Mr. Slate or Mr. Spacely

[zoombie]

Who would you rather have as a boss, Mr. Slate or Mr. Spacely?

Who is the better person, I think it is Mr. Slate. Sure he has his moments, like trying to weezel out of giving the soon to be father Fred a raise, or putting undo pressure on Fred to umpire a game, but for the most part, the conflicts were caused by Fred. Most of the time, if you do your job, he will leave you alone. Earlier in the series, it is implied, he gave Fred an annual raise, but since than, he is a typical cheep boss, who will try to get as much work for as less a possible. Of course, in the early episodes Fred had a different boss.

Mr. Spacely on the other hand, he is not only cheep, but sometimes he can be outright nasty. Where is a union when you need one? Often when it is not working hours, and George wants to do something with his family or just Jane, Spacely has to interfere, and for a twerp, he is a bully. Most of the time, the conflict was caused by Spacely, I guess Cosgwell makes him the lesser of two evil, I am not sure if I buy that. I think they are equally the same type of jerk, George just happens to work for Spacely. Cosgwell beats him to a trick that he might pull.

As for overal who is the better boss, who runs their business better? It seems ever episode of the Jetsons, Spacely and Cosgwell are always on the brink of going out of business. To answer that question I have to think about it.

I do think the difference in personality has a lot to do with the main character's personality. As stated in another thread, Fred Flintstone and George Jetson have very different personalities, and they made their boss act a certain way to play off that.

[Brainatra]

Mr. Slate, easily. He seemed much more amiable toward his workers (long as Fred wasn't doing something stupid/job-endangering), and wasn't as obnoxious personality-wise. Mr. Spacely, on the other hand, was pretty much a sawed-off runt of a jerk.

Given Slate got invited to Fred's birthday party (and Slate invited his workers to his mansion for some party of some sort), guess that beats out Spacely making George hand over his tickets to "My Space Lady" so he can work overtime...

As for who ran their company better, Slate seemed to be like Mr. Burns' power plant in the Simpsons---the town's dominant employer, with little competition (though "The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones" gave him a competitor named Turk Tarpit, with Slate's company implied to be suffering as a result---and making Slate behave somewhat more short-tempered). Spacely on the other hand kept having to deal with Cogswell, and seemed on the verge of going out of business in "Jetsons Meet the Flintstones" (one scene has him laying off some robot-workers...).


-B.

[Eric B]

Might as well throw Mr Dithers in there as well, since he is the modern day counterpart to both of them.

It's probably more inbetween, as he is just plain nasty, though often it is Dagwood's sloth that gets him on him, and Dithers is I believe the only one who actually puts his hands (or feet) on someone. (Spacely usually uses that automatic trap door or some other gadget).

Still, even at other times, Dithers is known throughout the entire office to be just plain mean.

[88fingers]

Braintara, it's a good point that Spacely doesn't seem to be capable of being friends with Jetson, even though they do interact out of the office on the whole more than Slate and Fred, partially because there is a smaller stable of characters in The Jetsons.

But it brings up a larger point, which is that friends don't really exist in the world of The Jetsons. George, in particular, has no friends. Maybe Henry, but even there it's a service relationship since he works for the building. It's particularly jarring in contrast with The Flintstones, which is structured chiefly around two pairs of friends, Fred/Barney and Wilma/Betty. Yet life in The Jetsons is structured around the nuclear family, with very little bleeding into other people's lives. Jane, I recall, has a friend or two she speaks to on the video phone, but there is never a sense of a close "bosom buddy" relationship as in The Flintstones.

I think that's part of what makes The Jetsons a colder world, at least to me.

[Brainatra]

Braintara, it's a good point that Spacely doesn't seem to be capable of being friends with Jetson, even though they do interact out of the office on the whole more than Slate and Fred, partially because there is a smaller stable of characters in The Jetsons.

But it brings up a larger point, which is that friends don't really exist in the world of The Jetsons. George, in particular, has no friends. Maybe Henry, but even there it's a service relationship since he works for the building. It's particularly jarring in contrast with The Flintstones, which is structured chiefly around two pairs of friends, Fred/Barney and Wilma/Betty. Yet life in The Jetsons is structured around the nuclear family, with very little bleeding into other people's lives. Jane, I recall, has a friend or two she speaks to on the video phone, but there is never a sense of a close "bosom buddy" relationship as in The Flintstones.

I think that's part of what makes The Jetsons a colder world, at least to me.

Yeah, I'd agree... the Flintstones put a big emphasis on their social lives---we see Fred go bowling, to the pool hall, golfing, etc., and Wilma engaging in some volunteer stuff/other activities, both of them usually with the Rubbles in tow. Meanwhile, the Jetsons family seem to have very few friends, as noted above---they don't even seem to talk to their neighbors very often, and George's closest companions are his workplace computer (in the 80s episodes) and his building's elderly superintendent Henry Orbit. That, and George's life being tied up in his job much moreso than Fred's ever was.

Reminds me of the book I meant to read but didn't get around to reading, "Bowling Alone", about how life in the US has gotten more and more solitary (with negative results) over the past few decades, using bowling as an example...

-B.

[zoombie]

Yeah the Jetsons didn't have any close friends.

On the topic of the two bosses, I think the personalties match what is needed by the main characters. If you give a loud mouth character like Fred an equally loud mouth boss like Spacely, that wouldn't work.