Janet Waldo (Judy Jetson) Talks About Her 1st Thoughts About The Cartoon & Her Book!

[Brian Damage]

Can you talk about your initial thoughts about The Jetsons and this wonderful character, Judy? Can you talk about what one goes through in creating a voice like that? Did you draw on other people in your life for that voice?

Janet Waldo: Well, Judy was a cinch, because I just did my own voice. I just did Judy, but I worked with all sorts of people who were doing lots of other voices. I really, really learned from them and wanted to do other voices. I talked to Joseph Barbara, and actually, he auditioned me on the phone a couple of times for other characters, thinking I could do other voices. He said, 'Make me a tape.' My husband, he wasn't my husband at that time, but he wrote all sorts of wild characters for me. I wanted to do everything but Judy. Judy was a natural for me. It was just me being excited, but the other things I did, like the mother-in-law on The Flintstones, these weird characters I just loved to do because they were just so far-out and wild. I did a lot of things on Smurfs. I portrayed Hogatha, which was a wicked but ravishing witch. They were all totally different from what I experienced, but when I first came to cartoons, I used my own voice.

With a show like The Jetsons, which started in the late 1960s, with the concept like this, were you being shown artwork right away, and what did you first think of it, especially in that timeframe, seeing this future come to life?

Janet Waldo: The first time I saw The Jetsons was the first rehearsal. That was the initial beginning of The Jetsons and that's when I was called in. Joseph Barbara read the script and they had the cartoon guys, when we were recording, they came in and watched us and drew pictures of us in action. They would integrate our movements in the characters. That's when I was really intrigued with The Jetsons. The writers were fantastic because they had such great imagination and they had us all imagining what it would be like in the future, living on the moon, and all of these fun things. We had all these gadgets which were totally intriguing, like the hairstyle gadget, where you would press a button and it would change your hairstyle. The slidewalks began after The Jetsons, the microwave oven. I'm waiting for the talking vacuum cleaners. As you know, Rosie the Robot, we had a system on our house, a security system, and it says 'Door close. Open door.' We call her Rosie because it's shades of The Jetsons. I think The Jetsons' influence has been so tremendous on young people who have let their imaginations go and have become intrigued with inventing new things. There's always something new and every time it happens I think, 'Hey, we did that on The Jetsons.'

When you were doing this, did you all have maybe a year in mind, of when you would see a flying car or something like that?

Janet Waldo: We're all waiting for the flying car. I was walking around the block the other day and there was a little car parked in front of a neighbors house. I thought, 'My gosh, The Jetsons have landed! It's a Jetsons car!' A young man came running out saying, 'Do you like my car?' It turns out he was a big fan of The Jetsons and he invented this little car that looks like a Jetsons car.

With the movie, Rockin' with Judy Jetson, it seems that's one of the final spin-off movies they created. Can you talk about where that idea originally came from?

Janet Waldo: Well, I think they wanted her to be a rock star. I thought was a great idea because Judy Jetson was the kind of person who probably would be a rock star. Also, she loved Jet Screamer. 'Baby, baby, baby,' you know. She had this huge thing for Jet Screamer and was very influenced by him. I thought it was just a natural thing. They did the same thing with Rockin' with Judy Jetson that they did on the first one with Jet Screamer. She invented a song for Jet Screamer and Elroy invented another one and they got mixed up. The same thing happened with Rockin' with Judy Jetson. Judy never wrote good songs, Elroy came up with the good one. I think they wanted Judy because she was the type of person who wanted to be a rock star.

It was reported awhile ago that Robert Rodriguez wants to do a Jetsons movie. I was curious if you thought it is time for a new version, either animated or live-action, in this day and age with the technological advances we have now?

Janet Waldo: I think that is the true appeal of The Jetsons, the technology. It intrigued so many people. I hope that flying car really happens. I'm not sure that will happen, but everything else is happening.

Would you be on board if they brought The Jetsons back with a new version?

Janet Waldo: Are you kidding? I would do it 24-hours a day! I think it's such fun what The Jetsons did and I'm very proud to have been a pioneer with The Jetsons.

“I’m writing Out of Orbit about my career and I’m going to incorporate the fan mail I continue to get. It’s very exciting and I’m very grateful that it influenced people in positive ways. All the cartoons have an influence on the audience, and I agree with Joe, each show should have a message the audience will cling to and keep. I do think the older shows had more of a message.”

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[Marvo301]

Great article!

[Steve Carras]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

Would you be on board if they brought The Jetsons back with a new version?

Janet Waldo: Are you kidding? I would do it 24-hours a day!

Me like! And that means, as Warner Bros.owns those Hanna-Barbera properties not licensed from comics books,etc. it means Warner Bros.wouldf produce the Jetsons and that Janet Waldo would be DOING HER FIRST WB CARTOON voice.. Baby Baby BABY - Jet Screamer.