Jonny Quest/Broadcasting
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Johnny Quest first aired on September 18, 1964 on the ABC network, and was an almost instant success, both critically and ratings-wise. It was canceled after one season, not because of poor ratings, but because each episode of the show went over budget. Notably more realistic and detailed than previous Hanna-Barbera prime time programs such as The Flintstones and The Jetsons, Johnny Quest required an attention to detail that ABC was unable to afford. Since its initial run on ABC, it has been shown in re-runs on NBC and CBS as well as various incarnations on cable.
The original series, which had begun regularly on the Cartoon Network in 1993, was taken off the air in 1996 after a heavily promoted marathon, to make way for a new, revised Quest series.
[edit] Saturday morning reruns and controversy
Reruns of the show were broadcast on various networks’ Saturday morning lineups beginning in 1967. On Saturday morning, Jonny Quest became one of the main targets of parental watchdog groups such as Action for Children's Television (ACT). With its multiple on-screen deaths, murder attempts, uses of firearms and deadly weapons, and tense moments, Jonny Quest was decried as the epitome of what was wrong with Saturday morning cartoons, regardless of the fact that it indeed was not an original Saturday morning cartoon. The reruns were taken off the air in 1972, but returned to Saturday morning, in edited form, periodically afterwards.
[edit] The New Adventures of Johnny Quest
By the mid-1980s, the five minutes shorter edited episodes of Johnny Quest were part of the syndication package The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera. In 1986 thirteen new Johnny Quest episodes were produced to accompany the originals in the Funtastic World programming block. These episodes, though referred to simply as Johnny Quest on their title cards, were sometimes called The New Adventures of Johnny Quest.
[edit] The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest
Arter its original airing (1996-1997), The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest was rerun in the late 1990s on Cartoon Network, due to popular demand. The show was part of the original Toonami rotation when the block launched on March 17, 1997 and aired consistently on Toonami until September 24, 1999. Re-runs of the "classic-era" Jonny Quest can still be seen occasionally on Cartoon Network’s Boomerang channel, while the Real Adventures episodes air in syndication (courtesy of The Program Exchange). The original 1960s run of the series was released to DVD as Jonny Quest: The Complete First Season in 2004.
