Roger Ramjet

Roger Ramjet is an American-Cuboxian animated series, and was the first ever CTN Kids original when it premiered in 1965. It's about the titular patriotic superhero and 4 kids who go around the world saving the world from villains. The episodes are all around 5 minutes long, and the show is aired with 5 different segments spliced into 25 minutes. The show was known for its simple animation, frenetic pace, and frequent references to pop culture which appealed to adults as well as children. The show premiered on CTN Kids and CTN1 in Cuboxia on September 11,1965, and aired on NBC in the United States around the same time. Ever since it ended, the show has been syndicated on many channels worldwide.
In 1992, the show got a live action movie adaptation, which did well at the box office, but was poorly recieved. The show came back again in 2015 with a CGI animated reboot series, which got much better reception than the movie, and aired from 2015 to 2020.
== Plot ==
Roger Ramjet is a very patriotic American superhero who gets assigned missions by General G.I. Brassbottom to save the world from various evil villains with the help of 4 kids, Yank, Doodle, Dan and Dee (a parody of the song Yankee Doodle Dandy, which is also the theme song tune), aka The American Eagles, and his Proton Energy Pills which give him "the strength of twenty atom bombs for a period of twenty seconds".
== Characters ==
File:Screenshot 2024-03-10 214603.png|(From left to right) Dee, Doodle, Roger Ramjet, Yank, Dan
=== Heroes ===
* Roger Ramjet
* Yank
* Doodle
* Dan
* Dee
* General G.I. Brassbottom
=== Villains ===
* Noodles Romanoff and his evil organization N.A.S.T.Y. (National Association of Spies, Traitors, and Yahoos)
* The Solenoid Robots
* Red Dog the Pirate
* Jacqueline Hyde
* Dr. Frank N. Schwine
* Count Batguy
* Dr. What
* Tequila Mockingbird
* and a bunch of other ones (im not writing every single character here)
