The Jetsons

The Jetsons
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Format	Animated Series
Genre	Comedy, Science Fiction, Sitcom
Production Company(s)	Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
Runtime	22 minutes (approx.)
Production
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 75
Longevity
Premiere March 5, 1962
Finale November 12, 1987
Status Ended

The Jetsons is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera, originally airing in primetime from 1962 and again from 1985–1987 as part of the weekday/weekend morning programming block called The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. It was Hanna-Barbera’s Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones.

While The Flintstones live in a world with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, The Jetsons live in the world of elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.

The original series comprised 24 episodes and aired on Sunday nights on ABC from March 5 to December 24, 1962. At the time of its debut, it was the first program ever to be broadcast in color on ABC-TV. (Only a handful of ABC-TV stations were capable of broadcasting in color in the early 1960s.) In contrast, The Flintstones, while always produced in color, was broadcast in black-and-white for its first two seasons. Following its primetime run, the series aired on Saturday mornings for decades, starting on ABC for the 1963-64 season and then in future seasons on CBS and NBC.

Further episodes were produced for syndication between 1985 and 1987 as one the original lineup of the weekday/weekend morning programming block known as The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.

Cartoon Network began airing reruns of the series in 1992 and continued to do so until 2001. On January 11, 2001, Cartoon Network's sister channel Boomerang also began airing reruns of The Jetsons and continued to do so, on and off, until 2003.

Overview

The Jetsons are a family residing in Orbit City. The city's architecture is rendered in the Googie style, and all homes and businesses are raised high above the ground on adjustable columns. George Jetson lives with his family in the Skypad Apartments: his wife Jane is a homemaker, their teenage daughter Judy attends Orbit High School, and their early-childhood son Elroy attends Little Dipper School. Housekeeping is seen to by a robot maid, Rosie, which handles chores not otherwise rendered trivial by the home's numerous push-button Space Age-envisioned conveniences. The family has a dog named Astro, which talks with an initial consonant mutation in which every word begins with an "R", as if speaking with a growl.

George Jetson's workweek is typical of his era: an hour a day, two days a week. His boss is Cosmo Spacely, the diminutive yet bombastic owner of Spacely Space Sprockets. Spacely has a competitor, H. G. Cogswell, owner of the rival company Cogswell Cogs (sometimes known as Cogswell's Cosmic Cogs). Jetson commutes to work in an aerocar that resembles a flying saucer with a transparent bubble top. Daily life is leisurely, assisted by numerous labor-saving devices, which occasionally break down with humorous results. Despite this, everyone complains of exhausting hard labor and difficulties living with the remaining inconveniences.

