Dalbert Pringle
Blast off into the futuristic, spaced-out world of TV's ideal family-of-tomorrow - "The Jetsons".The year - 2062 AD. The place - Orbit City.Join George, Jane, Judy and Elroy (along with Astro, the clumsy canine, and Rosie, the robot maid) as they merrily/miserably live out their day-to-day futuristic lives where malfunctioning space-age inventions never fail to complicate matters and seemingly get the better of them.These cute, good-natured cartoons from The Jetsons' first season (1962-1963) are enjoyable in their own right, but, in retrospect, they are far from being a very promising look at the future.
ExplorerDS6789
Having done individual critiques for all 75 episodes, I thought I would analyze the series as a whole and give my feelings about it, having been a long-time fan and having my share of both favorite episodes and loathed ones. All things considered, The Jetsons is a very good series and quite underrated, even during its time. I would have to say that the only real problem the show had was with its character development as well as story, as the show seems to be built more around the futuristic machinery used by the characters, than the characters themselves. During an episode, they'll cut away in the middle of what's going on to show them using some neat little gadget to accomplish a mundane task. It has no baring on the story whatsoever, it was merely put in as a diversion. Comparing this show to, say, The Flintstones, you'd see that The Flintstones was more about the characters as opposed to their setting. The show was about two families living in the Stone Age, and occasionally they did use Stone Age gadgets, including an animal operating something that would otherwise be electric, but this didn't always take away from what was happening in the story. We got to know Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty, we followed them around, we learned a bit about their passions, their pasts, their dreams. With The Jetsons, we didn't really get that. Sure there was an episode that recalled George and Jane meeting and then getting married, but that was about it. Also, I think it would have helped if there was a Barney Rubble character in the series. A friend for George, who really had nobody to play off of except for Spacely, and I'll get into Mr. Spacely in a moment. We, the audience, don't really get to know The Jetsons as characters, or at least not in a sense that goes beyond their gimmicks. For example, Judy is the stereotypical teenage girl who's into cars, clothes, hair and boys, and she has a passion for music, but we rarely if ever got to see anything beyond that until Rockin' with Judy Jetson, which I'll get to later. Also what does Jane like besides shopping? What are her passions? How about George? We know he's a terrific pitcher in space ball, a great bowler, a hard worker, a good provider, but what is he really like? Same with Elroy, he's a boy genius and very precocious, but not very strong. You see, we don't really get to know these characters very well, we're only supposed to identify with their gimmicks and follow them as they do stuff and we're not sure why. This doesn't take away from the show's entertainment value, but it leaves a bit to be desired.Mr. Spacely, oh boy, the meanest boss in the universe and a really deplorable character. He must have been put there for the little kids, because all he does is yell, scream and jump around a lot. Astro was the same way, a very flamboyant character, and I know a cartoon show needs cartoon characters, but these guys are often shoe-horned into scenes where they don't really belong, other than to liven things up. Comic relief, if you will. It's apparent, particularly in the later episodes that whenever the writers couldn't think of anything engaging to do with the Jetson family, they'd always bring in Spacely and his ever-growing rivalry with Cogswell Cogs. Yet another gimmick and a chance to throw in gags for no real reason other than to move the plot along. I think Cogswell was added just to try and make Spacely seem like a good guy and at times, he has expressed some affection for George and his family, though not very often. Now, I've already said which episodes are my favorites, but I'll go ahead and recap right here. I liked "The Swiss Family Jetson" because it took the characters out of their element and showed them having to thrive off instinct and know-how, which I had said should have been the movie, but it worked out fine as a 22 minute episode. Most of the shows were pretty good, but one episode I've always hated is "The Wrong Stuff" purely for the way it was set up, the story was stupid, the plot was weak, what should have been a great opportunity for character development was cast aside so Spacely could show up and exploit Elroy for no reason other than to allow him to be in an episode where he didn't belong. "Space Bong" was alright, but I didn't like the subplot of Spacely being invited to dinner, as this shows The Jetsons' universe didn't allow for any other characters to be their friends. Character is definitely where the show falls flat.Overall, I love The Jetsons, it's a great show and the characters, while not very deep, are still enjoyable and even the horrible episodes are better than most cartoons coming out today. George, Jane, Judy, Elroy, Rosie and Astro are all endearing and you enjoy watching them do what they do. I also liked Orbitty, he was a nice addition to the cast, I don't know why they got rid of him in Season 3. Did they think he was the Jetson's answer to Cousin Oliver? Even Mr. Spacely, you love to hate him. He's so mean and cruel, yet he has his endearing moments. I would also like Mr. Cogswell if I got to know him better. Just once I would have liked to see him without Spacely and see what he's really like. I really recommend the show, as I said, some episodes are great, some are stupid, but for the most part, it's just corny fun. Suspend your disbelief and you'll enjoy what you see.
