Sins of the Father

One night while channel surfing with my young, impressionable, almost three year old son we ran across "Jonny Quest" on the Bommerrang Channel. As a young boy I LOVED Jonny Quest. I wanted to grow up and be Race Bannon. What male child from the 60's didn't? It had a hip jazzy James Bondish theme song and you knew that at any moment Jonny and his best friend Hadji would grab rifles and start blasting away at the bad guys or the Monster of the Week. This was a boys show - TOTALLY politically incorrect and 100% action-packed.

Because of the cold-war stereotypes and the fairly constant gun-play "Jonny Quest" became one of the main targets of parental watchdog groups such as Action for Children's Television (ACT) along with shows like "Tom and Jerry" and "The Road Runner Hour" which were deemed too violent. I personally think it's OK for kids and even pretty tame compared to the non-stop horrorshow of most modern television. But I also understand why Judy is rightfully horrified as Jackson has now become a Jonny Quest fanatic. One day soon he will burn himself out on the Quest clan and move on to the next big thing in his life ... but until then Daddy gets to relive a cherished part of his childhood with Jonny, Hadji, Bandit, Race Bannon and Dr. Quest.