Earlier this week I had the rarefied chance to contact with archivist from Warner Brothers and capture a peek at their archive of Jetsons material . As you may imagine , I was in paleofuture nerd heaven .
I shot a segment here in L.A. with “ CBS Sunday Morning ” ( airing this Sunday April 28th ) about the impact of “ The Jetsons ” on the way that we think about the hereafter in the yr 2013 . We touched on my recently wrap projection that looked atall 24 episodesof the original series and , aside from being a nervous peck , I retrieve the consultation went well ! Afterward I was able to travel up to Burbank whereLee Cowanspoke withSam Registerfrom Warner Brothers invigoration . They looked at storyboards and talked about some of the tech from the show — some of which has been realized , with many more ( as regular Paleofuture proofreader know ) still a fantasy here in the 21st century .
The archivist were genial enough to permit me crack a few exposure .
“ The Jetsons ” boob tube show was grow by fabled invigoration studioHanna - Barberabut its library became part of Turner Broadcasting in 1991 and then became part of Warner Animation when Turner was purchased by Time Warner in 1996 .
Somewhat surprisingly , the Warner Brothers archive does n’t include a individual animationcelfrom the original 1962 - 63 series ( though they had some from the 1980s ) . As the archivists excuse to me , the cels were n’t seen as something worth support on to after an episode was finished . I reckon since the single cels were n’t moot to be part of the final production , saving cels must ’ve seemed to those midcentury animators at Hanna - Barbera like the equivalent to bring through mere tools ( like , say pencil ) .
One archivist explained that in the early sixties many vivification studios even had cel washers that would clean paint completely off the cels when a output was finished because the studios realize the plastic as more valuable than conservation . He said that it was n’t until Disney started deal the animation cels for dirt cheap in the Disneyland park ( possibly $ 7 a popping ) that anyone realize there might be a marketplace for these things after a cartoon or motion picture was finished .
I took a few photograph of sketches from the archive ( the most fascinating being the early sketch , below , of Judy look rather solemn and conservatively dressed ) , but you may see even more if you tune in to “ CBS Sunday Morning ” on April 21st ! April 28th !
This Charles William Post in the beginning appeared atSmithsonian.com .
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