[5] The storylines centered on the globe-trotting adventures of Armstrong (played by Jim Ameche until 1938 and later portrayed by Michael Rye[6]), a popular athlete at Hudson High School, his friends Billy Fairfield and Billy's sister Betty, and their Uncle Jim, James Fairfield, an industrialist.

Sponsored throughout its long run by Wheaties, the program was renamed Armstrong of the SBI when Jack graduated from high school and became a government agent in the final season, when it shifted from a 15-minute serial to a half-hour complete story format.

[citation needed] That same year the Parents Institute began publishing its Jack Armstrong comic book which had a 13-issue run.

[9] Bob Schoenke also drew a newspaper comic strip based on the radio series, which ran from May 26, 1947 to June 11, 1950.

[11] A short Jack Armstrong animated TV pilot was developed by Hanna-Barbera for a proposed television series.

However, when negotiations for rights to the characters collapsed, the planned series was reworked into what became the animated adventure Jonny Quest (1964).

The Jack Armstrong footage of African natives hurling spears at two people escaping by hovercraft to an airplane survived in the closing credits for Jonny Quest.