Comments on: Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 04 – The Coming of Astro

By: Chris Sobieniak

Chris Sobieniak — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 22:44:41 +0000

“Assuming it is the one where Elroy runs into Astro at a playground, it is the only episode that might, possibly, show the ground-level world. That’s the impression I got of that playground.”

I think that happens in episode 15, “Millionaire Astro”, in particular, Elroy recounts his first encounter with the pooch on the playground while in court. I noticed though this blog has been embedding the episodes via Hulu which uses the edited syndicated versions from the 1980′s which sadly cuts off about 2 minutes worth of footage from the 1962-63 episodes. I don’t recall that moment ever coming up until years later on Cartoon Network when they started showing a “restored” version that, while still adding in the pointless 1980′s title cards (the only saving grace to those are the writer’s credit as the end credits were never saved for each episode) retains the original length of those episodes. There was plenty of little moments that went under the knife when they brought it to syndication in the 80′s onward.

By: Stefan Jones

Stefan Jones — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 22:32:23 +0000

It has been decades since I’ve seen this episode, but . . .

Assuming it is the one where Elroy runs into Astro at a playground, it is the only episode that might, possibly, show the ground-level world. That’s the impression I got of that playground.

By: DBenson

DBenson — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 18:25:23 +0000

And of course there are virtual pets, who’ve been popping up in various forms since the dawn of the PC: Animations that appear to demand attention and can be trained, but live inside your computer, pocket toy or smartphone. These are variously dogs, cats, Gremlin knockoffs and girlfriends.

By: Sean

Sean — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 03:38:19 +0000

I’ve suggested a couple of times to the girlfriend that a robot might be better than that… cat. She doesn’t agree and, well, it’s her… cat.

meow

By: Dean Finder

Dean Finder — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 01:51:36 +0000

Many people have recognized the pet-like quality of Roombas, and a cottage industry of stuffed-animal like covers for them has sprung up: http://myroombud.com/
A few years ago, I bought a broken early 1980′s Petster and restored to working condition.

I agree with Tom Tipping; when I first saw this episode, I thought the Electrolux vacuum was the inspiration for ‘Lectronimo

By: Tom Tipping

Tom Tipping — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:47:11 +0000

“Lectronimo seems to resemble the classic Electrolux model 30 canister vacuum cleaner.

By: cr0sh

cr0sh — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 02:07:23 +0000

While we don’t regard it quite as a pet, my wife and I think of our Roomba in some ways a bit more than a “machine”…

Also – I want to use this space to mention Frank DaCosta’s book, published by TAB Books back in the late 1970′s – “How to Build Your Own Working Robot Pet”; quite an advanced project for the time – I would love to see an update done with an Arduino!