LOS ANGELES – Rebooting a nostalgic franchise for contemporary audiences, Hanna Barbera announced the latest incarnation of The Jetsons will include modern technology such as mobile phones, which the entire family will ceaselessly stare into for the duration of every episode.
Originally airing in 1962, the show depicted an optimistic future of flying cars, robot maids and short work weeks, centring around a fantasy family life where somehow they all managed to interact with each other face-to-face and express emotions without the use of symbols. Parent company Warner Bros. says they will be scrapping that in order to reflect today’s overworked, alienated, technologically mediated culture by having every character staring dead-eyed into their devices at all times.
“The writers have some great plots laid out already,” said Terry Neville, assistant director of development at Warner Bros. “We’ll see George Jetson get blocked by his own daughter on social media, even though they live in the same house. We’ll see Mr. Spacely get fired for sending a racist tweet, and we’ll see Elroy get sucked into a dark online message board community to become a porn addicted, conspiracy theory peddling misanthrope.”
“You know, relatable, everyday family comedy.”
Sources say while dialogue will be conveyed almost entirely through texting, the backstory of each character will be explored through their online shopping activity by sporadically interacting with online ads miro-targeted to their personality and previous buying habits, like when Rosie is replaced with a tube called Alexa.
At press time, sources say the first episode of The Jetsons reboot will feature a time travel plot where they go back to the 1960s and meet the boomers who robbed us of the future we could’ve had.
