The Jetsons

fter the success of their stone age hit The Flintstones, Hanna-Barbera decided to explore what life might be like in the future by chronicling the lives of a family in the year 2062. Their futuristic endeavor, The Jetsons, premiered in 1962 in the Sunday night time slot, where the show aired for one season before being moved to Saturday mornings, where it played in reruns for nearly two decades. New episodes were produced for syndication from 1985 to 1987.

The head of the Jetson household was George Jetson, a working class father of the future. He spent backbreaking three hour work days pushing a button at a computer at a company called Spacely Sprockets. He was constantly under threat of losing his job from diminutive boss Cosmo Spacely, but in all fairness to Mr. Spacely, George did sneak into work late a few times... and he did fall asleep at his computer on more than one occasion.

Spacely Sprockets was in competition with another company called Cogswell Cogs, headed by H.G. Cogswell. Fair business practices were a rare commodity between Mr. Cogswell and Mr. Spacely, and it was routinely George Jetson who was called on to execute some wild scheme thought up by Mr. Spacely to get the better of his business rival. Of course, things inevitably went wrong and it was George who took the fall. When Spacely was upset with George the television audience was treated to Mr. Spacely yelling, "Jetsooooon!" often followed by, "you're fired!" In the end though, George was always able to grovel his way into keeping his job.

Filling out the Jetson household were George's wife Jane and their two children Judy and Elroy. Jane was a full-time housewife who loved to shop. On occasion she had to cook dinner or clean their skyrise, which amounted to pushing a few buttons because everything was automated. Still, she couldn't help but sigh over the drudgery of housework. To help ease the burden of her daily chores, the family purchased a maid called Rosie the Robot from the commercial cleaning agency U-Rent A Maid. Rosie was warm, friendly and helpful, and like other robots in the 21st century her personality was more human than programmed. Rosie even cried in a few episodes, and more than one episode was devoted to finding her a robot husband.

Judy Jetson was a stereotypical teenage girl, who loved clothes and music, and spent her time dreaming of the next boy she wanted to date. Elroy Jetson was the youngest member of the family. He was interested in the same things many other six-year old boys are interested in—namely superheroes and space-age westerns, and having far-out adventures. He also had a knack for working with computers and other technical gadgets.

Just as much a part of the family was their dog Astro; George's faithful companion and best buddy to Elroy. In the first episode of the second season the family gained an additional member they named Orbity. Orbity was a rare species of alien with Slinky-like springs for legs, who changed color when he changed emotion. Cute threw up on Orbity—he resembled a teddy bear with big eyes that spoke in a high-pitched, garbled language. He could instinctively fix any contraption or device, which proved useful on those occasions when Elroy and Astro got themselves in a jam.

The show foreshadowed many of the things we take for granted in the modern age, like treadmills, cell phones and the internet. Surely the flying cars will get here soon; and having a moving walkway in every room could come in handy...