The Jetsons

For other uses, see Jetson.

The Jetsons
Genre
Created by
Directed by
Voices of
Theme music composerHoyt Curtin
ComposerHoyt Curtin
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons3
No. of episodes75 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers
  • William Hanna (1985–87)
  • Joseph Barbera (1985–87)
Producers
  • William Hanna (1962–63)
  • Joseph Barbera (1962–63)
  • Bob Hathcock (1985)
  • Berny Wolf (1987)
  • Jeff Hall (1987)
Running time22–30 minutes
Production companyHanna-Barbera Productions
Original release
NetworkABC
ReleaseSeptember 23, 1962 (1962-09-23) –
March 17, 1963 (1963-03-17)
NetworkSyndication
ReleaseSeptember 16, 1985 (1985-09-16) –
November 12, 1987 (1987-11-12)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Jetsons is an American animated sitcom produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It originally aired in prime time from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963, on ABC, then later aired in reruns via syndication, with new episodes produced from 1985 to 1987. It was Hanna-Barbera's Space Age counterpart to The Flintstones.[1]

While the Flintstones lived in a world which was a comical version of the Stone Age, with machines powered by birds and dinosaurs, the Jetsons live in a comical version of a century in the future,[2][3] with elaborate robotic contraptions, aliens, holograms, and whimsical inventions.[4][5]

The original had 24 episodes and aired on Sunday nights on ABC beginning on September 23, 1962, with prime time reruns continuing through September 22, 1963.[6] It debuted as the first program broadcast in color on ABC, back in the early 1960s when only a handful of ABC stations were capable of broadcasting in color.[7] In contrast, The Flintstones, while always produced in color, was broadcast in black-and-white for its first two seasons.[8]

The show was originally scheduled opposite Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Dennis the Menace and did not receive much attention. Due to poor ratings, it was cancelled after its first season but was then moved to Saturday mornings, where it went on to be very successful.[9] Following its primetime run, the show aired on Saturday mornings for decades, starting on ABC for the 1963–64 season and then on CBS and NBC.[10] New episodes were produced for syndication from 1985 to 1987. No further specials or episodes of the show were produced after 1989, as the majority of the core cast (George O'Hanlon, Mel Blanc, and Daws Butler) had died in 1988 and 1989. The 1990 film Jetsons: The Movie served as the series finale to the television show, though it failed to achieve critical and commercial success.

  1. ^ CD liner notes: Saturday Morning: Cartoons' Greatest Hits, 1995 MCA Records
  2. ^ Lewis, Andy (23 September 2012). "'The Jetsons' Turn Fifty". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
  3. ^ The Jetsons: The Family of the Future. The Jetsons — The Complete First Season: Turner Home Entertainment. Archived from the original (DVD bonus feature) on 2021-10-30.
  4. ^ "Jetsons: The Complete First Season". DVD Talk. May 11, 2004. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved 2010-08-27.
  5. ^ Novak, Matt. "Automating Hard or Hardly Automating? George Jetson and the Manual Labor of Tomorrow". smithsonianmag.com. Archived from the original on 2015-02-25. Retrieved 2015-02-24.
  6. ^ Erickson, Hal (2005). Television Cartoon Shows: An Illustrated Encyclopedia, 1949 Through 2003 (2nd ed.). McFarland & Co. pp. 445–449. ISBN 978-1476665993.
  7. ^ O'Reilly, Terry (May 24, 2014). "21st Century Brands". Under the Influence. Season 3. Episode 21. Event occurs at time 3:15. CBC Radio One. Archived from the original on June 8, 2014. Transcript of the original source. Retrieved June 7, 2014. The program was ahead of its time in more ways than one, as it was the first television series to be broadcast in colour on the ABC network, at a time when only 3% of the public had colour television sets.
  8. ^ "Jetsons, The — Season 2, Volume 1 Review". TVShowsOnDVD.com. Archived from the original on 2010-03-10. Retrieved 2010-09-27.
  9. ^ Sennett, Ted (1989). The Art of Hanna-Barbera: Fifty Years of Creativity. Studio. p. 110. ISBN 978-0670829781. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  10. ^ Alex McNeil (1980). Total Television. Penguin Books.