TV or Not TV (Jetsons)

You may also be looking for the Hong Kong Phooey episode "TV or Not TV."

TV or Not TV
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Network	ABC
Premiere date	February 17, 1963
Starring	George O'Hanlon Penny Singleton Daws Butler Janet Waldo Don Messick
Music composed by	Hoyt Curtin
Writer(s)	Tony Benedict
Director(s)	William Hanna
Voice director(s)	Joseph Barbera
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Title card

"TV or Not TV" is the twenty-first episode of The Jetsons season one. It aired on February 17, 1963 on ABC. It was written by Tony Benedict, and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of the series and the founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

George & Astro think they've witnessed a robbery, which is actually from a TV show. They then go on the run, after a shady-talking guy from the TV studio turns up.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Jane Jetson	Penny Singleton
Astro	Don Messick
Elroy Jetson	Daws Butler
George Jetson	George O'Hanlon
P.J.	Don Messick
Nimbly	Unavailable
Sergeant Moon	Daws Butler
Judy Jetson	Janet Waldo
Mr. Spacely
Henry Orbit	Daws Butler
Announcer	Unavailable
Soapy Sam	Unavailable

Organizations

• Space Gem T.V. Productions

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Orbit City
      • Skypad Apartments
        • Jetson residence
        • Astro's doghouse
      • Shopping center
      • Space Gem T.V. Productions building
      • Cosmo Spacely's fishing cabin
• The Moon (mentioned)

Objects

• Dog-Math-a-Mat
• Fooder-Aca-Cycle
• Visaphone
• Magno-Manicure

Vehicles

• Flying cars

Production

Aftermath

When The Jetsons originally aired, no title cards were present. They were only added when the series was revived in 1985, and the original episodes were given title cards for consistency when they were all packaged together for The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. Notably, they all include Orbitty, who wasn't in the original series.

Music

The music was composed and conducted by Hoyt Curtin.

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: February 17, 1963 on ABC
• United Kingdom and Ireland: November 20, 1963 at 6:05 pm on ITV

Behind the scenes

• This is the first time a police sergeant is named.
• Space Gems T.V. Productions is a parody of Screen Gems, the original distributors of The Jetsons.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	恐怖は突然やってくる	Fear Comes Suddenly

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • May 11, 2004: Warner Home Video releases The Jetsons: The Complete First Season on DVD.
  • May 23, 2017: Warner Home Video releases The Jetsons: The Complete First Season (Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection edition) on DVD.
  • September 10, 2019: Warner Archive Collection releases The Jetsons: The Complete Original Series on Blu-ray Disc.
  • October 13, 2020: Warner Home Video releases The Jetsons: The Complete Series (Hanna-Barbera Diamond Collection edition) on DVD.
  • June 21, 2022: Warner Home Video releases The Jetsons: The Complete Series on DVD.