loay_76
The Jestons was a great creations of Hanna-Barbera who are the inverse of the great successful Flintstones show which represents a family living in the stone age, this show introduces a future view of the world in the end of the 21st century, and how the world is developed to have flying cars, sky pod houses that can be raised to be above the clouds or lowered to be in the normal heights, interactive robots and gadgets, TV and video calls and flying cars travels to everywhere in the galaxy .. All that and more are presented by the impressive golden touch of Hanna-Barbera The main heroes in this show were: George Jetson => The father of the family, an employee for Cosmo Spacely's company and is living a great family life with his family and in the same time trying to satisfy his short tempered boss: Mr Spacely in a series of comedy scenes, he's typically a model for the 60s American employee !! Jaine Jetson => George's wife, a really modern 60s woman Judy Jetson => Their Teenage daughter, loves the Rock n' Rool and is always in a state of a new love or out of a failed love story!!Elroy Jetson => A 12 years old short kid, his mind is very matured and is genius in the electronics and inventions Rosie => A Robot-maid that works for the Jetsons family, Rosie is a nice example of mid-aged English house keeper that is strict with quite a scenes of humor, Rosie had joined the family since the 1st episode in 1962Astro => A space dog that is somewhat reminds us with (Dino) from the Flintstones show, this strange dog almost can talk ..!!Henry => He's the porter of the house, a genius technician and is so loyal to George Jetsns Mac => A dumb robot that helps Henry and is in love with Rosie Mr Cosmo Spacely => George's boss, A great example of a greedy 60s American boss that all the time working strictly and trying to make the best use of Jetson Really it was a smiling view of the future that is all easy and automated and the work is as easy as pushing a button .. with the scale frame of the 60s .. No pollution, No starving, No wars, No Nukes .. really a smiling future view ..Although this show was made with almost complete world but it didn't have the golden charisma and success of the Flintstones, it stopped several times which made Hanna-Barbera to invest the over success of the Flintstones to make a collective movie gathering both the Flintstones and the Jetsons in 1987 in (The Jetsons meet the Flintstones) and then made a pioneer new look movie for the Jetsons in 1990 (The Jetsons - The movie) which was highly tech. cartoon with a very high color and animation quality with the same characters and ideas which came quite strong Also there's a rumor that a new movie will be introduced for the Jetsons in 2012 ..After all, we can say (A Good cartoon from the nice Golden era) Thans Han-Bar *** Lo'ay
JekyllBoote-1
There is a brilliant, bitingly satirical cartoon about a dysfunctional family that mercilessly puts American consumer culture under the microscope and finds it pusillanimous, vacuous and soul-destroying.No, silly! - not the over-rated "The Simpsons", which is ultimately - beneath its thin veneer of satire - celebratory and reassuring (and, in my opinion, unwatchable for those reasons).I'm talking about "The Jetsons". As with "The Flintstones", temporal dislocation is employed as a kind of Verfremdungseffekt, but in this instance we are thrown several centuries into a future which - like "The Flintstones"' palaeolithic age - looks disconcertingly like the suburban southern California of the early 1960s!"The Jetsons" is harder-edged than "The Flintstones", and its subtle interrogation of American consumer capitalism more focused and sustained. Like most satire, and all of the protest movements of the post-war era, "The Jetsons" is better at stating the problems than offering any putative solutions. However, in the dumbed-down Clinton-Bush era of post-ideological (i.e. permanently ultra-right wing) politics, it's refreshing to have even the questions posed.(PS. will the cosy, reassuring "The Simpsons", having featured war-hungry Tony Blair in a recent sugar-coated cameo, now give walk-ons to Lynndie England and her fellow Abu Ghraib torturers?)
