‘The Jetsons’: Do You Know What Year the Show Was Set In?

In September 1962, the first episode of The Jetsons aired on ABC. Creators instantly clued fans of the series into the fact that George Jetson and his family live in a futuristic society. The actual year that they live in was left purposefully ambiguous. Still, a little digging reveals the year that the series was set in.  

What year was The Jetsons set in?

The Jetsons offered television viewers a rather sunny and optimistic view of the future. Flying cars, moving sidewalks, and flat-screen TVs were the norm. Even the Jetson family’s sky home was considered envious. The show’s creators, however, were quiet about exactly what year the show was set in. The animated characters never explicitly stated the date, but reportedly, promotional material for the show revealed the exact year.

According to Techcrunch, ABC set The Jetsons in 2062. The creators picked the year because it was exactly 100 years from the year that the show premiered. While flying cars are not yet a real thing, the cartoon did predict some current technologies. Since the show was set in 2062, manufacturers have another 40 years to make flying cars and cloud-houses real.

Where exactly did the Jetson family live?

While promotional material explained that The Jetsons was set 100 years in the future, that same material didn’t explain the family’s living situation. The Jetsons lived in Orbit City, a cloud-based community, but it is assumed the neighborhood was built above Earth. An argument for a different location can be made, though.  

Based on the Jetson family’s phone number, one could argue that they didn’t live on Earth or just above it. According to IMDb, the family’s phone number was VENUS-1234. Traditionally, the first three digits of a phone number are considered the exchange code. The exchange code is often associated with a specific town or a section of a city. Since the Jetson’s exchange code was VENUS, fans have theorized that they lived on or around Venus. A definitive answer has never been given, though.

The Jetsons wasn’t on television for all that long

The creators of The Jetsons didn’t offer fans a ton of backstory on the famed cartoon family. They never mentioned why the family lived in a sky home or how society made the collective decision to move upwards. That might have been due to timing limitations. While the animated series has become deeply ingrained in pop culture, it wasn’t on the air for all that long.

The original series aired its first episode in September 1962, but it didn’t last beyond its first season. ABC produced just 24 episodes during the initial run. More than 20 years later, the cartoon was rebooted, and a syndication deal allowed the original episodes to be aired alongside the new animations. In total, 75 episodes of The Jetsons exist, if you don’t count specials and movies.