The Final Episode #75: The Jetsons (1962 - 1963)

 I've been a way for a few days for two reasons. The first reason is that I wasn't really feeling up to talking about some silly old tv show or comic. I like to make sure that I'm in the mood to talk about a random issue of the Avengers or Empty Nest or whatever I decide to talk about. It makes for a better piece of reading material than if I'm clearly not into it. So I took a few days off. The second reason is that I was wondering if 75 is anniversary number or not. Like the number you can put in a bigger name show or what. Even though it is for comic books I was still going with not really. I dunno. 50 is something. 100 is something but 75 just feels like midway point between two somethings. This just might be the worst article opening I've ever written. Anyway I was thinking of shows to talk about. I was curious about Dr. Who and another show that I've forgotten about instead. I decided to go with a semi-big show and talk about one of the most famous Hanna-Barbera productions, The Jetsons.

I think I should get this over with first before I talk about anything else. Yes I've professed my love for Hanna-Barbera and their animations. I mean not all of them but I liked a good handful that I would watch as a kid. I enjoyed the majority of their cartoons but I never cared for The Jetsons. I don't know what it was but whenever this show came on it made me go "yep, it's time to actually go outside and catch snails to get money from dad" He used to have a garden and didn't want the snails messing it up. It was worth trying to find snails to get some money than watching The Jetsons. or The Flintstones. I'll give The Flintstones some credit for at least being the first animated sitcom and that helped bring stuff like The Simpsons into our world later on but as an actual television show it wasn't something I liked.

Portnoyd was weird about finding out that I didn't like these shows and was like THERE JUST THE MOST POPULAR SHOWS THEY MADE!!!! Popularity doesn't mean someone has to like a television show. Anyway uh the 1960s was one hell of a decade and a big part of it was the space race. It was a race with those rascals from Russia to the moon. We had mentions of the space race in comic books (like the Fantastic Four) and The Jetsons was like that. These future people live in space and have space related jobs and shit. I don't know why I picked this show. I don't know why I didn't just review the last episode from the 1980s series and pretended that I didn't make some weird rule about shows so I could review Pokemon and Digimon in this series of Final Episodes. I'm sure portnoyd would have mentioned it in 2048 when he gets back to posting argumentive comments. So yeah the Jetsons was a animated sitcom that took place in the future. The family consisted of George Jetsons who seems to get angry a lot. Jane Jetson who is the wife and does wife things. The cool teenage daughter Judy and Elroy. I kinda fucking hate Elroy Jetson.

The best part of The Jetsons is the voice cast. We have several legends of the form in this show. Daws Butler who voiced like 70,000 Hanna-Barbera characters all with wildly different voices. The same thing can be said for Don Messick who's most famous characters are probably Scooby Doo and Hamton from Tiny Toons. Say what you want about the actual cartoons but the talent these two guys had was not something we can argue about. Simple as that. We also have Mel Blanc and well if you are reading this you already know who Mel Blanc is. I don't really know about the other people who voiced like George Jetson or the ladies because I didn't bother to look up their wikipedia pages. I didn't have to do that for the other three guys. I'm sure they were nice people and they were definetly talented but I really kinda now want to get this review over with.

One thing I do remember about the Jetsons from my youth was that we had a VHS tape of the Jetsons. I don't know if my parents bought it for me because I watched other Hanna-Barbera shows or if someone else bought it for us, or how the hell it popped up into our house but all I know is that I think I may have watched that VHS tape once. Weirdly enough it was this episode we are going to talk about I'm pretty sure. I don't have that VHS tape anymore. I'd probably buy it if it was cheap enough just for nostalgia. Yes I am even nostalgic for things I didn't like. I'm weird. Anyway I'm pretty sure I watched An American Tail: Fievel Goes West, a movie I didn't like more than this VHS. That's how little I cared about The Jetsons is the fact I would watch a feature length movie I didn't like over them.

So the Final Episode of The Jetsons was called "Elroy's Mob" and it came to our television screens on March 10, 1963. I think other than Clutch Cargo this is the oldest Final Episode I've talked about. I gotta talk about some show older than Clutch Cargo because that garbage doesn't deserve the honor of being the oldest thing I've talked about. That garbage doesn't deserver any fucking honors. Uh, yeah this episode starts out with Jane sending Elroy and Judy off to school. We see Judy for like 1 minute in this episode so if you are a fan of Judy Jetson then this episode is not for you. George then goes to work but has to drop Astro off at school. School is a very serious thing for the Jetsons parents.

