The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (TV series)


 * This article is about the TV series. For other uses, see The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.

The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, referred to on-screen as Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures, is an American animated sci-fi/action-adventure/supernatural TV series produced by Hanna-Barbera (H-B) for TBS, Cartoon Network, and TNT. It ran from 1996 to 1997, airing 52 episodes that technically spanned one season, but is now commercially marketed as two due to major differences between the first 13 episodes and the last 13 episodes. It is the second and currently last series after the original Jonny Quest, which ran from 1964 to 1965, then again from 1986 to 1987.

Jonny Quest, now a full-fledged teenager, continues to follow his father, Dr. Benton Quest, all over the globe to explore the wonders and mysteries that man has yet to uncover himself. In Jonny's exciting adventures, he is also joined by his best friends, Hadji and Jessie, and their family bodyguard, Race Bannon.

Turner staged a massive marketing campaign to promote the series, supported by 33 licensees, in spite of the turbulent production schedules it suffered and never truly recovered from. The series ultimately failed to achieve the strong ratings it was striving for, and after the completed 52 episodes had aired, Cartoon Network pulled the QuestWorld plug for good.

The entire series has been released on DVD.

Casting
The casting department went for actors who had done rarely any voice acting before, or in Jesse Douglas's case, very little acting at all. J.D. Roth and George Segal, who played Jonny and Doctor Quest, respectively, had both done work for the Nickelodeon series ''Aahh! Real Monsters, while Robert Patrick, best known for Terminator 2: Judgement Day, had done voice work for SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron and Captain Planet and the Planeteers''. Patrick was directed to use a good ole' country boy accent.

When the production team shifted halfway through the series, so did the voice cast. Segal and Patrick weren't suitable for the vision the new team was aiming for, which in part was to be faithful to the continuity of the original series. While they could have kept Patrick, they didn't think it was fair to him to suddenly drop the accent.

Having released everyone from their contracts (except for Frank Welker as Bandit and Jeremia Surd), soundalike Quinton Flynn replaced Roth, while the mostly soundalike Jennifer Hale replaced Douglas (who then disappeared into the Hollywood abyss), while past actors, Don Messick, Rob Paulsen, and Granville Van Dusen (now credited as Sonny Van Dusen), reprised their roles of Doctor Quest, Paulsen, and Race, respectively.

It was discovered early on that Messick had become too weak to perform certain aspects required of Doctor Quest, so he was replaced with John De Lancie, who rerecorded all of Messick's lines. Due to a misshape, however, one of Messick's lines is left in "Rock of Rages," when Doctor Quest responds to Race's timely save with, "And not a moment too soon!"

Another actor who had auditioned for Doctor Quest was Robert Foxworth, who made such an impression on the creative team that they had Foxworth replace Van Dusen after six episodes.

Aftermath
Although a commercial and ratings failure, Lance Falk, a writer and artist for the second pod, had planned to write the first episode of the next season, which was tentatively titled "Rachel," named after Jonny's late mother.

Music
The score was composed by Gary Lionelli based on the original theme by Hoyt Curtin. The music director was Bodie Chandler.

The end credits of each episode always touted Kid Rhino's CD that you could buy, although one never existed.

Cast

 * J.D. Roth (season one) and Quinton Flynn (season two) as Jonny Quest
 * Michael Benyaer (season one) and Rob Paulsen (season two) as Hadji Singh
 * Jesse Douglas (season one) and Jennifer Hale (season two) as Jessie Bannon
 * George Segal (season one) and John De Lancie (season two) as Dr. Benton Quest
 * Robert Patrick (season one), Sonny Van Dusen (season two; episodes 1-6), and Robert Foxworth (season two; episodes 7-26) as Race Bannon
 * Frank Welker as Bandit

Celebrity guests

 * Jeffrey Tambor
 * Chick Vennera
 * Mark Hamill
 * Mayim Bialik
 * Irene Bedard
 * Robert Foxworth, who was a guest before he joined the cast
 * Carolyn Seymour
 * Earl Boen
 * Theresa Saldana
 * Julian Sands
 * Michael Dorn
 * Peter Jurasik
 * Brian Tochi
 * Dean Jones
 * Thomas Gibson
 * Ed Asner
 * Jerry Doyle
 * Harv Pressnell
 * Ed Winter
 * Charles Napier
 * Ian Ogilvy
 * Sarah Douglas
 * Dorian Harewood
 * Brock Peters
 * Shari Belafonte
 * Carl Lumbly
 * Lucy Liu
 * June Angela
 * Tasia Valenza
 * Clancy Brown