Accidentally-Correct Writing: In "Moon Circus", when Mindy suggests that Edmonton, Alberta would have lower gravity, she is technically right. Boxwood Terrace is located in the state of Washington, which has a mean elevation of 520m while Edmonton has an elevation of 671 meters. These extra meters put Earth further away from the Earth's center of mass, meaning you would experience less gravity there. Obviously not as reduced as the moon (since it has an elevation of 384,402,000 meters) but still technically correct.
Ian James Corlett voices Face 9001, Mr. Peterson, and Uncle Zucchini.
Vienna Leacock voices Sydney and her robot clone, Sydney 2.
In Latino Spanish, Stefani Villarroel voices Jet and Sean in Season 1. In Season 2, Jet is voiced by Navid Cabrera, who also voices Sydney.
In the Korean dub, Jeon Tae-yeol voices Carrot and Mitchell, Lee Min-kyu voices Face 9000 and Uncle Zucchini, and Nam Do-hyung voices Jet, Jet 2, and Zerk.
A total of six voice actors worked on the Russian dub, with voice actors often having to play multiple roles. The only voice actor who did not have to do this was Mindy's child voice actress, Vitalia Kornienko.
The show got tons of promotion on other websites, got generally positive reviews from PBS Kids VIPs (Very Important Parents), got an app release, got 5 web-games, got high ratings, and was renewed for a second season and an hourlong special, all before it was even a year old.
On Rootle (North Carolina's 24/7 PBS Kids channel), the show got 3 hour marathons on the weekends in July 2017, as part of Read-a-roo's Block Party.
Whenever the show has a holiday episode, every PBS station will rerun it ad nauseam, sometimes even when it's not the holiday that the episode is about (a common practice with most PBS shows).
Unlike in America, the Russian channel Captain Fantastic adores the show and airs it up to 20 times a day.
Backed by the Pentagon: The series is produced by in part by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who is on the advisory board to provide the science curriculum for the series.
Dr. Rafferty's legs are missing when she participates in a standing ovation in "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", unintentionally making her look like a ghost.
In "Jet's First Halloween", there are pumpkin jack-o'-lanterns placed outside the Propulsion house, even though they didn't carve any pumpkins.
In "Sunspot and the Great Red Spot", when Sunspot is about to go outside the saucer, Sean and Sydney are in their regular clothes instead of their spacesuits.
The Cast Showoff: Due to there being many songs in the show, Ashleigh Ball frequently gets to show off her singing talent.
Children Voicing Children: With the exceptions of Jet and Zerk, all the other kids in the show are played by actual kids.
One article promoting the August 15-19 bomb in 2016 makes the erroneous statement that the kids try to recreate Celery and Jet's first date, when it should be Celery and Carrot's first date.
Creator-Driven Successor: Is one to Sid the Science Kid, as both shows are PBS Kids shows that have a science-driven curriculum, and both shows star four kind-hearted, cute, curious children who just want to learn about science. It also helps that Craig Bartlett worked on Sid as a story editor, and Jet premiered eight years after Sid.
Amy Mainzer has mentioned in an interview that her favorite character is Mindy.
Creator's Favorite Episode: In that same interview, Amy Mainzer also mentioned her favorite episode is "the one that focused on black holes" ("Detective Mindy").
Creator's Oddball: This show is produced by Wind Dancer Films, a company known for producing live-action movies and TV shows aimed at an adult audience. This show marks the company's first animated production, as well as their first production aimed at kids. However, the success of this show caused Wind Dancer Films to announce the development of several other properties aimed at kids.
Jet is voiced by Ashleigh Ball, an adult woman. However, it's averted with the other kids in the show, who are played by actual kids of their respective genders.
Meg Roe plays Zerk.
Dawson Casting: Ashleigh Ball, an adult, plays Jet, a kid. Same with Zerk, who is voiced by Meg Roe. Sean, Sydney, Mindy, Mitchell, and Lillian are all played by kids or teens who are older than them.
