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 | |
|---|---|
 Peter Lawrence: Maybe the people who cling to the old Quest and its attitudes are the same people who have lost American the great affection in which it was held worldwide.[1] | |
| Created by | Peter Lawrence Takashi |
| Network | TNT TBS Cartoon Network |
| Production company | Hanna-Barbera |
| Distributor | Warner Bros. Television Distribution |
| Original release | August 26, 1996—April 6, 1997 |
| Run time | 22 minutes |
| Starring | J.D. Roth Michael Benyaer Jesse Douglas George Segal Robert Patrick Frank Welker Quinton Flynn Rob Paulsen John De Lancie Robert Foxworth |
| Producer(s) | David Lipman John Eng Jennifer Blohm Margot McDonough Davis Doi Jennifer Pelphrey |
| Music composed by | Gary Lionelli |
| Writer(s) | Peter Lawrence Michael Ryan Glenn Leopold |
| Director(s) | Davis Doi Peter Lawrence (voices) Kris Zimmerman (voices) |
| Series navigation | |
| ← Previous | Next → |
| Second title card | |
 Cartoon Network taking credit where credit's undue. | |
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 television series produced by Hanna-Barbera (H-B) for TNT, TBS, and perhaps most importantly Cartoon Network. 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. 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, despite 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.
Production
Development
Casting
The casting department went for actors who had rarely done voice acting before, or in Jesse Douglas's case, very little acting. 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.
Filming
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 music 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.
Episodes
| Episode | Original air date |
|---|---|
| 1x01 | August 26, 1996 |
| 1x02 | August 27, 1996 |
| 1x03 | August 28, 1996 |
| 1x04 | August 29, 1996 |
| 1x05 | August 30, 1996 |
| 1x06 | September 2, 1996 |
| 1x07 | September 3, 1996 |
| 1x08 | September 4, 1996 |
| 1x09 | September 5, 1996 |
| 1x10 | September 6, 1996 |
| 1x11 | September 9, 1996 |
| 1x12 | September 10, 1996 |
| 1x13 | September 11, 1996 |
| 1x14 | September 12, 1996 |
1x15
|
September 13, 1996 |
| 1x16 | September 14, 1996 |
| 1x17 | September 17, 1996 |
1x18
|
September 18, 1996 |
| 1x19 | September 19, 1996 |
| 1x20 | September 23, 1996 |
| 1x21 | September 24, 1996 |
| 1x22 | September 25, 1996 |
| 1x23 | September 26, 1996 |
| 1x24 | October 29, 1996 |
| 1x25 | November 1, 1996 |
| 1x26 | January 2, 1997 |
| 1x27 | September 18, 1996 |
| 1x28 | September 28, 1996 |
| 1x29 | December 13, 1996 |
| 1x30 | December 16, 1996 |
| 1x31 | December 17, 1996 |
| 1x32 | December 18, 1996 |
| 1x33 | December 19, 1996 |
1x34
|
December 20, 1996 |
| 1x35 | December 23, 1996 |
| 1x36 | December 25, 1996 |
| 1x37 | December 26, 1996 |
1x38
|
December 27, 1996 |
| 1x39 | December 30, 1996 |
| 1x40 | December 31, 1996 |
| 1x41 | February 10, 1997 |
| 1x42 | February 11, 1997 |
| 1x43 | February 12, 1997 |
| 1x44 | February 13, 1997 |
| 1x45 | February 14, 1997 |
| 1x46 | March 14, 1997 |
| 1x47 | March 17, 1997 |
| 1x48 | March 18, 1997 |
| 1x49 | March 26, 1997 |
| 1x50 | April 14, 1997 |
| 1x51 | April 15, 1997 |
| 1x52 | April 16, 1997 |
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: August 26, 1996 at 7:00 am on TNT; August 26, 1996 at 3:35 pm on TBS; August 26, 1996 at 7:00 pm on Cartoon Network
- United Kingdom and Ireland: September 2, 1996 at 5:30 pm on Cartoon Network; September 20, 1996 at 4:10 pm on BBC One
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
Merchandise
Every episode advertised Kid Rhino's CD and audio cassette tape of music from the series, despite this never happening. Kid Rhino did, however, release a story audio cassette tape called Return of the Anasazi, an adaptation of the episode of the same name, which became available in stores on September 17, 1996.
Home media
On October 8, 1996, Turner Home Entertainment released four VHS tapes, each containing two episodes: The Darkest Fathoms, The Alchemist, Escape to Questworld, and Rage's Burning Wheel. In 1997, these VHSses were also released in Finland, and Sweden, with a third episode added. In Australia, some of these got releases, also with a different second episode, as well as two of their own, under the titles Realm of the Condor and Beseiged in Paradise.
The series made its debut on DVD on June 8, 2004, as Escape to Questworld, which was virtually the same as the VHS with the same name, courtesy of Warner Home Video. During the novelty of the MiniDVD fad, there was also a version of that on April 26, 2005.
Warner Home Video began printing the series on DVD as season sets in 2009, beginning with The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: Season One, Volume One on February 17. Warner Home Video gave up after this, though, and allowed their sister label, Warner Archive Collection, to continue the series, which they did on March 27, 2012, with The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: Season One, Volume 2. Warner Archive Collection then finished with The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest: The Complete Second Season on November 10, 2015.
Reading materials
From 1996 to 1997, Dark Horse Comics published a twelve-issue ongoing series called The Adventures of Jonny Quest. From 1996 to 1998, HarperCollins published eleven books also named The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.
In 1996, Landoll's also published a range of coloring and other activity books.
Toys
In 1996, Galoob released a line of action figures, vehicle playsets, and Micro Machines sets. In 1997, these were all discontinued so Galoob could focus solely on its biggest licensed male-driven toy, "Star Wars." In an ironic twist, Galoob was bought by Hasbro in 1998.
In 1996, Pizza Hut did a kids' meal with Jonny Quest toys.
On September 30, 1996, Upper Deck released trading cards.
SpaghettiOs included holographic cards beneath the labels.
Video games
In August 1996, Virgin Sound and Vision released the computer game Jonny Quest: Cover-Up at Roswell.
Also in 1996, came a portable handheld game from Micro Games of America.
