Did you know that The Flintstones at the height of its popularity, had inspired (if that's the word) a sprawling theme park? It did. Two, in fact: one in South Dakota and the other, built a little later, in Arizona. Here's an update, specifically on the South Dakota one.
There are garish colors in the Bedrock City buildings and rides. Naturally, bright colors are fun, and the parks wanted kids dragging their parents. But the park is faded, in decline now, and fascinatingly so. It looks to be nearing the point where it cedes itself to the wilderrness
I doubt this would have worked with The Jetsons. Since Bedrock is primitive by the choice of the animators, it's feels fitting that it gradually becomes a rest stop for lizards and bats. But The Jetsons looked like it took place in a Googie future Seattle where every house was the Space Needle. This is hard to turn into a tourist attraction. And because decay is supposed to be banished from the show's version of the future, if the Jetsons Park ever started declining it would be buried and forgotten.
There are garish colors in the Bedrock City buildings and rides. Naturally, bright colors are fun, and the parks wanted kids dragging their parents. But the park is faded, in decline now, and fascinatingly so. It looks to be nearing the point where it cedes itself to the wilderrness
I doubt this would have worked with The Jetsons. Since Bedrock is primitive by the choice of the animators, it's feels fitting that it gradually becomes a rest stop for lizards and bats. But The Jetsons looked like it took place in a Googie future Seattle where every house was the Space Needle. This is hard to turn into a tourist attraction. And because decay is supposed to be banished from the show's version of the future, if the Jetsons Park ever started declining it would be buried and forgotten.
2 comments:
That place looked like it must have been pretty depressing to visit even when it was new. I mean there you are in the middle of a desert hanging out at a place with brightly colored cement bunkers.. and nothing else.
Goodness knows you don't have to look far to find abandoned modern neighborhoods either. The Jetson family would be very disappointed with the future that came.
Funny thing about concrete bunkers. This was a period when a lot of people still had bomb shelters, and had faced the possibility of retreating to them during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Of course these desert caves didn't look as secure as bomb shelters. But would have afforded the same protection pretty much.
The fifties and sixties were one of the last times there was a really strong aesthetic vision of the future. Obviously it didn't come to pass like that. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but we weren't prepared for what we got either.
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