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The Jetsons

Rosey, George, Jane, Judy (top)
Astro, Elroy (bottom)
StarringGeorge O'Hanlon
Penny Singleton
Janet Waldo
Daws Butler
Mel Blanc
Don Messick
Jean Vander Pyl
Theme music composerHoyt Curtin
Country of origin United States
No. of episodes75 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time22-25 Minutes
Broadcast
Original channelABC (1962 - 1963 First Season) and Syndication (1985 - 1987 Second and Third Seasons)
Original run1962 to 1963 (ABC) – 1985 to 1987 (Syndication)
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary
The Jetsons is a prime-time animated television series that was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It 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 another time period. While the Flintstones lived in a world with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, the Jetsons lived in a retro-futuristic (although not retro at the initial date of production) utopia of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.

The original series, comprising 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 1985 and 1987. The series was extensively merchandised and followed by two made for-TV movies and two theatrical feature films.

Synopsis

George Jetson works 3 hours a day and 3 days a week for a short, tyrannical boss named Mr. Spacely, owner of the company Spacely Space Sprockets. Typical episodes involve Mr. Spacely firing and rehiring or promoting and demoting George Jetson. Mr. Spacely has a competitor, S.K. Cogswell, owner of the rival company Cogswell Cogs. All homes and businesses are 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 commutes to work in a flying saucer with a transparent top. Daily life is characterized as being comically leisurely due to the incredible sophistication and number of labor saving devices, which occasionally break down. George's work day consists of pressing a single computer button. Despite this, characters often complain of travails and difficulties of living with the remaining inconveniences.

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

The family dog Astro can mumble, like later cartoon dogs Scooby-Doo and Muttley could (voice actor Don Messick played all three). Astro's catch phrases are "Ruh-roh!" and "Right, Reorge!" or "Rats Rall Right Reorge!"

Names of locations, events, and devices are 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.[1] confirms this by placing the series "at the turn of 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.

Voice cast

Minor repeating characters

  • Montahue Jetson is the kindly but eccentric grandfather of George Jetson.
  • Arthur Spacely - Mr. Spacely's son - Dick Beals

The Jetsons media

Enlarge picture
The Jetsons title card

Episodes

Main article: List of The Jetsons episodes

Films

In May 2007, director Robert Rodriguez entered talks with Warner Bros. to film a live action film adaptation of The Jetsons. He had also met with Universal Studios to direct a film adaptation of Land of the Lost. Rodriguez was uncertain which project he would pursue next, though the latest script draft for The Jetsons by Adam Goldberg was further along in development.[2]

Further appearances

Parodies

  • Family Guy, George is shown walking Astro on the automatic dog walker and gets stuck. Later, he chastises Jane for not hearing him screaming for help for 45 minutes. The show's opening was spoofed in another Family Guy episode, "Meet the Quagmires". As in the original series, Jane takes George's wallet instead of the money he gives her. However, George catches Jane trying to take his wallet and stops her from leaving his car. He then promptly reprimands her. Later in the episode, Jane falls from the sky and is apparently killed when Death arrives. Unlike the previous spoof, which featured the Jetson characters in Family Guy versions, this version featured them in their original designs. Family Guy also featured Elroy Jetson, only older and drunk.
  • The Fairly Oddparents, in the Nickelodeon TV movie Channel Chasers, when Timmy Turner first went in TV, he went into a cartoon that is a spoof of The Jetsons, but instead was called "The Futurellis." Two parodies of George Jetson and Astro can be seen in this TV movie.
  • Animaniacs, in the show's episode, "Star Warners" (a parody of the Star Wars trilogy), you can see "alien" versions of the Jetsons, who were trying to watch something funny on TV.
  • Harvey Birdman Attorney At Law, The Jetsons are shown as unable to walk without a motorized walkway to help them. George mentions to Harvey, "We are from the future! The far off year of 2002!". Birdman glances at his calendar, which read "March 2004".
  • Robot Chicken, in a parody of the movie I, Robot, Rosie is accused of murdering George Jetson.

