I got the Flintstones complete series DVD set for Christmas, and I've been thinking about getting the complete set for The Jetsons too. The two shows are compatible. Not only were they made by the same people (Hanna-Barbera), but The Jetsons always seemed like a space age version of The Flintstones. The Jetsons had video telephones, The Flintstones had washing machines run by elephants.
FailOften.net has a fun piece about the technology of The Jetsons and how it predicted (or in some cases didn't) predict the world of 2009. One thing they got right was that video phone/video chat. The above pic shows a screen which is probably bigger than the computer screen you have in your home, but it's basically accurate. I particularly like that the animators remembered to include a camera on top of the screen. That could have easily been a bit of detail that could have been overlooked.
The article also mentions TV watches, massage chairs, and food pills. Some of it is stretching it a little (and these things were part of sci-fi before The Jetsons), but it's funny how many of these things don't seem as crazy as they once seemed. The stuff that hasn't come true yet are things you can now easily see happening some day. Though we're probably a long way away from a gambling mecca in space called Las Venus.
[via Paleo-Future]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-28-2009 @ 3:25PM
mdk said...
The best spin on the whole Flintstones/Jetsons thing was in an episode of the Ralph Bakshi-produced Mighty Mouse series in the late 80's. Mighty Mouse somehow got sucked into his TV set and jumped from show to show (all parodies of Saturday morning cartoon series). One of the shows being "The Jetstones" which was a bizarre amalgam of the The Flintstones and the Jetsons. They had all the Jetsons' tech (flying cars, houses built on top of poles, robots), the caveat being it was all made out of wood, rope, skins and rocks.
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1-28-2009 @ 9:47PM
pumpkinhead said...
I remember that ep of Mighty Mouse! Classic. Why don't they show those on Cartoon Network.
1-28-2009 @ 8:24PM
Eludium-Q36 said...
Um, you said - twice - "video televisions". I think, and let me go out on a limb here, you meant "video telephones", because, uh, "video televisions" is kind of redundant.
Anyhow, I particularly thought the large screen TV he had (that featured True-3D) while watching the Miss Universe contest was particularly prescient given today's supersized HDTVs, some with 3D - although not like that - capability. I still watch The Jetsons on Boomerang, the theme music and artwork is so addictive.
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1-29-2009 @ 2:00AM
Jitaroo said...
What about CNN? The had the 3D hologram thingie during election night.
1-28-2009 @ 8:39PM
RobynM said...
They seemed alike because The Jetsons -was- a space-age retooling of The Flintstones. They gave the format another shot in '72 with The Roman Holidays, which was set in, you guessed it, ancient Rome.
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1-28-2009 @ 11:25PM
Donna said...
Jet packs would be a very difficult thing to do. Sure, we have them, but they aren't practical for anything but short-term spins in the air. First you need enough propulsion to get you and that jet pack (together) off the ground. Okay, good enough. But longer trips need more fuel, which adds weight to what has to be lifted, which in turn will need MORE fuel to get that weight propelled off the ground, which means you and the pack just get heavier. Well, at some point, even if the jet pack could left a person off the ground, what person would be strong enough to lift the jet pack? I think we and jet packs are just victims of the law of gravity. And no matter how futuristic things get, good ol' Mother Nature brings us right back down to earth, literally.
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