The Jetsons was ABC's first program broadcast in color in the early 1960s, at a time when only a handful of ABC stations could actually broadcast in color, while its sister show The Flintstones was aired in black-and-white for its first two seasons despite being produced in color.

The show was scheduled opposite Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and Dennis the Menace, received poor ratings, and was cancelled after its first primetime season before being moved to Saturday mornings, where it found lasting success for decades.

Actors Morey Amsterdam and Pat Carroll were originally cast and signed as the voices of George and Jane Jetson, recording only one episode before being replaced; they each sued Hanna-Barbera for $12,000 for breach of contract, with some sources citing sponsor conflicts with their other shows (The Dick Van Dyke Show and Make Room for Daddy) as the reason, and the court ultimately ruled in favor of Hanna-Barbera.

When Warner Bros. Cartoons closed in May 1961, several of its animators, including Gerry Chiniquy and Ken Harris, joined Hanna-Barbera to work on the first season of The Jetsons.

For Jetsons: The Movie (1990), Jeff Bergman took over voicing George Jetson and Mr. Spacely after original voice actors George O'Hanlon and Mel Blanc died during production; controversially, Janet Waldo was replaced as Judy's voice by pop singer Tiffany after she had already recorded all her dialogue.

The show's theme song, composed by Hoyt Curtin, unexpectedly became a pop hit in 1986, decades after the original series aired.

A 1974 proposal for a sequel series set roughly ten years after the original Jetsons was rejected by CBS and was instead retooled into the show Partridge Family 2200 A.D.

Several futuristic devices depicted in the original 1960s cartoon, such as flatscreen televisions, video chat, computer viruses, tanning beds, and home treadmills, did not exist at the time but later became common real-world technology.