Prepare to meet George Jetson and the rest of his iconic family all over again. The classic cartoon The Jetsons is getting remade, and this time, the project isn’t animated. ABC has given a live-action reboot a pilot commitment, Deadline reports.
Reboots are everywhere, so it is not at all surprising that a beloved show like The Jetsons is getting revamped. We’re more optimistic about this project than most, however. The series is being written by Gary Janetti, whose past credits include Will & Grace and Family Guy. On top of that, Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis is executive producing alongside his frequent collaborator Jack Rapke as well as Janetti. Jackie Levine is on board as co-executive producer.
The original Jetsons aired on ABC from 1962 to 1963, but the show later gained two more seasons in syndication in the mid-’80s. The cartoon followed a family living in 2062 that consisted of parents George and Jane Jetson and their children, Judy and Elroy. Their robot, Rosie, did appear in some of the ’60s episodes, but she took on a much bigger role in the ’80s, coming to function as a cross between a housekeeper and an extra parent.
Over the years, the Jetson family has been the focus of two animated films as well. The first was 1990’s The Jetsons: The Movie, and a direct-to-video flick, The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania!, came earlier this year. Sadly, two of the series’ voice actors, George Hanlon (George Jetson) and Mel Blanc (Mr. Cosmo Spacely) died while the 1990 film was being produced, and with more deaths in the interim, the recent movie became the first Jetsons project made without original creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, or any of the original voice actors.
Hanna-Barbera Productions produced the ’60s and ’80s version of The Jetsons, and the studio was later sold and absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation. The new live-action project is being produced in association with Warner Bros. TV as a multi-camera sitcom.
There has long been talk of a new Jetsons animated film, plus earlier live-action movie scripts, but it looks like the next time we see the futuristic family could very well be on ABC.