Why Does Fred Flintstone Wear Neckties

A fashionable Fred Flintstone wearing his trademark necktie

"Yabba dabba doo!"

Fred Flintstone, always fashion conscience - naturally, his necktie is tied in a Windsor knot.   I was bored the other night and typed into Google search "Why does Fred Flintstone wear ties?"   I was surprised to find several Answers.com queries with the same question.  The answers were vague and more or less not serious so I decided to do a little homework on the subject, seriously!

First off Fred is a hard working blue collar worker who tends to be a loud mouth and often gets into trouble due his "off beat" personality. His character is modeled after Ralph Kramden of the 50's television show The Honeymooners, which may further explain the addition of the tie as a means of making Fred a bit more credible than a clown-like bumbling fool. Like Fred Flintstone Ralph Kramden is usually wearing a necktie.  As with Ralph in the Honeymooners, Fred Flintstone is a loving father, and husband, a good friend to Barney and generally a really nice guy. It could be to take the rough edges off of him his creators gave him his trademarked prehistoric fashioned necktie. His tie is always one solid color and has a rough unfinished look which lends itself to his other apparel. I searched Google images and only found one image of Fred without a necktie and always he had a symmetrical tie knot that looks like a Windsor.  I did find an image of Fred's boss wearing a tie and there were no images of Barney wearing neckties.

A very lovable guy for sure- its the ties he wears

Fred Flintstone the Cartoon Character

Frederick Joseph "Fred" Flintstone (aka Fred W. Flintstone) is the main character of the animated sitcom The Flintstones, which aired during prime-time on ABC during the original series' run from 1960-66. He is the husband of Wilma Flintstone and father of Pebbles Flintstone. His best friends are his next door neighbors, Barney and Betty Rubble, who have an adopted son named Bamm-Bamm.

Fred lives in the fictional prehistoric town of Bedrock, at 345 Cave Stone Road, a world where dinosaurs coexist with modernized barefoot cave people and the cave people enjoy "primitive" versions of modern conveniences such as telephones, automobiles, and washing machines. Fred Flintstone's catch phrase is "yabba dabba doo!" which is also heard at the beginning of the theme song of the television episodes and the movie'. Much like Ralph Kramden , Fred tends to be loud-mouthed, aggressive, and constantly scheming ways to improve his family's working class lot in life, often with unintended results. Archie Bunker of All in the Family; Archie Bunker's Place and George Jefferson of The Jefferson’s also have similar personalities based on Fred Flintstone.


Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble

Fred is a typical blue-collar worker, who works as a "bronto crane operator" at Slate Rock and Gravel Company (also known as Rockhead and Quarry Cave Construction Company in the earliest episodes). However, when their children become teenagers, Fred and Barney join the Bedrock police force. Fred and Barney even coached two baseball teams as well.
read more -  further facts on Wikipedia - the encyclopedia of the web

A Big Break for Hanna Barbera

The Flintstones was the first, and the longest running, animated situation comedy shown in prime-time television. Premiering on ABC on 30 September 1960, it gained high ratings in its first season, thus establishing animation as a viable prime time format. Produced by Hanna-Barbera (Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera), The Flintstones was patterned after Jackie Gleason's The Honeymooners. Designed as a program for the entire family, the program did not appear as "children's television" until its rebroadcast by NBC in 1967. Its popularity with teenagers in its 8:30 P.M. Friday time slot, however, presaged the late 1960s move to animation as the preeminent format for children's programming.

Fred's boss

Fred and Wilma Flintstone and their best friends, Barney and Betty Rubble, live in the prehistoric city of Bedrock facing the problems of contemporary working-class life. After a day at the rock quarry, or from the ever hilarious adventures Fred and Barney arrive home from in a vehicle with stone wheels and a fringe on top. Their lives revolve around their home, friends, and leisure activities: a world of drive-ins, bowling, and their "Water Buffalo" lodge. A baby dinosaur and a saber tooth tiger replace the family dog and cat. In 1962 and 1963, Pebbles and Bamm Bamm appeared as the daughter and adopted son of the Flintstones and Rubbles respectively.


Ralph Kramden - Ed Norton with neckties

Aside from being the first animated series made for prime time, The Flintstones also broke new ground in that each episode contained only one story that lasted the full half hour. Until the 1960s, cartoons were generally only a few minutes long. Half-hour programs used three or four shorts (three- to four-minute cartoons) and a live "wrap-around," usually presented by a friendly "host," to complete the program. In another innovation, Hanna-Barbera produced The Flintstones using limited animation techniques.
read more here at the museum of broadcasting web site

The Flintstones check out the video clip

The Flintstones Theme check out this You Tube Clip

The Answer.com page along with my improvement to the vague answer

check out our cartoon neckties - we will soon be uploading some Flintstone ties

A note of interest:  I search for other cartoon characters wearing ties and found only one - Yogi Bear.  There were a few wearing bow ties, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Boo Boo, the Cat in the Hat, Pixie and Dixie and a few others.  Interestingly enough Yogi Bear always has a necktie tied around his neck and it is the same green tie without any variation at all.  I may have to explore this further.

Well, I have added this note.  Checkout an article that actually is posted a year after this article.  Why does Yogi Bear wear a tie   There is a technical reason to why Fred Flintstone and other charcters wear neckties or in some cases bow ties or scarves.  A comment weas left by a visitor which I owe thanks to regarding this video about why Yogi the Bear wears a necktie.


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