Jonny Quest [TV Series]  (1964)

Theatrical Release Information:
Jonny Quest [TV Series]

The fourth of Hanna-Barbera's prime time network series, Jonny Quest was also the company's most expensive and ambitious project to date. Eschewing the cartoony comedy of their earlier Flintstones, Top Cat, and Jetsons, Hanna-Barbera served up a blood-and-thunder adventure yarn reminiscent of the best pulp-fiction and Saturday-serial offerings of yore. Jonny Quest was the young, tousel-haired son of widowed research scientist Dr. Benton Quest, whose work required him to journey all over the world. Accompanying Quest on these expeditions were son Jonny; the boy's muscular tutor-bodyguard, Roger "Race" Bannon; his mystical East Indian friend, Hadji; and his pet bulldog, Bandit. Designed and developed by comic artist Doug Wildey, the series offered an exhausting array of perils and antagonists: mutated giant lizards, hideous sea monsters, powerful death rays, atomic-powered volcanoes, slavering ex-Nazis, and master criminals bearing names like "Dr. Zin". Though the animation left much to be desired, the characters, background design, and musical accompaniment (by Hoyt Curtin) was all first-rate throughout. Fourteen-year-old Tim Mathieson (who as Tim Matheson enjoyed a lengthy adult career on such TV series as The West Wing) provided the voice of Jonny, while the other cast members included Mike Road as Race, John Stephenson as Dr. Quest, Danny Bravo as Hadji, and Don Messick as Bandit (Messick took over from Stephenson as Dr. Quest after the first eight episodes). After its inital ABC prime time run, which began September 18, 1964, and ended September 9, 1965, Jonny Quest was rerun on Saturday-morning television -- over all three major networks -- from 1970 through 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide