Jana of the Jungle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Jana of the Jungle |
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| Genre | Adventure Animation |
| Created by | Doug Wildey |
| Directed by | Ray Patterson Carl Urbano |
| Voices of | B.J. Ward Michael Bell Ted Cassidy |
| Theme music composer | Hoyt Curtin |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Hanna Joseph Barbera |
| Producer(s) | Doug Wildey |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Hanna-Barbera Productions |
| Distributor | Taft Broadcasting |
| Release | |
| Original network | NBC |
| Picture format | Color |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | September 9 – December 2, 1978 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | The Godzilla Power Hour |
Jana of the Jungle is an American animated television series created by comic strip artist Doug Wildey and produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions which aired on NBC from September 9 to December 2, 1978. It was originally broadcast as a half-hour segment of The Godzilla Power Hour (1978) and its later expanded form The Godzilla Super 90 (1978–79).
Overview
Jana (voiced by B.J. Ward) is essentially a female version of Tarzan who traveled to the rain forests of South America in search of her lost father (whom she never finds). Her father vanished in a boating accident when she was still a child, but the introduction shows that he survived. She has long blonde hair, wears a dress made of unspecified animal skin and a necklace which doubles as a throwable weapon and makes a high-pitched resonating sound when thrown (somewhat similar to the chakram that would be the weapon of choice for the later, live-action Xena, Warrior Princess) given to her by her father before the boating accident. She also has a yell that is a slightly altered version of Tarzan’s which she uses to call many types of animals.
Besides her animal friends (Ghost, a sleek white jaguar and Tico, a pesky water opossum), Jana has two human friends: Dr. Ben Cooper (voiced by Michael Bell), a young wildlife biologist who maintained the preserve started by Jana's father and helped in her continuing search for her father; and Montaro (voiced by Ted Cassidy), a descendant of a lost warrior tribe armed with a supernatural weapon known as the Staff of Power that can cause earthquake shockwaves when it strikes the ground. Montaro rescued Jana from the boating accident in which her father disappeared.
These are some of the jungle animals Jana called to, many for help:
Episodes
| Nº | Episode Title & Synopsis | Airdate | |
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| 1 | "Countdown" | September 9, 1978 | |
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A military plane crashes in the jungle and its cargo, a powerful bomb, falls into the hands of an isolated tribe. Jana must deal with the both the bomb, which is counting down, and an active volcano.
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| 2 | "The Golden Idol of the Gorgas" | September 16, 1978 | |
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Two people come to the jungle and ask Jana for help claiming their son is lost in dangerous territory.
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| 3 | "Katuchi Danger" | September 23, 1978 | |
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A plane carrying medical supplies crashes in the "valley of the lost" where legend says live the Katuchi, a dangerous tribe of ape-men.
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| 4 | "Race for Life" | September 30, 1978 | |
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Ben is forcibly captured by the Amazoni, a tribe of giant female warriors.
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| 5 | "The Cordillera Volcano" | October 7, 1978 | |
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When a volcano erupts, Jana has to lead endangered miners to safety.
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| 6 | "The Animal Snatchers" | October 14, 1978 | |
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A film crew arrives in the Amazon to make a movie about Jana and her friends, but they are actually poachers who want to capture her white jaguar, Ghost.
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| 7 | "The Renegade" | October 21, 1978 | |
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Jana suspects there may be another white jaguar loose in the jungle when Ghost is accused of attacking people and animals for no reason.
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| 8 | "Rogue Elephant" | October 28, 1978 | |
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A train wreck frees a zoo elephant into the jungle. Jana must protect the people of a local village from the frightened animal, and it from them.
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| 9 | "The Prisoner" | November 4, 1978 | |
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Jana enters a native village, and meets a man who just might be her missing father.
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| 10 | "The Invaders" | November 11, 1978 | |
| 11 | "Dangerous Cargo" | November 18, 1978 | |
| 12 | "The Sting of the Tarantula" | November 25, 1978 | |
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Montaro is stung by a tarantula and, delirious from his fever, he believes Jana and Ben are his enemies.
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| 13 | "Suspicion" | December 2, 1978 | |
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Ben is wrongfully accused by a tribe of stealing a black pearl, but it was actually an inside job committed by a fellow tribesman.
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Voices
- B.J. Ward as Jana
- Michael Bell as Dr. Ben Cooper
- Ted Cassidy as Montaro
Additional voices
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Jana in comic books
In January 2007, Dynamite Entertainment launched a comic book, with plot by Frank Cho and script by Doug Murray, called Jungle Girl, featuring a blond female character called Jana. She is a Tarzan-esque heroine that lives in some kind of "Lost World", a jungle inhabited by strange creatures including dinosaurs and cavemen. While bearing the same name and taking place in a jungle setting, the Cho/Murray comic character is not really connected with the TV series.
See also
In Spanish: Jana de la selva para niños
