As I mentioned in my previous entry to this blog, The Jetsons, in its initial form, only lasted one season back in 1962. After the show was canceled, the series began to play in reruns on Saturday mornings, and this schedule shift gave the show a second chance. Over the next two decades, The Jetsons was a staple of Saturday morning cartoons, entertaining generations of children during that time. Finally, in 1984, the decision was made to bring The Jetsons back, with the original voice cast and all.
Nowadays, reboots and revivals are all the rage, even in animation. Just last month, Clone High returned to TV after a similarly long gap between episodes. Next month, Futurama comes back (again!) to Hulu. But this was really the first time a cartoon was brought back just as it was when it ended.
That's not to say that the 1980s run of episodes was entirely consistent with what had come before, however. These newer episodes focused a lot more on weird sci-fi stories, instead of the typical sitcom hallmarks the family went through in the original series. New characters like Orbitty joined the show's colorful cast of characters. George and Jane also took a backseat in these episodes, as it was believed that kids (the main target audience of the revival), would relate to the adventures of Judy and Elroy easier than they would their parents. From a technological perspective, these episodes were the first example of a cartoon using digital ink and paint, instead of the traditional way. The revival episodes were also aired in stereo, a first for the studio.
Nowadays, the general consensus on these episodes is pretty split. Some feel they lost what made the original show so memorable, while others see them as a worthy continuation of what came before. I think Judy Jetson herself, Janet Waldo said it best in an interview: "Some of them were great, and some of them were not-so-great."
Regardless of what you think of them, as the first major cartoon revival, the Jetsons' return generated a lot of press back in 1985. Here's an in-depth piece from September 26th, 1985, that appeared in the Colorado Springs Gazette. Also check out an image of the main cast right next to their futuristic counterparts, taken from the recording sessions of the 1980's episodes!
'Jetsons' rescued from the land of reruns'
By Michael Yockel
Meet George Jetson, his wife Jane, their teenage hipster daughter Judy, their little boy Elroy and their gravelly voiced dog Astro. After bouncing around cartoon purgatory for 23 years, "The Jetsons" has returned to television with 41 new episodes. Coupled with the show's original 24 episodes, they are on the air Mondays through Fridays (7:30 a.m. Channel 21). The program is already signed up for 80 U.S. markets, including all of the top 30.
You do remember "The Jetsons"? Better than any other TV show, it depicted a vision of the future that is permanently imprinted on the collective mind of the "Big Chill" generation.
The show took an optimistic, post-Eisenhower world view and projected it into the year 2000—a sort of futuristic "Father Knows Best." Jovial husband/dad George whisked to his job in an atomic-powered bubble car. Practical wife/mom Jane stayed home and did housewifey chores with the aid of Rosie the Robot. Antenna beany-topped Elroy whooshed to school each morning in a pneumatic tube. And pert and pretty Judy yammered on the viewer-phone and concentrated on getting her good foot down to the Solar Swivel dance. Things were future perfect, so to speak.
When "The Jetsons" premiered in prime time Sundays (7:30-8 p.m.) on ABC in Sept. 1962, all was peachy with the American dream.
Handsome John F. Kennedy was in the White House, preparing to stare down the Russians in Cuba. Space hero John Clenn jauntily cruised around the Earth. Likable Arnie Palmer won the Masters and the British Open golf tournies. And Chubby Checker's dance craze, "The Twist," was the No. 1 record of the year.
Life was good. Simple, too. Hanna-Barbera, creators of such notable period characters as Huckleberry Hound, Yogi Bear, and Quick Draw McGraw, took the upbeat spirit of the era and grafted it onto the futuristic nuclear family.
Originally, "The Jetsons" was born out of the enormous success of another half-hour Hanna-Barbera cartoon, "The Flintstones"—the animated Stone Age version of Hacjie Gleason's "The Honeymooners." Hanna-Barbera reasoned that since the cartoon sit-com concept worked so well in a prehistoric setting, why not try something similar in the future.
Well, what's good for the past isn't necessarily good for the future. "The Jetsons" was a commercial flop. Actually, it didn't have much of a chance, given the fact that it was up against the popular "Denni The Menace" on CBS and NBC's perennial kids powerhouse, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color." George et al., it seems, were victims of a tough time slot. And, according, to Bob Hathcock, producer of the new "Jetsons" series, the original show was savaged by the critics.
After one season of 24 episodes, "The Jetsons" was withdrawn from ABC's prime-time lineup, and Hanna-Barbera ceased production of the series. ABC Shifted "The Jetsons" to its Saturday morning cartoon cavalcade for the '63 season, and the following year the show moved to CBS' Saturday morning schedule. Phew. George and family logged some serious network miles.