Deleted Role: Mitchell is listed in the credits of "What's a Satellite?" and "Astronaut Ellen Ochoa", yet he does not appear in either of these episodes. The most likely scenario is that he was going to appear in those episodes, but was cut for time.
Development Gag: As noted in What Could Have Been below, the Propulsions were originally going to be shapeshifters. In "How We Found Your Sun", Jet's backstory is accompanied by comic panels◊ showing the Propulsions being blue blobs with mitten hands, although only their arms are shown.
Development Hell: The show's merchandise line. Wind Dancer Films stated that toys, books, and apparel would launch at retail in 2017. Those products (save for the books) still have yet to be released, and now that the show is cancelled, it's unlikely that they will ever be.
Distanced from Current Events: Due to the coronavirus, reruns of the episode "Sean Has a Cold" and its sister episode "Mars Rock for Mom" were pulled because of the former being about, well, Sean having a cold. It was slated to air again on May 8th during the show's regular timeslot, but instead got showed to an early-morning timeslot as the pandemic still continued, note This was likely to avoid a repeat of an incident that happened with fellow PBS Kids show Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood where an episode showing characters being sick just so happened to air on most PBS affiliates at the same time most broadcast television stations cut to news reports announcing business closures due to the pandemic. with stations switching Ready Jet Go!'s timeslot with whatever show originally held the slot it was put in. Most notably, New York's WNET showed the season 1 Arthur episode "Arthur's Baby; D.W.'s Baby".
There are two different Latvian voiceovers of this show - one that aired on LTV, and another that aired on KidZone TV.
Three different Persian dubs have been created. The first one was made by Filimo, the second one was made by Avadis Studio, and the third one, released in June 2023, was released on the Gapfilm service.
In January 2016, several episodes of the show were uploaded by PBS Kids online before the show hit the airwaves the following month. This was highly successful and caused a surge in online viewership.
"Sunday Drive" was uploaded on the PBS Kids app 1 day before it aired on television.
The episodes "Sunspot's Sunspot" and "Our Sun is a Star!" were released on the Chasing the Sun DVD before they aired on TV.
Airings on international commercial networks remove the Amy Mainzer interstitials. However, they're included in the illegal Persian dub.
When the show premiered in Sri Lanka, Back to Bortron 7 was the series premiere, and all the songs were removed, even the theme song. Because each of the songs is crucial to the plot of the movie, this makes for a Dub-Induced Plot Hole. Luckily, regular episodes commenced broadcast in June 2021, after fans worried that only the special would air. And the Sinhala dub keeps the songs.
The main child cast was originally just going to be the Power Trio of Jet, Sean, and Sydney. However, after testing the initial pilot with children, the crew realized that they need to appeal to the younger demographic even though this show, believe it or not, is not necessarily aimed towards them. And thus, Mindy was born.
Production of the first season went smoothly, with PBS approving almost everything Craig and his team put out and leaving no notes. Then in the second season, the Department of Education, through its "Ready to Learn" project, approached the show and started meddling with it. Craig said (page 28-29) "season two was hard on Jet and season one was easy. That was kind of a bummer."
Fake Nationality: In season 1, Sydney (who is black) was voiced by Dalila Bela (who starred in fellow PBS series Odd Squad), who is of English, French, Brazilian, Panamanian and Spanish ancestry. In season 2, they replaced her with an actual black girl, Vienna Leacock. However, the Hispanic Mindy and the Asian Lillian were voiced by white girls (Jaeda Lily Miller and Amelia Shoichet-Stoll) for the entirety of the series.
Fan Community Nickname: Older fans of the show have started to call themselves Space Explorers. The show's social media took it a step further by addressing the show's target audience (3-8 year olds) as Space Explorers (or "space kid-ets").
Fandom Life Cycle: Seems to be perpetually stuck at Stage 2. It does have a fandom, but it's scattered and not organized, and thus the series is considered an underrated Cult Classic. However, there are attempts by fans, mostly on Twitter, to get the show to Stage 3.
