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Published 16:44 IST, September 6th 2019

5 reasons why ‘The Jetsons’ Will Always Be Our Favorite Space Cartoon

'Chandrayaan 2' landing makes us imagine life in space. With that thought in mind, we talk about 'The Jetsons', one of the best space-age cartoons ever made.

Reported by: Siddharth Iyer
null | Image: self

Tomorrow on the seventh of September, in the early hours of the day, ‘Chandrayaan 2’ will finally make its landing on the moon. The landing of ‘Chandrayaan 2’ makes us wonder how life would be in the future when space travel would actually become a reality. There is one show that comes to our mind when talking about a futuristic world - The Jetsons. '90s kids, does a bell? 

The Jetsons started serialisation in 1962 and was on air all the way up to 1987. The show was set in the space age and followed the adventures of Gorge Jetson and his family who lived in a futuristic society where everyone lived in houses in the sky and space travel was merely an everyday experience. It showed a world where no one was scared or intrigued by space anymore. ‘The Jetsons’ will always be our favourite space cartoon. Here we list five reasons that we love ‘The Jetsons’ and why it is still worth watching even after all these years.

Also Read | Orbit Maneuvers explained: The gravity powering ISRO's Chandrayaan-2

‘Chandrayaan 2’ Landing makes Us Remember the cartoon ‘The Jetsons’

‘The Jetsons’ is our present as seen by the 60’s:

‘The Jetsons’ is actually a depiction of the future as predicted by people of the 1960s. People back then actually thought that the world will be full of jetpacks, planes, cities in the skies, and easy space travel in just a few decades. Remember the portrayal of the 2010s in ‘Back to the Future 2’?  That was mild compared to what was actually predicted to be the future. So in summary ‘The Jetsons’ is actually a representation of the 21st century as predicted in the 20th century. It makes the show so much more interesting and hilarious to think about that fact in retrospect.

Relatable and all American even in the space age:

The Jetsons are supposed to be an all-American family in the space age. And indeed they still behave like an all American family, with the same tendencies that an average American family does now. The show frequently has the line, “Where’s my jetpack,” which is commonly said by Gorge Jetson. Just like an average man in our generation gets frustrated over his missing bag, so does Gorge. In fact, Gorge works only for two days a week, and only for an hour each day, yet he considers his boss a tyrant who makes him work for long hours. This makes the characters relatable but also makes an amusing commentary on the fact that even in the space age, people will still behave the same.

Also Read | Chandrayaan-2: What Vikram and Pragyan can expect to find on the Moon

Highly re-watchable:

The Jetsons was on the air from 1962 to 1987, however from 1962 to 85’ there were only 24 episodes in circulation. New episodes for the show were made only in 1985. That means that the same 24 episodes were re-run in the ’60s, ’70s, and half of the ’80s. Yet for all those years, The Jetsons was extremely popular, proving that the show has an amazing re-watch potential.

The first colour cartoon on the ABC network:

The show was the first colour cartoon to run on the ‘American Broadcast Channel’. Of course, when it was released, most Americans did not have a colour TV. That was why it did not become as popular as other shows from its producer ‘Hanna-Barbera’. That let to its cancellation only after one season. However once colour TV became more widespread, the show regained popularity, and as we stated before the same one season was rerun for decades.

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Timeless:

‘The Jetsons’ is not a show that is limited by a time period or a certain trend that is popular at the moment. ‘The Jetsons’ is timeless; it is a show that can be re-watched at any time irrespective of the trends that define popularity. Even to this day its simplistic hand-drawn animation stands strong. So even in 2019, Jetsons is absolutely a show worth your time.

So here are five reasons for loving The Jetsons. Have you seen the show? And if not did we convince you to finally go see it? And what are your thoughts on Chandrayaan 2 landing on the moon? If you are interested to know more about what is going on with Chandrayaan 2 then stay tuned with us for the updates.

Also Read | ''No limits for India's potential': Israel ambassador on Chandrayaan-2

Updated 22:57 IST, September 6th 2019

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