The Flintstones as children, and yet others featuring Fred and Barney encountering Marvel Comics superhero The Thing and Al Capp's comic strip character The Shmoo – have appeared over the years. The original show also was adapted into a live-action film in 1994, and a prequel, "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas", which followed in 2000. Unlike its sister show "The Jetsons" (the two shows appeared in a made-for-TV crossover movie in 1987), the revival programs were not widely syndicated or rerun alongside the original series. In 2011, it was announced "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane would be reviving "The Flintstones" for
Modern animation in the United States over a decade. In 1987, "The Simpsons", an animated short cartoon segment of "The Tracey Ullman Show", debuted. Matt Groening's creation gained its own half-hour series in 1989, the first prime-time animated series since "The Flintstones". Although 70 percent of the first episode's animation had to be redone, pushing the series premiere back three months, it became one of the first major hit series for the fledgling Fox network. "The Simpsons" caused a sensation, entering popular culture and gaining wide acclaim for its satirical handling of American culture, families, society as a whole, and the human condition. The show has