In the future, people own flying cars, children have jet packs in lieu of walking to school, robots do all of your housework, and cold fusion works. It’s amazing! It’s paradise! It’s the world of The Jetsons, television’s first futuristic family. Lo and behold, even 100 years later (the show takes place in the 2060s), television families still behave like they did in the happy pappy 1960s.

One of the things I loved (and by “loved” I mean “was slightly interested in”) about this show was how the writers watched how certain facets of society developed in their own pasts, and further changed and progressed those things for their supposed future. For example, there was a time during the early Industrial Revolution when people would go to work for 12, 16, 18 hours a day on average. By the mid-20th century, 8 hour work days had become the new norm. So how long were George Jetson’s work days? About 4 hours. With a lunch break. And his job consisted entirely of pressing the same button over and over to start and stop the machinery. And that’s the blue collar factory job of the future.

With all manual labor being done by machines, one has to wonder how the American work force sustains itself. Where is everyone working? Is the unemployment rate high? If so, where the hell are all of the homeless? I bet you they’re on the ground. Yeah, the ground. Remember that? Everyone lives in an apartment complex shaped like the Space Needle and flies everywhere. I bet the poor and disenfranchised are living on the polluted surface below. Aristocratic bastards.

Jane Jetson was probably the laziest housewife on Earth for needing a maid. Jane didn’t have a job. She didn’t have any hobbies. We never saw her doing any errands. She didn’t even need to leave the house to get her hair done. I just know that in one episode, Jane started whining about needing help because it was oh. so. very. hard. to push the “scrambled eggs” button every morning.

I think we all knew a girl like Judy Jetson back in high school. You know, the girl with the reputation. The girl with a different “boyfriend” every week. It wasn’t just the boys at school, either. She also didn’t seem to have any trouble getting with rock stars out on tour. It’s like people knew for miles around just how easy she was. Then again, maybe I’m being a bit harsh. Maybe Judy Jetson wasn’t giving it up for every guy with his own flying car. After all, there’s a thin line between “Go out with Judy. I hear she puts out” and “Don’t go out with Judy. Every dude in school has had a ride.” To her credit, she apparently never became an STD-riddled pariah. Like any self-respecting teenage ho, she probably kept her legs together and just gave out hand jobs behind the school bleachers during football games.

Hand-Job Judy?

Overall, there really wasn’t much interesting about this show. It was neat seeing the odd futuristic household gadget, but you can only watch George’s bed fold in half and shoot him out like a piece of toast so many times before the gag just gets old. The stories were usually typical sitcom fair, with George constantly kissing his napoleonic boss’ ass in hopes of becoming a vice president, while his son Elroy balances being a straight-A student with being a boy scout, and Rosie mulls over her relationship with Mac the superintendent’s robot. When the show was revived in the 1980s (there was only one season made during the 60s), they tried to rectify this by creating episodes where insane stuff happens, like George gets confused with a spy or Jane gets the power to see the future. Good luck catching the more interesting 80s episodes on TV, though; you’ll need the season 2 DVDs for that. If you’ve got the Boomerang network, tune in to see 60s cliche sitcom episodes with the corny laugh track– because back in the 60s, even cartoons were made before a live studio audience.