On my old blog, I also did a series of posts titled Character Spotlights, where I take a look at characters from various forms of media. Sometimes - if not a majority of the time, they focus on characters I like. But I may write posts on characters who stand out to me if they're not my favorites either. And while these are not true character analyses, as I don't proclaim to be a professional critic on fiction analysis of any kind, these posts will present my thoughts about the character.
The posts will be organized as follows. The first half will cover the history of how I came across said character, the things I like about the character/their personalities/weaknesses, and the depictions I'm not sure I understand or I have questions to ask. The second half will focus on who or what inspired me to write said character, my goals in writing for them, and some extra goodies like headcanons!
So for this first Character Spotlight, I'll be bringing over a character from the old blog, with some editing done to reflect my current views on him.
Who is he?
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Meet George Jetson!
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1.HISTORY
The Jetsons was a show I loved when I was younger, and I forgot just how much I really enjoyed it. When Boomerang started re-airing the original series during a summertime ago, it took me off-guard in a pleasant way. When I rewatched the episode 'Jet Screamer' shot my spark right up into the troposphere because of the beautiful backgrounds and layouts, and the pure sense of fun and optimism that was presented back then when the episode first aired (no doubt in part due to the Space Age back in the early 1960s) and how that same optimism has stuck around to present day. At least to my mind it has.
But I thought either Rosie or Jane was going to be my favorite character. George himself didn't quite catch my attention yet, but then when I started rewatching the '80s episodes and reading up on Jetsons stories... thanks to all of that, I clicked with George and his character thanks to how he was portrayed in certain episodes and fan stories.
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2. THE MAN OF THE HOUR
So what's unique about this bloke?
I initially had a hard time writing this post because in some ways, George is a standard nuclear father and doesn't have, at least at first, any qualities that would distinguish him from other family men - he's devoted to both his family and job, he gets thrown into extraordinarily random situations, endures the weight of stress and pressure put on him on a day-to-day basis, and seems to have the universe conspire against him but doesn't always prevail due to his underdog perseverance. He's right up there with other animated family dads like his 'meta' ancestor, Fred Flintstone.
Yet when looking at George's character, there is something about him that does stand out, asides from his living in a Space Age-styled city in the sky. Fred deals with his life in a straightforward and sometimes abrasive way. He's a brash go-getter. George, on the other hand, isn't; although he's like Fred in that he can be reckless, determined and temperamental if the right buttons are pushed, he's much more meek and relatively placid by comparison. He doesn't like to take unnecessary risks and neither does he want anyone else taking risks he considers dangerous.
Rather than object loudly and actively to whatever the plot hands him before he buckles under like Mr. Flintstone does, it takes but a few minutes for him to go forward with it even if he's hesitant to do so. He does try to stick up for himself and has succeeded on more than one occasion, but by and large, he doesn't always win in saying no to something he doesn't want and thereforse is forced to go into it with eyes wide open and a dread-filled heart.
The guy works for a particularly loud and toxic boss who can't make up his mind on whether to keep him in or out of the sprocket business, gets tossed into sticky situations he'd rather not be in (whether Spacely Sprockets is directly or indirectly involved), and lives in a household with a sassy robot maid, two children at different and sometimes frustrating points of their lives, one overly affectionate dog, an out-of-this-world alien who's there and sometimes not because of a mixed reception he gets among Jetsons fans, and a supportive wife who loves him but also henpecks him. I think it's safe to say he has his work cut out for him - trying to balance work and family life and and not losing his mind over it all. It's amazing how he can take so much of it even if the stress and anxiety he carries threaten to topple him over.
But he's not helpless. This is a man who will move mountains - no, mountain ranges - if it means satisfying both his work and personal lives even if he doesn't want to move them. You can say that about any family man, but I think that these traits are partly what make George unique in this particular case; he can be scared out of his mind, but when the going gets tough, he doesn't back down from completing a task even if he knows there might be repercussions he'll have to suffer through to accomplish his goals.
This makes him instantly likable; he doesn't have any superpowers (other than perhaps being made of iron; he takes a lot of damage and he still keeps going), and he does have that can-do attitude that helps him to carry through the task. There might be times when he'll need a reminder of why he's doing what he needs to do (via a threat from his boss or a note from his wife), but overall he's someone who can come through in the clutch.
One thing I've come to notice about George - he seems to hold some resemblance of honor to his character. I don't think it's quite as prevalent as say, Aragorn's or Mulan's, but he's been shown to want to keep to his word and to do what's right, which has been brought up in the show many times. In the second season's episode "Solar Snoops", he tries to persuade Spacely to do the right thing in returning a package that was meant for delivery to Cogswell.
