Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Astro

Astro is a canine character on the Hanna-Barbera cartoon, The Jetsons. He was designed by Iwao Takamoto, and originally voiced by Don Messick. Astro was more advanced than present-day dogs, in that he had a rudimentary grasp of the English language, albeit with r's in many places it shouldn't be, or replacing other letters. For example, "I love you, George" would be "I ruv roo, Reorge".

Astro was found by Elroy in the fourth Jetsons episode, "The Coming of Astro". When Elroy, Jane and Judy proposed keeping the dog to George, he was against it. To try and stay out of the "doghouse" with his family, he got an electronic dog. The electronic dog was supposed to be the new hairless, non-eating, protect your house, way to go. When a cat burglar tried to rob the Jetsons, the electronic dog attacked him (which he did to anyone wearing a mask). Elry tried waking Astro to get him to stop the burglar as a way to prove himself, but Astro turned out to be more interested in hiding in fear. However, when trying to escape, the cat burglar put the mask on George. The electronic dog then proceeded to chase after George. It was Astro (who was trying to run from the cat burglar) that inevitably caught the criminal (by accident) by crashing into him. This prompted George to decide that the electronic dog was not the way to go. They gave the electronic dog to the police and kept Astro as part of their family.

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