The other day, I was minding my own business on my PC and then I had a thought that said, hey maybe I can do a review on another old childhood show, but what? I got it! I’ll do a review on Jay Jay. I’m sure it won’t be too ba- OH JESUS CHRIST!!!!!!!
I think I’ve made a mistake looking back at this show.
Anyways, here we go.

Jay Jay The Jet Plane was a children’s show that was produced by David and Deborah Micel featuring the adventures of a young, blue plane named Jay Jay and his friends at the fictional Tarrytown Airport.
The show is commonly known for coming out in 1998 as a CGI series that was notorious for the characters’ freaky facial appearances. (I can’t tell if this series’ CGI is worse than Donkey Kong Country’s TV series or not)

The show of course was also somewhat of a hybrid for it would have live actors appearing on screen as the human characters.
The cast of characters you have in the show included:
Jay Jay the blue, energetic, young high flyer.
Tracy, Jay Jay's purple best friend and sibling.
Snuffy, the shy, green, propellor driven skywriter.
Herky, the chipper, stuttery, yellow helicopter that rolls the R sounds in his dialogue.
Big Jake, the fatherly cargo plane.
Savannah, the motherly supersonic airliner (Who is named after the place she was born/built in, Savannah, Georgia.)
Old Oscar, the wise grandfatherly biplane.
Brenda Blue, the brainy aircraft mechanic.
Revvin’ Evan, the bold young firetruck that’s eager to help out whenever there’s a job he’s needed for.
Tuffy, Evan’s cousin, known for her stubborn devotion as a tow truck that never gives up.
and E.Z O’Malley, the founder of Tarrytown airport.
The show would usually focus on either Jay Jay, Tracy, Snuffy, Herky, or all four of them just because of how they’re basically kids learning about everything in their fictional world as they travel to all kinds of villages and islands including Frosty Pines, Pangabula Island (home of the Sparkleberry Tree), Smiling Meadow, Lightning Bug Lake, or even to the Cloud King’s castle in the sky.

However, I don’t know if you know this, but originally, the show came out as a model series in 1994, featuring model planes and handcrafted figures similar to good old shows like classic Thomas, Theodore Tugboat, or Tugs. This version of the series is identified as the show’s pilot series and was released as a direct to video series.
The show was fully narrated with the characters being played by the late John William Galt.
Though, that show had many differences before the CGI series. The main differences to the show would include the faces and designs of some characters like Herky and Savannah as examples, but the most recognisable difference is Jay Jay wearing a coat of brown paint which doesn’t get replaced with blue paint until the episode Jay Jay’s Colourful Cover Up.
Not to mention neither Evan or Tuffy appeared in this show.

However, I don’t know if you know this, but originally, the show came out as a model series in 1994, featuring model planes and handcrafted figures similar to good old shows like classic Thomas, Theodore Tugboat, or Tugs. This version of the series is identified as the show’s pilot series and was released as a direct to video series.
The show was fully narrated with the characters being played by the late John William Galt.
Though, that show had many differences before the CGI series. The main differences to the show would include the faces and designs of some characters like Herky and Savannah as examples, but the most recognisable difference is Jay Jay wearing a coat of brown paint which doesn’t get replaced with blue paint until the episode Jay Jay’s Colourful Cover Up.
Not to mention neither Evan or Tuffy appeared in this show.

It wasn’t until 1998 when the CGI show made its official (and horrifying) debut on TV.
The show would last for three seasons with 12 episodes in season 1 and 14 episodes in seasons 2 and 3, going from 1998-2001
This show even had no order of consistency such as the mention of Snuffy being stated to have not flown further from Tarrytown as Lightning Bug lake in some episodes, but other episodes show him travelling much further than mentioned and one episode even mentions that he hasn’t gotten over his shyness, but he never shows this in any other episodes.
There were different narrators and live actors for the UK and US versions of the show or so I’ve heard.
The show’s episodes would always have different characters even doing songs that reflect on the lessons that the episode teaches.

Well, I remember watching this show back on an old kids channel that I enjoyed that got shut down in 2007. (It’s really sad though because a lot of the shows they had on there became lost and obscure media that’s been left forgotten (Even I’ve forgotten some of them, too)
However, that wasn’t my first time being exposed to this creepy CGI faced show, my real first time was in one of the three PC games that the show had made that went by the name of Sky Heroes To The Rescue.
I know what you’re going to ask me, “Raku, how is it that you weren’t hiding in your hallway when you first saw this show in your youth?”
To be honest, I guess the uncanny character designs and faces didn’t bother me at all when I was a kid, but when I look at it now, as a young fellow in my 20’s; Jesus Christ! I mean, I don’t want to be offensive, but the characters look like they've eaten something they’ve had an allergic reaction to.

Aside from the terrible reputation it had for scaring kids, the show actually did well enough to have merchandise. These included die cast and wooden vehicles, books, plushies and the three PC games I mentioned earlier and of course VHS/DVD releases.

There is also a series of Jay Jay made in 2005 called Jay Jay’s Mysteries which was a follow up with Jay Jay and a character named Lina and several others as they fly about learning things, but I never saw that series while I was growing up though so I don’t know anything about it.

Meanwhile, I heard that a new Jay Jay reboot is coming soon with the characters being redesigned with their faces being the same colour as their bodies and I have to say, from what I’ve seen, it’s going to be a vast improvement to the original show.


Well, I hope you enjoyed hearing me prattle about this show, feel free to comment if you remember seeing this show in your childhood.
Also, you can look for it on YouTube, but funnily enough the CGI show’s episodes are really scarce and the model series are the more common episodes you’ll end up finding.
Again, I hope you enjoyed reading my review and I apologise if I brought back any kind of old nightmares you may have had if you ever saw this show growing up.

Jay Jay belongs to PorchLight Entertainment.