He was unsuccessful at it, but it does demonstrate that even if George is working for Cogswell's rival, he doesn't let that rivalry interfere with his own sense of morals. The episode, "To Tell the Truth", centers around George sticking with his morals and telling the truth even if it's too farfetched to be believed. Is he perfect about this? No. In some episodes, he was written to either be afraid of telling Jane the truth, like in "Las Venus", or just not bothering at all because he doesn't believe she'd believe it (see "Astro's Big Moment"). Weird bit of inconsistency here, and a good reason for me to question why he doesn't just take his chances and tell her because she's not utterly irrational. I see it being due more to her own temper and flaws than it is George's reluctance, though. But the point is, he's got a good head on his shoulders and he does try his best to keep his honor in check.
This ties into his personality because in many episodes, he's a gentleman - loyal to a fault, trusting and generally polite and easygoing, unless his temper gets the better of him. Or his desire for control.
This is a recent observation I've made, but I spotted it on more than one occasion with Mr. Jetson here - he wants to be in charge of something, be it a company or a nation. Or at the very least obtained a high-ranking position of power and have total control over it. Yeah, this is easy to see, considering his position at Spacely Sprockets and his penchant for working hard late into the night, but I feel there's a deeper reason than that.
Part of the reason is a headcanon of mine, which I'll mention in my headcanon section later on, but I will go ahead and bring up examples of when this was hinted at. In the episode, "Uniblab", he was hoping to gain a job as a supervisor at his company before Spacely gives it to Uniblab the robot instead. Yes, George was disappointed about it, but I think he was, on the inside, crushed to the quick because he lost his chance to fully prove what he's capable of. Eventually, he does get the chance to be the head of Spacely Sprockets in "Spacely for a Day", and after some hiccups, he proves to be an effective (if over-the-top) leader, and he...enjoys it, I guess? He goes a little crazy with power in that episode and it's a little disconcerting.
But what's not disconcerting is how this desire to be in control of something big carries over in more than one episode. And it's not always in the form of leadership. It's taken the form of a heroic persona - a super heroic persona that is. In the episode, "SuperGeorge", he gets superpowers and it turns out as well as you could expect from the show: really badly. Despite my dislike of that episode, however, it does bring up a valid and subconscious look at George's desire to be a...well, super man: invulnerable, dependable, assertive, and to in control over all circumstances - both the ones he could change and the things he couldn't change. This goal might stem from his somewhat submissive nature. He gets attacked from so many sides that it is natural for him to want some portion of control over his life in a way that's suitable and comfortable for him. And when things do go his way, he did display some form of cockiness to him, but that's because he feels empowered, not because he thinks he's better than other people.
It's worth noting that when he does get too proud, it's over small things and not over truly important stuff. For instance, at the end of "Dance Time", Jane tells George that because his brief time as a dancing star and popularity among teenagers for a party Judy threw at their house, Judy instantly became a celebrity because of her father with her friends and classmates asking for her autograph. But George doesn't seem all that caught up with stardom; his response to it was - in relation to another subplot in the episode - focused on Elroy. He mentioned that Elroy was kicked out of school for a short time (I don't recall the reason). But after a series of events involving George's brief but incredible dancing abilities, somehow Elroy was not only able to come back to school, but he was also made class president! George was glad for Judy and the attention she received from her peers (and I suppose the spotlight on his own self), yes, but teenage popularity does not beat out his children's education. He was more grateful for his son being back in school, which tells the audience that the needs of his family come first and he knows what's important.
I don't think he's always on the ball with whatever goal of the week he wants to achieve. As mentioned before, he's like Fred in that he can jump into situations without giving them some thought and by the time he realizes what he's done, he instantly comes to regret it. In some ways, he's like a kid because of this impulse and because he does possess a somewhat innocent and naive view of the world around him. He is a little more in tune with how the world works than his boss or even his family to an extent, but even so, he has this baby-eyed and sheltered air to him. He seems like a person who would believe in the best of people. While it is an admirable trait, it can also be used against him.
On more than one occasion, he was written to be gullible, which is a character flaw of his. He was tricked many times by people like his boss and Cogswell in a number of episodes into ill-fated actions. This ties back into his belief into his innocence as previously mentioned, but some folks seem to mistake this as a mark of stupidity. Folks, stupidity and gullibility are not the same thing. He has consistently demonstrated that he knows when someone is a bad seed or when he or his loved ones are in danger, and will go into fight-or-flight mode if he has to. If he was a dummy, he wouldn't have been able to use his wits and resourcefulness to help him get out of situations, such as the case in "The Little Man" where he evaded Cogswell's goons and fended the guy off through evasive maneuvers, physically kicking him and a poking him with a pin. Or when he and Elroy went off to rescue Orbitty when they thought he was in trouble in "Haunted Halloween". He used tricks to scare the supposedly mad scientist/kidnapper and was prepared to beat up the guy with his bare hands to save Orbitty, and probably would have gone through with it if Orbitty hadn't intervened and cleared up a misunderstanding taking place. While George is not the smartest tool in the shed, I think he's a little sharper than he lets on.
