Deep from the Hanna-Barbera vault, looks like there were some plans for re-coloring the neighborhood of our favorite stoned-aged family in Bedrock. Fred and Barney, meet your new neighbors, meet The Blackstones.
The Blackstones concept started and ended on the drawing table in 1976. The idea came from Joe Barbera. The Blackstone family, the father, mother, teenage daughter and pet dinosaur, was drawn by Iwao Takamoto, the Japanese American animator who designed many of Hanna-Barbera’s famous cartoons.
Unfortunately, the networks did not buy the idea. I think the show could have worked, given the popularity of other Black cartoons on television and the success of Black films during this era. But we will never know. So we pay homage to what could have been…
