Jonny Quest

Jonny Quest

An animated sci-fi adventure series that aired on ABC in 1964-1965.

In the interest of full disclosure, this show could be considered to have multiple seasons. There was initially only a single season on prime time TV in the sixties. After twenty years in syndication, a handful more episodes were produced – with new actors doing most of the voice roles and an updated setting. Over a decade after that, Warner Brothers produced more episodes under the title, The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. I am instituting a statute of limitations. If it takes twenty years to make the second season, it doesn’t count.


The Set-Up: In a world almost entirely populated by men, widower Dr. Benton Quest is a prolific scientist who resides on his own private island in the Florida Keys with his young son, Jonny, voiced by Eric “Otter” Stratton. Jonny spends most of his time with his body guard/tutor/”companion” Race Bannon, a young East Indian boy named Hadji, and a scrappy little bulldog named Bandit. Dr. Quest knows everything about everything, so when anything happens, Dr. Quest gets a call. He sets out with his make-shift, all male family and solves the problem.

They encounter various sinister foreigners in turbans, and savages speaking fake languages and broken English.


Typical episode:
Villain shenanigans are afoot. Dr. Quest is called in. His family is interrupted from their beach-lounging and join Quest on his trip to a different exotic locale. Once there, Quest meets a suspicious contact. Dr. Quest allows Jonny, Hadji and Bandit to wander off and explore the local color alone. Foreigners act devious. Someone is captured. A rescue ensues. Jonny makes some glib jokes. Something EXPLODES! The bad guys meet a super violent death. Bandit barks. Everyone stands around and laughs.

A Few Facts Learned:

1. Dr. Quest and one other person are the only ones who speak the Po-Ho language.
   
2. Dr. Quest and one other person are the only ones who know the transmutation process for Xanium.
   
3. The thread of mental deterioration is a problem for space travel, but a vine that grows only in Thailand holds the answer.
   
4. A serow is a combination goat and antelope.
   
5. Brazil is a pygmy country.
   
6. There hasn’t been a pteranodon on this planet for a million years.
   
7. The scientific name for a sea horse is Lophbrachiate.
   
8. A ham radio signal can reach across the planet.
   

Typical dialogue: “What you hear and see are ultra-high-frequency sonic waves in action. Used destructively, sonic waves can demolish an entire city. Watch.”

Typical foreigner dialogue: “Him wolf. Him friend. Not like bad wolf. Him bad. Gray one kill him and drive fear from deep woods. You go now to camp. Father come back, find you gone, him worry.”

Typical Hadji dialogue: “Sim sim salabim. And all that jazz.”

Number of chicks who appear on the show: 4: three were in one episode and one other was in a coma.

My favorite episodes:

• 1.8 “The Robot Spy” A UFO lands in the desert and a giant, one eyed, spider-legged robot crawls out. It shoots “an antenna” at victim’s heads causing them to seizure and pass out. The military is called in. Dr. Zin watches from his castle hideaway.
  
• 1.9 “Double Danger” Jade shows up. She is the first chick I have seen so far on this show. And she could kick my ass. The show’s idea of romance is high-larious. Dr. Zin watches from his clandestine hideaway.
  
• 1.14 “Dragons of Ashida” Giant lizards on leashes! And they get to eat somebody. Yum!
  
• 1.15 “Turu the Terrible” A trained pteranodon? A creep in a wheelchair? Rocket belts and bazookas! And for once, the bad guy is white dude with no accent! There’s very little Jonny in this episode.
  

Least Favorites:

• 1.4 “Pursuit of the Po-Ho” This episode had such racially charged dialogue, it is edited for the DVD release. Plus nothing blows up.
  

How many episodes were produced? 26.

Is there much continuity? There’s not even continuity within some episodes. Dr. Quest’s field of expertise changes nearly every episode. Hadji’s character was introduced in the second episode that was produced, which was the seventh episode aired. Thusly, Hadji shows up in the second episode without explanation, but then meets the gang for the first time in the seventh episode – via an extended flashback. And then there’s Dr. Zin, who returns numerous times as an ongoing nemesis.

Why was it canceled? According to Wikipedia, the show was a hit – although it was not in the top twenty. Regardless, it was too expensive to continue producing.

Was there closure? There’s not much need for closure. There is no ongoing plot other than the prolific threat of foreigners.

Any unattended issues? Dr. Zin and Dr. Quest never have a proper confrontation, although Dr. Zin threatens, “We shall meet again, Doctor!” Who knows how Jonny’s mother died? No one seems to care. Not even Dr. Quest or Jonny.

And Jonny has some hard core woman-hating issues. These are never addressed.


The verdict: This was a show I only managed to catch a few times growing up. It was this elusive treasure whose schedule I could never get a grip on. I always liked it growing up. It was like Scooby Doo, but more violent. So I was happy when the DVD got released. I could finally see what I had been missing as a kid. Turns out I wasn’t missing much.

Knowing that this “spy adventure” series was made at the height of cold war paranoia, I expected most of the villains to be Russian, or maybe even Cuban. And I expected a hell of a lot of sci-fi technical gadgetry. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much of either. Most of the foreign villains were Arab or Asian or English or German or South American natives.

Beyond the unchecked misogyny and xenophobia, the problem with this show is that it is too damn repetitive. From the same bits of animation recycled over and over again to the cookie-cutter plots. There were times when the motivation for a villain seemed to only be included as an afterthought. But really the issues this show has with anyone who isn’t a white man is so transparent, it moves from being offensive to being comical. But for all the wrong reasons.

Top Cat is another show I would like to revisit from my childhood, but after watching Jonny Quest, I’m not interested in investing in an entire season. There was a DVD I bought of He-Man episodes. It included only the top ten fan-voted episodes. Ten episodes was more than enough. I wish some of my other childhood shows would follow that strategy.

And now I have the percussion-heavy “spy jazz” theme music stuck in my head. Forever, I fear. Ultimately, while I think the show has a poorly dated charm to it, it’s never more than a slight exploitation of foreign fears. Once you’ve seen one episode, you’ve seen them all.