The Jetsons predicted video calling, but one thing that stands out *big time* (if you watch Jetsons episodes on youtube) is that the Jetsons entirely missed touch-screen.

The "cooking machine" that they have in their kitchen (you just push buttons, and the machine instantly gives you whatever you want) still requires physical buttons. And it's a very archaic-looking thing, with old-fashioned round buttons, instead of a touch-screen menu that you can choose your meals from. They didn't even come up with a voice-recognition cooking device, that you could talk to and order your meal. Of course, in retrospect, such a cooking device looks silly when you can just buy frozen meals and pop them in your microwave (for those who don't care about eating quality, healthy meals).

This is just one of *several* misses from the Jetsons. I also don't remember ever seeing mobile phones on the Jetsons. Everyone just always happened to be in the vicinity of a giant video-calling screen.

Jet packs would be a very difficult thing to do. Sure, we have them, but they aren't practical for anything but short-term spins in the air. First you need enough propulsion to get you and that jet pack (together) off the ground. Okay, good enough. But longer trips need more fuel, which adds weight to what has to be lifted, which in turn will need MORE fuel to get that weight propelled off the ground, which means you and the pack just get heavier. Well, at some point, even if the jet pack could left a person off the ground, what person would be strong enough to lift the jet pack? I think we and jet packs are just victims of the law of gravity. And no matter how futuristic things get, good ol' Mother Nature brings us right back down to earth, literally.

They seemed alike because The Jetsons -was- a space-age retooling of The Flintstones. They gave the format another shot in '72 with The Roman Holidays, which was set in, you guessed it, ancient Rome.

Um, you said - twice - "video televisions". I think, and let me go out on a limb here, you meant "video telephones", because, uh, "video televisions" is kind of redundant.

Anyhow, I particularly thought the large screen TV he had (that featured True-3D) while watching the Miss Universe contest was particularly prescient given today's supersized HDTVs, some with 3D - although not like that - capability. I still watch The Jetsons on Boomerang, the theme music and artwork is so addictive.

The best spin on the whole Flintstones/Jetsons thing was in an episode of the Ralph Bakshi-produced Mighty Mouse series in the late 80's. Mighty Mouse somehow got sucked into his TV set and jumped from show to show (all parodies of Saturday morning cartoon series). One of the shows being "The Jetstones" which was a bizarre amalgam of the The Flintstones and the Jetsons. They had all the Jetsons' tech (flying cars, houses built on top of poles, robots), the caveat being it was all made out of wood, rope, skins and rocks.