mtdna says:

I really enjoy Gweek, especially your recommendations section. I’d like to offer a recommendation of my own, the Jonny Quest TV show. Jonny Quest was a half-hour prime time cartoon that came out in the early ‘60s, produced by Hanna-Barbera. Unfortunately, like so many great shows, it ran for just one season, but you can see them all in a DVD box set, iTunes, or Amazon Instant Video.

Jonny Quest is about the adventures of an 11 year old boy (Jonny), who travels around the world with his father, Dr. Benton Quest, a top government scientist assigned to solve action mysteries and defuse threats perpetrated by the evil Dr. Zin. The show is aimed at boys Jonny’s age, and it has the whole package: high-tech gadgets, villains, guns, ferocious animals, and even seductresses. There are great sidekicks too -- Dr. Quest’s commando bodyguard, Race Bannon, Jonny’s Indian friend Hadji, and their feisty bulldog Bandit. Each episode takes the Quest crew somewhere exotic and exciting, from the Egyptian pyramids to the South American Andes and even out to sea. They face every challenge imaginable: flying robots, pirates, and giant genetically engineered lizards. Naturally the Quests and their team always come out victorious and unscathed.

The show has some highlights that aren’t part of the story lines, as well. For one thing, the political incorrectness of the early 1960s really shines through. The Quests unapologetically gun down bad guys, especially troublesome natives and commies, along with any menacing animals they run into. Don’t worry though, it’s so over-the-top it’s funny rather than offensive. And the animation is wonderful. It’s bold, sharply defined, and quite realistic, bringing you into the action much more than typical kids’ style cartoons of the time, flying you by the seat of your pants.

Any aficionado of Gweek is sure to enjoy this series.

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

Mark Frauenfelder is the founder of Boing Boing and the editor-in-chief of MAKE and Cool Tools. Twitter: @frauenfelder. Come and hear Mark speak at the ALA conference in Chicago on July 1.

TAGS: cartoons family Kids

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http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1439741506 Lenny Kanehl

And don’t forget, probably the hippest Saturday morning theme music ever!
- http://twitter.com/nonofyrpenguins NoneofYourPenguins
  
  Is true! Probably not equalled until Cowboy Bebop’s theme song, “Tank.”
  - http://www.facebook.com/joel.emmett Joel Emmett
    
    THEME SONG FACE-OFF!
    
    Jonny Quest (toy-mation version): http://youtu.be/AYoXWZaArHI
    
    Cowboy Bebop’s “Tank!” (live version): http://youtu.be/v-TAxm00jOg
voiceinthedistance

Jonny Quest was a poor imitation of Clutch Cargo. In Jonny Quest, the mouths don’t even look superimposed.

PS: Paddlefoot over Bandit, hands down!
- beepbeep
  
  Good God! Clutch Cargo was totally creepy. I think that was its main and only appeal for me. I liked watching those disturbing mouths move all around the faces. But that is the ONLY thing I can remember about it.
  - Halloween_Jack
    
    Having seen that short bit in Pulp Fiction where Butch is watching it before getting the gold watch, I have absolutely no desire to see any more of it.
http://treehugger.com Lloyd Alter

i was 12 when it came out, I adored Johnny Quest, my favourite show!
http://twitter.com/thehumanops the human operators

Ummm… not sure this show only ran for one season. I think the available DVD set is only one season. Either way, you should also mention that this show is largely the basis for The Venture Bros, one of the greatest shows of the modern animation era, and in fact the older drug-addicted Jonny Quest is a recurring character on Venture Bros.
- Mark_Frauenfelder
  
  It ran for one season, unless you want to count the execrable 1986 and 1990s episodes.
  - http://twitter.com/digitalArtform Joseph Francis
    
    You think THOSE are bad? I want to do a feature film with Jack Black as Jonny and Jeff Goldblum as Hadji!
    - beepbeep
      
      Uh-uh. Sorry. Justin Bieber IS fucking Johnny Quest!!!!!!!!!! [But putting Jeff Goldblum next to him would be hysterically funny]
    - Quiche de Resistance
      
      Goldblum for Hadji, but Walken as Johnny.
  - http://twitter.com/nonofyrpenguins NoneofYourPenguins
    
    Amen!
http://twitter.com/Gorneaux Douglas Gorney

JQ only ran for one season??? Gobsmacked. It was such an abiding part of my childhood, sustaining me through years of Saturday mornings! Coolest one was when they nailed the invisible monster after blasting it with paint guns to find out where it was. Definitely the inspiration for The Venture Brothers.
- http://twitter.com/JustAdComics JustAdComics
  
  I absolutely LOVE that episode! I still break out into sweat at the scene where Johnny’s jet pack malfunctions as the invisible monster “chuffs” closer and closer…
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  Same principle as Thunderbirds, most people imagine it as this huge thing, but there were only a handful of episodes, and another handful of feature length ones.
oschene

The music was by Hoyt Curtin — brilliant stuff.
http://ifionlyhad.blogspot.com/2009/05/hoyt-curtin-incidental-music-from.html
cyclicredundancy

I used to be in love with all things JQ. First the original 70s series, then the hour long golden adventures of JQ (which I have only seen once), and finally The real adventures with Quest world and the new music: http://youtu.be/0_uYJySWlco

But I think I still like the music from the original series the best.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_SVV4BXZ3NUPXI34WH3EERSF64Q Seriously
  
  It was actually from the sixties. I am in my forties and we watched it as reruns in the seventies. Its an awesome show. My favorite is the gargoyle episode.
delfinclutch

And let’s not forget the other homage, Toby Danger.