Comics

  • The Jetsons #1-36 (Gold Key Comics, January 1963 – October 1970)
  • March of Comics #276 (1965), #330 (1969), #348
  • The Jetsons #1-20 (Charlton Comics, November 1970 – December 1973); 100-page no-number issue
  • Spotlight #3 (Marvel Comics, 197x)
  • The Jetsons #1-5 (Harvey Comics, September 1992 – November 1993); Big Book #1-3, Giant Size #1-3
  • The Jetsons #1-17 (Archie Comics, September 1995 – August 1996)
  • The Flintstones and the Jetsons #1-21 (DC Comics, August 1997 – April 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)
  • The Jetsons: By George, in Trouble Again (DOS, 1990)

DVD releases

  • Warner Home Video released season 1 of The Jetsons on DVD in R1 on November 8, 2004. It is unknown if the last two seasons will be released at some point.
DVD Name Ep # Release Date Additional Information
Season 124November 8 2004
  • Commentary on 2 episodes
  • The Jetsons: The Family of the Future
  • Space Age Gadgets
  • Rosey the Robotic Maid
  • Nuclear Family Album

Trivia

  • The Jetsons' phone number is VENUS-1234. (See Telephone exchange names for more about this number convention.)
  • The sprockets produced by Spacely and the cogs produced by Cogswell are virtually identical; they are basically gear wheels. Their extremely simplistic and basic necessity in mechanics, and their similarities, juxtaposed with Cogswell's incessant offers to hire George away from Spacely, gives the show an eerily campy feeling.
  • Two characters on The Jetsons bear striking resemblances to characters from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons - Mr. 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.
  • 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).
  • 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 as a significant influence on The Jetsons.
  • The Jetsons live in the Sky Pad Apartments in Orbit City.
  • The syndicated version features an opening jingle using The Jetsons' door bell with the words "Hanna-Barbera Presents" under the "Hanna-Barbera Swirling Star" logo from the 1980s (the "Hanna Barbera Presents" logo was also used for The Smurfs).
  • 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 Googie architecture.
  • The Jetsons theme song was used in a 1990's television commercial for America Online.
  • The lead/solo trumpet part for The Jetsons theme song was played by Bud Brisbois.
  • Astro's "real" name was "Tralfaz," but every time he said it, he would pronounce it "Tralfaz-blecch."
  • The phrase "You're fired!", has been used by Mr. Spacely on the Jetsons before both Donald Trump and the WWE. Often on episodes, Spacely can be heard saying "Jetson, you're fired!
  • A robot employed by Spacely to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the employees, George Jetson in particular, was named "Uniblab". This was a spoof on the name UNIVAC, which was a catch-all phrase for mainframe computers built by that company. Uniblab's tagline was "Back to work (click), back to work (click). Everybody (click) work work work work (click) work work (click)!"

The Jetsons today

  • A live-action adaptation, produced by Universal Pictures, is currently due in 2010.
  • Boomerang is currently airing only the 1960s episodes regularly, while some of the 1980s episodes are available for viewing on In2TV. However, Boomerang does air the 1980s episodes occasionally in Boomeroyalty marathons. Also the first 2 seasons of the Jetsons are available to download on Apple's iTunes store, or at the Xbox 360 marketplace.

The Jetsons in other languages

See also

References

1. ^ The Jetsons: Did you Know…?. Did You Know?. Gemstone Publishing (May 16, 2003). Retrieved on 2007-03-12.
2. ^ Borys Kit. "Future or past for Rodriguez?", The Hollywood Reporter, 2007-05-09. Retrieved on 2007-07-16. 

Further reading

External links

 •  • [ e]
The Jetsons
The Jetsons charactersGeorge Jetson Jane Jetson Judy Jetson Elroy Jetson Astro Rosey the Robot Orbity Cosmo Spacely
The Jetsons television showsThe Jetsons Astro and the Space Mutts
The Jetsons television filmsThe Jetsons Meet the Flintstones Rockin' with Judy Jetson
The Jetsons theatical films The Jetsons
George O'Hanlon (November 23 1912 - February 11 1989) was an American screen actor, comedian and voice actor. He was a native of Brooklyn, New York.

