Jettisoned Jetsons Projects Part One: Judy and Elroy, All Grown Up

 Jetsons June continues with part one in a series that'll run throughout the month that we'll call "Jettisoned Jetsons Projects". In today's installment, we'll look at the very first attempt to bring the Jetsons back!

As most of you may know, The Jetsons wasn't exactly an instant hit when it premiered back in 1962. The show was canceled after only one season following low ratings, and it remained that way until 1985, when the show was brought back for an additional 51 episodes. That isn't to say Hanna-Barbera didn't try to bring the Jetsons back sooner, however. The first notable attempt to resurrect the show came in 1974, but this wouldn't have been just an ordinary revival. Instead, it would have been a sequel set around a decade after the original series, and follow older versions of Judy and Elroy. At least, that was one version that was being considered. Mark Evanier, who helped develop this pitch, has a fascinating post on his blog that shares some insight on the abandoned series. Hanna-Barbera played around with the idea of replacing Elroy with a love interest for Judy. There was even the idea of retooling this character into the fan-favorite Jet Screamer, who was only featured in one episode of the original show. Astro would've also been along for the ride, and much like Elroy, his character evolved greatly during development. Some ideas played with would have seen Astro become an uncle to a miniature version of himself, who Evanier suggested be named "Tralfaz" in reference to the name Astro's initial owner gave him. Check out the image below to get a taste of what the show could've looked like. Big thanks to Yowp for this image, give his post on the show a look if you want to see some more art from this project.

So, what happened to this show? To put it bluntly, CBS just wasn't interested in more Jetsons. While they loved the idea of a show about teens in outer space, there was a feeling that reruns of the original Jetsons would be just as successful as this sequel show. As a result, the show was retooled into The Partridge Family, 2200 A.D. As you can tell by the image of the show shared below, it's pretty evident that the show did indeed start off as an extension of the Jetsons, rather than an original series. Partridge Family, unfortunately, didn't find much success, only airing for one season before it was canceled.  It wouldn't be until 1981 that the Jetsons would get animated again, and even then, it was little more than the similarly shortlived Astro and the Space Mutts.

Of course, that wasn't the last time the powers that be said no to a Jetsons revival. Next week, I'll discuss not one, but two attempts to bring the Jetsons back to TV screens in the 90s! Before I wrap this up, I also wanna give a shout-out to this great Partridge Family 2200 AD fansite, which was an invaluable asset in conducting research for this piece. If you wanna know more about this rather forgotten series in HB's catalog, look no further!