Friendship on the Set: The child voice actors of Ready Jet Go! became friends during the show's run, since they tended to record in the same room. Jaeda Lily Miller (Mindy) and Vienna Leacock (the second Sydney) have posted pics of them hanging out, and they have also starred on When Calls the Heart together.
Inspiration for the Work: Craig Bartlett got the idea to make the show after working on a project for NASA called the Shuttle Launch Experience, and hearing the astronauts describe how beautiful Earth is.
Invisible Advertising: A major victim of this, thanks to PBS prioritizing monthly tentpole events (such as movie premieres or new episodes) over everything else.
When the show had a week of new episodes in early June of 2017, there was no advertising whatsoever. The tentpole for that month was Nature Cat: Ocean Commotion.
Likewise, when the show had new episodes on October 9 and 10 of 2017, there was no advertising from PBS Kids, choosing instead to promote the Arthur TV movie "Arthur and the Haunted Treehouse".
In February 2018, the show aired the Valentine's Day Episode and the season 1 finale. PBS gave those two episodes no promotion, and not even the show's social media promoted the episodes. This was because of PBS promoting Pinkalicious & Peterrific. However, to make it up for it, PBS reran the episodes a ton.
Irony as She Is Cast: Mitchell's second voice actor, David Raynolds, is a singer in real life, yet Mitchell didn't get to sing a single note in season 2.
The entire series, including the two made-for-TV movies, is available through Amazon, except for "Diggin' Earth/Mindy's Mystery". The only way you can legally watch these episodes is to purchase the Jet's First Halloween DVD or to catch a rerun on your local station.
The Norwegian dub is completely lost. The episodes are unplayable on NRK TV's site due to rights expiration.
In this reel for Wind Dancer Films, a few clips featuring what seems to be the pilot for the show can be seen, featuring the saucer and Jet himself with drastically different appearances. We know that there is a pilot because this article talks about how the crew tested the initial pilot with children. As of right now, the Ready Jet Go! pilot has yet to be released by Wind Dancer Films.
Uzbekistan skipped "Jet's First Halloween" and "From Pluto With Love" because Halloween and Valentine's Day are banned in that country. Oddly enough, they aired the second Halloween Episode, "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!", albeit heavily censored. "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace" and "Endless Summer" did not air during Christmastime because Uzbekistan doesn't really celebrate Christmas, though it's not illegal there. Luckily, they did air on New Years Eve, because Christmas traditions are associated with the New Year in Uzbekistan.
Newbie Boom: The show saw a boost in fans following "Back to Bortron 7", a one-hour special which raised the stakes for the series and finally introduced Jet's home planet, Bortron 7.
Season 2 has not aired in Norway, Hungary, South Korea or Finland.
It also hasn't aired on Canada on Knowledge Kids. However, Canadians can still watch season 2 by watching WNED, a PBS station that Toronto shares with Buffalo, New York.
Season 1 has not aired in Hong Kong.
The show never aired in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Romania, India, Denmark, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Greece, Sweden or Japan (to be fair, almost no PBS show ever gets a Japanese dub).
Non-Singing Voice: In "Holidays in Boxwood Terrace", Mitchell's singing voice is performed by Meg Roe.
Out of Holiday Episode: The series had Christmas, Halloween, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Earth Day, and St. Patrick's Day episodes, and they all aired around their respective holidays. But one episode, "Asteroids, Meteors, and Meteorites", premiered in April 2016; it was a Father's Day episode, and that holiday is in June.
This is how the episodes are aired, resulting in a few retcons and continuity errors, since even though the show is fairly episodic, it still has continuity. For example, "A Kid's Guide to Mars / Jet 2", the ninth produced episode, was aired as the series premiere. The actual first episode, "Tour of the Solar System / Jet Cooks Dinner", was aired two days later.
