Casting George And Jane In The Jetsons Led To A Lawsuit

For those of a certain age, Pat Carroll will forever be synonymous with her voice role as the fabulous sea witch Ursula in Disney's animated "The Little Mermaid." However, for those of another certain age, their memories of Carroll will forever be entwined with her career as a mainstay of 20th-century television comedy thanks to her appearances on variety shows like "The Carol Burnett Show" and her stint as Shirley Feeney's ever-critical mother on "Laverne & Shirley." 

Or maybe you're a weirdo who was reared on animated "Garfield" holiday specials and associate her with Jon Arbuckle's piano-pounding, chainsaw-swinging grandmother with the abs of steel. I wouldn't know anything about that.

As fate would have it, Carroll nearly voiced Jane Jetson on Hanna-Barbera's futuristic cartoon sitcom "The Jetsons," a role that would've existed at the nexus between her animated ventures and her run as a linchpin of live-action TV burlesque in the '60s and '70s. What's more, she and Morey Amsterdam (who's perhaps best known for having played the sardonic Maurice "Buddy" Sorrell on "The Dick Van Dyke Show") were all set to voice Jane and George Jetson before being abruptly dropped and replaced by Penny Singleton and George O'Hanlon, respectively. So, what happened?

When interviewed by showbiz historian and author Kliph Nesteroff, Carroll said that she and Amsterdam were fired from "The Jetsons" without warning. "I don't know if we weren't any good or what. Nobody ever told us," she admitted. "As far as I was concerned, that was inappropriate." This even led to her and Amsterdam filing a lawsuit against Hanna-Barbera. "I don't care if it's the biggest agency in the world or the biggest producer. When it's wrong, it's wrong and if I have to spend the money to litigate, I will," she added.

According to a report by the Oxnard Press-Courier in 1965, Carroll and Amsterdam sought $12,000 apiece from Hanna-Barbera, arguing it had violated their contracts by only using their voices once on "The Jetsons" and then scrapping them, rather than allowing them to voice Jane and George across the show's initial 24-episode season (which aired from 1962 to 1963). "I knew full well we wouldn't win, but I wanted my voice to be heard that this was wrong," Carroll told Nesteroff. "Even my agents lied. So, you know. There you are. You're not going to win when you fight the big fellas, but at least you can put up a little yowling."

In truth, Carroll and Amsterdam were apparently let go for a positively unsexy reason. As detailed in a column posted by the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1962, the pair had been forced off "The Jetsons" as a result of "too many sponsor conflicts, what with Morey being a regular on 'The Dick Van Dyke Show' and Pat likewise on 'The Danny Thomas Show.'" The case was settled in Hanna-Barbera's favor by 1965, although Carroll told Nesteroff it wouldn't have happened at all if the studio had been honest in the first place:

"Because when people are honest you'll get much more fairplay ... at least from this gal ... than if you lie and fib and try to cover up. A waste of everybody's time. Just be honest and people can adjust to it."

Make what you will of the lawsuit, but it didn't hurt the careers of anyone involved. Carroll and Amsterdam continued to act until their respective deaths in 2022 and 1996. Meanwhile, it feels like Hollywood is practically determined to try and revive "The Jetsons" at some point, for better or for worse.