The Mystery of the Lizard Men

The Mystery of the Lizard Men
Premiere date	October 2, 1964
Writer(s)	Joseph Barbera William Hanna Douglas Wildey Alex Lovy
Director(s)	William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
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Title card
File:JQ (1964) 101 title card.png

"The Mystery of the Lizard Men" is the first episode of Jonny Quest season one. It aired on October 2, 1964 on ABC. It was written by Joseph Barbera, William Hanna, Douglas Wildey, and Alex Lovy, and produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, the co-founders of Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Ships are vanishing in the Sargasso Sea, which is chalked up to mysterious lizard-like men and red flashing lights, sending Dr. Quest and his family to investigate.

Memorable quotes

Race: Well, that's one down, forty to go.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Captain	John Stephenson
Helmsman	Unavailable
Miguel	Vic Perrin
Madrina	Nestor Paiva
Skipper	Doug Young
Junior	Vic Perrin
Corvin	Doug Young
Roberts	Vic Perrin
Mrs. Quest
Pilot	Unknown
Jonny Quest	Tim Matthieson
Bandit	Don Messick
Race Bannon	Mike Road
Dr. Benton Quest	John Stephenson
Christopher Columbus
Lizard Man #1	Nestor Paiva
Lizard Man #2	Doug Young
Lizard Men chief	Vic Perrin
Lookout	Don Messick
Gunner	Unknown

Organizations

• Intelligence One

Locations

• Atlantic Ocean
  • Sargasso Sea
• United States
  • Florida
    • Palm Key
      • Quest Compound
• France (indirectly)
  • French Riveria (mentioned)
• The Moon (mentioned)

Objects

• Sargasso weed
• File 0-37
• UNICE
• Davy Jones' Locker (mentioned)

Vehicles

• F-Tralina
• Hydrofoil
• Lizard Men's submarine
• Man to the Moon rocket

Behind the scenes

• The agency that Race works for isn't named until "Riddle of the Gold".
• The bad guys are described as looking like frogs and lizards. They're never explicitly referred to as Lizard Men.
• In real-life, the first Moon landing didn't occur until July 20, 1969.
• Although Wildey is credited as Douglas for being a writer, he's credited as Doug for being the supervising art director and layout artist.

Errors

• In close-ups of Dr. Quest being on the boat, his raincoat is replaced with his lab coat.
• When Jonny spots the frogman he knocked out with the air vent grille, Jonny's sclerae are flesh.
• At the end of the episode, when Race tries to recall what they were doing before the mission, the back of Dr. Quest is shown and he's wearing his raincoat even though at this point, he had gone back to his lab coat.

Everlasting influence

Lizard Men pop up throughout the 2000s TV series Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law, sometimes even being named.

The episode is lampooned in The Venture Bros. episode "Ghosts of the Sargasso".

Marketing and promotion

In September 1964, a month before the episode's premiere, Gold Key Comics published an adaptation. It was called Issue #1, although it remained the only one.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning