The 60th Anniversary of Jonny Quest

In the early Sixties there was a cycle of animated shows in prime time on American television. The vast majority of these shows were situation comedies, such as The Flintstones, Top Cat, and The Jetsons. One notable exception was Jonny Quest, an adventure series that had a strong dose of science fiction Jonny Quest would only ran one season, but it would be shown on Saturday morning for years and in syndication for many years more. It was sixty years ago tonight, on Friday, September 18 1964 that Jonny Quest debuted on ABC.

Jonny Quest centred on the character of that name (Tim Matheson), an eleven year old boy who travelled around the world with his father having adventures. Jonny's father was Dr. Benton Quest (John Stephenson/Don Messick), a scientific genius who worked for the U.S. government. Jonny's mother had been killed some time before the series began, apparently by enemy agents. Travelling with the Quests was Race Bannon (Mike Road), an intelligence agent who was assigned to protect Jonny and serve as his tutor as well. In addition to Jonny, Dr. Quest also had an adopted son, Hadji Singh, who was an eleven year-old Indian orphan. Rounding out the group was Jonny's dog, Bandit. The adventures of Jonny and his father took them around the world, and owed a great deal to such classic adventure books as Treasure Island, the comic strip Terry and the Pirates, and even the concurrent James Bond movies.

In fact, the origins of Jonny Quest can be traced back to an old radio show. Hanna-Barbera approached comic book artist Doug Wildey about designing an animated television series based on the old radio show Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy followed the adventures of the character of that name, which took him around the world. As to Doug Wildey, he had worked as a freelance comic book artist for such companies as Street & Smith in the late Forties and later what would become Marvel Comics in the Fifties. Still later he was the artist on The Saint newspaper strip. For television Doug Wildey worked under fellow comic book artist Alex Toth on the syndicated animated show Space Angel.

For the prospective animated series based on Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy, Doug Wildey researched such magazines as Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, and Science Digest to get an idea of what things would be like ten years in the future. To this end Doug Wildey either devised or updated such advanced technology as hydrofoils and hovercraft. He wrote and drew a presentation for the prospective Jack Armstrong series, some of which would find its way into the closing credits of Jonny Quest. The presentation film would also be used to sell Jonny Quest to ABC

Ultimately Hanna-Barbera decided against doing a show based on Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy and requested that Doug Wildey created an original animated series instead. The working title for this original series was The Saga of Chip Baloo, although Doug Wildey wasn't serious about that name. The name "Chip" came from a newspaper strip that he had tried selling titled Stretch Bannon, Chip being Stretch's teenage sidekick. The name "Quest" came from the phone book. Race Bannon's name was drawn from two unsold newspaper comic strips Doug Wildey had created. The surname Bannon came from the aforementioned Stretch Bannon. The forename Race came from another unsold comic strip Doug Wildey had created called Race Dunhill. Doug Wildey designed most of the characters on Jonny Quest, as well as the advanced technology seen on the show. The one character he did not design was the bulldog Bandit, who was designed by animator Richard Bickenbach. As it was, Doug Wildey had wanted Jonny's pet to be a monkey, but was overruled by Hanna-Barbera. For whatever reason, Hanna-Barbera would not give Doug Wildey a "created by" credit on the show. He and Hanna-Barbera finally compromised on a credit that read, "based on idea created by."

As mentioned earlier, Jonny Quest debuted on September 18 1964. Unfortunately, it found itself airing opposite the still somewhat popular Western Rawhide on CBS on Friday night until December. Jonny Quest was then moved to Thursday night where it aired opposite even stronger competition in the form of the hit sitcom The Munsters on CBS and Daniel Boone on NBC. Jonny Quest then ended its original network run after only one season.

While ABC had cancelled Jonny Quest, the show was hardly gone, much less forgotten. Like other primtetime cartoons, it would eventually find its way to Saturday morning. Reruns of Jonny Quest began airing as part of CBS's Saturday morning line-up in the 1967-1968 season. It continued as part of CBS's Saturday morning schedule until the end of the 1969-1970 season, well after many adventure cartoons from the Sixties had been driven off network television by the moral panic over television violence. Jonny Quest would return to Saturday mornings one last time during the 1980-1981 season when it aired on NBC.

