Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
The Jetsons – Season 2, Volume 2 is a three-DVD collection of 20 episodes that originally aired in 1985. None of these episodes come from the one and only “classic” season that introduced television viewers to the space-age family in 192-’63. When Hanna-Barbera brought the series back in the ‘80s, it was geared more towards young children. They rounded up the original voice cast though, which creates a nice sense of continuity between the older and newer episodes. That’s an impressive commitment considering George O’Hanlon, the voice of George Jetson, was in his 70s when these were produced and he didn’t quite sound the same.
That’s kind of where the good news ends for this release. I’d be surprised if even the most diehard Jetsons fans would defend these ‘80s-era episodes. There are a handful of moderately amusing ones, including “The Swiss Family Jetsons.” In that one, George loses his job and the family winds up roughing it on a distant planet. Although the title suggests something more adult, “Space Bong” is another fun one, with George being mistaken for a spy who looks just like him. The better episodes are gently parodic in nature, but too many of these are just silly time wasters that only the youngest kids are likely to enjoy.
But they’re here for completists, although they don’t look pretty. Compression artifacts make the already primitive animation look even worse. Ringing around all shapes and edges is seriously distracting. It should also be pointed out that The Jetsons – Season 2, Volume 2 is a DVD-R release. Warner Archive releases titles that are not going to be big sellers in the form of manufactured-on-demand DVD-Rs. I’m not all that keen on these types of releases, even though I realize it puts titles out there that would otherwise go unreleased. At any rate, Season 2, Volume 1 was released on real DVDs. I guess sales were underwhelming, or this release would have likely avoided the DVD-R fate. Yet to be released on DVD are the 10 season three episodes that aired in 1987.
