Roger Ramjet

Roger Ramjet
Genre	animated
Written by	Gene Moss, Jim Thurman
Directed by	Fred Crippen
Voices of	Gary Owens, Bob Arbogast, Dick Beals, Gene Moss, Jim Thurman, Joan Gerber, Paul Shively, Ken Snyder
Narrated by	Dave Ketchum
Theme music composer	Charles Koren (music), Paul Shively (lyrics)
Composer(s)	Ivan Ditmars
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	156
Production
Executive producer(s)	Kenneth C.T. Snyder
Producer(s)	Fred Crippen
Editor(s)	Dee Futch
Camera setup	Roger Brown, Jerry Smith, Larry Hogan
Running time	Around 5 minutes 20 seconds
Production company(s)	Pantomime Pictures Hero Entertainment
Distributor	Image Entertainment
Release
First shown in	1965
External links
Website

Roger Ramjet is an animated American children's television comedy series that first ran in 1965 and has aired in syndication since. Starring Roger Ramjet and the American Eagle Squadron, the show was known for its crude animation, frenetic pace, and frequent references to popular culture, which allowed the show to entertain various age groups.

Plot

Roger Ramjet is a patriotic and highly moral — if not very bright — hero, who is typically out to save the world, with help from his Proton Energy Pills ("PEP"), which give him "the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds". The world is invariably saved by defeating the various recurring criminals who populated the series.

On government missions assigned by General G.I. Brassbottom, Ramjet encounters various nemeses during his missions. Typically he is caught, and must be rescued by his crew of sidekicks, the American Eagles: Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee (a play on Yankee Doodle Dandy). Although his Eagles appear to be children, each of them, except for Dee, flies his own individual ramjet aircraft expertly, and they are obviously much more savvy than their leader.

The various recurring criminals include:

• The Solenoid Robots, evil doers from outer space who talk in barely understandable electronic voices.
• Gangster Noodles Romanoff and his evil organization N.A.S.T.Y. (National Association of Spies, Traitors and Yahoos). Noodles wears dark glasses, a fedora, and a trench coat. His hands are always jammed into his jacket pockets. His band of No Goods consist of several lookalike henchmen clad in hats and coats, who simultaneously utter incomprehensible phrases.
• Red Dog the Pirate, a short, squat scourge of the seven seas with a wise acre parrot for a sidekick.
• Foreign spy femme fatale Jacqueline Hyde
• Tequila Mockingbird and her boyfriend Beef Enchilada and his brother Chicken. Another recurring, non-criminal character in the series was sportscaster Vincent Yafnarro, who appeared in several sports-related episodes. Roger's mother, Ma Ramjet, appeared in several episodes; her voice was an imitation of Jonathan Winters' "Maude Frickert" character, and she had her own variation on her son's Proton Pills, "Ma Ramjet's Atomic Vitamins, for Old People Whose Get-Up-and-Go Got Up and Left."

Lance Crossfire (a parody of actor Burt Lancaster), Ramjet's rival for the affections of Lotta Love, is also likely to get in the way. When Lance and Roger cross paths, neither wins: in one episode, Lotta ends up going out with General Brassbottom, who promises the two men that he will take care of her. As is his way, Roger does not realize that they have both lost—unlike Lance, who inevitably ends these cartoons with the phrase, "Oh, Roger — shut up!"

Episodes

Cast and crew

• Gary Owens – Roger Ramjet
• Dave Ketchum – Narrator
• Bob Arbogast – General G. I. Brassbottom, Ma Ramjet, additional voices
• Dick Beals – Yank and Dan of the American Eagles
• Gene Moss – Doodle of the American Eagles, Noodles Romanoff
• Joan Gerber – Dee of the American Eagles, Lotta Love, Jacqueline Hyde
• Paul Shively – Lance Crossfire, Red Dog the Pirate
• Jim Thurman – additional voices
• Ken Snyder – additional voices
• Gene Moss and Jim Thurman were the writers of the series.
• Paul Shively wrote the lyrics for the show's theme song.
• Dick Beals provided the voice for "Speedy Alka-Seltzer".

Air dates

Roger Ramjet first aired on syndication in 1965, and later on Cartoon Network in the mid-1990s.^[1] The show was also on the BBC and ITV from 1979 to 1994 in the UK and Europe wide on Sky Channel from 1985 to 1989 and Bravo from 1992 to 1993. In Australia, in 1966 the show appeared on the ABC in the afternoon, and has been shown regularly on Australian television ever since. Selected Minisodes of the show are available to view for free on Crackle. As of 2017, the show airs on Kids & Teens TV in the US.

Production notes

• The creators of the series were from Lompoc, California and worked in many references to the town into the series,^[2] including setting several episodes there. Invariably, the name of the town was mispronounced.
• The name "Roger" came about after producer Fred Crippen had an interview with a reporter named Roger Smith. Fred was asked about his new TV series and Roger joked that the main character should be named Roger.
• The show's theme song was set to the tune of the centuries-old patriotic song “Yankee Doodle," which would also be later done on the Barney and the Backyard Gang videos and the Barney And Friends TV series.

Other credits

• Associate Producers: Dick Reed, Paul Shively
• Production Coordinator: Fred Calvert
• Animation: Don Schloat, Alan Zaslove, Bill Hutton, George Nicholas, Fred Crippen
• Background: Jack Heiter
• Layout: Rosemary O'Connor, Sam Weiss, Joe Bruno, Dave Hanan, Bob Kurtz
• Sound Effects: Phil Kaye
• Ink and Paint: Constance Crawley
• Checking: Dottie Mullens
• Sound: TV Recorders, Western Recorders

DVD release

On February 8, 2005, Classic Media (distributed by Sony Wonder) released Roger Ramjet: Hero Of Our Nation (Special Collector's Edition), a 3-Disc box set containing 119 of the 156 episodes of the series (although the box incorrectly states that 120 episodes are included). Another company, Image Entertainment, previously issued two single DVDs (Roger Ramjet: Hero Of Our Nation and Roger Ramjet: Man Of Adventure), each including 15 cartoons not featured in the three-disc set. This leaves seven cartoons unreleased on DVD (as of November 2007): #36 (Scotland Yard), #125 (Bunny), #128 (Jolly Rancher), #152 (Air Devil), #154 (Dry Dock), #155 (Machines), and #156 (Stolen).

Soundtrack

RCA Victor released a soundtrack album in 1966.

See also

• Tom Slick (TV series)

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Roger Ramjet

• Roger Ramjet on IMDb
• Roger Ramjet at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• RogerRamjet.com-The Official Site of Roger Ramjet
• Roger Ramjet Intro YouTube