Roger Ramjet

''Roger Ramjet'' is a 1965–1969 American animated television series, starring Roger Ramjet and the American Eagle Squadron. 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 aired on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1998.

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," which also happens to be the tune to which the theme song is set). 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 savvier than their leader.

The various recurring criminals include:
* Pint-sized gangster Noodles Romanoff and his evil organization N.A.S.T.Y. (National Association of Spies, Traitors and Yahoos, a contrived acronym). 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 of agreement to whatever he says.
* The Solenoid Robots, green metal gas mask-faced evildoers from outer space who have a unicycle-like wheel instead of legs and talk in barely understandable electronic voices.
* Red Dog the Pirate, a redheaded short, squat scourge of the seven seas with an eye patch, peg-leg and a wiseacre parrot named Carl Bob for a sidekick.
* Jacqueline Hyde (a play on Jekyll and Hyde) is a blond, long-nosed, Zsa Zsa Gabor-accented foreign spy ''femme fatale'', who aided by other spies and gangsters, tries to get information on plans, documents for her foreign government agency.
* Dr. Frank N. Schwine, a Boris Karloff soundalike mad scientist who, with the help of his purple propeller beanie-wearing assistant Sidney, keeps creating huge hulking Frankenstein-style monsters only to have them defeated by Roger and become football players.
* Count Batguy, a bald Nosferatu-style vampire from Transylvania complete with Bela Lugosi accent.
* Dr. What, internationally feared evil genius.
* Sexy senorita Tequila Mockingbird (a play on ''To Kill a Mockingbird'') who teams up with her bandito boyfriends the Enchilada Brothers, Beef and Chicken, to stir up revolution in the tiny Latin American country of San Domino.

Another recurring, non-criminal character in the series was sportscaster Vincent Yafnarro, who appeared in several sports-related episodes. Roger's tough little old 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 Energy 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; the name may have been a pun on real life test pilot Scott Crossfield), Ramjet's toothy test pilot rival for the affections of his short, Southern-accented sweetheart Lotta Love, is also likely to get in the way. When Lance and Roger cross paths, neither one of them wins: in one episode, the always fickle Lotta ends up dating 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

Season one (1965)

# "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" - this episode is a parody of The Beatles
# "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 two (1966)

# "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 three (1967)

# "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 four (1968)

# "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 five (1969)

# "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"

Cast and crew

* Gary Owens – Roger Ramjet
* David 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.

Airdates

''Roger Ramjet'' first aired on NBC in 1965, and later on Cartoon Network in the mid-1990s. The show was also on the BBC
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