Test Pilot

Test Pilot
File:.png
Network	ABC
Premiere date	December 30, 1962
Starring	George O'Hanlon Penny Singleton Daws Butler Janet Waldo Don Messick Mel Blanc
Music composed by	Hoyt Curtin
Writer(s)	Harvey Bullock R.S. Allen
Director(s)	William Hanna
Voice director(s)	Joseph Barbera
Episode navigation
← Previous	Next →
Title card

"Test Pilot" is the fourteenth episode of The Jetsons season one. It aired on December 30, 1962 on ABC. It was written by Harvey Bullock and R.S. Allen, and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the creators of the series and the founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

After George thinks he doesn't have long to live, he volunteers to test out a prototype jacket that's supposed to be indestructible.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
George Jetson	George O'Hanlon
Jane Jetson	Penny Singleton
George's mother
Elroy Jetson	Daws Butler
Judy Jetson	Janet Waldo
Astro	Don Messick
Mr. Spacely	Mel Blanc
Robot secretary	Unavailable
Professor Lunar	Daws Butler
Mr. Cogswell	Daws Butler
Doctor Ken Radius	Don Messick
Announcer	Don Messick
British newscaster	Don Messick
French newscaster	Mel Blanc
Russian newscaster	George O'Hanlon

Organizations

• Spacely Space Sprockets
• Cogswell Cogs
• Daily Orbit
• BBC
• TV Francaise

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Orbit City
      • Skypad Apartments
        • Jetson residence
      • Spacely Space Sprockets building
      • Cogswell Cogs building
  • England
    • London
      • BBC TV studio
  • France
    • Paris
    • TV Francaise studio
    • Eiffel Tower
  • Russia

Objects

• Breakfast pill
• Spacely Life Jacket
• Cogswell indestructible jacket
• Peekaboo Prober
• Daily Orbit newspaper

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: December 30, 1962 on ABC
• United Kingdom and Ireland: October 2, 1963 at 6:05 pm on ITV

Behind the scenes

• The first season didn't have title cards when it originally aired. The title card comes from when the series was revived in the 1980's for a second season.
• Spacely gives his middle initial as "C."
• The BBC is a real-life TV studio in Britain.
• George is 40-years-old.

Errors

• The Fooder-Aca-Cycle that serves real food has been replaced by a dial-up machine that serves pill supplements.
• Spacely says "Cogswell Cogs," but the sign reads "Cogswell's Cogs."
• Usually, newspapers are shown on TV screens, not physically printed.
• Spacely Space Rockets went out of business at the end of the episode, but by the next episode, George and Spacely are already back at work.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	パパのテストパイロット	Daddy Test Pilot

Home availability

• In the United Kingdom and Ireland:
  • August 4, 1997: First Independent Films releases The Best of Hanna-Barbera with Scooby-Doo & Friends on VHS.
• 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.