Where To Watch
A futuristic 1956 industrial cartoon is incredibly similar to one Jetsons episode
The short even featured the voice of George Jetson himself, George O’Hanlon!
In The Jetsons episode "The Space Car," George and Judy decide to get a new flying vehicle. They head to Molecular Motors and are swept up in an elaborate sales pitch complete with a short video presentation on the "million-millimeter color blabascope." It shows the new ways cars can fold down into the size of a makeup compact and zap away other vehicles to make space to park. It even features a red car with a "mother-in-law seat" extended out from the back. The gag is reminiscent of one used in a 1951 Tex Avery MGM cartoon called "Car of Tomorrow," seen on the right in the picture below.
The short contains many traits familiar to Jetsons fans, like wall-mounted computers that spit out information and jokes about comically short workdays. There's also a much more concrete connection between the two. The man, a husband and father to a boy and a girl, is voiced by George O'Hanlon, who would voice George Jetson six years later!
Though the cars in "Your Safety First" don’t fly, they can hop over other vehicles instead of passing to the side. The dinner table transforms into a large flat-screen TV and shows a 3D presentation all about the history of the automobile and the safety features put in place between the turn of the century and the 1950s. It was a clever way for the Automobile Manufacturers Association to toot their own horn, so to speak.
Not only did George O'Hanlon voice two futuristic family men, but both cartoons also featured similar gags and, at least in the Jetsons episode "The Space Car," giant video screens playing instructional vehicular videos.
6 Comments
