The Jetsons characters have stood the test of time as one of the most entertaining families to watch on television.
However, as with any show, it can be a bit confusing to keep track of all of the characters, so we’ve created this quick handy list to help refresh your memory!
George Jetson
George J. Jetson is a fictional character in the television series, The Jetsons. He is the head of the family, which consists of his wife Jane Jetson, his daughter Judy Jetson, and his son Elroy Jetson.
George lives with his family in Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. This futuristic city is shown to have robotic maids, flying cars, and sidewalks that move for you. The apartment buildings are made to look like Seattle and the Space Needle.
The ground is rarely seen, but it is hinted that this is because the earth is too polluted and only the sky is habitable for human life.
As a child, George had to fly through a ten-mile long asteroid storm to get to Orbit High School. While there, he was the MVP of the Spaceball team and a talented star pitcher. Outside of sports, he was called an outsider and a geek at Orbit High School. George now works for Spacely Sprockets as a digital index operator and his employer Cosmo G. Spacely is known for being short-tempered and domineering.
George often complains that his job is repetitive and mundane, and he complains that he has to push a simple button many times (five times for three hours a day, three days a week). George is fired on a regular basis when his boss is in a bad mood, but he is always quickly rehired in the same episode.
Physically George is a very slim man with short red hair. He has a big nose and is very caring, especially when it comes to his family. While he means well, there are several times where he is stressed and frustrated due to work and family issues. He is based on Dagwood Bumstead from the Blondie comic strip.
Jane Jetson
Jane Jetson is the wife of George Jetson and mother of his two sons. She is much younger than George and was only 17 when their daughter Judy was born. Jane is very interested in fashion and gadgets, with her favorite shop being Mooning Dales. She is a dutiful wife, who is always ready to do her best for the sake of the family and is always ready to defend them in any way she can, even if it means getting into a fight with Mr. Spacely or whoever threatens the Jetson family.
She is a member of Galaxy Women’s Historical Society and a big fan of Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci. She is also very bad at housework, and can hardly stand pushing buttons.
She was included in Yahoo!’s Top 10 TV Moms from Six Decades of Television.
Judy Jetson
Judy is the daughter of George and Janet Jetson. She is a 16-year-old who loves her family and behaves just as a high-schooler would, except she has access to high-tech gadgets.
Judy is often seen shopping, speaking on her telephone, and summarizing her day to DiDi, her floating robot journal.
Judy is also a humongous fan of Jet Screamer, a rock singer who is extremely popular among her age group. In one of the episodes, Judy actually ends up winning a date with him after winning a contest. In typical Jetsons fashion, things go hilariously awry when George tries to stop the date and ends up as a back-up drummer for Jet Screamer.
Judy is seen in typical futuristic garb with an almost white/platinum blonde hairstyle that is put up into a high ponytail.
Elroy Jetson
Elroy is the younger son in the Jetson family. Despite being only 6 years old, Elroy is already one of the most intelligent members of the Jetson family.
Unlike Judy, Elroy is much more docile and keeps to himself. He is very invested in his studies and is widely knowledgeable about all things space. He specializes in the subjects of astrophysics and star geometry. However, on several occasions, he seems to be knowledgeable about things outside of space as well.
Elroy goes to Little Dipper School and is an exemplary student. He is good friends with Jimmy and Irvin and spends his time playing with futuristic gadgets.
Astro
It seems in the future; man’s best friend continues to be dogs. Astro is a Great Dane that is extremely loyal to the Jetson family. He is a lovable pet that was introduced early on in the series and quickly became a fan favorite.
While always having good intentions, Astro does cause a bit of trouble due to his clumsiness and easily excitable nature.
The most interesting part about Astro is that he is able to speak English and communicate relatively well with the Jetson family. Similar to Scooby-Doo, Astro would replace the first letter of anything he said with the letter r. This endearing way of speech made it hard to stay mad at Astro no matter what trouble he found himself in.
One running gag has Astro chasing a cat and forcing George to struggle with Astro’s increasing speeds as he tries to catch the feline. George’s catchphrase “Jane! Stop this crazy thing!” is yelled primarily at Astro when this happens.
In that sense, can we really ever be mad at Astro? He is the creator of one of the most iconic Jetsons catchphrases of all time.
