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Many robots are featured in cartoons and animated series. These characters are often faster, stronger, and smarter than their human counterparts. They may stand against danger, or they might cause it. That being said, robots aren't always the smartest in the bunch. The fun about robots is the many different creative ways that they appear. Fans often flock to robot characters due to the way they perceive and interact with their worlds.

Some iconic robots have been around for decades. Their popularity allows them to return to the small screen due to constant remakes or reboots of their original series. This is a testament to how loved they are, whether they are the heroes of their narratives, the villains, or fall somewhere in the morally ambiguous middle. Robots are always a great concept, especially as the modern world progresses into more advanced technology.

Updated by Alex Roush on December 22, 2024:...

Hanna-Barbera's sci-fi sitcom "The Jetsons" debuted in 1962, only two years after the studio had a major hit with "The Flintstones". The logic behind "The Jetsons" seemed to be that if one show could work in the distant past, then a very similar show ought to work in the distant future. "The Jetsons" was set in the far-off future year of 2062, where Earth's citizens have access to flying cars, robot maids, and various other bizarro technologies the mind could fathom. Despite civilization's advances, however, George Jetson (George O'Hanlon) was still a hollowed-out salaryman in the unhappy employ of a soulless widget-making corporation. His wife Jane (Penny Singleton) was a housewife. The dull, middle-class values of the 1950s, it seems, would resurge 90 years later.

The series ran only for one 24-episode season and was canceled in 1963. It left a sizable footprint, however, and was revived for two more seasons in 1985.

The catchy...

For those of a certain age, Pat Carroll will forever be synonymous with her voice role as the fabulous sea witch Ursula in Disney's animated "The Little Mermaid." However, for those of another certain age, their memories of Carroll will forever be entwined with her career as a mainstay of 20th-century television comedy thanks to her appearances on variety shows like "The Carol Burnett Show" and her stint as Shirley Feeney's ever-critical mother on "Laverne & Shirley." 

Or maybe you're a weirdo who was reared on animated "Garfield" holiday specials and associate her with Jon Arbuckle's piano-pounding, chainsaw-swinging grandmother with the abs of steel. I wouldn't know anything about that.

As fate would have it, Carroll nearly voiced Jane Jetson on Hanna-Barbera's futuristic cartoon sitcom "The Jetsons," a role that would've existed at the nexus between her animated ventures and her run as a linchpin of live-action TV burlesque...

Ever since their transition to the cinematic medium, both Marvel and DC Comics have made great headway in bringing superheroes to the big screen. The first of these two comic book companies satisfied moviegoers on May 2nd, 2008, with the release of Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man. DC, on the other hand, soon followed some odd years later in 2013 with Henry Cavill’s Man of Steel. As much as these types of films are a pure delight for comic book fans all around the world, one of the biggest milestones that the MCU and Dcu have achieved is the sheer number of movies that have come out of both camps since the rebirth of the genre.

While the DC Extended Universe has fifteen complete films in its library, which include the various forms of Justice League, Suicide Squad, and the more recent and down-to-earth feature that introduced the Blue Beetle,...

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On Sept. 23, 1962, ABC debuted The Jetsons at 7:30 pm to television audiences. Like the Stone Age Flintstones, the futuristic animated family sitcom would become an enduring franchise for producers Hanna-Barbera. The Hollywood Reporter’s original review of the first episode, “Rosey The Robot,” is below:

The Jetsons is based on the same premise as The Flintstones, with the difference that the projection is in the future instead of the past. A family situation comedy, done in animation (and for those with color sets, color), the new Hanna-Barbera production should attract a good audience.

The jokes are familiar, but the setting gives them novelty and an added dimension, and cartooning is certainly suited to the TV screen.

Larry Markes’ script for the initial episode lightly sketched in the characters, mother, father, two children (boy and girl) of the Jetsons, a 21st Century family.

Jokes...

Roughly 50 years after the first episode of “The Jetsons” premiered, fans are gearing up to celebrate the birth of George Jetson, which according to lore, is July 31, 2022. But is that really his birthday?

On Thursday, a hawk-eyed fan pointed out that “someone is about to give birth” to the show’s main character, via a fan site listing the family patriarch’s exact birthdate.

The animated sitcom created by William Hannah and Joseph Barbera took place in the 21st century. Although no mention to a specific year was ever made in the show, promotional materials and articles from the time explained that it was set exactly 100 years in the future, according to MeTV.

Further evidence can be found in the episode “Test Pilot,” which aired Dec. 30, 1962. When Jetson’s doctor tells him he “should live to be 150,” he replies, “I’ve got 110 good years ahead of me!” – making him 40 years old.

