1960s

Future Calling: Videophones in the World of The Jetsons

This is the 16th in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The Jetsons episode “The Little Man” originally aired on ABC on Sunday January 13, 1963. The story revolves around the accidental shrinking of George to no more than a foot high by Mr.…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 28

The Decline and Fall of the Space Action Hero

This is the thirteenth in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The 13th episode of “The Jetsons” originally aired on December 16, 1962, and was titled “Elroy’s Pal.” The episode looks at Elroy’s obsession with the fictional TV show “Nimbus the Greatest,” about a…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 18

Motopia: A Pedestrian Paradise

“No person will walk where automobiles move,” is how British architect Geoffrey Alan Jellicoe described his town of the future, “and no car can encroach on the area sacred to the pedestrian.” Jellicoe was talking to the Associated Press in 1960 about his vision for a radically new kind of British town—a town where the…

Tech News Matt Novak Dec 6

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 09 – Elroy’s TV Show

This is the ninth in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. When I was a kid I didn’t quite understand how TV and movies were made. Around the age of four or five, I had a basic understanding of how live TV was recorded…

Tech News Matt Novak Nov 19

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 06 – The Good Little Scouts

This is the sixth in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. As a child, did you ever think that one day you might be able to vacation on the moon? You weren’t alone. A permanent settlement on the moon wasn’t some crackpot scheme only…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 29

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 05 – Jetson’s Nite Out

This is the fifth in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The fifth episode of “The Jetsons” aired on Sunday October 21, 1962, and was titled “Jetson’s Nite Out.” The episode revolves around George’s plans to watch the robot football championship game and the…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 22

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 02 – A Date With Jet Screamer

This is the second in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. The second episode of “The Jetsons” aired September 30, 1962 and was titled “A Date With Jet Screamer.” Arguably the most famous of all the Jetsons episodes, it’s also certainly the most hedonistic;…

Tech News Matt Novak Oct 1

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 01 – Rosey the Robot

This is the first in a 24-part series looking at every episode of “The Jetsons” TV show from the original 1962-63 season. Episode 01: “Rosey the Robot,” originally aired: September 23, 1962 If you flipped through the Cedar Rapids Gazette on September 23, 1962 the news looked fairly typical for the early 1960s. There was…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 24

Parade Magazine Asks American Women About The Sexiest Professions of 1962

NASA astronauts in July of 1962 (source: NASA) In 1962 Parade magazine surveyed American women about the sexiest profession for American men. Here at the dawn of the space age, they were shocked astronauts weren’t ranked number one, concluding “Astronauts are great for history, but not for current affairs…” Doctors were ranked the sexiest and…

Tech News Matt Novak Sep 23

Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

According to Athelstan Spilhaus, writing the comic strip “Our New Age” was his way of slipping a little subliminal education into the Sunday funnies. Each week the strip took a different topic—such as ocean currents or heredity or the moons of Mars—and explained in a very straightforward way just what made that area of scientific…

Tech News Matt Novak Aug 8

Googie: Architecture of the Space Age

Before I moved to Los Angeles (almost 2 years ago now) I had never heard the word Googie. In fact, when a friend — a native Californian — used the term I initially thought it must have something to do with Google. I didn’t know the word, but I definitely knew the style. And I…

Tech News Matt Novak Jun 16

Here Are the 1960s Science Fiction Novels Everyone Should Read

First they tried to drag us back to the 1960s with Austin Powers. Now they’re doing it again with Men in Black III, whose plot time-jumps to the 1969 Apollo launch. But why go back to this world-changing decade with bad science fiction when you could mainline the good stuff? Here is a book list…

Books & Comics Annalee Newitz May 24

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

Chemical warfare is nothing new. As early as 428 BC the Spartans were burning wood soaked in resin and sulfur for use against their enemies. And the First World War is often remembered for its horrific deaths due to mustard gas. But the mid-20th century ushered in a new futuristic chemical weapon: LSD. Lysergic acid…

Tech News Matt Novak May 18

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Remember milkmen? Yeah, neither do I. In 2007, I moved into an apartment building in St. Paul that was built during the early 1920s. I remember asking the building manager what the small, two-foot tall doors attached to the outside of each apartment were for. The doors had long been painted shut and no longer…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 28

Meet the curious cat scientists of the 1960s

The 1960s were a thrilling era in the development of the feline sciences. The structure of cat DNA (the double felix) had already been discovered, and astronomers were working to put cat on the moon. Relive that golden era of scientific discovery with the Tumblr series Cat Scientists of the 1960s. This single serving Tumblr…

io9 Lauren Davis Mar 17

Super-Sized Food of the Future

We often associate food futurism with the concept of meal pills. But another popular prediction from the “freaky science” file of retro-futurism involved gigantic fruits and vegetables. (And not just Great Pumpkins, such as the ones that competitive growers are creating today.) The December, 1900 issue of Ladies’ Home Journal featured a fascinating article titled…

Tech News Matt Novak Mar 9

Honeymoon on the Moon

Where were newlyweds supposed to honeymoon in the future? The moon, of course. Honeymoons on the moon show up in popular culture throughout the 1950s and 60s, in everything from songs to comic strips. The June 1, 1958 edition of the Sunday comic strip “Closer Than We Think” by Arthur Radebaugh claimed that it would…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 15

The Super Bowl’s Love Affair With Jetpacks

Sports writer Michael MacCambridge wrote, “The Super Bowl contains multitudes; it has always exemplified America at its best, America at its worst, and more than anything else, America at its most.” So it’s no surprise that the largest televised spectacle in the world has a history of using jetpacks. It doesn’t get much more spectacular…

Tech News Matt Novak Feb 3

Sunday Funnies Blast Off Into the Space Age

When Dr. Athelstan Spilhaus met President Kennedy in 1962, JFK told him, “The only science I ever learned was from your comic strip in the Boston Globe.” The comic strip that Kennedy was referring to was called “Our New Age” and ran in about 110 Sunday newspapers all around the world from 1958 until 1975.…

Tech News Matt Novak Jan 27

Future Calling: Videophones in the World of The Jetsons

The Decline and Fall of the Space Action Hero

Motopia: A Pedestrian Paradise

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 09 – Elroy’s TV Show

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 06 – The Good Little Scouts

Recapping ‘The Jetsons’: Episode 05 – Jetson’s Nite Out

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 02 – A Date With Jet Screamer

Recapping “The Jetsons”: Episode 01 – Rosey the Robot

Parade Magazine Asks American Women About The Sexiest Professions of 1962

Synthetic Food, Smart Pills and… Kangaroo Butlers?

Googie: Architecture of the Space Age

Here Are the 1960s Science Fiction Novels Everyone Should Read

Tripping Through the Cold War: Drug Warfare in the Retrofuture

The Milkman’s Robot Helper

Meet the curious cat scientists of the 1960s

Super-Sized Food of the Future

Honeymoon on the Moon

The Super Bowl’s Love Affair With Jetpacks

Sunday Funnies Blast Off Into the Space Age

Someone Finally Took a Good iPhone Photo of the Moon. Good Luck Copying Their Trick

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