George O'Hanlon was the voice of the space-age patriarch in the animated situation comedy "The Jetsons."
O'Hanlon, who once said he "never thought I could do voices," had spent much of his career playing such average Joes as Calvin Dudley, the next-door neighbor on the TV show "The Life of Riley," and Joe McDoakes in the long-running series of theatrical shorts "Behind the 8-Ball."
When he did decide to audition for animation, it was as a tryout for the original voice of Fred Flintstone (a role that went to Alan Reed). But even though he lost out, he was not forgotten. When producer Joe Barbera, half of Hanna-Barbera Productions, was looking for a spokesman for his futuristic father, he remembered O'Hanlon.
"George Jetson is a very average man," said O'Hanlon, who made 75 Jetsons episodes. "He has trouble with his boss, he has problems with his kids and so on. The only difference is that he lives in the next century."
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