Jonny Quest (1964-1965) – Review

When one thinks of cartoons from the 60s, titles like The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo quickly come to mind. But the show that had me riveted to my television set during that time, was the amazing Jonny Quest, an action series with a kid hero. Created by the legendary duo of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Jonny Quest was a science fiction/adventure series that pitted a young protagonist and his family against various threats, both natural and unnatural in nature, but the level of realism in the animation and incredible dangers that faced our heroes each and every week is what made this particular show really stand out. In the annals of television animation, there has been no show quite like it.

Before Jonny Quest, Hanna-Barbera Productions was mostly known for such shows as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, with their goofy stylized character designs and wacky comedy hijinks, but with Jonny Quest, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera tapped comic book artist Douglas S. Wildey to give them a show grounded with a naturalistic look to the characters — no giant feet or oversized heads, here. Wildey’s heavy ink style was a direct reference to such popular adventure comic strips as Steve Canyon and The Phantom, which gave the show a bold and distinctive look, making Jonny Quest one of the best-looking animated shows ever to be broadcast.

Inspired by radio serials — and originally going to be an adaptation of the radio show Jack Armstrong, All-American Boy before it was decided that an original character would offer them more freedom — Jonny Quest deals with the amazing adventures of eleven-year-old Jonny Quest (Tim Matheson), whose dad, the world-renowned scientist Benton Quest (John Stephenson), takes him on various missions that span the globe. Along with bodyguard and tutor Roger T. “Race” Bannon (Mike Road) and adoptive brother Hadji (Danny Bravo), the “Quest Family” faced countless dangers, from monsters to international spies and terrorists, in their never-ending quest to make the world a better place. This leads us to the big question: “Did Benton Quest understand the meaning of child endangerment?”

How-I-Spent-My-Summer-Vacation essays should not include armed yeti.

In the show’s twenty-six-episode run, Dr. Quest and company tackled international thieves, saboteurs, and monsters running amok — even bloody dinosaurs — all without thinking twice about the danger their two kids would be facing. In the first episode aired, “The Mystery of the Lizard Men,” the government contacts Benton Quest after numerous ships have been lost while passing through the Sargasso Sea. With some quick deducing — aided by Quest’s new computer — they come to the conclusion that some foreign power is using a high-powered laser to destroy the ships. So what does the brilliant Benton Quest decide to do? Why, he simply piles everyone into a boat to cruise around the Sargasso Sea looking for the culprit. Race Bannon had been assigned by the government as a bodyguard/tutor for young Jonny — this after Dr. Quest’s wife died under mysterious circumstances and the government became concerned that if Jonny was ever kidnapped, Quest’s work would be compromised — but Race fails to point out that even the best bodyguard isn’t much use against a laser that explodes boats. Sure, Race tutors Jonny in such subjects as English and Math, and he also gives Judo lessons, but on these outings, Jonny’s odds of surviving should be minimal at best.

Enemy frogmen and almost certain death, now that’s a teaching moment.

One of the more surprising elements of Jonny Quest is the death toll. Sure, Jonny and company escape all of their missions rather unscathed, but not so much for the villains, and what makes this unusual is that violence found on children’s programming at the time was heavily monitored by Broadcast Standards and Practices — this being the same group that would later prevent Batman and Robin from throwing a punch on Superfriends — yet the level of violence on Jonny Quest was simply staggering. Not only do we see Race Bannon choking out henchmen or gunning down numerous assailants, we also get young Jonny and Hadji getting in on the action when it comes to dishing out lethal justice.

Two hardened killers.

Could the show’s short run have been due to parent outrage? That wouldn’t have surprised me, as I could see silly parent’s groups getting all hot and bothered with how intense and scary Jonny Quest got. This was, of course, why as a kid, my love of the show was unbridled. The action found in each and every episode of Jonny Quest was like nothing I’d seen before; basically James Bond for children and the wish-fulfillment element of Jonny Quest was clearly the key to the show’s popularity as dreaming of going on such adventures was pure catnip for ten-year-old boys.

Race Bannon, the coolest babysitter ever.

And just what kind of antagonists could be found tangling with the Quest family? More often than not, Benton Quest would be sent to investigate “strange goings-on” at some far off locale, which would soon be revealed to be the workings of terrorists, international spies or the machinations of the show’s Blofeld-type villain Dr. Zin (Vic Perrin) — a villain who falls into the “yellow peril” trope alongside the likes of Iron Man’s The Mandarin and Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon — but once in a while, the show would throw viewers for a loop by including actual monsters and supernatural threats. Even in episodes like “The Mystery of the Monastery,” where a band of terrorists were using Yeti disguises in an attempt to overthrow the local spiritual/government leader, in the end, it’s revealed that there was an actual abominable snowman lurking about and that it had killed all the terrorists.

Easily one of the scariest encounters would be “The Invisible Monster,” a creature straight out of a 50s science fiction movie, an energy-eating monster that devoured everything in its path. And then we have an ancient mummy wreaking vengeance against tomb raiders in “The Curse of Anubis,” an episode that could easily give one nightmares.

I’d like to see the Scooby gang face off against this mummy.

As amazing and appealing as this adventure show was, it was also clearly a product of its time, as the Quest family tended to travel to far-off exotic places and then punch the locals in the face. As mentioned, the show did have the “yellow peril” threat, yet it got even dodgier than that when it came to racism. In the episode, “Pursuit of the Po-Ho,” Race Bannon warns the natives that he will be returning, calling them “ignorant savages” and “heathen monkeys.” This is something I doubt registered at all to children viewing this show back in the 60s, but watching it now those moments are a little cringe-inducing. That aside, this show does hold up remarkably well — even if some of the “science” is a bit suspect — and it’s the blend of science fiction and fantasy that makes this series so endearing.

General Fong from “The Quetong Missile Mystery” is your typical Quest villain.

Stray Observations:

• Doctor Benton Quest was a typical movie scientist; he was well versed in practically every field from geology to archeology to particle physics and had the ability to design and build numerous mechanical wonders.
• Hadji was a street orphan from India whose sleight-of-hand tricks got them out of several jams, but some of his “magic” was clearly real, such as his ability to levitate friends and enemies alike.
• Jonny’s pet bulldog Bandit could be considered the model for every cartoon dog to come out since the airing of Jonny Quest.
• The episode “Double Danger” introduced us to the femme fatal Jade (Cathy Lewis) a mysterious woman with an obvious history with Race Bannon. That she only appeared in two episodes was a shame as she was vastly more interesting than the likes of Dr. Zin, especially to a young boy.
• In the episode “Turu the Terrible,” a Pteranodon is able to withstand multiple hits from Race Bannon’s bazooka. Finding a living dinosaur is one thing, but its apparent invulnerability is another.
• We get some nice kaiju action in the episode “Terror Island,” when a mad scientist’s sloppy handling of growth bacteria resulted in giant animals running amok.

“Up from the deep, forty fathoms high, breathing fire, it’s Godzilla, Godzilla!”

The adventures of Jonny Quest were short-lived — though a couple of revivals were attempted in the 80s and 90s — and it was quickly overshadowed by Hanna-Barbera’s Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, but for me, it will always remain one of the best-animated shows of all time and without it, we probably wouldn’t have had such successful shows like Batman: The Animated Series, not to mention the excellent send-up of the genre The Venture Bros. So if you can forgive the show’s dated and unflattering portrayal of foreign nationals, you will most likely get a real kick out of Jonny Quest.

I’m still waiting for science to get around to providing me with a jetpack.