10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About The Thing
10. He Had A Cartoon Block With The Flinstones
Hanna-Barbera
By far one of the most bizarre cartoon blocks out there, Fred and Barney Meet the Thing was an animated series that aired in the late seventies. The reason behind its creation? Marvel was actually working with Hanna-Barbera at the time, allowing for both companies' characters to share the small screen in some way or another.
Despite the title, Fred and Barn never actually ended up meeting Ben Grimm. Instead, they only shared a title sequence, with one half devoted to the Flinstones and the other to the Fantastic Four's premier character. Thing's segments weren't all that comic-accurate though, with the series focussing on Benjy Grimm - a young teenager - as he transforms into the Thing by pressing two magic rings together.
Needless to say, the show's catchphrase of 'Thing ring, do your thing' never really caught on, with the show lasting just shy of three months with thirteen episodes to its name.
Why not use the actual Thing? Who knows. At least the catchphrase never caught on...
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