If there was any doubt that the future is here (for better or worse), just remember that you are now living in George Jetson’s lifetime. Animation fans are celebrating an important milestone this weekend, as several savvy Twitter users noticed that the Spacely Sprockets employee, husband to Jane, and father of June and Elroy, is said to be born on July 31, 2022. That still gives us 40 years before the events of the show begin, so there’s no need to feel bad about not having flying cars yet.

“The Jetsons” famously followed a middle class family living in Orbit City in a chrome-tinged future where robots allow humans to live leisurely. It was conceived as a companion show to “The Flintstones,” which famously reimagined 1950s sitcom tropes from shows like “The Honeymooners” in a Stone Age world full of cavemen and dinosaurs. “The Jetsons” took the inverse approach, making a...

This year is a big one for science fiction mythology. If there is any truth in advertising, The Jetsons will be celebrating a blessed pre-event this year. According to the math, 2022 is the year George Jetson will be born. When it premiered on ABC on Sept. 23, 1962, The Jetsons’ promos explained the series, which had plotlines as old as The Flintstones, was set exactly 100 years in the future.

Everything there is to know about George, voiced by George O’Hanlon, seems to be laid out in the theme song. He is the husband of Jane Jetson (Penny Singleton), they have a teenage daughter Judy (Janet Waldo), who goes to go to Orbit High School, and a son named Elroy (Daws Butler), who orbits middle school. George works at Spacely’s Space Sprocket. Modern science has not yet determined what a space sprocket actually does, but we can assume it will be...

The Arthur Freed MGM musical unit gives this 1927 musical remake the old College Try! It’s a vehicle for the wartime sweetheart June Allyson, aided by Peter Lawford, who is quite good if not real musical material. The fun original tunes are joined by a couple of new ones, including an all-time terrific song & dance number staged by Robert Alton and performed by the incredible Joan McCracken. The new restoration does wonders with the 1947 Technicolor and the Wac adds hilarious, eye-opening musical excerpts from the crazy 1930 early talkie version with Penny Singleton. Good news indeed. With Patricia Marshall, Mel Tormé and Tommy Rall.

Good News

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1947 / Color / 1:37 Academy / 93 min. / Street Date January 26, 2021 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: June Allyson, Peter Lawford, Joan McCracken, Patricia Marshall, Ray McDonald, Mel Tormé, Robert E. Strickland, Donald MacBride, Tom Dugan, Clinton Sundberg, Loren Tindall, Connie Gilchrist, Morris Ankrum, Tommy Rall,...

The Jetsons: The Complete Original Series

Blu ray

Warner Archive

1962/ 1.33:1 / 629 min.

Starring George O’Hanlon, Penny Singleton

Directed by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera

In 1962 Kennedy’s New Frontier was in full effect – the country was still celebrating John Glenn’s heroics and Disney’s Tomorrowland had proved so popular it tacked on a monorail. Flush with the success of The Flintstones, Hanna-Barbara decided it was high time for The Jetsons, a space age sit-com set in a cartoon Utopia. Premiering on a Sunday night in the fall of ‘62 it was the first animated program to be broadcast in color, an eye-popping upgrade that only enhanced the show’s futuristic appeal.

The Flintstones owed its inspiration solely to The Honeymooners but The Jetsons relied on a long line of family-centric fare from The Life of Riley to Make Room for Daddy. The chief cook and bottle-washer was George Jetson, an...

Blondie’s Debbie Harry will release her previously announced memoir, Face It, on October 1st via Harper Collins. The book, which blends first-person essays with interviews conducted by journalist Sylvie Simmons, documents her band’s ascent to New Wave fame.

In a statement about the autobiography, which includes previously unseen photos and fan art, Harry admits that the book might wind up as the first installment of a series. “There are many more stories for me to tell; some funny, some scary, some warm, some chill to the bone,” she said.

‘Hey Blondie!’ Dagwood, Blondie, Mr. Dithers and a victimized postman return for a stab at a TV revival of the 1940s series from Chic Young’s never-ending comic strip. It’s not bad, with Arthur Lake clowning up a storm and Pamela Britton a charming new embodiment of a character who began as ‘Blondie Boopadoop.’ It’s the entire one-season series.

Blondie The Complete 1957 Television Series

DVD

ClassicFlix

1957 / B&W / 1:33 TV aperture / 26 x 30 min. / Street Date September 25, 2018 / 39.99

Starring: Arthur Lake, Pamela Britton, Stuffy Singer, Florenz Ames, Ann Barnes, Harold Peary, Hollis Irving, Elvia Allman, Lucien Littlefield.

