‘Star Trek’ Meets ‘The Flintstones’: The Bizarre Crossover You Never Knew Happened
If you’re a fan of Star Trek or The Flintstones, you’re probably shaking your head, saying, “No way! There was never a crossover of any sort between The Flintstones and Star Trek, not even the animated version.” And in a way, you’re right — it didn’t happen on any major spinoff of either of the shows. And yet, for less than 30 seconds, 33 years ago, the residents of Bedrock and a Starfleet officer crossed paths … sort of.
The idea for this article came from a piece in the July 2022 edition of Retro Fan Magazine. In that issue, journalist and pop culture historian Scott Shaw provided a fun and very detailed history of Post Sugar Rice Krinkles, a cereal which was pulled from shelves in 1969 and reborn as Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles.
A big factor in the success of the rebranded cereal? The licensing agreement that Post developed with Hanna-Barbera, the creators of The Flintstones. I think most of us can remember at least a couple Pebbles cereal commercials featuring The Flintstones that ran on Saturday mornings, in between classic cartoons.
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While the first few commercials had Fred and Barney simply enjoying the cereal together, after a few years, the storyline for these commercials incorporated the ongoing theme of Barney trying to trick Fred into giving up his cereal. Part of the trickery involved various disguises — which is where Star Trek comes into the picture.
In a 1992 commercial, Barney disguises himself as Mr. Spock and rigs up a Stone Age version of a transporter to fool Fred into thinking that he is a Vulcan, visiting earth on a quest for something chocolatey and delicious like Cocoa Pebbles. The interesting thing about this commercial is that Fred seems to know who Mr. Spock is, and asks to be beamed aboard the Enterprise! He even calls the ship out by name, as if somehow he was aware of these interstellar voyagers.
When the commercial was being created, the team responsible wasn’t planning on licensing the character of Mr. Spock for the commercial. They were just going to have Fred call Barney “Mr. Rock” instead. And, as was often done on The Flintstones when the TV show ran on primetime, the character was going to be more of a parody.
However, the legal experts at Post felt it would be better to work with Paramount and license the character, which turned out to not be an inexpensive endeavor. Just having Fred mention Mr. Spock and the Enterprise cost the commercial’s creators a whopping $50,000. And you know what? For that kind of money, I’m going to call it a legitimate crossover!
Also worth mentioning is Brian Matthews’ internet-based animated series Stone Trek, which is a love letter to both Star Trek and The Flintstones. Following the adventures of the Stoneship Magnetize, most of the episodes of this wonderful series can be enjoyed on YouTube.
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