JUST LET ME THROW A BARREL AT IT!
- http://theladyfingers.blogspot.com/ Ladyfingers
  
  ”Take that, you heathen monkeys!”
VibroCount

In 1947, a series of science/electronic adventure books began, somewhat similar to the Hardy Boys. Beginning with “The Rocket’s Shadow” more than 20 books in the Rick Blaine series began, running to the late 1960s. At least two Jonny Quest episodes seem directly lifted from Rick Blaine novels, and the entire setup, including characters, is quite similar. If you enjoy JQ, you might have fun seeking out Rick Blaine books.
- ROSSINDETROIT
  
  Do you mean the Rick Brant Science Adventures by ‘John Blaine’?
  
  ETA; yes. The Rocket’s Shadow was a Rick Brant Science Adventure by John Blaine. I read that and several others. They were awesome and made me the teenage tinkerer that grew up into an adult who always has a tool in his hand.
- AviSolomon
  
  The original “Three Investigators” series by Robert Arthur was also an inspiration to budding tinkerers throughout the globe:http://threeinvestigatorsbooks.homestead.com/Talking_Skull_Manuscript.html
Sean Lally

My favorite show as a kid. Our current dog was named Bandit by the kids.
Vanwall Green

The Quest Documentary – essential viewing:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=AF3BF9A910570004
- mtdna
  
  Whoa – that is extremely cool. Everyone make sure to check it out.
Vanwall Green

And a shout out is required for Doug Wildey, the great comic artist who designed the Quest show.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

I remember, as a little kid, eagerly watching every episode in hopes of seeing the one with the sequences from the credits.

It turns out that these (one shows Johnny flying some kind of hover-platform) were trial footage made for the sales pitch.
- bobkat
  
  I did the same thing!
- Mitchell Glaser
  
  My favorite episode is the one with the spider robot, part of which was in the opening credits.
http://twitter.com/DreAmeoba Gordon Klock

I remember having weird nightmares about mummies, invisible cyclops-ghosts,& Lovecraftian frog-monsters all inspired by this show…(it was one of my favorites)
p.s. go team Venture!
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

the Jonny Quest theme has a well-earned place in the pantheon of great trombone lines.

It ran for only one year in prime time but ran almost every year after in re-runs on Saturdays mornings which was how I encountered it. It persisted until, I guess, too much of it didn’t meet evolving children’s TV standards.

Watching it today I notice all the economies the animation had to make to get it done, but i still enjoy it.

Aiieeeee!
planettom

In 2008 Hallmark did this pretty cool Jonny Quest Christmas ornament:
http://www.amazon.com/2008-Hallmark-Ornament-Jonny-Quest/dp/B001CP35KE
With Jonny wearing a jetpack fighting off a pterodactyl.
A month after Christmas, I found 4 of them remaindered in Hallmark for a buck each.
Gave two to friends of mine who were JONNY QUEST fans, kept two more to use as geocache trinkets or whatever. Which I haven’t used, they’re still around here someplace.

But they’re still only going for $4 on Amazon…
- mtdna
  
  Christmas ornament?! Try every day ornament!
http://twitter.com/thebetterwings Better Wings

Just had to pipe in… the music was SPECTACULAR. I was all of 9 years old in ’64, and I knew the score was really something special.

Some of the episodes scared the living bejeesus out of me. The invisible cyclops they revealed by covering with paint… full shivers-up-the-spine terror.

It was very cosmopolitan… Hadji, an extremely rare non-white, non-Western character, was essentially just a cool kid. No different, just another one of the gang. Very good lesson at an early age.
- Halloween_Jack
  
  Hadji, an extremely rare non-white, non-Western character, was essentially just a cool kid. No different, just another one of the gang. Very good lesson at an early age.
  
  This. I’m sure that there must have been a few non-white characters that were part of a popular cartoon series’ main cast between Jonny Quest and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head.
- http://pulse.yahoo.com/_D57E5VEGVGP3SEDLAZMXJPMWPI Shanghai
  
  Very true about Hadji!
  
  JQ had to be the first kids’ cartoon to attempt to realistically depict such a wide range of international characters – Arabs, Chinese, Japanese, Latinos, Indians, Pacific Islanders, natives of the Americas, etc. A Norwegian dwarf.
  
