The Children of the Ancestors (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show) – the 1971 animated series
The American animated television series The children of the ancestors (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show) was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and broadcast for one season on CBS, on Saturday mornings, from 11 September 1971 to 1 January 1972. In Italy, the series was broadcast from 30 October 1973 on Rai 1, with an order from episodes different from the original one. The series follows teenagers Pebbles (Pebbles Flintstone in the original version) and Bamm-Bamm Rubble as they grow up in the fictional town of Bedrock. With a voice cast of Sally Struthers, Jay North, Mitzi McCall, Gay Hartwig, Carl Esser and Lennie Weinrib, the show sees Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm face the challenges of growing up.
The children of the ancestors (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show) is the first spin-off of the television series The Flintstones. For the 1972-73 season, the show was revisited as The Flintstone Comedy Hour, with more space given to the original cast of The Flintstones along with old episodes and new segments of Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm. Similarly to Josie and the Pussycats of Hanna-Barbera, this series also uses contemporary rock music to attract more viewers. The 16 episodes were repeatedly broadcast on Boomerang, often accompanied by cartoons and shorts. Critical reviews were mixed. The series was released on DVD as part of Warner Home Video's "Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection" on a two-disc set.
Set in the Stone Age, the series follows Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm as they face the challenges of growing up in the city of Bedrock. No longer children, the two are now teenagers and begin dating. The show focuses on them as they attend Bedrock High School and look for their first job. Together, they form a band called the Bedrock Rockers, which is considered an attempt by one critic to be the "stone age" version of the Archies. Unlike The Flintstones, the series focuses on the children of the family, rather than the parents Fred and Wilma Flintstone, and Barney and Betty Rubble. These characters continue to appear in the series, albeit in reduced roles.
The series stars seven main characters: Sally Struthers as Pebbles Flintstone, Jay North as Bamm-Bamm Rubble, Mitzi McCall as Penny, Gay Hartwig as Wiggy and Cindy, Carl Esser as Fabian, and Lennie Weinrib as Moonrock.
The cartoon The children of the ancestors (The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show) was directed by Charles A. Nichols, written by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. The series consists of only one season, with 16 episodes, and is of American origin. The genre is animation, with a duration of 30 minutes per episode. The cartoon was broadcast on the CBS television network, debuting on September 11, 1971 and ending on January 1, 1972. The series received mixed reactions from critics. It was released on DVD as part of Warner Home Video's “Hanna-Barbera Classic Collection” on a two-disc set.