Jonny Quest

Original Air Date: 1964-1965 & 1986-1987

Network: ABC

Originally airing for just one 26-episode season in 1964-65, this iconic kids' adventure show thrived in syndicated reruns on Saturday mornings for decades, before coming back for one new season in 1986. The animation was rather advanced for its time, especially for a weekly series, depicting events and sequences one would normally have seen in a live-action show. Present-day cartoon viewers take such things as realistic movements and big action sequences for granted, but for a traditional hand-drawn series the L.A.-based animators did an extraordinary job fitting in a high amount of action and story into each episode.

Watching an episode today, it seems almost laughable -- the short, abbreviated dialogue, the use of cycling animations and showing reaction shots by the characters instead of always what's going on -- but one can still be impressed that so much story was able to be told each week, providing a rich adventure story for kids of all ages.