Suburbia Malaise: George Jetson vs. Harold Smith

The premiere of Hanna-Barbera’s sitcom The Jetsons in 1962 introduced America to your average nuclear family of the distant future.  This served as Hanna-Barbera’s counterpoint to their other animated sitcom The Flintstones, which premiered two years prior.  Just as The Flintstones did with its prehistoric setting, The Jetsons used its Space Age setting to make social commentary about the rise of consumerism in the immediate post-World War II economy.