"The Jetsons" stayed with NBC for three years before being dropped by the network, only to be resuscitated in 1971 for a 12-year run through 1983. Amazingly, the same original 24 episodes were being shown over and over again. Until last September, the show could be seen in 80 U.S. markets and 55 countries. Then Worldvision Enterprises, the show's new distributor, decided to pull it from the air waves, gearing up for the fall '85 "Jetsons" assault.
Work began on the 41 new episodes late last year at a cost of approximately $300,000 per show, says Hanna-Barbera-spokeswoman Sarah Baisley. All of the actors and actresses who provided the voices for the original show have returned to work on the new episodes: George O'Hanlon (George); Penny Singleton (Jane); Janet Waldo (Judy); Daws Butler (Elroy); Don Messick (Astro); and the ubiquitous Mel Blanc (George's boss, Cosmo G. Spacely).
Most are cartoon voiceover veterans, especially Blanc, who is responsible for the voices of Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Roadrunner, Daffy Duck, and a gaggle of other Warner Brothers cartoon characters. Messick has done time as the voice of Bamm-Bamm on "The Flintstones" and as Dr. Benton Quest on "Johnny Quest," while 77-year-old Singleton is best known for her portrayal of Blondie in a slew of '30s and '40s films.
Hathcock, whose father was an animator on the original show, says that because the actors are now older and their voices may have deepened, some "voice enhancement" could be required in order to match the sound of the old episodes with the sound of the new ones. But he's adamant that the look and attitude of "The Jetsons" be unchanged.
"The spirit of the show will be the same," Hathcock explains. "It will still be offered as a sit-com. We want it to be true to the original, because there's an audience out there that almost constitutes a 'Jetsons' cult, and they want to see what they remember as 'The Jetsons."
To that end, the family's new-wavey fashions will remain the same: above-the-knee dresses for Jane; triangular and circular stand-up collars for everyone, and miniskirts with Spandex leggings for Judy. Come to think of it, it's taken 20 years for women's fashions to catch up with Judy.
Another constant will be Jane's character. Despite the omnipresent women's movement of the past 15 years, Jane will continue to be a space-age June Cleaver. "I think that the family relationship should stay the same," Hathcock says. "We haven't said, 'We have to get Jane a job.' However, we've avoided some of the things that we regard as the more negative aspects of the '50s culture, like 'the little woman.' There was one (original) episode called 'Jane's Driving Lesson.' You can imagine what that was like."
Ditto for Judy. Says Baisley, "Judy isn't going to study to be a nuclear scientist. She's still going to get crushes on boys and be interested in the latest dance craze."
The new "Jetsons" will feature one additional character—an interplanetary pet named Orbitty, who joins the family after being discovered by Elroy. Cute and cuddly, Orbitty sports springs for legs and changes color according to its mood. As Astro would say, "Rut-roh."
Also expect some new gadgetry. The real doozy is a 3-D "holographic" TV. With it, viewer and viewee can jive, signify and flirt with each other as the latter's TV image materializes ghost-like from out of the screen. Outta sight. Then there's the Shapeupizer, a large contraption that whips your body into perfect condition.
Look too for: the Memominder, a skeletal gizmo which hovers several paces behind you and bleats your daily appointments; the Clothing Vending Machine, which lives up to its name; the Dressing Cone, a vertically oscillating energy ring which attires you in the garb of your choice, and the sublime Judy's Diary, a hovering heart-shaped doo-dad which records Judy's love conquests and heartbreaks.
Some familiar gadgetry will return, too. For instance, the family's Skypad Apartments will be raised and lowered to escape foul weather; Jane will choose meals from her automat-like "foodarackacycle" and call housekeeping shots with the seeing-eye vacuum cleaner and the voice-operated washing machine; and presumably, George will walk Astro on the pet treadmill—the same machine that trips him during the show's credits.
The show's theme song—which has been revived and given extensive airplay on Los Angeles radio—will be re-recorded in stereo, and, according to Baisley, an MTV-style video is being created for it with clips from the series.
Both Hathcock and Baisley are keeping mum on the content of the 41 new shows, although Baisley says that one episode will be a parody of "Love Boat," and Hathcock says another will be a take-off on "A Christmas Carol."
So who is going to watch "The Jetsons" this time around? "Kids 2 to 11, of course," says John Riggio, Worldvision's director of creative services, "and if we can get women watching and other adults, then fine. Sure it's a kids show, but it also lends itself to adult viewing. After all, it is a sit-com and has broad appeal. You know, "The Jetsons" is mentioned in the Baby Boomer edition of Trivial Pursuit, and we're hoping to capitalize on the whole nostalgia renaissance."
Baisley also is counting on baby boomers to watch the show. "The second you mention 'The Jetsons' to them" she says laughing, "they start singing the theme song."
That's it for tonight, but before I sign off, I want to recommend you check out the blog, "The Golden Age of Animation." It's only just gotten off the ground, but I'm always willing to shout out a blog, especially as someone who has similarly only gotten started.
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