Characters

• George: A digital index operator at Spacely Space Sprockets, a heavy industries company. One of his assignments includes maintaining RUDI. He has a wife, a daughter, a son, and a mother in law. He is 50 years old.
• Jane: A housewife that occasionally works with Henry. She loves to shop at Mooningdale's, and has exotic glowing green and purple dresses, which got recognition from Wilma Flintstone. She is 49 years old.
• Judy: She attends Orbit High School, where peer pressure no longer exists and her work is mostly leisurely. She has brought home advanced calculus homework at times and has mentioned her school going to resorts at tropical destinations only mere minutes away. She idolizes celebrities and wants to date them, particularly boys from rock bands.
• Elroy: He also has a lot of homework, and is skilled at science projects. His school goes on field trips to other planets in a few simple hours. Elroy also assists at Spacely Space Sprockets.
• Rosey, later spelled Rosie: An employee of U Rent A Robot Maid that moved in with The Jetsons. She does routine maintenance at their place and frequently visits Spacely Space Sprockets. She taught Judy how to drive and tutors Elroy.
• Astro: A dog that stars in his own Spin Off. When off duty, he spends his time with Elroy or with George, and is insanely loyal to them.
• Orbitty: Another pet, usually for Elroy, and is a highly skilled engineer.
• Di-Di: Pronounced Dye Dye, she is an interactive diary. She floats around the room listening and conversing with her owner, in this case, Judy Jetson. Di-Di appears as a giant pair of red lips. Her "teeth" consists of a waveform display.
• Mac: Not to be confused with Macintosh, he is a Simpleton Robot that means well, but causes disasters.
• Henry: He is the building superintendent.
• Laser Jack: A judge of competitions that Spacely and Cogswell participate in all the time.
• Skata-Hara: Leader of the group S.N.E.E.K. and expert markswoman.
• Cosmo: Cosmo is in charge of Spacely Space Sprockets, but it is not easy. Stress levels seemed to have stunted his growth and lost his hair. He has to answer to a Board Of Directors, RUDI, and competes with Cogswell. He has a wife that sometimes ignores him, giving him nothing else to do except to spy on The Jetson Family. He resembles J.J. Granite from The Flintstones. A running gag is firing George every day for twenty years.
• Mrs. Spacely: She changes her hair often.
• Arthur: They have at least one son, Arthur.
• Ms. Galaxy: An administrative assistant at Spacely Space Sprockets.
• UNIBLAB: Another administrative assistant at Spacely Space Sprockets. One time Cosmo fired him. Another time he got a job with The Military until he exploded. He eventually returned to Spacely Space Sprockets. His name is derived from UNIVAC.
• RUDI: An atomic supercomputer that runs the factory. Overworked And Overclocked, He gives George his own list of demands separate from Mr. Spacely. Another time he got tired of Mr. Spacely firing George and ordered him to get back to work lest he melt and destroy the factory. He is very nervous all the time and speaks with a quivering voice.
• Mr. Cogswell: He has a company Cogswell Cosmic Cogs, a rival heavy industries manufacturer that also has its own Board Of Directors. He resembles Mr. Rockhead - Slate from The Flintstones and is as greedy as The Once-Ler.
• Mrs. Cogswell: She married Mr. Cogswell.
• Cody: Son of Mr. and Mrs. Cogswell.
• Moonstone: He works a similar position as George, only at Cogswell's instead.
• Harlan: An Administrative Assistant for Mr. Cogswell.
• SARA: The Supercomputer for Cogswell's factory. She likes to seduce RUDI.

Cast

• George Jetson/RUDI/Uniblab/Mac — Don Messick
• Jane Jetson — Paula Winslowe
• Elroy Jetson — Dick Beals
• Judy Jetson — Janet Waldo
• Astro the Dog — Alan Reed
• Rosie/Mrs. Spacely/Miss Galaxy — Jean Vander Pyl
• Cosmo Spacely — Mel Blanc
• Di-Di — Selma Diamond Season 2, Brenda Vaccaro Season 3.

Episodes

The show's original run consisted of 24 episodes that first aired on ABC from March 5 to December 24, 1962. In 1984, Hanna-Barbera began producing new episodes specifically for syndication; by September 1985, the 24 episodes from the first season were combined with 41 new episodes and began airing in late afternoon time slots in 80 U.S. media markets, including the 30 largest. The 41 new episodes were produced at a cost of $300,000 an episode and featured all of the voice actors from the 1962 show. Starting in 1987, ten additional "season 3" episodes were also made available for syndication.

Specials and Film Adaptations

Television Films

• The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones' (1987)
• Rockin' with Judy Jetson (1988)

Television Specials

• Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration (1989)

Theatrical Releases

• Jetsons: The Movie (1990)

Direct-to-Video Films

• The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania! (2017)

Trivia

• The Ground is seen quite often on The Jetsons. The main locations of Spacely Space Sprockets and Cogswell Cosmic Cogs are on the ground.
• Orbitty, Pebbles, and Bamm-Bamm were supposed to appear in The Jetsons Meet The Flintstones, but this plan was scrapped.

See Also

• Astro and the Space Mutts

Hanna-Barbera Series

• 1950's
• 1960's
• 1970's
• 1980's
• 1990's