The show was animated, which removed virtually all limits from what they could show of the world of 100 years hence. Flying cars? Check (they even fold up neatly into hand-held briefcases). Personal jetpacks? Check. Maid / nanny robots for each household, that whip up food in pill form? Check and check.  The space-age family, it would be fair to say, introduced American audiences to the World of Tomorrow, and set our expectations of it. And it all premiered one ordinary Sunday with a ditty that began “Meet George Jetson…”

On this day, September 23, in 1962, The Jetsons premiered on ABC-TV. Hanna Barbera Studios’ typical American family was transported from the Stone Age (where they were known as the Flintstones) to the Space Age.

The original series comprised 24 episodes produced between 1962 and 1963, and after its initial run was rerun Saturday mornings for two decades, until Hanna Barbera decided to revive the cartoon and create a new Jetsons dynasty — which, insofar as we still dream of flying cars and jetpacks, persists to this very day. Also fittingly for such a futuristic show, The Jetsons was the first color television show run on ABC.