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The Jetsons was a prime-time American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and aired from September 23, 1962 to March 3, 1963. Like The Flintstones, it was a 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 was 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 later on could (voice actor Don Messick played both). Astro's catch phrase was "Ruh-ro!"

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, the Jetsons claim to live in "the magnificent far-off year of 2002", and to have come "back in time" to 2004.

Cast

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.

  • The laugh track 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 episode title cards were retained.

# Production Airdate Title Notes
1 V-01 Sep 23 1962 Rosey the Robot
2 V-02 Sep 30 1962 A Date With Jet Screamer Featured the tune "Eep, Opp, Ork, Ah-ah!", later performed by the Violent Femmes.
3 V-03 Oct 07 1962 Jetsons Nite Out
4 V-04 Oct 14 1962 The Space Car
5 V-05 Oct 21 1962 The Coming of Astro First appearance of Astro.
6 V-06 Oct 28 1962 The Good Little Scouts R.U.D.I.'s only 1960s appearance.
7 V-07 Nov 04 1962 The Flying Suit
8 V-08 Nov 11 1962 Rosey's Boyfriend
9 V-09 Nov 18 1962 Elroy's TV Show Jetson and Spacley become "Stage Fathers"
10 V-10 Nov 25 1962 Uniblab
11 V-12 Dec 02 1962 A Visit From Grandpa
12 V-11 Dec 09 1962 Astro's Top Secret
13 V-13 Dec 16 1962 Las Venus
14 V-14 Dec 23 1962 Elroy's Pal
15 V-15 Dec 30 1962 Test Pilot
16 V-16 Jan 06 1963 Millionaire Astro
17 V-17 Jan 13 1963 The Little Man
18 V-18 Jan 20 1963 Jane's Driving Lesson
19 V-19 Jan 27 1963 G.I. Jetson
20 V-20 Feb 03 1963 Miss Solar System
21 V-21 Feb 10 1963 Private Property
22 V-22 Feb 17 1963 Dude Planet
23 V-23 Feb 24 1963 TV or Not TV
24 V-24 Mar 03 1963 Elroy's Mob

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.

# Production Airdate Title Notes
25 Sep 1 1984 The Vacation
26 Sep 8 1984 Space Bong (Secret Agent Double O-Oh)
27 Sep 15 1985 Elroy Meets Orbity
28 Sep 22 1984 Elroy in Wonderland
29 Sep 29 1984 The Swiss Family Jetsons
30 Oct 6 1984 Winner Takes All
31 Oct 13 1984 High Moon
32 Oct 20 1984 Team Spirit
33 Oct 27 1984 SuperGeorge
34 Nov 3 1984 Little Bundle of Joy
35 Nov 10 1984 Dance Time
36 Nov 17 1984 Judy's Birthday Surprise
37 Nov 24 1984 Hi-Tech Wreck
38 Dec 01 1984 Rip-Off Rosie
39 Dec 08 1984 The Mirrormorph
40 Dec 15 1984 Mother's Day for Rosie
41 Dec 22 1984 Fugitive Fleas
42 Dec 29 1984 Far-Out Father
43 Jan 5 1985 Astro's Big Moment
44 Sep 18 1985 S.M.A.S.H. Jane can drive.
45 Jan 19 1985 The Cosmic Courtship of George and Jane
46 Jan 26 1985 Fantasy Planet
47 Feb 2 1985 Sno Relative
48 Feb 9 1985 One Strike You're Out
49 Feb 16 1985 Solar Snoops
50 Feb 23 1985 Rosie Come Home
51 Mar 2 1985 Family Fallout Jetsons vs. the Spacelys--a spoof of Family Feud
52 Mar 9 1985 Instant Replay
53 Mar 16 1985 Haunted Halloween
54 Mar 23 1985 Future Tense
55 Mar 30 1985 The Wrong Stuff
56 Apr 6 1985 Judy Takes Off
57 Apr 13 1985 A Jetson Christmas Carol
58 Apr 20 1985 Dog Daze Afternoon
59 Apr 27 1985 Robot's Revenge
60 May 4 1985 Jetson's Millions
61 May 11 1985 To Tell the Truth
62 May 18 1985 Judy's Elopement
63 May 25 1985 Grandpa and the Galactic Golddigger
64 Jun 1 1985 Boy George
65 Jun 8 1985 The Century's Best
66 Jun 15 1985 Crime Games

Season 3 (1987)

# Production Airdate Title Notes
67 Sep 01 1987 ASTROnomical I.Q.
68 Sep 08 1987 9 to 5 to 9
69 Sep 15 1987 Invisibly Yours, George
70 Sep 22 1987 Father/Daughter Dance
71 Sep 29 1987 Clean as a Hound's Tooth
72 Oct 06 1987 Wedding Bells for Rosie
73 Oct 13 1987 The Odd Pod
74 Oct 20 1987 Two Many Georges
75 Oct 27 1987 Spacely for a Day

Films (1987-2009)

Further Appearances

Comics

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

  • 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, 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.

The Jetsons in other languages

Reference

External links

1960s TV shows in the United States | 1980s TV shows in the United States | ABC network shows | Fictional families | Hanna-Barbera and Cartoon Network Studios series | John Kricfalusi | Animated sitcoms | Spümcø | Syndicated television series | The Jetsons | Charlton Comics titles | Gold Key Comics titles | Harvey Comics titles | Archie Comics titles | Marvel Comics titles | DC Comics titles | Period piece TV series | Teletoon shows

Die Jetsons | Les Jetson | I Jetsons | משפחת סילוני | Jetsonowie | The Jetsons | Familia Jetson | Jetsonit

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "The Jetsons".

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