We then go to Elroy Jetson being a smug fuck about being smart and kissing the teachers ass. You know the kinda kid he was. The big suck up. I don't really like Elroy Jetson at all. Hell I don't like any of the Jetsons that much. They are either annoying or bland. I liked Snagglepuss because he was silly and made me laugh. Not much within the Jetsons actually makes me laugh, but yeah he sits back to his seat next to the bad kid whos name I've forgotten. I'm going to call him Wee Willkers because that sounds like the kind of weird name Hanna-Barbera would have used. The robot teacher who is probably Rosey's mom. Rosey and Astro are the only characters in the Jetsons that I like. I like robots and dogs. Bite me. So the teacher is giving out the report cards which are on these talky machines you put into a bigger machine that gives you the grades, because it's the future. The robot teacher talks about how Elroy got all positive grades, and Wee Willkers got a fucking grade of H on some subject. Wee Willkers doesn't want his dad to find out so he swaps with Elroy without Elroy knowing.

Then we get back to the Jetsons house and George is freaking the shit out about theses grades. You think these tapes would have the name of the student on them wouldn't you? Or at least speak the name of the student on the actual tape. I dunno. Anyway George sends Elroy and also Astro to their room without supper pills. Then like 22 seconds later it's Wee Willkers dad calling to let George know that something was up. I'm glad Wee Willkers dad thought about the whole situation for like 2 seconds and decided to call George who I guess he knew was a complete and utter moron. Anyway Wee Willkers confesses and I can stop writing the name Wee Willkers. They decide to go to Elroy's room to find out that he has run away. Oh shit man! This is why I'm pretty sure this was the episode I had on VHS because I remember an episode of this show where Elroy ran away and I doubt they would have used that episode idea twice in only 24 episodes. Yeah the original Jetsons only ran for one season of like 24 episodes. This was back in the 1960s when every show had like 36 episodes a season too.

So two police officers come across Elroy and Astro and don't ask themselves why these two are out so late at night but just to let them know that Muggsy Megaton, a gangster type has escaped from prison. You don't even have to say he's a gangster because anyone with the name Muggsy is a gangster. So we go to Muggsy and his gang, a short guy named Microbe and a Gorilla named Chuckles. These guys are  the only somewhat amusing part of this episode. They are trying to rob a jewelry store or something and Microbe can't get in the grate. They see Elroy and pretend to be making a TV show and get him to do it. They get some money and the police are coming so they run off with Elroy and Astro. We get a section with George and Jane in the Police Station. The police end up thinking Elroy joind the gang willingly and puts his picture up on the most wanted board. This was an amusing image that If I cared more I would have put right above this paragraph but I don't care enough about The Jetsons to do that.

So they learn that Elroy's house is close to where they are so Muggsy and the gang decide to break into the Jetsons house to hide out. So when George and Jane return they get tied up. I don't know where the hell Judy is at this moment but she's not here. I guess animation budget reasons is why she's not here. Uh I mean she's at a friends and Hanna-Barbera animation is flawless. Yeah that's the ticket. Anyway Astro escapes and is able to go to the police. Muggsy and his gang take their sweet ass time deciding if they will leave now knowing that Astro has escaped. They had to have a big old discussion about it instead of gettign the hell out of dodge. Or they just wanted to end this episode so they decided to have Muggsy just stay to get arrested. We end the episode with them being arrested and Astro doing some silly shit. That's it. I can't believe I'm going to end up talking about the 1980s version of this show sometime soon.

FINAL VERDICT: I found this show very boring and unamusing as a child. It didn't have silly characters like Yogi Bear or Huckleberry Hound that made me laugh or great action that kept me enthralled like I dunno Beast Wars or Sailor Moon. It was a show that made me go "yeah It's time to go do something else". My rewatch of it has not changed my opinions on this show one iota. I am still not a fan of The Jetsons and am amazed that it's somehow #3 behind Scooby Doo and The Flintstones as the most popular Hanna-Barbera show. Anyway It'll be quite some time before I talk about The 1980s version.