#jonnyquest

"Jonny Quest"

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So few influences I can remember as a child that made me want to be a storyteller — but one of the few clear standouts was the crowning achievement of Hanna-Barbera’s golden era 1964′s prime time series JONNY QUEST.

Sure I was only 6 years old when it debuted on ABC, but then it lived on thru my tween years on Saturday mornings year after year and I would never miss it. New them all by heart but would watch them every time.

There are only 26 episodes of the original JONNY QUEST but they were so different in style and music and story that TV animation never equaled it again IMHO.

Doug Wildey was hired by Hanna-Barbera to make “a living action adventure comic strip” and Doug was one of the best in his field.  QUEST had lots of production problems and there were lots of clashes during production — but also also the employment of a variety of comic book superstars lending their talent: Alex Toth and other luminaries in the action comics field.

Since even the limited style of TV animation was very costly (about 60,000 dollars an episode which made primetime toons like The Flintstones, Top Cat and The Jetsons the most expensive half hours on TV in the early 60s)  When Hanna-Barbera started Quest it got even more expensive.

Joe Barbera claimed they went half a million out of pocket and over budget (what’s half a million in 1964) to make that first and only season of The Adventures of  Jonny Quest happen on time and on schedule for ABC and Screen Gems.

And sure Quest episodes make it sometimes painfully clear that Hanna-Barbera employed cost cutting measures like assigning Flintstone artists to the very different dramatic photo-realistic art style of Jonny Quest.  Quality problems show up in many episodes and Doug Wildey eventually left Bill and Joe one might assume because of it.  

Wildey called his creation “a failed experiment.”

But boy what they did with that show.  That impossible JONNY QUEST show — the imprint it made on animation for TV and how they dazzled the minds of every kid whoever happened upon the original Jonny Quest....

We know now that the ratings were good and that ABC requested a second season of JONNY QUEST for 1965 that never happened.  Bill and Joe explained the new revised cost for season two (they were not going out of pocket by half a million this time) and ABC said no to the requested budget.

Ironically not long after ABC again requested a new Jonny Quest series where Jonny would be a young Doctor (Young Doctor Quest?) but Hanna-Barbera again said no — anxious to end their association with Screen Gems who still owned partial rights to the Quest show.

58 years ago today that show hit ABC’s primetime line-up.  So happy it did.  Great stories, great action jazz music by HOYT CURTIN which you can now finally buy on CD, and as I said earlier — one of the few cut and clear memories of the stuff that made me want to be a storyteller.

Happy 58th birthday to Jonny, Hadji, Race, Benton, Bandit and all the rest of the cast (meaning Tim Matheson, Danny Bravo, Mike Road, Don Messick, John Stephenson oh and Vic Perrin as Dr. Zin and Henry Corden voicing so many of the Quest villains not to mention so many other talented voice actors) writers like Walter Black and the list goes on and on...

Thanks to all on this special day!