Video: Tex Avery's Television of Tomorrow (1953)

Cartoon genius Tex Avery produced this short in 1953, showing off TVs for smokers, water drinkers, and those afflicted by airplanes overhead. The integration of real footage with the cartoon is fantastic. (I love that the fishing set was actually replicated by SEGA in the '90s in an arcade game, complete with working reel.) [via io9]

[#1 posted by Sorcerer Mickey , February 21, 2008 9:49 AM]

I love the Paul Frees narration!

[#2 posted by Anonymous , February 21, 2008 10:20 AM]

The shooting of the bossy friend in the head at close range kinda wigged me out. But I've always loved the scoring of those old cartoons, and this one was typically clever. Very, very cool overall.

[#3 posted by Ryan Waddell , February 21, 2008 10:37 AM]

I *swear* I saw that cartoon as a kid in the 80's. I distinctly remember the "variety of programming" joke. Man, Tex Avery is awesome.

[#4 posted by chus3r , February 21, 2008 10:40 AM]

In 55 years since this was done we still can't find anything to watch on TV. We have the one simple control TV, it's all buried in the menus. Did you notice the many of the sets were widescreen?

Also interesting is that content was custom to the user. That the user would be in such control of the content that the delivery mechanism was customized. Tex is a bit of a visionary. Great find, hadn't seen this in years!

[#5 posted by Joel Johnson , February 21, 2008 10:42 AM]

I remember it as a kid from the '80s, too. They ran a lot of Tex Avery to fill in slots between Captain Power and The Snorkels.

[#6 posted by Daemon , February 21, 2008 10:49 AM]

I actually remember this one from when i was a kid. Now that I think about it, there was an awfull lot of "home of tomorrow" type cartoons.

[#7 posted by beefandbones , February 21, 2008 10:58 AM]

I think Paul Westerberg goes to that same barber.

[#8 posted by TheFool , February 21, 2008 11:07 AM]

"The home of tomorrow will be *built around* the TV set..."

100% true, sadly.

[#9 posted by Lester , February 21, 2008 1:21 PM]

Avery also made "Television of Tomorrow" too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bBpDNRP5qQ

"These new bumpers were built with pedestrians in mind...just let 'em try and get away.
...This same model has glass bottom, so that you when you hit a pedestrian, you can look down and see if he was a friend of yours..."

[#10 posted by justONEguy , February 21, 2008 1:21 PM]

A television for people who drink water. Hilarious.

[#11 posted by teflon , February 21, 2008 6:24 PM]

Funny how nearly every mocking example has come true in some form or another.

[#12 posted by krylon , February 21, 2008 6:33 PM]

@ Sorcerer Monkey:

Why Mr. Frees' voice was so familiar was driving me nuts, until IMDB revealed that it's the same voice as the ghost host in Disneyworld's haunted mansion!!!

That would have driven me nuts for weeks!
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0293659/bio

[#13 posted by dunnright , February 21, 2008 8:26 PM]

TV of tomorrow, Car of tomorrow, House of tomorrow...
All great! And I think each had at least one Mother-In-Law joke.

[#14 posted by dunnright , February 21, 2008 8:26 PM]

TV of tomorrow, Car of tomorrow, House of tomorrow...
All great! And I think each had at least one Mother-In-Law joke.

[#15 posted by misterchinaski , February 21, 2008 11:55 PM]

that one tv had boobs!!

[#16 posted by starcadia , February 21, 2008 11:56 PM]

I also remember seeing this two or three times as a kid. It's even more awesome as an adult. Well, okay, it's a different type of awesome now.

[#17 posted by Anonymous , February 22, 2008 1:11 AM]

In 1953, they knew business peoples will play Wii and PS3 in their offices, and that Casinos will loose the classical one-handed bandits for video-poker... Couldn't quite predict the computer implementation, but that's IBM's CEO fault to predict in approximately that year that there is a world market for probably 5 computers, though. ;-)

[#18 posted by Lester , February 22, 2008 4:26 AM]

I'd forgotten the House of Tomorrow, thanks...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZscJKRuPkqo

[#19 posted by LSK , February 22, 2008 5:15 PM]

This is quite a clever short. I love the rapid pace of increasing absurdities; that's something you don't see anymore except in Mad, a magazine that stays true to its heritage.

[#20 posted by Anonymous , February 23, 2008 3:25 PM]

The house of tomorrow will be built around the computer

[#21 posted by JDspeeder1 , February 27, 2008 8:52 PM]

Don't forget the Farm of Tomorrow:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwXGCY0Avpg

Genetic engineering gone mad!!!!!