== Episodes ==
=== Season 1 ===
# "Dr. Ivan Evilkisser"
# "The Sheik"
# "Bat Guy"
# "The Shaft"
# "Kokomo"
# "Baseball"
# "The Cowboy"
# "Dee Kidnap"
# "Drafted"
# "TV Crisis"
# "Miss America"
# "The Pirates"
# "Revolution"
# "Torture"
# "The Race"
# "Jack the Nipper"
# "Ma Ramjet"
# "The Cockroaches"
# "Moon"
# "Hi Noon"
# "Bank Robbers"
# "Sun Clouds"
# "Football"
# "Bullfighter"
# "Bathysphere"
# "Skydiving"
# "Monkey"
# "Dr. Frank N. Schwine"
# "The Martins and the Coys"      
# "Planets"
# "Orbit"
# "Tennis"
=== Season 2 ===
# "Werewolf"
# "Flying Saucers"
# "Skateboards"
# "Scotland Yard"
# "Long Joan Silver"
# "Moonshot"
# "Treasure in Sierra's Mattress"
# "Tarzap"
# "Comics"
# "Jet Boots"
# "Little Roger"
# "Cycles"
# "Air Devil"
# "Spy in the Sky"
# "Hollywood"
# "Track Meet"
# "Surf Nuts"
# "Dry Dock"
# "Machines"
# "Coffee"
# "Stolen"
# "Assassins"
# "Genie"
# "Airplane"
# "Woodsman"
# "K.O. at the Gun Fight Corral"      
# "Mars"
# "Puck"
# "Pirate Gold"
# "Fox"
# "Super Mother"
# "Dr. What"
=== Season 3 ===
# "Party"
# "Large Leslie"
# "Gamey"
# "Time Machine"
# "Horse"
# "Pool"
# "Ancestors"
# "Hoop-dee-Doo"
# "Big Woof"
# "Robot Plants"
# "Robot Plot"
# "Turkey"
# "Fishing"
# "Purloined Pinky"
# "Snow"
# "Ripley"
# "Monster Masquerade"      
# "Lompoc Diamond"
# "School"
# "Vaudeville"
# "Coffee House"
# "Pirate Games"
# "Horse Race"
# "Missing"
# "Dentist"
# "Rip Van Ramjet"
# "Desert Ox"
# "Ad Game"
# "Lotsa Pizza"
# "Land Rush"
# "Show Business"
# "The Catnapper"
=== Season 4 ===
# "Opera Phantom"
# "Pies"
# "Small World"
# "Cousin"
# "Doodle League"
# "Ark"
# "Sauce"
# "Whale"
# "For the Birds"
# "Abominable Snowman"
# "Hero Training"
# "Lompoc Cannonball"
# "Safari"
# "Tiger"
# "Rodeo"
# "Dumb Waiter"
# "Blast Off"
# "Twas the Night Before"
# "Portrait of Roger"
# "Prince and the Doodle"
# "Water Sucker"
# "Volcano"
# "Limberlost"
# "General Kidnap"
# "Drought"
# "How's Your Pass?"
# "Rabbit Man"
# "Pill Caper"
# "Three Faces of Roger"
# "Private Eye"
# "Espionage Express"
# "Winfield of the Infield"      
=== Season 5 ===
# "Branch Office"
# "Wedding Bells"
# "Bunny"
# "Hypnochick"
# "Doctor"
# "Jolly Rancher"
# "Little Monster"
# "Flying Town"
# "Daring Young Man"
# "Crown Jewels"
# "April Fool"
# "Dry Sea"
# "Pay Cut"
# "Killer Doodle"
# "Polar Bear"
# "Ruggers"
# "Nut"
# "The Law"
# "Hassenfeffer"
# "Manhole"
# "Blockbuster"
# "Sellout"
# "Scout Outing"
# "Love"
# "Decorator"
# "Lompoc Lizards"
# "Blunderosa"
# "General Doodle"
== Reception ==
The show was an instant hit in Cuboxia, due to its simple but good art style, fast pace, funny humor, and its ability to be enjoyed by both kids and adults alike. Despite this, the show currently has a 6.7/10 rating on IMDB, isn't as beloved nowadays as it used to be, and is pretty obscure worldwide.
== Broadcast ==
After the show ended on CTN Kids and CTN1 in 1970, it went into reruns, and aired on CTN1 up until 2003 and is still airing on CTN Kids to this day. The show originally aired on NBC in the United States, before going into syndication. It also had reruns on Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and KTV. International broadcasts include Teletoon Retro in Canada, BBC, ITV and The Children's Channel in the United Kingdom, ABC in Australia, TVNZ in New Zealand, Locomotion and various other local channels in Latin America and Brazil, Canal Panda in Portugal, France 3 in France, the Scandinavian CTN Kids in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, various regional channels in Italy, TBS in Japan, TVP Regionalna in Poland, and K3 and Punt 2 in Spain, albeit dubbed into Catalan and Valencian, as opposed to Spanish. There's also a Dutch dub, but it's unknown what channel it aired on.
== Other related media ==
Because of the show's popularity, it has has other related media as well. It has been used, rebooted, and parodied many times.
The characters in the show have been used in lots of CTN-related media since it ended, such as commercials, merch (see above for merch), and even cameos and references in other shows. Shows that had Roger Ramjet cameos/references include Garfield and Friends, The Cockadoos, Robot Chicken, Captain Underpants, Sidekick, Cool Chicken: The Reanimated Series, Scott Potatoes, Cat Spider, among many others. The characters also made frequent appearences in the multi-crossover series CTN Kids: Toontown.
The show also had alot of merchandise, including a full series DVD in both Cuboxia and the United States, a soundtrack album, some action figures and plushies, Cuboxia exclusive fast food toys in 1988, and a Funko pop vinyl figure. It was even the first animated series to ever be released on home video, as it was released via the short lived "Cartrivision" format.
A live action movie adaptation, simply named Roger Ramjet, released on July 4,1992. The film had mostly negative reviews, with most people thinking that the movie just simply wasn't funny, and did a very poor job at trying to be like the original. 
Ever since the movie adaptation, there have been rumors about an animated revival series. There was actually going to be one that was announced in 2001, but it went through development hell, and was quietly shelved. 10 years later in 2011, it was announced that there would be a CGI reboot, and in early 2015, it was announced the series would be released on the original show's 50th anniversary, September 11,2015, and it premiered on that day. The show has been praised for how it's both similar to the original series, and its own great thing at the same time. The show ended on March 27,2020, which is coincidentally also the anniversary of the original show's finale. In 2022, it was announced that a CGI animated movie was in development, and would be in the same style as the revival series.
Going back in time for a moment, in the late 80s-early 90s, a PBS tv show called Square One Television had a segment titled Dirk Niblick of the Math Brigade, which was VERY similar to Ramjet. It even had the same creator and animation director, Fred Crippen, and Gary Owens voiced both title characters.
== Trivia ==
* This series was the television debut of voice actor and radio announcer Gary Owens, who played the titular character.
* The American DVD set is incomplete, with only 119 episodes on it. Two extra DVDs were released with some more episodes that were forgotten, and seven episodes are still not on DVD. The Cuboxian DVD is actually complete.
* The name "Roger" came about after producer Fred Crippen had an interview with a reporter named Roger Smith. Smith asked Crippen about his new TV show and then joked that the main character should be named Roger.
* When the show aired on Cartoon Network in the United States in the 90s, a promo for the show aired that was a cover of the intro + credits, albeit with a different theme tune, replacing Yankee Doodle Dandy. TV Tropes says this is the intro, but it's not.
Category:CTN Kids
Category:Series
Category:1960s Animated Series
Category:1970s Animated Series
Category:1965 Animated Series
Category:CuboxAnimation
Category:Cuboxian series
Category:American series
Category:Animated series adapted into films
Category:1970 Animated Series Endings