The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (TV series)

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This article is about the TV series. For other uses, see The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest.
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
TRA title card.png
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, 1996April 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
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Second title card
CN's TRA title card.png
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 Number Original air date
"The Darkest Fathoms" 1x01 August 26, 1996
"Escape to Questworld" 1x02 August 27, 1996
"In the Realm of the Condor" 1x03 August 28, 1996
"Rage's Burning Wheel" 1x04 August 29, 1996
"Ndovu's Last Journey" 1x05 August 30, 1996
"Manhattan Maneater" 1x06 September 2, 1996
"East of Zanzibar" 1x07 September 3, 1996
"Assault on Questworld" 1x08 September 4, 1996
"Ezekiel Rage" 1x09 September 5, 1996
"Alien in Washington" 1x10 September 6, 1996
"Return of the Anasazi" 1x11 September 9, 1996
"The Alchemist" 1x12 September 10, 1996
"Trouble on the Colorado" 1x13 September 11, 1996
"In the Wake of Mary Celeste" 1x14 September 12, 1996
"Amok" 1x15 September 13, 1996
"Besieged in Paradise" 1x16 September 14, 1996
"The Spectre of the Pine Barrens" 1x17 September 17, 1996
"Heroes" 1x18 September 18, 1996
"The Ballad of Belle Bonnet" 1x19 September 19, 1996
"In the Darkness of the Moon" 1x20 September 23, 1996
"The Secret of the Moai" 1x21 September 24, 1996
"Expedition to Khumbu" 1x22 September 25, 1996
"Ice Will Burn" 1x23 September 26, 1996
"Future Rage" 1x24 October 29, 1996
"Alligators and Okeechobee Vikings" 1x25 November 1, 1996
"To Bardo and Back" 1x26 January 2, 1997
"The Mummies of Malenque" 1x27 September 18, 1996
"Rock of Rages" 1x28 September 28, 1996
"Bloodlines" 1x29 December 13, 1996
"Race Against Danger" 1x30 December 16, 1996
"The Dark Mountain" 1x31 December 17, 1996
"Cyberswitch" 1x32 December 18, 1996
"Undersea Emergency" 1x33 December 19, 1996
"Nemesis" 1x34 December 20, 1996
"DNA Doomsday" 1x35 December 23, 1996
"Ghost Quest" 1x36 December 25, 1996
"Nuclear Netherworld" 1x37 December 26, 1996
"Eclipse" 1x38 December 27, 1996
"Without a Trace" 1x39 December 30, 1996
"Village of the Doomed" 1x40 December 31, 1996
"Dark Sentinel" 1x41 February 10, 1997
"Other Space" 1x42 February 11, 1997
"Digital Doublecross" 1x43 February 12, 1997
"Thoughtscape" 1x44 February 13, 1997
"The Bangalore Falcon" 1x45 February 14, 1997
"Diamonds and Jade" 1x46 March 14, 1997
"The Edge of Yesterday" 1x47 March 17, 1997
"The Haunted Sonata" 1x48 March 18, 1997
"General Winter" 1x49 March 26, 1997
"Night of the Zinja" 1x50 April 14, 1997
"The Robot Spies" 1x51 April 15, 1997
"More Than Zero" 1x52 April 16, 1997

Release

Dates are in order of release:

Cast

Celebrity guests

References