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Show:		7.0
Picture:		6.0
Sound:		5.0
Extras:		4.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Arthur Davis • Oscar Dufau
Writer(s):	Barry E. Blitzer, George Atkins, Mark Young, Tony Benedict
Starring:	Don Messick • Frank Welker • Mel Blanc • Penny Singleton • Daws Butler • Jean Vander Pyl • Janet Waldo • George O'Hanlon
Genre:	Animation • Sci-Fi • Television
Release Date:	June 02, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $25.99
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The Jetsons was Hanna-Barbera’s answer to its own question. Creating The Flintstones in order to use every rock, stone and boulder joke in the English language, they realized they’d missed a valuable comedy niche: the future. I believe it was David X. Cohen who noted that adding “space” (or a similar celestial phrase) to any word instantly makes it better and funnier. For example, take pope. Now add “space”. Space pope. That’s an improvement. Cosmic Toast. Galactic hangover. It all works, and it’s but one of the many keys to the comedy of The Jetsons.

Most of the episodes follow George’s struggles with an evil boss or a malfunctioning robot in fantastical sci-fi situations. The futuristic concept makes it unique for its time, but it still has the same sitcom tropes set in a new time period. Lost pets, surprise parties and new cars compose the rather generic plots; it’s the setting that allows them to add small unique touches that make them solely The Jetsons’ creations.

Meet George Jetson (George O’Hanlon), the average blue-collar worker with a family whose needs constantly seem to exceed his means. George works at Spacely’s Space Cogs and either loses his job or undergoes torturous conditions for his boss Mr. Spacely (Mel Blanc) in every episode. Every night George comes home to find Jane (Penny Singleton), his wife, ready with either a new set of misadventures or news about one of his children that will inevitably entertain for another 22 minutes. His boy, Elroy (Daws Butler) would almost seem to be the perfect kid: he’s brilliant, amiable and seems all around honest – except in the very first episode of The Jetsons: Season 2: Volume 1 he’s on the run from the law for breaking his dog Astro (Don Messick) out of the pound. He actually takes aggressive action against a municipal worker, and yet George and Jane forgive him on the basis of him making them proud. Considering the new seasons of The Jetsons were (admittedly) aimed at younger kids, what kind of message is that? Then there’s the daughter Judy (Janet Waldo) who has every guy in school calling and cares for little more than popularity. Yes, she’s in high school, but she still comes across as incredibly shallow – which is how I explain there being only one or two episodes that follow the adventures of Judy. Then, for some reason, a small alien creature named Orbity (Frank Welker) is introduced whom, far too often, proves to be smarter than the entire family combined.

What hurts the most, for me, is that my beloved Futurama has been slightly revealed as a copycat in light of the adventures of The Jetsons. The parallels between the two shows are slightly two striking to be written off as mere coincidences - only making it worse is the fact that Frank Welker plays small, endangered aliens who eat everything in both The Jetsons and Futurama (Orbity and Nibbler, respectively). Although, you could argue that instead of copying from The Jetsons, both shows simply copied out of the same sitcom and science fiction playbooks.

For those of you not up to speed on your Jetsons history, it’s important to know that there are two distinct generations of the space-age family. Now, I don’t mean George and Jane as one generation and Judy and Elroy as another – though that clearly works as well. What I mean is that there is the original first season created in 1962 and then the second and third seasons which didn’t start again until 1986. While the animators and writers behind the newer generation of The Jetsons would like to believe the two later seasons are identical to the original, there are a few key differences to note. This DVD set includes the first 21 episodes after the 23-year break.

First and foremost, the animation received an expected streamline in that 23-year hiatus. The movement became more fluid, the colors received a kick in the palette and the characters themselves received touch-ups. The black lines which surround the characters to separate them from the pre-created backdrops have become thicker, and that’s not altogether a bad thing; but at times the style looks more campy and cartoonish than the original did. Second, the audio qualities of the series have shifted considerably, and not always for the better. On one hand they eliminated the obnoxious laugh-track that helped established The Jetsons as just another sitcom of primetime television (its original airtime). Getting rid of the laugh-track was a good change – it’s more annoying hearing fake laughter in a cartoon than it is in a normal show because, let’s face it, there’s no way The Jetsons was drawn before a live studio audience. However, the new series has unfortunate discrepancies in the audio balance. There are noticeable instances where the audio is drowned out by an episode’s music or sound effects. At times, the voice audio will just dip without any other sound to compete with. It’s distracting and an unfortunate occurrence.

The Jetsons takes The Flintstones’ formula into space. Substantially, there’s no real difference, and yet something makes The Jetsons stand out. The animation style, even with faded colors, gives the show an ironic feeling of nostalgia. Here is a world our cultural mind hoped would exist in the near future – but that was over 40 years ago, and we’re still decades away from flying cars and robot maids (the Roomba doesn’t really count). Despite its futuristic premise, The Jetsons features classic Americana – only the difficulties arise from the very things meant to make it easier. As much as the cartoon seems to pine for the future, it offers a cautionary message that promises of an easier life don’t have the expected pay-off. With so much going wrong thanks to malfunctioning robot, The Jetsons could just as easily be taken as a plea for human advancement to cease altogether. The entire series stands as a testament to a time when American culture salivated over the promise of space travel but never really considered all the complications it would introduce to modern life.

DVD Bonus Features

There’s a solitary featurette which explores that 23-year long gap between the series. Why was it revived? Who revived it? How did it change? All these questions and more are answered in an informative, yet far too brisk 8 minute piece. For every question they do answer, they fail to confront the still lingering oddity: why is everyone in the future white?