LOS ANGELES: Time flies even if you are a prehistoric cartoon caveman. The Flintstones celebrated their 50th anniversary on Thursday and how fitting it was that the ancients' birthday should be marked by that icon of modernity, a tribute doodle on Google's homepage.
The classic Hanna-Barbera animated series premiered on September 30, 1960 and ran in prime-time for six years. Its main storyline was about a working class stone-age man's life with his family in the town of Bedrock, where animals powered modern machines such as a wooly mammoth functioning as a vacuum cleaner.
The series, in which Fred and Wilma Flintstone became the first TV couple ever to be seen in bed together, is credited with paving the way for adult cartoons like 'The Simpsons' and 'Family Guy'.