The Venture Bros.

On-screen title card.

The Venture Bros. is an American adult sci-fi action-adventure comedy television series created by Chris McCulloch (also known as Jackson Publick), and developed by McCulloch and Doc Hammer, and originally produced by Astro Base GO! for Cartoon Network's late-night programming block, Adult Swim. It began on August 7, 2004 and ended on October 7, 2018. 81 episodes were produced across seven seasons, despite being on the air for 15 years, making it the longest Adult Swim series in terms of years. In that time, four specials were also made, and despite the cancellation, a concluding film, The Venture Bros: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, was commissioned for both HBO Max and Adult Swim and was released on July 21, 2023.

A leading scientist, Dr. Rusty Venture, who lives on the successes of his abusive father, violent family bodyguard, Brock Samson, and Dr. Venture's ignorant and innocent-minded teenage sons, Hank and Dean, who are twisted analogies of Doctor Benton Quest, Race Bannon, Jonny Quest, and Hadji. They also had a dog named Scamp, based on Bandit. Doctor Quest's rival, Doctor Zin, also appears, but in the form of Dr. Z.

Since its conception, it has largely been a parody of the boy adventurer tropes, such as Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest, although as the series progressed, McCulloch and Hammer developed the series into its own rich world that wasn't always so dependent on its original premise. During the first season, the world of Jonny Quest was revealed to have been coexisting with The Venture Bros. the whole time. Although, after a couple of appearances, Cartoon Network forbid them from making such specific references due to legal reasons, so the names were altered, rendering the connection more ambiguous. Nevertheless, the guest appearances happen in "Ice Station Impossible," "Twenty Years to Midnight," "The Doctor Is Sin," "Shadowman 9: In the Cradle of Destiny," "The Invisible Hand of Fate," "The Buddy System," "Now Museum-Now You Don't," "The Revenge Society," "Self-Medication," "Pomp and Circuitry", "Bot Seeks Bot," "All This and Gargantua-2," "Hostile Makeover," "Faking Miracles," "Tanks for Nuthin'," "It Happening One Night," "A Party for Tarzan," "The Rorqual Affair," "Arrears in Science," "The High Cost of Loathing," "The Bellicose Proxy," "The Terminus Mandate," "The Forecast Manufacturer," and "The Saphrax Protocol."

Jonny Quest

• "Escape to the House of Mummies Part II:" There's a Jonny Quest-esque lunch box; Brock looks like Race wearing a red shirt.
• "Fallen Arches:" Dr. Venture has a robot spy from the government.
• "The Doctor is Sin:" Jonny and Hadji (called Rajni) cameo. Raj is an office worker for Jonas Venture, Jr.
• "The Buddy System:" Jonny (now called Action Jonny) guest stars. Bandit and Dr. Quest are referred to.
• "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman:" The "Q" insignia on Dr. Qymn's jet is in the same style as the original Jonny Quest logo.
• "Orb:" The Rusty Venture cartoon has a Jonny Quest style intro.

Scooby-Doo

• "Ghosts of the Sargasso:" Dean unmasks a fake ghost pirate as if the latter was a Scooby-Doo villain.
• "Return to Spider-Skull Island:" The opening of the episode begins with the team returning home after having been involved in a ghost case at a cineplex, which involved them wearing ridiculous disguises and tearing off the mask of a criminal.
• "Assassinanny 911:" Kim makes the connection between Fred and Hank by referring to the latter as "the Scooby-Doo kid."
• "Twenty Years to Midnight:" Colonel Gentleman had made a list when he was an old man of toys he would've wanted when he was a kid, but hadn't been invented yet, which includes a Scooby-Doo monster game of some sort.
• "Victor. Echo. November.:" Triana directly points out that Hank Venture dresses like Fred.
• "¡Viva los Muertos!:" The gang is reenvisioned as middle-aged serial killers and radical figures: Fred is Ted (Ted Bundy), Shaggy is Sonny (David "Son of Sam" Berkowitz), Daphne is Patty (Patty Hearst), Velma is Val (Valerie Solanas), and Scooby is Groovy (Harvey, Berkowitz's neighbor's dog), who drive in a van reminiscent of The Mystery Machine. Ted bribes Sonny to get out of the van with pills called "Groovy treats," and there are comical sound effects when the characters run.
• "The Buddy System:" The Pirate Captain offers an activity at Dr. Venture's boy adventurer day camp, which allows a camper to learn how to be, for example, the ghost Miner Forty-Niner to stop meddling kids from getting their gold.
• "Now Museum--Now You Don't:" J.J. described what his brother was wearing as a "Scooby-Doo purple suit."
• "The Lepidopterists:" The Monarch was criticized for using the word "retard," but he wasn't going to say "bungling boobs" or "meddling kids."
• "Self-Medication:" Action Johnny mocks the group after seeing a real snake, that it isn't an old lighthouse keeper in a rubber mask. Also, while on the car ride to Nightin' Ale's, Dr. Venture responds to a discussion on whether or not Daphne and Velma had sex, with him believing Daphne got around, while Velma didn't because she was a lesbian, although he never gets to finish the latter though. Jonny reveals that the herpes he got from her says otherwise.
• "Sphinx Rising:" When Mrs. The Monarch asks the Monarch how exactly they're going to get into the Venture compound even with their disguises, he has no idea and simply responds, "With our Scooby-Dooby-Doo magic masks."

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Super Friends

• "Handsome Random:" Dr. Monarch allows Captain Sunshine to have his powers at night with artificial sun rays, explained by a Super Friends-style narrator.
• "Rapacity in Blue:" The Monarch and Henchman 21 get a Super Friends-style intro when they dress up as the Blue Morpho and Kano.
• "It Happening One Night:" The Doom Factory is a parody of the Legion of Doom.

Thundarr the Barbarian

• "Operation: P.R.O.M.:" Dr. Venture mentions Thundarr, and indirectly Ooka when mentioning a Mok.

Wacky Races

• "The Devil's Grip:" Wacky Races is mentioned, and Dick and Muttley are referred to.