It's hard to imagine, but there was a time before the Flintstones were a modern stone-age family. We take it for granted because they've been together on TV for so long, but there was a time before Pebbles and a time before Fred even knew who Wilma was. 

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Flintstones

When Fred Flintstone fought Simba for toy store supremacy

That period of time is The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas, an early 2000s live-action movie that takes place before the Flintstones cartoon. It's also, canonically, a prequel to the 1996 Flinstones movie starring John Goodman and Rick Moranis. Those former actors are gone, though, and in their place is a brand new cast portraying younger versions of our favorite characters. Way before he was Robert Baratheon on Game of Thrones, actor Mark Addy was the guy from The Full Monty, and he's this movie's Fred Flintstone. He's supported by Stephen Baldwin as Barney Rubble. When our story begins, Fred and Barney are living the bachelor lifestyle and have only just recently been approved as crane operators at Slate and Company. 

Fred and Barney, newly employed, want to hit the town with a couple of dates on their arms, and that's where the Great Gazoo factors into the plot. Gone is Harvey Korman (although he does show up in a cameo later as Wilma's dad), and in his place is the versatile Alan Cumming as the exiled green alien that only Fred and Barney can see. 

Soon enough, these prehistoric pals are visiting a carnival, proudly enjoying the company of Wilma and Betty. However, Fred is first matched with Betty, and Barney is matched with Wilma. Expectedly, things don't work out. However, the carnival is still historically significant to Flintstones lore, because it's there, at a fairground game, that Fred wins an egg that hatches into Dino!

While the film was a total box office disaster and nearly stalled the careers of everybody involved, the story is actually pretty interesting! Without spoiling the rest of the movie, we'll just urge you to check it out yourself. It answers a lot of questions about the early days of some of our favorite characters. This is a movie that's very reverent towards its source material. The title is even a reference to a 1962 episode!