  And yes, the jazzy score and incidental music were fantastic!
Stasw

The battle between life partners Dr Benton Quest and Race Bannon for custody of Jonny and Hadji was movingly presented in Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law. Strangely this was never actually referred to in the original series.
mariancisar

“it’s so over-the-top it’s funny rather than offensive”
Is that the barometer of offensive these days?
crummett

I prefer the post-modern adventures of The Venture Brothers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venture_Bros.
http://dougsamu.wordpress.com doug rogers

Yes… I was eleven years old….
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ZSD6KP77ED4UEAJAGZAMUGAXUI rainsingin

…as a couple commenters have already mentioned, the episode with the invisible monster was one of my favorites. it wasn’t until years later that i realized it was an “homage” to what became one of my favorite movies: forbidden planet. cheers!
http://twitter.com/smknghrtdesigns SmokingHeartDesigns

That spider dealy with the laser was nuts.
- http://twitter.com/JustAdComics JustAdComics
  
  Yeah … Loved how it attacked that military base and took out the one guard by putting the sucker-foot on his forehead. Creepy!
http://profiles.google.com/gtbear gt bear

Johnny Quest was one of the cartoons shown on the banana splits show. It must have been early 70s; during the 60s our parents didnt like us watching the UHF stations for some reason. When boingboing ran a trailer for kick-ass featuring hit-girl slaying bad guys to the tune of the dickie’s version of the banana splits theme, i became a chloe moretz fan. i hear there’s going to be a kick-ass II.
- arbitrary aardvark
Mark Neumayer

Good memories from the old days when cartoons could not be watched at the drop of a hat. And the music is phenomenal. If I hadn’t lost my hearing I would go buy it right now. (Mentally starting up the brass section in my head – buh-bup-bup-bah-buh-bah!)
When I reached high school age my friends and I used to wonder why Johny looks more like Race than his own “father.”
http://www.facebook.com/cathuffman Juanita Huffman

I watched Johnny faithfully, I was his girlfriend in my mind. I was only a little girl too. I watched The Venture Brothers just for the memories of Johnny & Hadji..
beepbeep

I was totally in lust with Johnny. And I hadn’t even quite hit puberty. One season? Really?? And it was a prime time show too, as I recall, something like 6:30 pm central, back before “family time” or whatever the fuck it was that completely killed early prime time.
Jay Wherley

Regarding the political correctness – note the edits made to episodes on this DVD in that regard. See this review:
http://www.amazon.com/review/R1U6RNO234CJPN/ref=cm_cd_pg_next?ie=UTF8&asin=B0001MZ7J6&cdForum=Fx2P8Q8VH21T0KX&cdPage=4&cdThread=Tx393IMVGBPKMIU&store=movies-tv#wasThisHelpful
…
“All the while Race’s mouth is moving but no words come out!”
- sdnative1958
  
  WOW! Thank you for that link – I’ll NEVER buy this now. I’ll remain happy with my childhood memories of this great cartoon intact.
- Quiche de Resistance
  
  Are you claiming that the unedited show was “Race”-ist?
  - Quiche de Resistance
    
    But even if it is, I think it is wrong to put a Bann on such language.
    - Quiche de Resistance
      
      Plus, I heard it wasn’t anything actually racist, just that he had recently had occasion to meet Hadji’s mom, and he described her as “down for anything, a real freak. Prime “Race”-bait!”
xkot

Not only are there a couple of bowdlerized moments on this DVD set, but for some unknown reason, they used the same end credits at the end of every episode on the set, despite each episode having distinct credits; also unfortunately, they used the only version that didn’t have creator Doug Wildey’s stylized signature. That said, the episodes are brilliant in their own special way. I’m shocked that Hollywood hasn’t already made a horrible live action adaptation of this property. Not that I want them to; just surprised they haven’t.
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

Dr. Quest and Race Bannon with jetpacks, flying around and fighting a shrieking giant pterodactyl with a bazooka represents to me the absolute pinnacle of awesomeness during my boyhood.

It’s still the most amount of WIN ever accumulated in a single scene in any media.
Dennis Putnam

I’d like to add a recommendation for the 1980′s comic book series from Comico, if you can find it in some obscure corner of the internet. Great art and stories, very true to the spirit of the TV show.
http://twitter.com/nonofyrpenguins NoneofYourPenguins

Dayum! Nobody’s mentioned JADE!!! What about Jade, Race’s “friend”? She suddenly shows up the day Dr. Zin installs an impostor for Race (even bitch-slapped him for not holding his fork and knife like an American!). Jonny and Hadji have to piece together clues that Race left behind, but Jade knows in an instant that something is wrong.

Later, when Jade states she knew all along, the boys ask how. All she says is something like, “It’s just one of those things that women know.” I was somewhere between 5 and 9 yrs/old at the time. To this day, I still wonder if that episode might have prematurely kickstarted my hormones.
Culturedropout

My favorite memory of Jonny Quest was when Race Bannon was voted Mother of the Year by fans of the Cartoon Network. And of course the episode where Jonny and Hadji discover the world’s greatest lubricant…
Historybuff

Check out the Stop Motion version of the opening credits made by Roger Evans

http://youtu.be/AYoXWZaArHI

Gweekly goodness: Jonny Quest (1964)

Read more in Family at Boing Boing

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