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How a toy company helped create Pebbles Flintstone
"A pebble off the old rock."
If you love Pebbles Flintstone, thank Sheila Barbera and Ideal Toys! Sheila floated the idea of the Flintstones having a baby to her husband, co-creator of the show and one half of Hanna-Barbera, Joe Barbera. He took the idea back to Hanna-Barbera and described the situation as "This idea of hers - to give the Flintstones a baby - set off two days of uncharacteristically rancorous meetings at the studio debating the sex of the offspring. After much collective hair pulling, we decided: it's a boy!"
The writers and animators took off creating the midseason story arc around bringing the Flintstones baby to television. The pregnancy would begin with the episode "The Surprise" and the following six episodes covered preparing for the baby, the birth, and bringing the baby home. Hanna-Barbera was abuzz with baby fever, as were their business partners. As production began, Barbera received a phone call from their merchandise associate, Ed Justin, who expressed interest about the Flintstone baby and asked if it was a boy or girl. Barbera said "It's a boy! Fred Jr. - a chip off the old rock!"
"That's too bad," Justin replied, "I've got the Vice President of Ideal Toy here, and the only dolls they're doing are girls. We could have had a hell of a deal if it had been a girl."
Record scratch. At this point in 1963, Ideal Toys and Hanna-Barbera had not yet collaborated. A toy line would make a big difference; despite the success of The Flintstones and other shows, Hanna-Barbera was still a very young company in need of business partnerships to continue funding their cartoon empire. They already ruled the Saturday cartoons for kids, and now ruled the primetime slot with The Flintstones - a toy line around one of their most popular shows was sure to be a successful move.
Thinking quickly, Barbera improvised "It is a girl...her name is...Pebbles. A pebble off the old rock." Suddenly the new Flintstones baby was now a girl, and a girl with a line of dolls at that. Pebbles went on to become a huge attraction to the Flintstones brand. While she only entered the show halfway through season 3, Pebbles became the face of The Flintstones and its products including toys, games, the children's vitamins, and even the Flintstones themed cereal which were even named after her: Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. Once the Ideal Toys Pebbles dolls were created, they sold 3 million dolls in the first two months. To compare, the first Barbie doll only sold 350,000 dolls in its first year. The Pebbles dolls were a huge success.
In later years, Hanna-Barbera would have a very close relationship with Ideal Toys; specifically as a sponsor for The Magilla Gorilla Show and The Peter Potamus Show. Ideal Toys also created toys for most of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon lineup including Mushmouse, Ricochet Rabbit, Yogi Bear, Pixie and Dixie, Droop A Long, Lippy the Lion, and many others. This successful partnership all started with one cave baby - and yes, they eventually made Bamm-Bamm boy baby dolls.
