The Jetsons

The Jetsons
The Jetsons - Clockwise: Rosie, George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, and Astro. </small>
Genre	Animated situation comedy
Running time	approx. 0:30 (per episode)
Creator(s)	William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
Starring	George O'Hanlon (voice) Penny Singleton (voice) Janet Waldo (voice) Daws Butler (voice) Mel Blanc (voice) Jean Vander Pyl (voice)
Country of origin	United States
Original channel	ABC
Original run	1962 - 1963; 1984 - 1987 (new episodes)–
No. of episodes	24 (1964); 51 (1980s)
IMDb profile

The Jetsons was a prime-time American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and aired on Sunday nights on ABC from September 23, 1962 to March 3, 1963. Like The Flintstones, it was a half-hour family sitcom projecting contemporary American culture and lifestyle into other time periods. While the Flintstones lived in a world with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, the Jetsons lived in a utopian future of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions. Also, the Flintstones represented the contemporary American blue collar lifestyle while the Jetsons were white collar.

The original series of 24 episodes were made between 1962 and 1963 and was re-run on Saturday morning for decades. Its continuing popularity led to further episodes being produced for syndication between 1984 and 1987. The series was extensively merchandised and followed by two made for-TV movies and one feature film.

Synopsis

George Jetson worked 3 hours a day and 3 days a week for a short, tyrannical boss named Cosmo G. Spacely, owner of the company Spacely Space Sprockets. Typical episodes would involve Mr. Spacely firing and rehiring or promoting and demoting George Jetson. Mr. Spacely had a competitor, W.C. Cogswell, owner of the rival company Cogswell Cogs. All homes and businesses were raised high above the ground on narrow poles, in a style reflective of the architecture of Seattle's Space Needle and the distinct Theme Building of the Los Angeles International Airport. George commuted to work in a flying saucer with a transparent top. Daily life was characterized as being comically leisurely due to an incredible sophistication and number of labor saving devices. George's work day consists of pressing a single computer button. Despite this, characters would often complain of travails and difficulties of living with the remaining inconveniences.

Other Jetson family members included Jane Jetson, the wife and homemaker; teenage daughter Judy and preteen son Elroy. Housekeeping was seen to by a robot maid, Rosie; she only appeared in two episodes of the original 1960s show, excluding her appearance in the closing credits, but made many appearances on the 1980s show.

The family dog Astro could mumble, just as Scooby-Doo and Muttley later on could (voice actor Don Messick played all). Astro's catch phrases were "Ruh-roh!" and "Right, Reorge!"

Names of locations, events, and devices were often puns or derivatives of contemporary analogs with explicit futuristic or space-age twists. The same technique was used in The Flintstones with archaic or stone-age twists.

Time period

Though no dates are ever specified, The Jetsons was originally supposed to take place in the year 2062, which is a hundred years after the show's debut. Jetsons: The Movie pins the series as taking place "late in the 21st century." In the movie The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, Elroy wanted to time travel into the future to visit the 25th century, indicating the Jetsons live no later than the 24th century. In season 2 of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, though it was used for comedic purposes, the Jetsons claim to live in "the magnificent far-off year of 2002", and to have come "back in time" to 2004.

Cast

• George Jetson - George O'Hanlon
• Jane Jetson - Penny Singleton
• Elroy Jetson - Daws Butler
• Judy Jetson - Janet Waldo
• Astro the Dog - Don Messick
• Rosie the Robot Maid - Jean Vanderpyl
• Henry Orbit - Daws Butler (Howard Morris in a few of the original episodes)
• Orbity - Frank Welker
• Uniblab - Don Messick
• Cosmo G. Spacely - Mel Blanc
• Mrs. Spacely - Jean Vanderpyl
• RUDI - Don Messick
• W.C. Cogswell - Daws Butler

Episodes

Season 1 (1962-1963)

• In the original closing credits, George came home and tried to walk Astro, the family dog, but when Astro noticed a cat by the electronic dog walk, Astro began to chase it and George got caught into the dog-walk. Astro and the cat both looked on as George cried "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" This was a counterpart to The Flintstones' closing credits in which the saber-toothed cat Baby Puss puts Fred Flintstone out for the night.

• Season 1 contained a laugh track, which was removed when the episodes were released for syndication in 1985. Episode title cards were added to all of the episodes, and a remake of the original theme song was added.

• The 24 1960s episodes were released on DVD in 2004 in original broadcast format, with the laugh track present; though the 1980s syndicated episode title cards were retained.

Season 2 (1984-1985)

• For the 1980s incarnation of the show, new characters were introduced, including Orbitty, the Jetsons family alien pet, Spacely's inventive brother Orwell and, George's work computer, R.U.D.I.
• The closing credits are static picture captions (like most of H-B's shows of the time). This format replaced the original credit sequence described above.

