The Cereal That Was Inspired By A Retro TV Show

When you walk down a grocery store's cereal aisle, you'll see many animated figures on the colorful boxes, from tigers, to rabbits, to toucans and leprechauns. You might also see characters from popular TV shows or movies, and it's almost certain none of them will be cheap, as cereal prices have skyrocketed over the years. But there's just one brand that was the first to be based on media characters, rather than simply feature them as a promotion: Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, whose inspiration came from the classic 1960s animated show "The Flintstones."

The comedic cartoon TV series about a prehistoric family had been off the air for a little while when producers Hanna-Barbera reached a deal with Post Consumer Brands for the licensing rights. The company tweaked the recipe of one of its cereals that wasn't selling well, Sugar Rice Krinkles, and rebranded it after Pebbles, Fred and Wilma Flintstone's daughter. It launched the fruity and chocolate flavors nationwide in 1971, following a successful West Coast test run in 1969. "The Flintstones" had ended five years earlier, but the two cereals quickly took off.

Post owns about 20 cereal brands, yet more than five decades later, its top seller is still Fruity Pebbles, while Cocoa Pebbles ranks fourth. Sales remain robust, even though many folks eating it today may never have seen an episode of "The Flintstones." Timothy Burke, co-author of "Saturday Morning Fever: Growing Up with Cartoon Culture," told Marketplace that's likely due, in part, to the animated characters becoming part of broader popular culture. He explained: "You like the Fruity Pebbles first and foremost. And then you kind of like the characters ... because of a vague sense of familiarity with them."

Unlike many other cereal brands, Pebbles is made from rice instead of wheat or corn. Boiled rice that has been cooled and dried is compressed so that each grain becomes a cereal flake. It is then cooked again at high heat, and the flavorings and sugar are added. When Fruity Pebbles debuted, the flakes came only in yellow, red, and orange. Purple and green joined them in the 1980s, and additional colors were introduced later.

In addition to the two original varieties, there have been many different Pebbles flavors over the years, some permanent for a time and others available only as limited-time offerings. To mark the brand's 55th anniversary in 2026, Post released a birthday cake-flavored cereal. It also brought back Cinnamon Pebbles — which had been discontinued in 2018 after a two-year run — offering fans a way to make cinnamon sugar milk in lieu of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Other flavors available in 2026 include the limited-time Strawberries & Cream variety and Marshmallow Fruity Pebbles. There are also seasonal cereals, such as Winterfest, featuring red, green, and white marshmallows, and a Halloween version with purple and orange cereal flakes.