The Ruff & Reddy Show

Growing up in the late 1950s and early 1960s, my favorite time of the week was Saturday morning. I enjoyed a variety of cartoon and live-action shows such as Sky King, Fury, Leonardo the Lion, Howdy Doody, Texas Rangers, and especially "Ruff and Reddy."

My keenest memory of this was the premiere on the Saturday morning right after I had my tonsils out. What a pleasant surprise just when I needed a lift, to see this great animated adventure show of a cat and dog drawn in to an adventure in the planet of robots called "Muni-Mula" which is aluminum spelled backwards. The evil leader, who literally would spin his head around between a kind face who would welcome you and the mean face that threatened you, was out to conquer the universe starting with Earth with his army of robots. The robots whizzing after our heroes on one wheel sometimes caught them, but in the end Ruff and Reddy managed to destroy the robot manufacturing assembly line and escape this planet just before it blows up. Hmm, come to think of it, I wonder if the authors of the film "Independence Day" might just have seen this show when they were little.

Ruff and Reddy beat all the bad guys, including the Pirate Captain Greedy. There was one villian who fired missiles from inside a barn that opened up. This was, of course, during the Cold War just after the Russians launched Sputnik.

My friends and I enjoyed many play adventures based on the Ruff and Reddy Episodes, and we also played World War II Marines and sometimes imagined World War III, especially on those Friday Afternoons when they tested the air raid sirens. The Cold War was a very real part of life, but we made the best out of it.

And yes, I did see the movie "Thirteen Days" and yes, we really did come that close.

I remember watching this series as a young boy of 7 and 8 and I was astounded by the cliffhanger approach of the plots. Captain Greedy was a cartoon version of Peter Lorre. I don't know who Salt Water Daffy was modeled after, but both if these were very original villains.

My favorite stores were those when Ruff and Reddy were battling villains in outer space. There were actually two such stories. One in which they somehow get to "a very strange planet" by getting aboard a runaway rocket.

The second story is when they are captured by robot aliens and taken to a planet called Munimula ("Aluminum" spelled backwards). To a young boy of 7, this was a very eerie adventure and as I remember, my favorite of the whole series. I think this is the first one to feature the eccentric "Professor Gizmo".

It is incredible that here I am at the age of 54 and I still remember with a great deal of fondness these Saturday morning thrillers.

Does anyone know where I could purchase this on either VHS or DMD ?

Dan Basinger

The "Ruff & Reddy Show" was not only an example of Hanna-Barbera's earlier works,but it is a classic in the utmost sense of the word. I remember catching the show a couple of years ago on the CBN Network,but also most recently on Cartoon Network's Boomerang channel. I never got to see some of the black and white episodes that Hanna-Barbera produced,but the episodes that I saw were in living color and it featured some of the most compelling episodes ever devised and it was always keeping its viewers on a cliffhanger until the next episode(case in point with the same formula that would be seen during "Rocky and Bullwinkle"(1959) years later.). Dilbolical villians,and evil doers at every turn and out to destroy the world,and to leave our heroes Ruff and Ready to save the day! Worth seeing.

THEME SONG: They're Ruff and Reddy Always Ruff and Reddy They're tough and steady Always Ruff and Reddy

They sometimes fight like dogs and cats Even though when to comes to that but when they need each other that's when They're Ruff and Reddy

These are the correct ones:

Get set, get ready, Here come Ruff and Reddy. They're tough, but steady, Always rough and ready.

They sometimes have their little spats, Even fight like dogs and cats, But when they need each other, That's when, they're rough and ready.

They were the earliest cartoon I can remember as a kid growing up in Seattle. I didn't learn until two years ago that they were one of the early Hanna-Barbera cartoons, as was Tom And Jerry.

I was reading the comment by ransom and realized immediately that he had the lyrics wrong. Can't have that now can we???

Mark

THIS IS THE first Hanna-Barbera Produced TV cartoon series. It was different than their standard fare that was to come down the pike in the next few years. Rather than being all cartoon with multiple character features, this show featured a single cartoon series, Later syndicated half-hours, such as THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND Show, featured the main star (HUCK)and two back-up features (PIXIE & DIXIE and YOGI BEAR).

FURTHER MARKED DIFFERENCES are apparent in the use of live (or videotaped) performers in studio. The implementation of a puppet side show added an element of contrast to the comedy of the RUFF & REDDY Cartoon adventures.

AND SPEAKING OF those R & R adventures, they had a sort of continuing theme, much like a movie serial, sans the cliff-hanger endings. Theirs were humorous, but strung together by the inclusion of a singular plot line and some protagonists.

IN WHAT WAS most likely an intentional switch in names for comic effect, RUFF & REDDY were polar opposites in their appearances. With Ruff ("ROUGH") being the expected name for the huge bulldog, he was Reddy ("READY") and the small cat partner was really Ruff ("ROUGH"). (Did you get that one, Schultz?)

UNLIKE SO MANY more of their productions, this Hanna-Barbera show was shown on the network of NBC, instead of being sent out via the wonders of syndication.