Norman Rockwell Museum Presents The Flintstones: Anatomy of a Pop Culture Classic
Allan Grant, “Flintstones” cast recording session for LIFE magazine, 1960.
Stockbridge, MA, April 4, 2017—In conjunction with its current exhibition Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning, Norman Rockwell Museum will present “The Flintstones: Anatomy of a Pop Culture Classic” on Saturday, April 22, starting at 5:30 p.m. Artist/historian Arlen Schumer will look back at the idiosyncratic history of The Flintstones, television’s first prime-time animated program, and one of Hanna-Barbera’s most popular shows. Schumer’s multimedia presentation will include early concept sketches, rare visual clips, and an analysis of the modern stone-age family’s storied place in American television history. A reception will follow the program, which is free for Museum members or included with regular Museum admission.
Arlen Schumer creates award-winning comic book-styled illustrations for the advertising and editorial markets, is a member of The Society of Illustrators, and is one of the foremost historians of comic book art. His coffee table art book The Silver Age of Comic Book Art won the Independent Publishers Award for Best Popular Culture Book, and ABC-TV’s 2020 called him “one of the countryʼs preeminent authorities on comics and culture.” His other books are Visions From The Twilight Zone and The Neal Adams Sketchbook, and he lectures at universities and cultural institutions across the country. Learn more at www.arlenschumer.com
Hanna-Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning
On view through May 29, 2017
Before the rise of basic cable, Saturday mornings for many children in America were spent watching cartoons on one of three available television channels. From 1958 through the 1980s, a majority of those cartoons bore the imprint of Hanna-Barbera. Creating scores of popular series such as The Yogi Bear Show, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Jonny Quest, and Scooby-Doo, Hanna-Barbera was an animation powerhouse and its bountiful creativity is beloved to this day.
Hanna Barbera: The Architects of Saturday Morning focuses primarily on the golden years of the studio—from the premiere of their first cartoon, The Ruff and Reddy Show, in 1957 and The Huckleberry Hound Show in 1958 to the debut of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. Hanna and Barbera’s early work on Tom and Jerry will be explored, in addition to the scores of TV and film animation and live-action projects created by the studio between 1970 and 2001. Included within the exhibition will be original animation art, sketches, model sheets, photographs, and archival materials that detail the process of bringing the studio’s creations to life. Also included in the exhibition, Hanna-Barbera-related toys and other commercial products, and an interactive installation that will draw from the vast library of sound effects created by the studio. The exhibition was developed in partnership with Warner Bros. Consumer Products and has been sponsored, in part, by Keator Group, LLC.