George Jetson From Hanna-Barbera’s The Jetsons Is About To Be Born

We’re about to officially enter the future with the birth of George Jetson, the lead character of the classic Hanna-Barbera future-set animated sitcom The Jetsons. Fans doing the math have determined that George Jetson was born in 2022. George is described as the 40-year-old father figure of the Jetson family as the series begins in the year. Simple math shows that George must have been born in the year 2022. He’d later marry Jane, and together they’d raise daughter Judy and his boy Elroy. Certain pieces of ephemera suggest that George was born on July 31st, so happy birthday to him. Now, where are our flying cars? 

For all you Jetsons purists: hardcore fans have traced George’s age reveal back to the episode “Test Pilot” (S1E15) which first aired on December 30th, 1962. That episode follows George’s existential crisis after he thinks that he is dying and decides to become a test pilot for a supposedly indestructible suit. Part of the episode features George going to the doctor, who exclaims that he should “live to be 150.” After learning he is not in fact going to die, George wants out of his daredevil stunts – before his boss, Mr. Spacely, blasts his suit with a bunch of missiles. George pleads with Spacely saying he has “110 good years ahead of me,” placing his age in that episode at 40. Since that episode takes place in 2062, Geroge Jetson’s birth year is therefore 2022. 

The Jetsons has inevitably become something of a benchmark for how far humanity has not progressed. Who hasn’t stared on at the world around them on a bleak or cynical day and wondered “Where the hell are all the flying cars?” Well, for once that dark opinion gets to take a much more fun spin: now WE get to have some fun defining the man George Jetson is, because now we KNOW. 

Jokes about how George Jetson is a COVID baby have been circulating ever since last year when the pandemic was still happening, but fans were looking ahead to the (hopefully) happier times of 2022. Other jokes point to the (inevitable?) trend of people now naming babies George, Jetson, or George Jetson outright. Fans have also had a fun time going back over Jetsons episodes with new psychological backstory for how George’s upbringing in these tumultuous times shaped and formed his behavior in the show. It’s a fun little indulgence that we can enjoy all year – so why not?