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#97: Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest Producers Claim Jessie Won't Be A Damsel In Distress, She Ends Up A Damsel In Distress On Very First Episode

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Pictured: A strong female character

When Cartoon Network revived Jonny Quest to be one of the flagship programs on its relatively new (at the time) channel, Turner pulled out all the stops to make The Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest one of the biggest action cartoons of the decade. Millions of dollars were spent on production and promotion, and by all accounts, this would be a damn good looking cartoon. At the same time, Jessie Bannon, daughter of Race Bannon and new companion of Jonny and Hadji, was also being heavily touted as the first major female character in the franchise's history. She'd be tough, she'd be smart, and producers swore up and down in early promotion for the show that she'd be independent, wouldn't need Jonny Quest to save her, and wouldn't end up being a damsel in distress, at least not to the degree that similar characters in other shows were. And actually... they were mostly telling the truth. Jessie did end up being a well developed and mature character, another foil to Jonny in ways that Hadji wasn't, with traits of her dad but also her own unique characteristics to set her apart from the rest of the team. It took a while for her to gain an identity, but she really did emerge as one of the stronger new elements of the show and perhaps the most memorable aspect of The Real Adventures, save for maybe the CGI Questworld (which didn't look great but was okay for mid 90s TV budget CGI). Except... a lot of critics never got the chance to see how good a character Jessie was, because they gave up on her after the show's premiere episode, "The Darkest Fathoms", had her and Dr. Quest captured by pirates and needing to be rescued by Jonny. Sure, Jonny also got captured, but he got to escape on his own, while Jessie had to wait to be saved. Remember, this was the first episode, the character producers touted as independent and not just some damsel, and Jonny had to save her. "The Darkest Fathoms" was actually a pretty good episode, gritty and creepy and a great way to introduce the new show's darker tone, but just the fact that they did the one thing they said they wouldn't do, and it really did give numerous critics a bad first impression of Jessie, and you can see why this ended up on the list. What could they have done instead? Maybe push the episode back a week, air "Escape To Questworld" as the premiere, show off some of that flashy CGI and give Jessie more of a chance to be on equal footing with Jonny. Or, if you really want "The Darkest Fathoms" as your premiere and you anticipate Jessie looking weak, maybe have her and Jonny get captured together and help each other escape? Good way to establish their chemistry early on. But, no... Jessie is a damsel in the premiere, the episode critics will base their opinion of the show on. Real Adventures Of Jonny Quest ultimately did well, though it ended up canceled after two seasons without getting a real finale, and I can't help but wonder if perhaps it could've done just well enough to get season three had it not been for that self-inflicted own goal that put off critics on both the show and Jessie before the premiere even got a chance to air.