Rosie
The future seems to be a cozy place to live in. Your job consists of just pressing a button a few times a week, and when not at work you are taken care of by friendly robots such as Rosie.
Rosie is a robotic maid and house help that was introduced in the very first episode of the series. Despite being an obsolete model, she is diligent with her work and is almost always seen rolling around the house with her cleaning tools.
Despite looking robotic, Rosie always has a frilly apron and a frilly hat on. She does not have legs but instead rolls around on wheels.
In one interesting episode, Rosie is actually revealed to be dating a different robot helper named Mac. Rosie is smitten with Mac but is clearly the smarter one in the relationship. Many interactions between the two involve Rosie chastising Mac for his naive behavior.
Orbitty
If you think talking dogs are weird, wait till you hear about their second pet. Orbitty is an alien with slinkies for legs and suction cup feet. He also has a cute little purple tuft of hair above his white fur.
Orbitty has been with the Jetsons family his entire life and was first introduced to the story before hatching when George picked Orbitty up when he was still inside of his egg. When he hatched, George and the rest of the Jetson family couldn’t help but adopt him.
Orbitty has an array of special powers, but perhaps the most interesting is his ability to change colors depending on the emotion that he feels.
It’s unclear whether he has control of this power or if it is an uncontrollable byproduct of whatever he is feeling at the moment. However, anyone who spends enough time with Orbitty can easily decipher what color corresponds to which emotion. Some are obvious, like red for anger and blue for sadness. Others are subtler, like yellow for when Orbitty is scared.
Lastly, despite being young and cute, Orbitty actually has a surprisingly large amount of technical knowledge. He is shown putting gadgets back together and tearing them apart at a moment’s notice.
Mr. Spacely
Cosmo Spacely is the boss of George Jetson who has a tough exterior but a soft inside. The typical conversation between Mr. Spacely and George begins with Mr. Spacely screaming “JETSON!”
As stated earlier, almost all interactions between these two end with George Jetson temporarily losing his job. This situation almost always fixes itself by the end of the episode, as George is always rehired and things resume back to normal.
Spacely is a typical boss who seems to primarily care about money and profits. However, in rare instances, Spacely does put in extra effort to help George and be empathetic to his situation.
Mrs. Spacely
While Mr. Spacely is shown to be domineering and confident in the office, he is much timid around his wife Mrs. Spacely.
Stella Spacely is the abrasive wife of Mr. Spacely and who he genuinely fears at times. While they do love each other, Stella is known for being the one who wears the pants in the relationship.
Together they have a son Arthur Spacely.
Arthur Spacely
Arthur Spacely is a young boy who also attends school with Elroy. He is also academically gifted and competes against Elroy whenever he gets the chance.
Arthur can be a bit snobby, but overall he is also a child who loves gadgets and likes science.
R.U.D.I
R.U.D.I is the computer that George works on whenever he is at work. Unlike a computer from the modern age, R.U.D.I is sentient and able to sustain conversations with George and work together with George.
Although he is just a computer, these two are openly very loving towards each other. R.U.D.I often remarks on how proud he is of George and believes he is a great employee.
The most memorable moment showcasing R.U.D.I is when the Jetsons are facing off against the Spacely’s on a futuristic game show. With everything on the line, George has to answer what R.U.D.I stands for as the final episode to win it all.
Of course, George responds correctly with Referential Universal Differential Indexer, which cements the belief that George does care deeply about R.U.D.I (or deep enough to memorize that tongue twister of a sentence)!
Mr. Cogswell
Mr. Cogswell is one of the main antagonists of the series and is often seen going against Mr. Spacely. Cogswell owns his own company, Cogdswell’s Cogs, a direct competitor to Mr. Spacely’s company.
Similar to Spacely, Cogswell is very profit-oriented and has little patience for incompetence.
Conclusion
That’s it for our list of Jetsons characters. With such a rich story and several seasons, it’s difficult to add every single character but we’d love to hear what characters you wanted to read more about!
The Jetsons is a great show that ran for several seasons and was relaunched in the ’80s.
Hopefully, this list inspires you to rewatch a few episodes and remember the magic that resides in Orbit City!