The show's TV Movie, "Back to Bortron 7" was aired when season 1 was still airing new episodes, even though it it actually the season 2 premiere. The rest of the season 2 episodes didn't air until 2018.
This trend continued when season 2 officially premiered in April 2018. "Mindy Turns Five", the eighth episode, was the premiere for the season. All episodes where Mindy still stays on Earth were aired after that episode.
In "Earth Mission to Moon", Zerk was voiced by Ashleigh Ball. In "Whole Lotta Shakin'" and every episode featuring him onwards, he is voiced by Meg Roe.
In "Back to Bortron 7", Dalila Bela (Sydney) was replaced by Vienna Leacock, and Spencer Drever (Mitchell) was replaced by David Raynolds. They both stay for season 2.
Starting with "You Can Call Me Albedo", William Ainscough (Sean) was replaced by Grady Ainscough.
Starting with "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!", Grady Ainscough was replaced for the role of Sean by Glen Gordon (though he was not credited until "One Small Step").
In "One Small Step", David Raynolds was replaced for the role of Mitchell by Dylan Schombing.
In the Latino Spanish dub, Jet and Sean's voice actresses were both changed for Season 2. They were both voiced by Stefani Villarroel in Season 1, but Jet was played by Navid Cabrera in Season 2 (same VA as Sydney) and Sean by Catherine Reyes. This was because Villarroel moved away to Chile (the dub was recorded in Venezuela).
Quietly Cancelled: After One Small Step aired, no one knew if the show was renewed or cancelled. However, in October 2019, it was revealed that the show was cancelled after someone contacted Craig Bartlett himself about it.
Real-Life Relative: William and Grady Ainscough, who both voice Sean, are brothers.
Recycled Script: "Mindy and Carrot Bake" is very similar to "Sunday Drive", as both episodes involve the characters trying to figure out the new control panels.
Referenced by...: In Twinkling in the Dark, a chapter concerning a character having very loud sneezes is titled "Face Explosions", which is what the Propulsion family call sneezes.
Release Date Change: When the show was renewed for a second season in August of 2016, season 2 was slated to premiere in late 2017. It ended up premiering in April of 2018.
In late June 2021, PBS Kids uploaded both of the show's specials for free on YouTube: One Small Step and Back to Bortron 7. However, they're region-locked outside of the United States, but at least it's something. They were later removed in July 2022.
Romance on the Set: The Brazillian Portuguese voices of Carrot and Celery (Sergio Moreno and Adriana Riemer) are in a relationship, according to Instagram.
Same Content, Different Rating: Although aimed at a preschool audience, the series is rated 6+ (a 'big kids' show) in Russia, Sri Lanka, and Uzbekistan. This is because of the complex nature of the show's science curriculum. Some topics in the series are taught in high school. In Sri Lanka, it replaced Wayside (a show aimed at older kids) in its' time slot.
Science Marches On: Being a science-based Edutainment Show, the show does its best to stay on top of current information, but it fell victim to this. The educational objective of the 2016 episode "So Many Moons" is that Jupiter has 67 moons. As of 2019, Jupiter has 79 confirmed satellites, making that episode outdated.
RJG! was constantly subject to this trope throughout its run. At first, it was adored, being given tons of promotion, several online games, and a second season renewal before it was even a year old. However, it ended up getting screwed in many ways, including long hiatuses, Invisible Advertising, and severe lack of attention on social media. It was soon cancelled after its second season ended, and shoved to an early morning time slot on the 24/7 PBS Kids channel.
In 2020, volume 2 of the show was taken off Amazon Prime, meaning that if you have a subscription to Amazon Prime, you can only watch the first batch of episodes (volume 1) for free. All the others require a subscription to the PBS Kids Channel.
Series Hiatus: The show constantly suffered from this. By far the longest hiatus was a 5-month one, from December 30, 2016note The day after "Space Junk / Scientific Sean" premiered and June 4, 2017note One day before "Beep and Boop's Game / Constellation Prize" premiered.
