The Computer of 2000

Your Safety First is a cartoon that looks into the future before The Jetsons did, and uses some of the same futuristic ideas for the sake of comedy.

It was made in 1956 and set, partly, in the year 2000. A man is leafing through a newspaper or magazine (well, they still had newsprint in 2000) and spots an ad for the bubble-topped Turbopusher II. They inspire him to buy a new car.

Cut to a shot of him asking his secretary Millie how long he’s had his old car.



The shot pans over to his secretary at a desk with a computer with a punch card slot on the wall (okay, they didn’t quite predict this one right).



Millie puts a card into a slot, continues reading a book while the computer calculates and spits out the card with the answer.



Now comes the gag. First the artificial intelligence powders her face, then plunks a hat on her head. It doesn’t have Saturn-type rings like Jetsons clothes do.



It’s time to go home. The Jetsons had similar dialogue, as the man complains he works a four-hour day (with two hours for lunch), three days a week.

There are other gags found later in the Jetsons, too, such as food tablets for dinner (also found in a 1931 Fleischer industrial called Texas in 1999), and a big-screen TV that the people on it can leave and walk into the living room. Cars only fly to pass. And safely.

The Automobile Manufacturers Association is paying for this short, so their message is about how safe cars are today and into the future.

The man has a George Jetson-like voice, supplied by Marvin Miller (in a couple of places, he sounds extremely close to George O’Hanlon, who said he never did cartoons before The Jetsons). I couldn’t tell you who plays Millie or the man’s son.

A battered old print of this cartoon is all that’s been in circulation for years on-line. We can hope a better version will surface, as it’s an enjoyable cartoon. The animators are Ken O’Brien, George Cannata, Cal Dalton and Fred Madison, with layouts by Gerry Nevius and Charles McElmurry. Backgrounds are by Joe Montell, formerly with Tex Avery at MGM, and the music is by Carl Stalling’s former copyist, Eugene Poddany.

A survey in Variety in 1958 voted this one of the “50 Outstanding Free TV Films.” It was the only animated one. We found it in the listings of the NET station in Chicago (WTTW) on May 14, 1957 as well as the NET station in San Francisco (KQED) on June 10, 1958, among other stations.