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3. DEPICTIONS/QUESTIONS
You know, for a guy who's featured as the main protagonist of the series, he's picked on a lot both on the screen and off. There was one article I found online that outright trashed the man. If they don't like him, fine, but I ask that they please respect the fact that George is a beloved character for a reason. People happily celebrated the supposed day of his 'birth' a few years ago, for goodness' sake!
So with that thought in mind, let's get to it.
*"He's a coward": Because he's afraid to stand up to his boss and quit? Au contraire. He told his boss off on more than one occasion. He did it in season one's "Test Pilot", he did it at the end of season two's "Father-Daughter Dance" and he did it in the 1990s animated feature film. He even walked out of Spacely Sprockets on his own accord during the events of "Jetsons' Millions" without any fear or regret. Spacely sends George off via threats, humiliation, verbal abuse, and other dirty methods (and he doesn't help his supposed 'favorite employee' either to protect his image). The poor guy has to do it, or else lose his job.
I think the reason why he doesn't just pack his belongings and leave the company is all due to the fact that The Jetsons was written to be an animated sitcom-like show where certain rules in place aren't meant to be touched or changed. The status quo of Spacely firing/promoting him wasn't changed in the original seasons and unless someone attempts to shake this bit up through official content or fan-created content, this rule won't budge. If you're looking for canon reasons why he doesn't leave, these are provided too. In "Private Property" AKA "No Space For Sprockets", he gets fired in that episode and while he's lamenting about it to his family, the kids offer to get jobs to help put food on the table. This is what he has to say in response-
"Oh, thanks kids, but I'm used to Spacely Sprockets. It'd feel funny workin' somewhere else."
This is confirmed again in season two's "Hi-Tech Wreck", when something similar happens to him - his job is in ruins and he doesn't want to/can't quit because he's been working there for a long time, as hinted by Spacely in "Jetsons' Millions" when he brings up the twenty-year history he has of firing George, and what he does at the company is all he knows how to do in terms of occupation. He might get bored during his shifts, what with all the times he's been caught sleeping on the job, but he doesn't have anywhere else to go career-wise (at least that we see in canon). And even though Spacely is irrational at times, I do see the man can recognize that he, or the company rather, needs Mr. J to do what he does, which might be another theory as to why the guy doesn't leave. The other employees are either missing or unimportant to the company. Unlike George for some strange reason. Regardless, you could argue that George's reasons for staying are out of a fear of change or a fear of trying something new that's holding him back... which incidentally is a headcanon I have that I'll also elaborate on later.
But I think George is braver than people give him credit for. He makes himself go perform the tasks he's been given when he could have just hid under the couch or something. He's even risked life and limb to save the day or other creatures when the stakes were exceptionally high for himself and for his peers, whether it was swerving in and out of the machine at Spacely's Orbiting Ore Asteroid to save the Grungies and their homes or pitting himself against a bunch of punks in a demolition derby to rescue his daughter. His determination is amazing; he doesn't give up on his goals even if his body aches and he wants to stop. But I feel like that's a benefit to him; he can rise to the occasion and become the much-needed hero of the hour even if his fear threatens to overwhelm him.
True, I can see how we can expect him to triumph over whatever the plot hands him, but if you think about it, some of the episodes, animated features and specials held moments of genuine danger for George - he was held hostage and/or harassed by mobsters, falsely accused of treachery and burglary, forced to commit acts of industrial sabotage and other preposterous acts Spacely puts him through, was nearly crushed by rock and stone in the '90s film, and was an unwilling guinea pig for experiments. Thus, he has every reason to be afraid of these things. He's not a Power Ranger where he could just beat the snot out of Putties as a regular citizen; he is a regular citizen with no superpowers or, as far as we know, no means of self-defense to protect himself. That's why he has to rely on his craftiness, other people or the hands of fate in times of crisis.
*"He's whiny": Yeah, there are times he does act melodramatic to the point I want to talk some sense into him, but when we're talking about a heavily burdened man who regularly deals with lunatic events and a hot-headed employer, he's allowed to complain just a little. Heck, in spite of that weird 'three hour/three days a week' work shift he has at his job, he has been assigned to work longer than just three hours or days - he'll work until midnight or later if he has a major project he has to work on and finish for his boss. Even risk losing sleep over it, literally. He may not like the assignments, but he'll take them on because it's part of the job.