Cinematography: Lothrop B. Wort

Original Music: Mahlon Merrick

Written by John L. Greene, George Beck, George Carleton Brown, Jo Conway, Frank Gill Jr., Gordon T. Hughes, Don Nelson, Jay Sommers, Warren Spector from characters created by Chic Young

Produced by William Harmon

Directed by Hal Yates, Paul Landres, Gerald Freedman

Chic Young’s...

After gestating in development for years as a live-action adaptation, Warner Bros.' animated adaptation of The Jetsons is now moving forward. The studio's Warner Animation Group has brought on Conrad Vernon, who most recently directed Sony's R-rated Sausage Party, to take the reins of this animated movie. The filmmaker has been brought on to develop the project, with an eye towards directing it himself. It isn't clear if he will be working with another writer or if he will write the script himself.

The Hollywood Reporter broke the news today, with the filmmaker coming aboard keeping this project firmly entrenched within the Warner Animation Group banner. That wasn't always the case, though, with the studio previously trying to put together a Jetsons live-action movie for many years, with directors such as Adam Shankman and Robert Rodriguez attached to the project, with the later working from a script by The Goldbergs creator Adam F. Goldberg.

To mark the release of Jetsons, the Movie on 15th February, we’ve been given 3 copies to give away on DVD. The original 1962 Jetsons animation was Hanna Barbera’s space age answer to the stone-age Flintstones. This movie from 1990 stars the cartoon’s original voice actors George O’Hanlon, Penny Singleton and Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc’s

The post Win Jetsons, the Movie on DVD appeared first on HeyUGuys.

Olivia de Havilland picture U.S. labor history-making 'Gone with the Wind' star and two-time Best Actress winner Olivia de Havilland turns 99 (This Olivia de Havilland article is currently being revised and expanded.) Two-time Best Actress Academy Award winner Olivia de Havilland, the only surviving major Gone with the Wind cast member and oldest surviving Oscar winner, is turning 99 years old today, July 1.[1] Also known for her widely publicized feud with sister Joan Fontaine and for her eight movies with Errol Flynn, de Havilland should be remembered as well for having made Hollywood labor history. This particular history has nothing to do with de Havilland's films, her two Oscars, Gone with the Wind, Joan Fontaine, or Errol Flynn. Instead, history was made as a result of a legal fight: after winning a lawsuit against Warner Bros. in the mid-'40s, Olivia de Havilland put an end to treacherous...

Martha Stewart: Actress / Singer in Fox movies apparently not dead despite two-year-old reports to the contrary (Photo: Martha Stewart and Perry Como in 'Doll Face') According to various online reports, including Variety's, actress and singer Martha Stewart, a pretty blonde featured in supporting roles in a handful of 20th Century Fox movies of the '40s, died at age 89 of "natural causes" in Northeast Harbor, Maine, on February 25, 2012. Needless to say, that was not the same Martha Stewart hawking "delicious foods" and whatever else on American television. But quite possibly, the Martha Stewart who died in February 2012 -- if any -- was not the Martha Stewart of old Fox movies either. And that's why I'm republishing this (former) obit, originally posted more than two and a half years ago: March 11, 2012. Earlier today, a commenter wrote to Alt Film Guide, claiming that the Martha Stewart featured in Doll Face, I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now,...

With Hugh Jackman currently negotiating to play Wolverine for a seventh and eighth time, Cinelinx takes a look at actors who’ve played the same role eight times or more. Who has played the same character most often? Come in and find out.

Hugh Jackman has already played Wolverine five times--x-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), and The Wolverine (2013)—as well as a cameo in X-Men:First Class (2011). Soon we’ll be seeing him fully clawed again on the big screen in X-Men: Days of Future Past. Recently, he told Collider that he might shoot Wolverine 3 and X-Men: Apocalypse “back-to-back”, which would make a total of eight times (9 times with the cameo) that he’ll portray the Canadian mutant.

You might be thinking “Wow! That’s amazing! I’ve never heard of anyone playing the same role so many times.” Well, for those who may not know it,...

Caissie Levy has been on Broadway before: as gung-ho political activist Sheila in the revival of "Hair," a replacement Elphaba in "Wicked," and Penny Singleton in "Hairspray." But originating a role in a new musical is a whole different ballgame -- especially when the musical is based on an iconic romance film. That's precisely the challenge that Levy faces as the leading lady in "Ghost The Musical," based on the 1990 movie starring Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, and Whoopi Goldberg. Awash in video projections, foot-stomping dance numbers, and a potpourri of musical styles, "Ghost The Musical" recounts the intense love affair between artist Molly (Levy) and the ghost of her murdered lover (Richard Fleeshman), who manifests through the wild and wacky medium Oda Mae Brown (Da'Vine Joy Randolph). After a year of performance in London, Levy is no longer fazed by the inevitable comparisons with the movie; she has had...