Several episodes from the second half of season 1 aired in Canada, Australia, and Latin America before they aired in the United States.
All episodes of season 2 have aired in Ireland and Australia before they aired in the US. The entire season was also available to stream on Viu in Asia and on Showmax in Africa before it finished airing in the US. South America also aired it.
Sleeper Hit: The series was an unexpected hit when it premiered. Despite the early promos for the show making it look bad, it outperformed channel average by 32% during its' premiere and gained over 100 million streams online.
Tribute to Fido: Series writer Rachel Lipman based Mitchell's dog Cody on her own pet dog.
Two Voices, One Character: Jet has two voice actors in the Uzbek dub: a child voicing him during the intro when he has spoken lines, and a grown man voicing him within the episodes themselves.
Uncredited Role: In "Lone Star 2 - Rocket Kids!", Sean is voiced by Glen Gordon. He wasn't listed in the credits, so no one knew who his new voice was until "One Small Step" aired.
Norway only dubbed Season 1. Season 2 has not been dubbed into Norwegian, and since the S1 episodes on the NRK site are damn near impossible to watch, the Norwegian dub is pretty much lost media.
Likewise, South Korea only dubbed Season 1.
Finland only dubbed the first 27 segments ("Tour of the Solar System" to "A Visit from Uncle Zucchini".
Hong Kong only dubbed Season 2 into Cantonese, skipping Season 1.
Hungary only dubbed Season 1.
Unspecified Role Credit: In the Norwegian dub, only the voices for Jet, Sydney, Sean, and Face 9000 are credited. Everyone else is lumped other "Andre medvirkende" (Other Contributors) without saying who played who. See for yourself.
In most dubs, Jet is voiced by an adult woman. However, in the Korean and Arabic dubs, he's voiced by an adult man, which can be unnerving if you're used to his prepubescent, androgynous voice in the English dub.
Speaking of the Arabic dub, Mindy sounds like she's 30 in that dub. Not very fitting for a 4-year-old.
Voices in One Room: This is how the show is recorded, if theseposts by Brenda Crichlow (the voice of Sydney's mom) are to be believed.
Jet has going to have thinner hair, purple eyes, and wear casual clothing; not a spacesuit.
Sean was going to be taller, skinnier, and wear a completely green shirt with a rocket on it. Leaked descriptions of the "Jet Propulsion" pilot also said he was dead-set on winning the Nobel Prize.
Sydney was going to wear a braid, a lilac jacket, and pink leggings. She was lighter-skinned and generally more racially ambiguous than in the final show.
Sunspot was going to be cream-colored and have a much larger tail.
Word of Gay: A year after the show ended, Craig Bartlett indirectly confirmed to a fan that Jet was indeed bisexual and also has No Biological Sex. They couldn't say it out loud on the show but they made it as obvious as possible.
While Lillian is obviously Asian due to her features, her exact nationality was never stated in the show. In March 2021, Craig Bartlett stated that she's Chinese.
Craig Bartlett debunked the theory that Mitchell is related to Stinky Peterson. For what it's worth, Mitchell mentions that his grandfather is a farmer in "Eye in the Sky", much like Stinky and his family.
The show was supposed to be titled Jet Propulsion, but then it was renamed to Ready Jet Go!.
PBS Kids announced the show's one-hour movie as "Return to Bortron 7", but come Summer 2017, the movie was renamed "Back to Bortron 7", for unknown reasons.
Craig Bartlett: “Arnold was how I felt being a kid and Buddy the T-Rex is really optimistic and doesn’t see how anything can’t work out and a friend to all. And Jet is even more so because Jet won’t shut up, you can’t get him down, he is always optimistic and he’s like the music man always bursting into song. When I was a kid, I thought wouldn’t it be fun if everything was a musical and people were always bursting into song. So I feel like he is the best iteration of my kind of personality that we’ve come up with yet.”
that the kids try to recreate Celery and Jet's first date, when it should be Celery and Carrot's first date.