And him unloading his troubles onto his loved ones is an indication that he's more than willing to share his problems with others in hopes of finding solutions to those difficulties. He's not a tough and keep-all-emotions-in sort like Batman is; he can and will open up to others, thus showing that he has shortcomings that he wants to earnestly overcome and needs support. He does not want to give up on being a better person, which is, to me, an inner strength he has but he doesn't realize it.
*"He gets himself into a lot of trouble": Half the time, a lot of those holes were dug by accident. Yes, some of the wacky scenarios he's tossed into can be because of some of the brash decisions he makes, but more often than not, it's because of outside circumstances that throw him into the pits. Case in point? In the episode, "Rosey's Boyfriend", he didn't really do much in that episode. He's the butt of jokes in that episode, but still; he had little to nothing to do with that episode's plot because it centered more on Rosey, Jane, Mac, and Henry. And Judy to an extent. In "S.M.A.S.H.", it's Jane who unintentionally throws George into the pit with his boss through her actions, not his, when she takes Spacely's new car out for a ride after George promised to look after it while his boss is out of town despite her knowing that she probably shouldn't touch the car.
And again, the reason why these things tend to happen to him a lot of the time is because of what the writers wrote him and the show to be. I'm not a fan of this route, especially when the writers need him for the sake of jokes made at his expense, but this is part of the show layout.
*"Seems annoyed at the family all the time": All the time? This isn't The Simpsons we're talking about here, where the family is at each other's throats like Springfield's famous family can be. The Jetsons' interactions are almost the complete opposite of the Simpsons' own interactions, for goodness' sake! As far as George feeling exasperated at them goes, what family man wouldn't be irked with his loved ones' quirks at least once? The thing about the Jetsons is yes, they're not perfect: they can drive each other crazy and they're not always self-aware of their actions, but they're still supportive of one another.
And if George was annoyed at his family all the time, then why would he care so much about being there for them in all forms of media? A lot of what he does is for their benefit and not so much his. He loves spending time with them and has many times shared his good fortune with them whenever he caught a break. He goes to great lengths to keep them safe if they're in trouble or danger. And it's not just for his wife and children; he has also extended his love towards Rosie, Astro and Orbitty, confidently proclaiming them all to be part of the family.
Besides, it's not like they're completely innocent either; Jane, for instance is materialistic and can push her husband to do things he doesn't want to do but does, or else face her wrath. And she can be annoyed at him moreso than he does with her when he tries to resist. I think canon-wise, he might get miffed at his family's antics, but he tries his best to hold it in to avoid upsetting them. Astro is an exception, but Astro is a dog and dogs can be mischievous and overly affectionate creatures, and those two factors can leave anyone annoyed at them even if they mean well LOL.
*"He and Jane married young and at different ages": Well, so did Rapunzel and Flynn Rider, but as far as I know, no one seems to give them grief about it. It's fine to not agree with the age difference in canon. I mean, I even don't agree with it, but theirs is relatively tame compared to other couples out there, such as the twenty-something difference between real-life couple Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. And those two dearly loved each other! Besides I think back then in the 1960s, and even earlier, many couples did marry at relatively younger ages. They still do it today.
I think the differences in age between George and Jane is because of the show's writing flaws. The cartoon never clarified when important milestones in George's life occurred. Such as when he and Jane met, when they attended high school and college, when he first started working for Spacely, or when Judy and Elroy were born.
When you add in these realistic outside factors and try to put together George's life to count up to his age, you realize that plot holes start appearing faster than an army of mice eating through Swiss cheese. How so? Well, for one thing, older Hanna-Barbera cartoons generally played loose with continuity. The Jetsons is no exception. Like for some bizarre reason the show loves to ping-pong back and forth about George's age – one episode states he’s forty, another thirty-eight, and an outside source or two even says he’s in his mid-thirties. So if we were to seriously write for the Jetsons, then we can't really take the writers' original rule at their word when it comes to George's age. Plus, they probably would decree that 'it's a cartoon show, don't take it seriously.'
But regardless, this irregularity can lead to a lot of confusion and skepticism as to how if all the events in canon can play out accurately in the timeline or as I said, if it’s just the writers missing important details that they either forgot about or just didn't think they applied to the story. And if that will be the case, then I think we should be free to placing George's age closer with Jane's to smooth out the wrinkles and make for a more coherent timeline for him and his family.
Next up, part two--inspirations, future goals and headcanons! And perhaps more if I come up with anything else.
Enjoy this post!
Wanderer out!