Season 3 (1987)

Films (1987-2009)

• The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones (1987)
• Rockin' with Judy Jetson (1988)
• Jetsons: The Movie (1990)
• The Jetsons (live-action film) (announced, 2009)^{[citation needed]}

Further Appearances

• Astro also appeared on the Saturday morning cartoon Space Stars in the segment Astro and the Space Mutts
• The Jetsons: Father & Son Day (Spümcø, Macromedia Flash)
• The Jetsons: The Best Son (Spümcø, Macromedia Flash)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Shaggy Busted" (2002)
• Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law episode "Back to the Present" (2004)
• In Robot Chicken as a parody of the movie I, Robot where Rosie is accused of murdering George.

Comics

• The Jetsons #1-36 (Gold Key Comics, 1/1963-10/1970)
• March of Comics #276 (1965), #330 (1969), #348
• The Jetsons #1-20 (Charlton Comics, 11/1970-12/1973); 100-page no-number issue
• Spotlight #3 (Marvel Comics, 197x)
• The Jetsons #1-5 (Harvey Comics, 9/1992-11/1993); Big Book #1-3, Giant Size #1-3
• The Jetsons #1-17 (Archie Comics, 9/1995-8/1996)
• The Flintstones and the Jetsons (DC Comics, 8/1997-4/1999)

Games

• The Jetsons' Ways With Words (Intellivision)
• The Jetsons and the Legend of Robotopia (Amiga, 1990)
• The Jetsons: Cogswell's Caper (NES, 1992)
• The Jetsons: Robot Panic (Game Boy, 1992)
• The Jetsons: Invasion of the Planet Pirates (Super NES, 1994)
• Jetsons the Computer Game (arcade game)
• Mealtime Malfunction (Apple)
• Space Race
• Flintstones Jetsons Time Warp (CD-i)

Trivia

A shot of the show's opening title card.

• The Jetsons' phone number is VENUS-1234. (See Telephone exchange for more about this number convention.)
• George and Jane's wedding anniversary is June 2.
• Elroy is said to be six-and-a-half-years-old.
• Two characters on The Jetsons bear striking resemblances to characters from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons - Cosmo Spacely, George's boss, looks like Magilla Gorilla character Mr. Peebles, the owner of the pet shop where Magilla lives; and Spacely's business rival, W.C. Cogswell, resembles Mr. Slate, Fred Flintstone's boss on The Flintstones.
• If one does not pay a parking meter, a hand comes out and bangs the violating space car.
• An episode of Hanna-Barbera's The Flintstones, featured (via the Great Gazoo's help) the Flintstones and Rubbles visiting 25th century Bedrock (The Flintstones), which greatly resembled the Jetsons' future. A made-for-television film was made in the 1980s that would pair both the Flintstones with the Jetsons (the aforementioned The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones).
• The host of the "Love Rocket", a popular show, is named Gamey McGameGame.
• George's second cousin Phil Richbourg grew up beneath the smog and pollution on Earth's surface.
• George Jetson was ranked #4 in TV Guide's list of the "25 Greatest Sci-Fi Legends" (1 August 2004 issue).
• Penny Singleton, who played Blondie in the 1940s movie series, was the voice of Jane Jetson. The Blondie comic strip is often cited a significant influence on The Jetsons.
• The Jetsons lived in the Skypad Apartments.
• The Jetsons still use paper money, not electronic funds transfer using a card, thumbprint or retina scan.
• Computers use vacuum tubes instead of microchips in the future, which still burn out from overuse. Integrated circuits were only available commercially for around a year before the Jetsons first aired.
• The opening jingle for Hanna-Barbera sounded like "The Jetsons" door bell with the words "Hanna-Barbera Presents" under the "Hanna-Barbera Swirling Star" logo from the 1980's.
• There's also a rumor about a live action version being produced by Warner Brothers
• The interior of Los Angeles International Airport's Theme Building was redesigned to have a "Jetsons" motif because the Theme Building's exterior had influenced the architecture seen in the show.
• The style of space age architecture and design circa the 1950s and 1960s that is reminiscent of The Jetsons is known as "Populuxe".
• The Jetsons have been the subject of a highly sexualized parody cartoon series.^{[citation needed]}
• The Jetsons were once the stars of a dishwasher commercial.
• The design of the setting year is the same design used for the Warner Brother's short Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century.
• For whatever reason, Boomerang is only airing the episodes from the first and second seasons.

The Jetsons in other languages

• German: Die Jetsons
• Hungarian: A Jetson Család
• Italian: I Pronipoti
• Polish: Jetsonowie
• Portuguese: Os Jetsons
• Romanian: Familia Jetson
• Finnish: Jetsonit
• French: Les Jetsons
• Spanish: Los Supersónicos
• Turkish: Jetgiller
• Swedish: Familjen Jetson
• Chinese: 傑森家族

See also

• The Flintstones
• The Simpsons
• Design for Dreaming

Reference

• Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, by Michael Mallory, 1998, published by Hugh Lauter Levin Associates, Inc., distributed by Publishers Group West. ISBN 0-88363-108-3

External links

• Review of a screenplay for a live-action Jetsons movie
• Jetsons fan site
• The Jetsons at IMDB
• The Jetsons at TV.com
• The Jetsons at BCDB.com

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