Jonny Quest would prove to be popular as a syndicated rerun and aired on local stations for years. By the mid-Eighties it would air as part of the syndication package The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera, which included everything from episodes of The Jetsons to Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. The episodes of Jonny Quest were edited for both time and content for the syndication package. Jonny Quest would later air on such cable channels as the USA Network, TBS, Cartoon Network, and Boomerang.

The continued popularity of Jonny Quest would result in revivals. In 1993 a TV movie, Jonny's Golden Quest, aired on the USA Network. A second TV movie Jonny Quest vs. The Cyber Insects, aired on TNT in 1995. It was on August 26 1996 that The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest debuted simultaneously on Cartoon Network, TBS, and TNT. It aired for two seasons on Cartoon Network . The show was not well-received by many fans of the original Jonny Quest.

Over the years episodes of Jonny Quest have been released on home media. Various episodes were released on VHS  tapes from the Eighties to the Nineties. In 2004 Warner Home Video released the DVD set Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season, which included all 26 episodes, although they were edited for content. In 2019 the entire series was released on Blu-ray. This time they were released uncensored and remastered.

Jonny Quest would be adapted as comic books. In 1964 Gold Key published a single issue of a Johnny Quest comic book, which adapted the TV episode "The Mystery of the Lizard Men." In Britain in the Sixties Jonny Quest fared better in comic books, with Jonny Quest stories being included Huckleberry Hound Weekly from 1965 to 1967. It was in 1986 that Comico began publishing a long-running Jonny Quest title. The first issue featured artwork by Jonny Quest creator Doug Wildey. In Scooby-Doo Team-Up no. 10, published by DC Comics in May 2015, Jonny teamed up with  Scooby-Doo and his gang. Jonny Quest also appeared in DC Comics' limited series Future Quest, published from 2016 to 2017. Future Quest was a crossover between many of Hanna-Barbera's adventure characters, and also included Space Ghost, Birdman, The Herculoids, and so on. Last month Dynamite Entertainment began publishing a new Jonny Quest title.

As might be expected, there are aspects of Jonny Quest that do not hold up today. While Hadji was Jonny's adopted brother and accepted as one of the team, in many respects he was something of a stereotype. He wore a turban with a jewel in it. He knew various mystic arts, such as snake charming, hypnotism, and levitation. While Hadji did have some positive, even progressive traits (he was often smarter than Jonny), the same cannot be said for Dr. Quest's archenemy Dr. Zin, who was a typical, racist Yellow Peril type villain in the mould of Fu Manchu. Sadly, Jonny Quest could be yet more racist with regards to native peoples, who were often portrayed as primitives and even referred to by Race Bannon as "savages" and 'devils." Of course, this was par for the course with regards to the portrayals of many people of colour in the Sixties. It was an era when such stereotypes as Mexican bandidos, East Asian criminal masterminds, superstitious natives, and yet others appeared in everything from cartoons to sitcoms.

Regardless, Jonny Quest was in many ways a pioneering show. It was the first adventure series ever produced by Hanna-Barbera, who had previously focused only on comedy. It was also the first ever adventure cartoon to air on American broadcast network television in prime time. It paved the way for other adventure cartoons from Hanna-Barbera, from Space Ghost to Samon & Goliath, as well as adventure cartoons from other studios, such as Filmation's The New Adventures of Superman.

The fact that Jonny Quest was the first adventure cartoon to air on broadcast network television probably accounts for much of its continued popularity. Indeed, its blend of adventure and science fiction still remains unique to this day. What is more, it had a very distinctive look. Jonny Quest had the look of an adventure comic book or such comic strips as Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates. The futuristic technology of the time, such as hovercraft and jet-packs, also set it apart from other cartoons of the time. To this day Jonny Quest remains Doug Wildey's best known work and one of Hanna-Barbera's most popular shows.