shakes out with a minimum of fuss and entertainment.

Given such a slow story, either of the 1960s shows might have goosed things with slapstick routines. But that was beyond the capability of this late eighties TV-production. The only hard knock that recalled the old comic violence occurred when George gets hit by a door opened too quickly by two or three characters, one of whom is terminally tearful Judy. It didn't help. JETSONS MEET THE FLINTSTONES may qualify as one of the most underwhelming crossovers in pop culture.