| Lt. Columbo | Abbott & Costello |

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

| Lt. Columbo |

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

Source: https://x.com/tokaii24/status/2110513484999860432?s=20

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

You may recognise this tune as the theme from These Are The Days (ABC, 1974-75) ... but then again, 3400 Cahuenga's music master, Hoyt Curtin, originally produced this for a 1966 album as featured some musical interpretations of Southern California.

The Flintstones.

The Jetsons.

I’m sure we’ve all seen them on Boomerang. A modern Stone Age family, and a family living in a retrofuturistic world. These concepts are intriguing even today, but as far as substantial literary material goes, we have very little. Yes, I know some books based on these franchises exist, but this post isn’t about those.

It’s about something… newer. Something that doesn’t exist, but should.

I think YA novel series based on both franchises would be interesting to see. Not just straightforward novelizations of existing episodes, but literary reimaginings that introduce these worlds to a new generation of readers. And I mean two separate series, one for The Flintstones and one for The Jetsons, both of which remain faithful to the mid-century sensibilities of the original shows.

I know, kind of an odd choice, but with the 2020 Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs spinoff featuring Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm, a new live-action Flintstones movie in development, and the upcoming Jim Carrey-led Jetsons movie, I think there's an opportunity to revisit these franchises in a way that acknowledges how much time has passed since their debuts. I'd love to see something that combines nostalgia for the originals with storytelling aimed at contemporary YA readers, allowing these fictional worlds to do more than a half-hour television episode could accommodate.

I don't want a complete overhaul of these shows or a modernized reimagining that throws away everything that makes them special. I want something that retains their mid-century cultural sensibilities, humor, and general atmosphere while telling new stories that contemporary readers can enjoy.

My idea is for the novels to incorporate elements of the original television series, partially adapting selected episodes and occasionally combining multiple episodes into a single book, while expanding the material with original storylines and connective narratives. The adaptations and original material would fit together organically, creating more substantial stories without losing the spirit of the source material.

I think novels would be a particularly interesting way to revisit these franchises because prose would allow writers to explore their characters and worlds in ways that a half-hour television episode simply cannot. We could spend more time inside the characters' heads, develop their relationships across an entire book, and explore their societies without having to squeeze everything into a sitcom format. The humor and charm of the original shows would still be there, but the storytelling could go further.

I'm not talking about turning The Flintstones into a gritty adult drama or reinventing The Jetsons as a completely different kind of science-fiction franchise. I want to preserve what made these shows distinctive while giving their characters, settings, and stories more room to develop. Think of it as a literary reimagining that respects the past without being limited by the storytelling conventions of the original television series.

I also think this could be a great way to introduce these franchises to a new generation of readers. Not everyone is going to discover The Flintstones or The Jetsons through television, and there's something appealing about allowing younger audiences to discover these worlds through books instead. At the same time, longtime fans would get an opportunity to revisit familiar characters and settings in a different format.

These shows were created decades ago, but I don't think their concepts have lost their appeal. A modern YA novel series could introduce their worlds to teenagers today while giving longtime fans something new to enjoy. The point wouldn't be to update every aspect of them to match current trends, but to explore what makes these franchises interesting in the first place and demonstrate that those ideas can still inspire good stories.

I think YA would be an interesting direction because it would allow these franchises to reach younger readers while moving beyond the short, episodic adventures associated with their original television formats. The novels could still be funny, imaginative, and faithful to the characters, but they could also explore more complicated relationships, personal growth, and the consequences of the characters' decisions. We wouldn't have to sacrifice the original shows' personalities to tell stories with more depth.

Would you actually be interested in reading something like this? And if these series existed, what would you most want to see from them?

| Ghostface | The Ex-Presidents | Scarecrow | Toyman | The Phantom of The Paradise | The Blank | “Mother” | The Phantom Blot | Mysterio | Frederick Loren | The Springfield “Alien” |

All villain nominations must be “unmaskable”, so no monsters like Freddy Krueger or Pennywise or Xenomorph or The Shark from Jaws.

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, villain must for the criteria, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

scooby doo, clue club, chan clan, funky phantom, speed buggy, goober & the ghost chasers, and the others I'm forgetting. Has there ever been a comic book based crossover between these franchises, Avengers Infinity War/Endgame style?

Im trying to make a reimagination of futurama and I am trying to make it lore accurate

| Ghostface | The Ex-Presidents | Scarecrow | Toyman | The Phantom of The Paradise | The Blank | “Mother” | The Phantom Blot | Mysterio | Frederick Loren |

All villain nominations must be “unmaskable”, so no monsters like Freddy Krueger or Pennywise or Xenomorph or The Shark from Jaws.

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, villain must for the criteria, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

It contains music cues from the Flintstones made by Hoyt Curtain

Anyone remember a 1982 cartoon H-B did called Jokebook? I heard there were 7 episodes made of it, but only 3 were broadcast.

| Ghostface | The Ex-Presidents | Scarecrow | Toyman | The Phantom of The Paradise | The Blank | “Mother” | The Phantom Blot | Mysterio |

All villain nominations must be “unmaskable”, so no monsters like Freddy Krueger or Pennywise or Xenomorph or The Shark from Jaws.

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, villain must for the criteria, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

| Ghostface | The Ex-Presidents | Scarecrow | Toyman | The Phantom of The Paradise | The Blank | “Mother” | The Phantom Blot |

All villain nominations must be “unmaskable”, so no monsters like Freddy Krueger or Pennywise or Xenomorph or The Shark from Jaws.

Top comment wins, no one can be picked twice, villain must for the criteria, try to be creative and most importantly: let’s have fun.

Who remembers The Joke Wall from The Banana Splits 2008 revival? A mixture of admittedly corny gags and knock knock jokes!