Though The Jetsons has become one of the most beloved animated TV series in history, the show lasted just one season. It aired on Sunday nights on ABC and was the first color series to be broadcast on the youngest network (at the time anyway). Few ABC stations were broadcasting in color back then so most people who did watch the show saw it in black and white.

The 24 episodes became very popular on Saturday mornings and ran on all three networks at various times over a span of 20 years. In the early 1980s, Hanna-Barbera began producing new episodes specifically for syndication.

By September 1985, the original 24 episodes were combined with 41 new episodes. George O'Hanlan, Penny Singleton, Daws Butler, Janet Waldo, Don Messick, Jean Vander Pyl and Mel Blanc all returned to reprise their original roles -- though they...

Hanna-Barbera was clearly running out of steam in the later 1980s as their style of animation and storytelling was no longer in synch with its young viewers. As a result, they did an awful lot of recycling of concepts including the two season-long Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 which took Yogi Bear, the Flintstones and the Jetsons and told longer, and not necessarily better, stories in ten stories. The ten telefilms ran during the 1987-1989 seasons and since then have been in rotation on cable’s Boomerang channel with Warner Archive slowly releasing them to eager fans who can’t get enough of these properties. Their last release from this series was The Flintstones Meet the Jetsons.

This week, from Warner Archive, comes the release of Rockin’ with Judy Jetson, a Jetsons’ film that puts the focus squarely on the teen daughter, who is usually overshadowed by the rest of the cast. That...

Howard Hawks' Red River, John Wayne, Mongtomery Clift, Joanne Dru Elizabeth Taylor, Montgomery Clift, Jane Withers, Jeanette MacDonald: Packard Campus April 2011 Packard Campus April 2011 Schedule Friday, April 1 (7:30 p.m.) Double Harness (Rko, 1933) Directed by John Cromwell. With Ann Harding and William Powell. Comedy, drama. Black & White, 69 min. Saturday, April 2 (7:30 p.m.) Legend (20th Century-Fox, 1985) Directed by Ridley Scott. With Tom Cruise and Mia Sara. Fantasy, adventure. Color, 114 min. Thursday, April 7 (7:30 p.m.) “B” Comedy Double Feature: Leave It To Blondie (Columbia, 1945) Dagwood and Blondie have each written checks for charity unaware the other has done so. To cover the amounts they enter a song-writing contest. Directed by Abby Berlin. With Arthur Lake and Penny Singleton. Comedy. Black & White, 75 min. Affairs Of Geraldine (Republic, 1946) When the wealthy Mrs. Cooper dies, she leaves instructions in her will for [...]...

The Jetsons was Hanna-Barbera’s answer to its own question. Creating The Flintstones in order to use every rock, stone and boulder joke in the English language, they realized they’d missed a valuable comedy niche: the future. I believe it was David X. Cohen who noted that adding “space” (or a similar celestial phrase) to any word instantly makes it better and funnier. For example, take pope. Now add “space”. Space pope. That’s an improvement. Cosmic Toast. Galactic hangover. It all works, and it’s but one of the many keys to the comedy of The Jetsons.

Most of the episodes follow George’s struggles with an evil boss or a malfunctioning robot in fantastical sci-fi situations. The futuristic concept makes it unique for its time, but it still has the same sitcom tropes set in a new time period. Lost pets, surprise parties and new cars compose...

After months of deep space-like silence, it appears that the The Jetsons movie project is still alive -– almost two years since it was first announced. So, when will the futuristic family finally be ready to make the jump from animation to live action? Will we have to wait until the 24th century?

Following the success of The Flintstones, Hanna-Barbera's The Jetsons animated series first aired in primetime during the 1962-63 season. Set in the far-flung future, the show gives a humorous take on our lifestyle and revolves around the Jetson family -- working-stiff father George (George O'Hanlon), mother Jane (Penny Singleton), daughter Judy (Janet Waldo), son Elroy (Daws Butler), Astro the dog (Don Messick), and Rosie (Jean Vander Pyl), their robot maid. Other voices are provided by Mel Blanc and Howard Morris.

Unlike The Flintstones, the show only lasted one season but it became a staple of Saturday morning...