''Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends'' was an independently produced

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

and

variety show Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical theatre, musical performances, sketch comedy, magic (illusion), magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is ...

created and produced by Richard Concepcion. The show was broadcast weekly on public-access

cable TV Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broadc ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from 1983 to 2017. The show ran on the

Manhattan Neighborhood Network Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN) is an American non-profit organization that broadcasts programming on five public-access television cable TV stations in Manhattan, New York City. The country’s largest community media center, MNN operates tw ...

, Queens Public TV, and aired online every Sunday afternoon over the Pawpet Broadcasting Network before the ''

Funday Pawpet Show ''Funday PawPet Show'' is an Internet-based puppet show created by Randy "Yappy" Fox in November 1999, broadcast on Sunday nights from 18:00 to 22:00 ET from his home in Kissimmee, Florida. Before November 25, 2007 the show aired from 19:00 t ...

''. The show, which is based in Rapid Transit Rabbit's hometown of New York City, followed him, and his friends Cuppy, Rupert and Mejeep, both in town, and around the country on their adventures. This could be in the form of puppets interacting with each other via a traditional puppet stage, or in the form of a video documentary. In recent years, the show expanded to include Rapid as a mascot, as well as a puppet which was used to film video documentaries for the show. Throughout the years, the Rapid T. Rabbit character has attended many events such as the Doo-Dah Parade in

Ocean City, New Jersey Ocean City is a city in Cape May County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is the principal city of the Ocean City metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses all of Cape May County and is part of the Philadelphia- Wilmington- Camden, P ...

, and the Long Island Ducks Mascot Day among others including the New York City Easter Parade. While Rapid T. Rabbit was a very involved with local events in the New York City area, he was commonly mistaken as the "Easter Bunny" by kids according to an interview with Richard in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

''. Rapid also made appearances on various other television shows including ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

'' in 1999 and with local fandoms including the

Chuck E. Cheese Chuck E. Cheese (formerly known as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza and simply Chuck E. Cheese's) is an American family entertainment center and pizza restaurant chain founded in 1977 by Atari's co-founder Nolan Bu ...

and

ShowBiz Pizza ShowBiz Pizza Place, often shortened to ShowBiz Pizza or ShowBiz, was an American family entertainment center and restaurant pizza chain founded in 1980 by Robert L. Brock and Creative Engineering. It emerged after a separation between Brock and ...

fandom (from 2004 until 2013) at "Cheesevention", as well as in the

Furry Fandom The furry fandom is a subculture interested in anthropomorphic animal characters. Examples of anthropomorphic attributes include exhibiting human intelligence and facial expressions, speaking, walking on two legs, and wearing clothes. The term ...

at conventions such as

Anthrocon Anthrocon (abbreviated AC) is a furry convention that takes place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania each June or July. Its caters to the furries: fans of fictional anthropomorphic animal characters in art and literature. The convention was first held ...

and

Midwest Furfest Midwest FurFest (MFF) is a furry convention that takes place in Rosemont, Illinois, usually on the second weekend after Thanksgiving. MFF is an Illinois Educational Not-For-Profit Corporation that exists primarily for the purpose of holding an ann ...

as a Guest of Honor in 2000. In 2011, the program was the subject of a featured exhibition at the

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood in Queens, New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Amer ...

. Richard Concepcion, the producer and puppeteer of Rapid T. Rabbit, died on August 1, 2017, in his apartment due to natural causes, thus ending the show's run. Rapid T

Main cast

*Rapid Transit Rabbit – Host *Cuppy – Co-host *Mejeep The Meeping Ferret – Co-host *Rupert – Supporting character and Rapid's puppet nephew

Special guest appearances

* T.H.E. Fox *

Greg the Bunny ''Greg the Bunny'' is an American television sitcom that originally aired on Fox in 2002. It starred Seth Green and a hand puppet named Greg the Bunny, originally invented by the team of Sean S. Baker, Spencer Chinoy and Dan Milano. Milano and ...

*Cody Coyote *

Dr. Demento Barret Eugene Hansen (born April 2, 1941), known professionally as Dr. Demento, is an American radio broadcaster and record collector specializing in novelty songs, comedy, and strange or unusual recordings dating from the early days of phonograp ...

* Looney Bird *

Frank Sidebottom Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Cur ...

*Tenderheart Bear and Bedtime Bear of The Care Bears *Orwin Raccoon *Mr. Rat from The Mr. Bear Today Show *Rattus T. Rat *Sandy the Seagull of the

Brooklyn Cyclones The Brooklyn Cyclones are a Minor League Baseball team of the South Atlantic League and the High-A affiliate of the New York Mets. They are based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, and play at Maimonides Park, just off the Coney Island Boar ...

*Scooter the Holy Cow of the

Staten Island Yankees The Staten Island Yankees were a minor league baseball team located in the New York City borough of Staten Island from 1999 to 2020. Nicknamed the "Baby Bombers", the Yankees were the Class A Short Season affiliate of the New York Yankees and pla ...

* Reggy from the

Mascot Hall of Fame The Mascot Hall of Fame, formally "The Mascot Hall of Fame Interactive Children's Museum", is a hall of fame for North American sports mascots. It was founded by David Raymond, who was the original Phillie Phanatic from 1978 to 1993. It was foun ...

Soupy Sales Milton Supman (January 8, 1926 – October 22, 2009), known professionally as Soupy Sales, was an American comedian, actor, radio-television personality, and jazz aficionado. He was best known for his local and network children's television serie ...

Larry Storch Lawrence Samuel Storch (January 8, 1923 – July 8, 2022) was an American actor and comedian best known for his comic television roles, including voice-over work for cartoon shows such as Mr. Whoopee on ''Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales'' and hi ...

Joe Franklin Joe Franklin (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), born Joseph Fortgang, was an American radio and television host personality, author and actor from New York City. Franklin is noted for having the first talk show and inventing the format. His te ...

Arnold Stang Arnold Sidney Stang (September 28, 1918 – December 20, 2009)
''The New York Times'', 22 December 2 ...

*Blitzer T. Wolf *

Bugs Bunny Bugs Bunny is an animated cartoon character created in the late 1930s by Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) and voiced originally by Mel Blanc. Bugs is best known for his starring roles in the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' ...

Paddington Bear Paddington Bear is a fictional character in children's literature. He first appeared on 13 October 1958 in the children's book ''A Bear Called Paddington'' and has been featured in more than twenty books written by British author Michael Bond, a ...

Telly Monster The Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson, many for the purpose of appearing on the children's television program ''Sesame Street''. Some of the best known Muppets on ''Sesame Street'' include Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch ...

from ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...

'' * Kermit Love *

Oscar the Grouch Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character created by Jim Henson and Jon Stone for the PBS/HBO children's television program ''Sesame Street''. He has a green body, no visible nose, and lives in a trash can. Oscar's favorite thing is trash, as eviden ...

from ''

References

External links

* {{YouTube, c=UCZQ1jq-etqkAdbZeBEKVW-A, Rapid T. Rabbit * Rapid T. Rabbit's entry on WikiFur 1980s American comedy television series 1983 American television series debuts 1990s American comedy television series 2000s American comedy television series 2017 American television series endings American public access television shows American television shows featuring puppetry Anthropomorphic rabbits and hares Television series about rabbits and hares