Doug Wildey created this 1964 animated
Adventure Series, the first produced by
Hanna-Barbera and the first to use realistically drawn human characters in
Science Fiction or adventure settings. The series aired in prime time on ABC-TV.
The young hero Jonny traveled the world with his father, Dr. Benton Quest; Roger “Race” Bannon, a friend and bodyguard of Dr. Quest; Hadji, Jonny’s adopted brother from India, and Bandit, the family dog. According to one
Made For TV Movie probably 1993’s
Jonny’s Golden Quest, Jonny’s mother, Rachel, died before the series began.
A second
Jonny Quest series was syndicated in 1986-87, with two new characters: Jessie Bradshaw, whose father was a colleague of Dr. Quest, and Hard Rock, a man made of living stone.
Cartoon Network made some changes to the format when it debuted
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest in 1996. New characters included Race Bannon’s daughter, Jessie (not the same character as Jessie Bradshaw), and the recurring villains Jeremiah Surd and Ezekiel Rage, along with
the twin daughters of Dr. Zin (who, of course, was from the original series). Also, the characters had access to Questworld, a
virtual reality realm represented in most episodes by 3-D computer animation. According to this
Wikipedia article
, development began in 1992, but the series went through three production teams over the next four years.
A
Live Action Adaptation of
Jonny Quest was announced in August 2007. It has yet to be seen.
This series provides examples of:
- Adventure Series
- Air Vent Escape: Jonny in TOS episode "Mystery of the Lizard Men"
- All Animals Are Dogs: TOS episode “Turu The Terrible” had the Quests encounter a trained attack pteranodon.
- Animated Series
- Aside Glance: Bandit winks at the audience in TOS episode “Arctic Splashdown.”
- Badass Family: Dr. Quest and son, Race and daughter — and let’s not forget Hadji.
- Big Bad: Dr. Zin. In Real Adventures, Jeremiah Surd shares the slot.
- Big No: Von Dueffel in TOS episode “The Devil’s Tower.”
- Canon Dis Continuity: Lance Falk, a writer on Real Adventures, has argued fervently against the canonicity of the 1980’s series and movies.
- Actually, it was official policy for the writers of the second season of TRS that everything that came between them and the original series was not canon. This troper, who has seen all of it, feels this is a very Good Idea.
- Character Title
- Chased By Angry Natives: In the original series’ opening, no less, as well as “Pursuit of the Po-Ho”
- Chekhovs Gun: Multiple times in TOS episodes.
- Cyberspace: Quest World
- Deconstructive Parody: This is the basis for the Venture Brothers series by Adult Swim. Jonny actually shows up as a drug-addled, burned-out middle-aged man, raging against his negligent father and running scared from old foe, Dr. Zin.
- Which is odd when you consider that Dr. Quest never intentionally took the kids into dangerous situations in the old show, it was more the result a visit to someplace snowballing into something because some evil faction was operating in the area.
- The Doctor Dolittle: White Feather in the TOS episode "Werewolf of the Timberland".
- Double Dont Know: TOS episode “The Robot Spy”
- The Dragon: Zin’s Robot Spy; Dr. Ashida’s Sumi.
- In Real Adventures, Dr. Zin’s twin daughters follow this trope. The other major villain, Dr. Surd, has Julia, his loyal assistant/lover/bodyguard.
- Dragon Lady: “Jezebel” Jade is an exceptionally rare Good variant, combined with mild Action Girl — she even wears a qipao in TOS episode “Terror Island.”
- Dropped A Bridge On Him: The new villains in Real Adventures were pointedly written out by devotees of the original series and Dr. Zin, although they were nice enough to send them off with a bang.
- Ear Worm: Don’t lie – every time you heard that big band opening theme, you used your hands to drum along with it on the nearest flat surface.
- Evil Detecting Dog: Bandit and Jose in TOS episode “Skull and Double Crossbones”.
- Evil Laugh: Dr. Zin in TOS episode “The Robot Spy”
- Evil Minions: Zin has them by the bushel.
- Ethnic Scrappy: Charlie, the Chinese cook in TOS episode “The Sea Haunt,” comes uncomfortably close.
- Executive Meddling
- Family Unfriendly Death: What set it apart from other cartoons in its time. It’s even more noticeable in Real Adventures.
- Fate Worse Than Death: Surd in Real Adventures. He's trapped in his powerchair, even in Questworld, unable to move on his own.
- Fish People: The sea monster in TOS episode “The Sea Haunt”
- Frickin Laser Beams: TOS episode “Mystery of the Lizard Men”
- Gone Horribly Wrong: TOS episode “The Invisible Monster”
- The Guards Must Be Crazy
- Heroes Want Redheads: Jessie Bannon
- Hey Its That Voice: Ezekiel Rage being voiced by Angelica Pickle’s dad makes his Start Of Darkness a bit more disturbing.
- Ho Yay: Dr. Quest and Race. Watching the cartoons gives you every reason to believe they're a couple.
- Hoist By His Own Petard: Multiple TOS episodes
- Iconic Characters
- Instant Sedation: TOS episodes “The Quetong Missile Mystery” and “Pirates from Below”, both times with a tranquilizer dart rifle.
- Invisible Monsters: TOS episode “The Invisible Monster”, strangely enough
- I Surrender Suckers: Race Bannon to some guards in TOS episode “Terror Island”. He then gives them a live grenade as a present.
- Karmic Death: Multiple TOS episodes.
- Medium Blending: Quest World
- Missing Mom: Jonny and Hadji. Jessie’s mom is a regular.
- The first episode states that Jonny’s mom died — from what is unknown. An episode in “Real Adventures” explains Hadji’s family. Short answer: he’s actually a prince who was smuggled out of his homeland as an infant due to his traitorous uncle and cousin. Said cousin kills the uncle in a flashback, and said cousin gets his, allowing Hadji to take his birthright, which he shares with his mother.
- Also, the movie that connected the old series with the Real Adventures revealed that Dr. Zin killed Jonny’s mom.
- Non Human Sidekick: Bandit
- Now Do It Again Backwards: In TOS episode "The Invisible Monster", Dr. Quest destroys the title creature by reversing the process by which it was created.
- Pistol Whipping: Occurs in TOS episodes "The Quetong Missile Mystery" and "Mystery of the Lizard Men".
- Powder Trail
- Real After All: The Yeti in TOS episode “Monster in the Monastery”
- Red Scare
- Religion Of Evil: “So it is written... IN THE BOOK OF RAGE!!”
- Rope Bridge: In TOS episode “The Devil’s Tower”.
- Sim Sim Salabim: The Trope Namer
- Spider Tank: The title device in TOS episode “The Robot Spy”.
- Stealth Hi Bye: White Feather in the TOS episode "Werewolf of the Timberland".
- Stun Guns: The antennae of “The Robot Spy”
- Tap On The Head: Several TOS episodes.
- Team Pet: Bandit
- This Cannot Be: Notably, Kareem in TOS episode “The Curse of Anubis.”
- Timmy In A Well: Bandit and Superintendent Owens in TOS episode “Skull and Double Crossbones”.
- Twenty Minutes Into The Future: It’s still set in the present day, but there is futuristic tech, like robots and personal hovercraft, not to mention prototypes like the Parapower Ray Gun
- Visible Invisibility: “The Invisible Monster” left burning…er…blob-prints, and blew up things in its path, so there was a clear delineation of where it had been. How Dr. Quest and Race were able to make it visible by dropping paint balloons onto it is never explained.
- Walking The Earth
- Yellow Peril: Dr. Zin... and Dr. Ashida, and General Fong, and Chu Sing Ling — heck, TOS lived on this trope.
