The Flintstones was the first animated series to air in what time slot?

The Flintstones was the first animated series to air in a prime-time slot.

When it premiered on ABC on September 30, 1960, The Flintstones was scheduled for Friday evenings at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. That placement put an animated production in the same evening television environment as conventional family and adult sitcoms, rather than limiting animation to children’s daytime or Saturday-morning programming.

The series was also the first animated sitcom, using a continuing family-and-neighbors format built around Fred and Wilma Flintstone and Barney and Betty Rubble. Its domestic stories, workplace jokes, and suburban satire helped demonstrate that animation could target a broad prime-time audience.

The wording can cause a common mix-up: The Flintstones later became widely associated with Saturday-morning reruns, but its original network run was prime time. ABC broadcast the series from 1960 through 1966, across six seasons and 166 episodes.