He is best known on-camera as the star of Warner Bros.
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Penny Singleton (September 15, 1908 – November 12, 2003) was a Hollywood actress best known for her role in the series of motion pictures based on the comic strip Blondie, followed by the popular Blondie radio program.
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Janet Waldo (born February 4 1918 (some sources say 1920) in Grandview, Washington) is a well-known actress and voice artist with a career spanning animation, live-action films, radio and television.
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Daws Butler (Charles Dawson Butler; November 16, 1916 – May 18, 1988) was a voice actor born in Toledo, Ohio. He originated the voices of many famous animated cartoon characters, including Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound.
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Melvin Jerome Blanc (May 30, 1908 – July 10, 1989) was a prolific American voice actor. Although he began his nearly six decade long career performing in radio and television commercials, Blanc is best known for his work with Warner Bros.
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Donald "Don" Messick (September 7 1926 – October 24 1997) was a voice actor, one of the most prolific voice actors of the second half of the 20th century.

Messick, a native of Buffalo, New York, was most famous as the voice of several Hanna-Barbera characters,
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Jean Vander Pyl (sometimes credited as Jean Vanderpyl) (October 11 1919 – April 10 1999) was an actress on radio, television and movies. Although her career spanned many decades, she is best remembered as the voice of Wilma Flintstone from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon
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Hoyt S. Curtin (September 9 1922 – December 3 2000) was an American composer and music producer, the main musical director for the Hanna-Barbera animation studio from its beginnings with The Ruff & Reddy Show in 1957 until his retirement in 1986.
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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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The following is a list of episodes for the Hanna-Barbera 1960s animated show The Jetsons:

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

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American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country United States
Availability   
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In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network.
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* An editor has expressed concern that the article is .
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American Broadcasting Company (ABC)

Type Broadcast radio network and
television network
Country United States
Availability   
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September 23 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.
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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1959 1960 1961 - 1962 - 1963 1964 1965

Year 1962 (MCMLXII
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March 3 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1431 - Eugene IV becomes Pope.

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19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1930s  1940s  1950s  - 1960s -  1970s  1980s  1990s
1960 1961 1962 - 1963 - 1964 1965 1966

Year 1963 (MCMLXIII
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The Flintstones is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Inspired by the 1950s live-action sitcom The Honeymooners,[1] The Flintstones
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George Jetson is a fictional character who appears in the animated series The Jetsons. George is the husband of Jane Jetson and the father of teenage daughter Judy and elementary school aged son Elroy.
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Cosmo G. Spacely is a fictional character in the animated series The Jetsons. In the original series he was voiced by Mel Blanc. Frank Welker voiced a teenage version of Mr.
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sprocket is a profiled wheel with metal teeth that meshes with a chain, track or other perforated or indented material. It is distinguished from a gear in that sprockets are never meshed together directly, and from a pulley by not usually having a flange at each side.
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Gears may refer to:
  • The plural word for Gear
  • A new Google software called Google Gears

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This page is protected from moves until disputes have been resolved on the .
The reason for its protection is listed on the protection policy page. The page may still be edited but cannot be moved until unprotected.
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The Space Needle is a tower in Seattle, Washington. It is a major landmark of the Pacific Northwest region of the United States and the symbol of Seattle. Located in Seattle Center, it was built for the 1962 World's Fair, during which time nearly 20,000 people a day used the
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Theme Building is a landmark structure at Los Angeles International Airport within the Westchester neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles. It opened in 1961.

The distinctive white building resembles a flying saucer that has landed on its four legs.
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Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX, ICAO: KLAX, FAA LID: LAX), is the primary airport serving Los Angeles, California, United States. It is often referred to by its airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually.
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Appliance may refer to a device with a narrow function:
  • Home appliance, routine household tasks, using electricity or some other energy input.
  • Small appliances
  • Major appliances

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The Jetsons is a prime-time animated television series that was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It aired on Sunday nights on ABC from September 23, 1962 to March 3, 1963.
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Judy Jetson is a fictional character in the cartoon series The Jetsons. She was voiced by Janet Waldo in the original television series, and by Tiffany for .

Judy is a typical (some might say stereotypical) teenager of the future.
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