The Jetsons - The Complete First Season

I love the Jetsons so I was pretty pleased with this purchase. My only complaint would be the packaging. The outer sleeve is made of plastic and the insert that holds the dvd's fits in very tightly so I have a hard time getting it out...don't want to tear/crack the plastic shell. Other than that, this DVD set is great!

I'll say this up front -- I'm not the biggest Hanna-Barbera fan when it comes to their creativity. Usually, when they aren't ripping off others (sometimes without attribution, even 40 years later), they were ripping off themselves.

Yet, with The Jetsons, they might have been more creative in that original first season than they were in entire runs of some of their other animated series.

The setup of the show could be said to be "The Futuristic Flintstones, Minus The Rubbles." Again, ripping themselves off. But while the H-B boys never held themselves out to be a Asimov and Bradbury, they did a solid job of projection with some subtle commentary on the future by extrapolating the present (as they saw it).

George's incredibly short work week and the push-button convenience of their apartment? Judgements on moving violations were instantaneous by judges who were either sponsored or on tape.

Check out the architecture and some of the interior design. It's only a slightly exaggerated version of the ultra-geometric modern 1960s design, popular in banks and schools of the era and replicated today in some buildings. As a matter of fact, the nearby supermarket built in 1998 is called "The Jetsons Publix" by many of us locals. Upon seeing a bank in one episode, I was struck by how it resembled a nearby bank built just a few years ago.

Another plus for this DVD set -- like The Flintstones DVD sets, you get full episodes with original opening and closing credits. Even the 1960s episodes shown on Boomerang often strip The Jetsons classic closing credits in favor of static closing credits that combine the 1960s eps with the 1980s syndicated eps. OK, there is that episode-preceding bumper with the episode title that has Orbity from the 1980s episodes, but that's forgivable.

The extras are weak, which takes this DVD down a step. Still, I glad I bought it. I find some of the episodes more amusing and interesting now than when I was 10 and watching on Saturday or Sunday morning.

Though not as popular as The Flintstones, The Jetsons had a more subtle atmosphere of being a classic 60s sitcom Toon. Since George and Jane had two kids and [later] a robot maid and dog to round out the series.

Basically set into the far realms of the future, before all the 'apocalyptic' views started creeping in during the 70s, George basically drove in his 'space car' to Spacely Sprocketts, where he pushed buttons for Cosmo Spacely.

Mr. Spacely--like the typical 60s sitcom boss--always schemed in besting his rival "Cosgwell Cogs", and poor George would inevitably get embroiled in these schemes. On rare occasions, however, Spacely would get George involved in other problems, like fooling the wives to go out to a Spaceball game, or takeover hosting a Beauty Pageant.

As for the rest of the family, they dealt with pretty much the problems and strifes of Sixties Suburbian life. Now the interesting thing about The Jetsons was, although the original series didn't last long, their futuristic gadgets did inspire us with upcoming inventions, like the Microwave (inspired by the Food-a-Rac-a-Cycle), and Memory Sticks (probably inspired by the episode with Judy's mini-disc encyclopedia). Because any new innovation we experience, we tend to associate with The Jetsons.

The Jetsons was far from being a children's television show, as the program dealt with topics on what was considered an adult level. Though some vices were apparent from this show, like smoking and drinking, they were more on the sitcom level than what we see on television today.

What I loved about this collection, and I'm glad Warner Bros. did it right, the episodes are completely uncut, so when viewing this collection if you witness scenes you never saw in syndication, it was because they were probably cut for either content or time constraints.

For instance, in a "Date with Judy Jetson," when George is pulled over, the missing scene restored is where the cop is running the list of charges. And the classic moment is this line here:

[Cop] ..And etc. etc.

[George] Wait, I didn't see the etc. etc.

[Cop] Well, watch it.

Though it might be obscure, the restoration really brings out the series a whole lot better, and I'd recommend the series to anyone who is a fan, and those who aren't, because The Jetsons was a true piece of animation history.

Just as The Flinstones used The Honeymooners as its template, The Jetsons was paced like a 1960s sitcom, not a standard cartoon. I don't agree with the popular critical notion that the show survived for only one season because of its non-mainstream science fiction underpinnings. This DVD set offers ample proof that the show was "deceptively simple"...layered, nuanced, subtle...and it was not your average kid cartoon. Take for example Astro the dog, perfectly voiced by Don "Yogi Bear" Messick. Time and time again he proves to be quicker on his feet than family patriarch George, AND...get this...the dog carries on conversations in a full human vocabulary (although every word starts with the letter "R" to give the required "dog accent.") He also knows how to turn on the tears whenever he doesn't get his way, which means he gets his way 100% of the time. Then there's the dead-end, dull, "widget" job that George dutifully holds down...but instead of making widgets, his company makes sprockets. You say tomato, I say tomato...right? And for laughs, count the number of times over the course of the 24 episodes that Jetson's boss Mr Spacely (legendary Mel Blank) fires and re-hires him. A kid may laugh at that kind of detail, but it's only an adult who's paid some dues in the sprocket-making world who will "get" it. Spacely is essentially a re-write of The Flintsones' "Mr. Slate," with the difference being that Spacely has a kinder heart, is less self-centered and selfish, and...while he manipulates Jetson just as Slate manipulates Fred Flintstone...he actually seems to like the guy underneath it all. The series thrived in syndication and later episodes (plus a movie) were made, but they're all inferior to the original (due in no small degree to the voice talent in the original episodes). This was an example of Hanna-Barbera attempting a new spin on their proven formula, and while it didn't win a large, sustainable audience in its original 1962 Sunday evening time slot, it's survived the test of time.

This is a great show! Are they ever going to release the other seasons?