"Jana of the Jungle" (1978) TV series 1978-1979

Directors:

Ray Patterson
Carl Urbano

Writers:

Herb Armstrong (story) (1978)
Bob Johnson (story) (1978)

Seasons:

unknown

Genre:

Adventure | Animation

Plot:

The adventures of an Amazon jungle maiden and her companions.

Plot Keywords:

Jungle | Amazon

Cast

Ross Martin

(unknown episodes)

Runtime:

30 min (13 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Hanna-Barbera Productions

The short-lived series Jana of the Jungle

"Jana of the Jungle" premiered on September 9, 1978 as part of the second half of the animated "Godzilla Power Hour" that was part of NBC's Saturday Morning schedule. Jana was an essentially female version of Tarzan which was in fact Hanna-Barbera's version of Sheena:Queen of the Jungle,which was a very excellent series even though it was very short-lived. The story consisted of Jana(voiced by B.J. Ward),who was a young woman that traverses with the animals in the rainforests of South America in search of her lost father who vanished in a boating accident when she was a child. Jana,with her long blond hair,wears a dress made of an unspecificied animal skin and a necklace that acts as a boomerang weapon given to her by her father. Besides her animal friends,which includes Ghost,the albino jaguar,and Tiko the coatimundi(the latter more resembled a Water Opossum),follows her everywhere in case there was trouble in the jungle,and in some situations called on her animal friends to be rescued.

Her human counterparts,Dr. Ben Cooper(Michael Bell),and Montaro(Ted Cassidy),who was a descendant of a lost warrior tribe who was armed with a supernatural weapon known as "The Staff of Power",that can cause earthquake shockwaves when it strikes the ground and can also cause lighting strikes to appear out of nowhere. The weapon that Montaro used was to keep evildoers away as well as save others for certain danger. The backdrop for the jungles of South America was the perfect setting for this series with some of the episodes from what I remembered seeing as a kid in the late-1970's when this came on,were quite impressive,even though the animation was a bit awkward at times.

Out of the 13 episodes that this short-lived series produced,"Jana of the Jungle" was one of the few very Hanna-Barbera produced series that hasn't been seen since its original broadcast. The 13 episodes of this series ran from September 9, 1978 until December 2,1978. Questions that concern this series is this:possibly due to licensing arrangements with the company that owns it(the same company that licenses the Godzilla franchise not to mention network censors and the head of children's programming at NBC who had wanted to trim the dress that Jana was wearing and even since this was a kid's show it had to be trim,not to mention the violent content was eliminated from Saturday Morning cartoons during the 1970's)....The last time any of the original 13 episodes were seen was during the early 1980's when USA Network's Cartoon Express pick up this series as part of its weekday morning and afternoon lineup ofother animated shows. And it hasn't been seen since. I wish Cartoon Network or Boomerang would bring this series back. This was a brilliant series that was short-lived during its run as part of NBC's Saturday Morning schedule. When "Jana of the Jungle" was cancelled on December 2,1978,the show expanded to 90 minutes only this time without Jana or her jungle companions...only to be replaced by repeated episodes of "Jonny Quest" and "Hong Kong Phooey" as part of the new lineup.