According to the internet, George Jetson is due to be born Sunday, July 31, 2022. Hanna-Barbera set it on Saturday, August 27, 2022.
Here’s how the math works: The show first aired in 1962, but was set 100 years in the future. That would be 2062.
During the first season of the show, George reveals that he’s 40 years old. So 2062 minus 40, and there you go.
IndieWire reported “several savvy Twitter users noticed that the Spacely Sprockets employee, husband to Jane, and father of June and Elroy, is said to be born on July 31, 2022. That still gives us 40 years before the events of the show begin, so there’s no need to feel bad about not having flying cars yet.”
Disneyland had a problem with Tomorrowland staying ahead of Today. Cartoons have the same problem: the future is catching up with us.
Most of us grew up watching The Jetsons on TV. The futuristic cartoon sitcom ran from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963 on ABC. Believe it or not, it was originally broadcast in prime time, although more fans remember it from syndication or being rerun on cable. George O’Hanlon, the actor who voiced George Jetson told the Los Angeles Times, ““George Jetson is a very average man,” said O’Hanlon, who made 75 Jetsons episodes. “He has trouble with his boss, he has problems with his kids, and so on. The only difference is that he lives in the next century.”
Given how many accidents ground cars have on terrestrial roads, I don’t think we’re ready for flying cars yet. Unlike Hanna-Barbera’s 1972 Saturday morning cartoon SeaLab 2020, The Jetsons was not a science fiction show, merely a sitcom with sci-fi trimmings. George Jetson drove a flying car to work, which he then folded up into a briefcase. He lived in a home built far above the Earth’s surface (presumably to escape smog) built on stilts. (It didn’t look earthquake-safe.) Space travel existed but didn’t seem to be a major part of George and Jane’s life. George worked as a “digital index operator”. Today, we call that “data entry”.
The videoscreen telephones the Jetsons used have become reality with FaceTime, Skyping, and videoconferencing, although 21st century women do not keep a face mask near the phone in case anyone calls before they’ve had a chance to put on their makeup yet. Jane Jetson (or sometimes her robot maid Rosie) feeds the family by pushing buttons. It is never explained where the ingredients come from, nor how the ingredients are combined into food after the buttons are pushed.
George had a shorter work week than many real people have as a workday in 2022. He complained of how hard he worked and how little he was paid for his labors. Jane did not work outside the home. She, with the help of robot maid Rosie, attempted to provide a comfortable home for her family. Many sitcoms of this era: Hazel, Nanny & the Professor, Family Affair, The Ghost & Mrs. Muir, The Brady Bunch, took live-in domestic staff for granted, although few middle-class families had live-in maids in real life.
George Jetson was voiced by the late George O’Hanlon (1912-1989), and will be perhaps best remembered for this immortal line:
“Jane! Stop this crazy thing! Jaaaaaaaane!”
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I am so confused. When I was a kid, George Jetson was much older than me. Now he’s much younger?
And I remember when daughter Judy was the “older woman”. Now she’s young enough to be my daughter? Except she won’t even be born for 20+ years?
Seriously, I tend to still view characters as I did when I was a kid. Elroy will probably always seem to be near the age of my younger brother. Judy will seem a few years older than me. And George and Jane will always seem to be the age of my parents.