The future is now! Expect to be living on platform cities in the next 30 to 40 years.
If there was any doubt that the future is here (for better or worse), just remember that you are now living in George Jetson’s lifetime. Animation fans are celebrating an important milestone this weekend, as several savvy Twitter users noticed that the Spacely Sprockets employee, husband to Jane, and father of June and Elroy, is said to be born on July 31, 2022. That still gives us 40 years before the events of the show begin, so there’s no need to feel bad about not having flying cars yet.
“The Jetsons” famously followed a middle class family living in Orbit City in a chrome-tinged future where robots allow humans to live leisurely. It was conceived as a companion show to “The Flintstones,” which famously reimagined 1950s sitcom tropes from shows like “The Honeymooners” in a Stone Age world full of cavemen and dinosaurs. “The Jetsons” took the inverse approach, making a sitcom about an American nuclear family that happens to take place in an era of flying cars and two-hour work weeks. Much of the humor stemmed from the fact that, in the world of the show, things have stayed the same as much as they have changed. Technology may have advanced in leaps and bounds, but human nature results in the same amount of complaining and miscommunication. (If you see an especially cranky toddler somewhere, you can imagine that’s George’s cantankerous boss, Cosmo Spacely.)
But it may not be as rosy a future as you might think: “Jetsons: The Movie” establishes that humans only live in stilt-condominiums high above the clouds because smog has made it impossible to live on the earth’s surface. Add in rising sea levels and that be where we’re headed after all.
“The Jetsons” was created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera in 1962. It starred George O’Hanlon, Janet Waldo, Mel Blanc, Penny Singleton, Daws Butler, Don Messick, Jean Vander Pyl, Frank Welker, and Howard Morris. It reflects very much a mid-20th century vision of the future, one that’s most optimistic. (On the other hand, guess what year “Soylent Green” is set: 2022.)
The show originally ran for 24 episodes on ABC, and had the distinction of being the first television show to be broadcast in color on the network. It was later revived in 1985, with an additional 51 episodes being produced with the original voice cast and broadcast in syndication. The series officially concluded with “Jetsons: The Movie” in 1990, which was directed by Hanna and Barbera. Though the series stopped being produced, the characters remained in the cultural zeitgeist, popping up on shows such as “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law” and in movies like “Space Jam: A New Legacy.” In 2017, the first new Jetsons production was released when the futuristic family starred in the direct-to-DVD film “The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania!”
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