Background
In February 1988, Variety reported that screenwriter Kevin McClory was producing an animated series titled James Bond vs S.P.E.C.T.R.E. with an unnamed Dutch company. This series never came to fruition. EON Productions later began development on James Bond Jr. alongside Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and MGM Television. It was officially licensed by Danjaq and United Artists, the rights holders of the James Bond franchise. (McClory only had rights pertaining to Thunderball.) It was the first successful attempt to bring the series to television since the 1954 adaptation of Casino Royale.
The show features James Bond Jr., who, while attending Warfield Academy, works alongside his friends—IQ, the grandson of Q; Gordo Leiter, the son of Felix Leiter; and Tracy Milbanks—to combat the terrorist organization S.C.U.M. (Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem), a group modeled after SPECTRE. His catchphrase, "Bond, James Bond... Junior", is a nod to his uncle's famous introduction.
The series often surpasses the Bond films in terms of outlandish technology, though it notably lacks the violence associated with the franchise. Several villains from the films make recurring appearances, including Jaws, Nick Nack, Julius No, Auric Goldfinger, and Oddjob. Many of the episode titles parody those of the original movies.
Physical releases
Most episodes of James Bond Jr. were only broadcast on television and never made commercially available. On April 1, 1992, eight different single-episode VHS tapes were released in the United States. The following year, six multi-episode tapes were released in the United Kingdom.
Books
In 1992, Puffin Books released six novels based on James Bond Jr. They were written by John Peel under the pseudonym John Vincent. A year later, Buzz Books published a separate series of books adapted from the television show by Caryl Jenner. These were significantly shorter and geared towards a younger audience.
Marvel Comics
James Bond Jr. was adapted into a limited comic series by Marvel Comics between January and December 1992. While the first issues were direct adaptations of episodes from the television show, the remaining seven featured original stories. They were written by Cal Hamilton and Dan Abnett and illustrated by Mario Capaldi, Colin Fawcett, Adolfo Buylla, and Bambos Georgioli.
Video games
Two James Bond Jr. video games were released: a platformer for the NES developed by Eurocom and an action game by Gray Matter. Both were published in 1992 by THQ and received mixed-to-negative reviews. The NES version originally started out as John Smith, Special Agent, intended to be published by Taxan, and the SNES version originally started out as a port of the NES game Captain Planet and the Planeteers, intended to be published by Mindscape.
