Die Jetsons

The reason why I love the Flintstones so much is because it is funny, it is smart and it has an irresistibly catchy theme tune. The Jetsons is not as funny and smart, but it is still very good. It has great animation, good music, original and interesting ideas in terms of episodes and concept(the misadventures of a futuristic family, love the idea) and the characters especially George, Elroy and Judy(the latter of the two teenagers can relate to though Astro was my personal favourite, and it is always entertaining to see how George speaks and acts to his wife and boss) are likable. It is a shame though The Jetsons were so short-lived, when it ended I was like "that doesn't feel right. Why didn't it last longer and have a proper send-off?" Also I felt it lacked a Barney sort of character, someone for George to properly share his problems without him feeling like someone's on his back constantly. Overall though, The Jetsons is very good. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This show is pretty funny. One of the more amusing things about it is the venue- the World of the Future. Anyone who remembers (or has since studied) the future as it was imagined in 1962 will find a load of images here that will be familiar: personal service robots, flying cars, the push-button, fully automated workplace, the self cleaning house, automatic food dispensers, the works. And of course, highly-prominent were the star-fields of space, the "last frontier."

This is the sort of stuff that was touted as being in our future at the Seattle World's Fair in 1962, the "Century 21" Exposition.

As to the cartoon itself, it was amusing how the characters found themselves interacting with the technology of their time- the daughter blabbering on the phone, the son off pursuing his projects or grumbling about school, mom finding that the food dispenser requires a refill, dad returning from work moaning about how exhausted he is from a long hard day of pushing buttons, the bullying boss, and so on.

In 1962, "Cen.21" touted the future as being, if not perfect, then at least far more congenial than the (then) present. The cartoon stated that this would not necessarily be so- and our own world of the 21st century has proven that the latter was more right than wrong, sociologically speaking at least.

If you wanted to know what the future would be like,The Jetsons was the show to watch. From its opening sequence where George,Jane,Judy,and Elroy and Astro fly to their sky high apartment in their family car(spaceship), and other parts was the highlight of the show. In my honest opinions about the show,I never did like the ones they did from the late 1980's,but it was the earlier episodes that were the ones to tuned in for(the original 24 episodes from 1962-1963 which ran on ABC-TV,and its repeats continued into syndication). This was on the same format as another Hanna-Barbera format,The Flintstones,but this was a show that features all of the gadgets that were used in the future and so much more. The original ones were a lot more funnier too,including several episodes that I would highly recommend for viewing from the 62-63 season,and these were classic gems of animation.....................

1. The premiere episode,where George gets very nervous about bringing over his boss for dinner(Mr. Spacely),and it ends with hilarious results.

2. The Jet-Screamer episode,where Judy goes out on a date with her singing idol,and George tries to brake it up,ending up uninvited at teen club.

3. The Las Vegas(Space Vegas)episode,where George and Jane leave the kids behind at home,and then head to Vegas and that's when Jane catches George flirting with another woman,in which the woman turns out to be the head of huge cosmetics company in which Mr. Spacely gets George to get a contract sign for his job. My personal favorite.

4. The episode where Elroy runs away from home after George and Jane find out that he and another classmate switch report card tapes,and from there Elroy tangles up(along with Astro the dog)with some dangerous space criminals and its up to George to save Elroy and the family from great danger.

5. The Ultiblah episode(hilarious as it gets!) in which a troublesome robot gets Mr. Spacely,George,and Henry the maintanance man in trouble with the Army,and its up to George and Henry to bale themselves and George's boss out.......

*Catch the episodes on Boomerang and Cartoon Network!

I bought the new Jetsons original series DVD set for a friend's kid and ended up watching it with her and was blown away. I used to watch re-runs as a kid and had forgotten how much I used to love them. It's a very high quality cartoon series that put me in sort of Vulcan mind meld with the past and the future all at the same time. That is because when you watch it you are seeing a 1962 version of the 23rd century (or so). It is fascinating to see this in action. The wife stays home and goes shopping while the husband goes off to the exploitive factory to work for a demeaning boss. I really enjoyed looking at all of the gadgets they had and seeing which ones came true in the future, like flat screen TVs and wristwatch phones everywhere, and which ones never did. Maybe some of the creators ideas are right around the corner! The funny thing was my friend's daughter enjoyed it as much as I did because of the funny story lines. I can highly recommend the new DVD set with all 24 episodes from 1962. There are commentaries from some of the characters and other added features that made this a great buy.

I didn't watch this cartoon series a whole lot when I was a kid, but did remember it for what it was - a fun show that takes you to the future where cars travel in midair, and homes and buildings that pretty much have everything operated with remote control within them.

Everyone would remember the lyric-catching opening scene where each member of the Jetson family is introduced, and household head George Jetson doing his utmost best for his family - wife Jane, son Elroy, daughter Judy, dog Astro and robotic housekeeper Rose - working at his job under the extreme pressure of the tempered-filled boss Mr. Spacely.

It's almost like a typical sitcom (pre-2000s) family but with the cartoon and into-the-future angle. It's a nice show for the entire family, and is a show that stood well through the tests of time.

Grade B