176: A Gay Alien Ruins The Flintstones

“The Great Gazoo” (October 29, 1965)

Not only did the Great Gazoo mark the “jumping the shark” point for The Flintstones well before that was a term that meant anything in TV studies, but also there’s a whole queer backstory for this green imp, who’s allegedly inspired by a guy who taught a legendary class of CalArts animators who went on to make most of the top-grossing cinematic cartoons of the last fifty years. The fact that there’s next to nothing available online about Bill Moore only makes the mystery more enticing. We truly will have a gay old time.

Read the Vanity Fair piece on CalArts in which Brad Bird identifies the Great Gazoo as being inspired by Bill Moore.

Listen to Talking Simpsons’ What a Cartoon episode about this Flintstones milestone.

Watch the Stone Age Cartoons short “Granite Hotel,” which seems like a predecessor for The Flintstones.

Read the MeTV article about sitcom couples sharing a bed.

Episode artwork by Ian O’Phelan.