Revisiting the Jetsons

by philg

We’ve been improving our minds lately by watching The Jetsons (aired in 1962; set in 2062), streaming on Amazon Boomerang. Some interesting items so far…

  • the first episode has a reference to immigration; Mr. Spacely’s wife is involved in a “Martians Go Home!” campaign
  • people still use paper currency
  • Jane was 18 years old when she gave birth to Judy
  • the writers did not foresee any changes to American family culture: nobody is gay, nobody is transgender, there are no never-married “single mothers,” nobody is divorced
  • the writers did not foresee any changes to American diet. Machines prepare bacon and eggs for breakfast. International travel is supersonic, but there is no market for a restaurant serving the cuisine of a formerly exotic destination. Nobody is vegan, has a nut allergy, or asks for gluten-free pizza.
  • there is a home computer, but no network, so the digital newspaper has to be delivered as a USB stick (packet switching was developed at roughly the same time as The Jetsons)

4 thoughts on “Revisiting the Jetsons”

  1. The Jetsons was aimed at children of the American family of 1960’s. No matter how into the future it was, that future will have to be based on the 1960’s family otherwise the show would not be aired.

  2. Cracked has a couple of pieces about how the Jetsons live in sky pods because the surface has been rendered uninhabitable. Didn’t you predict that computers will need to be un-networked for security reasons long before 2062?

  3. Try Porco Rosso for a family movie night. It looks to the past as the Jetsons looked to the future.

    It is a piratical aeronautics movie.

  4. Before he was very famous and way before he was unpersoned, Louis CK gave an interview where he criticized comedians who prepared for their sets by watching television and smoking pot. The specific example he gave was a comedian who watched The Jetsons and then went on stage with the observation that all George did for a living was push buttons, yet he was exhausted and complained about his job. CK’s point was that it was The Jetsons’ writers who intentionally did this, so it wasn’t any great observation on the part of the comedian.

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