The Flying Suit (4 Nov. 1962)

Directors:

Joseph Barbera, William Hanna

Stars:

George O'Hanlon, Penny Singleton, Janet Waldo

Cast

Episode cast overview:
George O'Hanlon	...	George Jetson (voice)
Penny Singleton	...	Jane Jetson (voice)
Janet Waldo	...	Judy Jetson (voice)
Daws Butler	...	Elroy Jetson / Mr. Cogswell (voice)
Don Messick	...	Driver (voice)
Mel Blanc	...	Cosmo S. Spacely (voice)
Jean Vander Pyl	...	(voice)
Howard Morris	...	Harlan (voice)
Dick Beals	...	(voice)
Hal Smith	...	(voice)
Shepard Menken	...	(voice)
Joan Gardner	...	(voice)

Storyline

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Genres:

Animation | Sci-Fi | Comedy | Family

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Details

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 November 1962 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Screen Gems

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

User Reviews

How much would you pay?

"How much would you pay"? I ask that quite a bit here, but come on, the folks in the Jetsons' universe own some really nice, state-of-the-art, technological junk that people in our time would just love to own. The item in today's episode is no exception. A suit that flies, and if you happen to be wearing it at the time, you fly too. Oh what some men won't do to get ahead in life. Watch Mr. Cogswell try unsuccessfully to one-up Mr. Spacely, and see how George Jetson once again gets caught up in the action. Need I say more? No? Too bad; George wants to push his luck and ask Spacely for the afternoon off, seeing as how he worked three whole hours and is tired. Poor baby. He decides to try the old "nuclear-phobia" bit, so he barges in on Spacely, interrupting him from doing the work most bosses do on the job: sleep. Spacely was not entirely in support of Jetson's cause and thusly ejected him back to his work station. As if that weren't bad enough, Mr. Cogswell drops by unannounced and tries to get Spacely to merge with him. The sprocket-meister was not entirely in support of that cause either. Cogsy talks of a new state-of-the-art invention his company's cooked up to officially put Spacely out of business. What is this invention, you ask? Well, as demonstrated by Cogswell's assistants, Harlan and Moonstone, it is the X-1500 flying suit that responds to mental commands, and follows the movement patterns of the wearer. It also comes with matching boots. Yeah, this could mean the end of space sprockets. Um...how? Does the suit somehow run on cogs? Wanting a clean flying suit for the demonstration the next day...like some execs will really notice dirt on a suit that freakin' flies??... Harlan drops it off at the cleaners. Soon after, George arrives to pick up his own suit, and wouldn't you know, they look exactly alike: red with white triangles around the equator and a white ring around the collar. I guess Moonstone grabbed the first tacky suit design he saw and went with it? But leave it to George to have that kind of taste in clothing. It might work to his advantage, however, for as you may have guessed, the cleaner gives George and Harlan the wrong suits. At home, Elroy is trying to invent capsules that, once ingested, will make you fly. In the process, he dirties George's clothes, so he has to change into that retarded looking suit he brought home. Reluctantly, he excepts Elroy's offer to try one of his pills and amazingly...he flies! Quickly, he goes outside to try it out. Look, up in the sky! It's a bird-brain! It's a plain crazy! Yep, it's flyin' George Jetson! So under the impression that the pills are making him fly, instead of the suit, he tells Spacely, who plans to market the pills immediately. Meanwhile, Cogswell gives a demonstration of the suit to the board of directors, unfortunately Harlan doesn't realize until too late that he's wearing the wrong suit, resulting in him falling to a gruesome death. No, he's a cartoon, he only bumped his head, kids. After committing unintentional homicide three times (he's okay, it's cartoon), Cogswell finally realizes this was not the suit he was looking for. So Harlan takes the suit back to the cleaners. The proprietor realizes his mistake in giving George the wrong suit and swaps them out. Obviously, this suit can't fly, so they decide the pills are a flop, subsequently Spacely makes a fool of himself in front of the board of directors, and both old misers admit defeat. As for the X-1500, it landed into the possession of someone much more deserving of a lift.

Of course, if a flying suit such as this existed in real life, it would only cause trouble, but it sure was fun watching these guys mess with it. This episode was good fun and one of the many Spacely vs. Cogswell episodes of the series' run, and it also poses a very pivotal question that has been pondered for centuries: was man meant to fly? According to this episode, the answer is no and it shows a clear cut example as to why.