Astro (voiced by Don Messick in the TV series, Scott Innes in several RadioShack commercials, Wally Wingert in Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law and an LG Electronics commercial,[2][3] Jeff Bergman in a Tums commercial,[16] Frank Welker in The Jetsons & WWE: Robo-WrestleMania, 2017-present) is the Jetson family's Great Dane. He was designed by Iwao Takamoto, and originally voiced by Don Messick. Despite the stress he tends to cause him, George often regards Astro as his genuine best friend. Astro, despite being clumsy and dim-witted, was very loyal (to a fault) to the Jetsons, particularly George and Elroy. He was more advanced than present-day dogs, in that he had a rudimentary grasp of the English language.[17] In a recurring gag, while George is walking Astro on a gravity-suspended treadmill, Astro begins chasing a cat that stumbles onto it, eventually forcing it to go at speeds too fast for George to keep up with, trapping him. This led to George's trademark phrase "Jane! Stop this crazy thing!". Don Messick would usually give Astro a speech pattern involving replacing the first letter of any word with an R, such as "I love you, George" becoming "I ruv roo, Reorge". Astro is similar to Scooby-Doo in the cartoon Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!; which was also voiced by Messick (of the two voices, Astro's was slightly higher and raspier than Scooby's).[18] Astro was introduced in the season one episode, "The Coming of Astro". When Jane, Judy, and Elroy proposed keeping him to George, he was against it, claiming an apartment is no place for a dog. In an effort to make his family happy, he gets an electronic dog, 'Lectronimo. Through mishaps, 'Lectronimo fails to catch a burglar whom Astro inadvertently stops. The family gives 'Lectronimo to the police and keeps Astro. In Season 1, Episode 16, a millionaire named J.P. Gottrockets shows up and claims to be Astro's original owner and his original name was Tralfaz. Astro had no memory of his past life with the millionaire, but understood why he ran away, with Elroy rescuing him from the dog catcher - he didn't want wealth and privilege, he wanted a real family. After seeing how much he loved the Jetsons, Gottrockets gives Astro back to them. Despite this, Astro makes an appearance in the ending credits prior to the episode. Astro makes five cameo appearances as a portrait in the music video for the 2008 Kanye West song "Heartless", which takes place in West's actual apartment den. Astro was also in 11 episodes of a 1981 spin-off called Astro and the Space Mutts.
