Ramar of the Jungle

I watched this faithfully, every episode, at ages 5, 6, and 7. Then I watched reruns. We had just gotten our first TV and this series was pure magic to me. I learned about other peoples, other ways of life, and Africa. Even though now when I joyfully revisit Ramar, and I see the inaccurate mixture of jungle and savanna animal habitats, it doesn't matter, because Ramar showed me the world and taught me so much at such a young age. I also learned fair play, honesty, service to humanity for other than material gain, and good versus evil. Charlie was a favorite too, with his British accent!

I enjoyed this series as a kid in the 1950's, and I am enjoying it even more now with the DVD releases. Dr. Reynolds and Professor Ogden (Jon Hall and Ray Montgomery) were one of the smoothest working teams ever! Some of their adventures were in Africa while others were in India, but they never failed to provide wholesome (although sometimes violent) entertainment. Their supporting characters (James Fairfax as Charlie, Ludwig Stossel as Peter Van Tyne, M'Liss McClure as Trudy Van Tyne, Nick Stewart as Willy-Willy, and Victor Millan as Zahir) were always dependable, loyal, and lovable. If you like jungle adventures, this series is really fun to watch!

If you want adventure and action this is the show to watch. Ramar brought medical help to all who needed it, the local natives who he had to educate to modern medicine, fellow adventurer Professor Ogden, or animals. After helping out in Africa he spent his final season in India.

Though Ramar of the Jungle was probably also filmed at Corriganville, a lot of the jungle scenes were filmed at the LA Arboretum in Arcadia at the Lucky Baldwin estate. in the so called jungle garden. I remember going out there and seeing where it was filmed according to the guides......Also the animal scenes were taken from the ???Johnsons who did extensive filming of animals in Africa. It was a regular viewing at our home even in reruns. The first he was in a tent then a lab then was in India for some reason. Reruns ran a long time on channel 11 in the afternoons and us kids never missed them.....one bad guys were named Galvin and Danforth a favorite line which I still remember was....take your time, but HURRY.......

Ramar was weekly viewing fare in our house. What would seem corny to today's children was then watched in awe. Information would come to the party via a runner who had to cover more miles than a Range Roveer to get there. I seem to recall a Territorial police official who seems to appear out of nowhere to take someone into custody after Reynolds and Ogden ended their criminal career. Looking back I can still see some of the makeup and costumes that had a lot to be desired to be convincing by today's standards. But, that was then and the good guys always won. There was always a good moral ending to each episode. Babbet the monkey, was a great character too. I even had a "Ramar of the Jungle" board game! I would love to watch this series today.