By Craig Fuqua
© 2004
ABC showed a four-minute clip from "Jonny Quest" during its 1964 Fall Preview show
on Sept. 13, 1964, just five days before the pilot, "Mystery of the Lizard Men,"
debuted.
View the clip on YouTube.
The preview show also included clips from "Bewitched," "The Addams Family," "Voyage
to the Bottom of the Sea" and other shows that premiered or returned that season.
The "Jonny Quest" clip is interesting from a fan's perspective because there are
differences between them and the final version that aired on Sept. 18.
The most obvious differences are in the audio, which doesn't have Mike Road's voice
for Race Bannon in the second half and doesn't have Don Messick's Bandit.
Our consulting voice expert, Jeff Adcock, says this, "Race sounds like Marvin Miller
to me, doing one of his higher-pitched voices, similar to some toy commercials I've
heard him VO." Kent Steine, a friend of Doug Wildey's and a fellow artist, said
Doug told him that Joe Barbera performed the Bandit part for the pilot (because
he didn't want to pay someone to go, "Arf, arf") and the part was given to Don Messick
afterward. The Bandit barks on the broadcast version of Lizard Men are obviously
Don Messick's, so I'm betting that we're hearing Joe Barbera's otherwise "lost"
performance as Bandit on the Fall Preview.
Jonny's lines as he's being held down by the Lizard Men were also re-recorded.
Video differences include a number of reshoots, including the pictures you see below.
There's an extra second of video in the preview while Jonny waits for Bandit to
swim to the hydrafoil. Also, as Bandit jumps from the ship, the Lizard Men don't
follow him down immediately.
The preview featured a Vue-Com communicator that is much plainer-looking than the
one broadcast later that week.
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The background and foreground elements for the Lizard Men's ship were retouched
for broadcast with more seaweed painted on. The water backgrounds also had more
seaweed added.
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