R is for Roger Ramjet

When I was 12 years old, there was this cartoon called Roger Ramjet. Naturally, for the next several years, some kid or another referred to ME as Roger Ramjet, “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’.” This did not bother me.

I don’t much remember the program, but I believe that I mistakenly thought it was made by the same folks who made Rocky and Bullwinkle, the cartoon about a moose and squirrel that I watched fairly regularly. A 2015 article suggests Roger Ramjet was a subversive cartoon classic:

Bullwinkle aired from ‘59 to ‘64. Roger Ramjet came along a year later and Jay Ward’s influence is undeniable. The difference was Roger Ramjet crammed the equivalent number of bad jokes, references, and plot twists of a typical 8-part Bullwinkle serial into each five-minute episode, both mirroring the rapid-fire screwball dialogue of the ‘30s and the frenetic quick-cut comedy to come along a year or two later in shows like The Monkees and Laugh-In…

The show was created originally by animator Fred Crippen… and Ken Snyder, an ad exec who moved over into producing cartoons. They brought in a remarkable team of voice talent and comedy writers, including Gene Moss (the voice of Smokey the Bear) Jim Thurmam (who did a lot of kids shows including Sesame Street), Dick Beals (the original voice of Gumby), and the great Gary Owens [voicing Roger], a drive-time deejay in LA who would get national recognition soon enough as the on-screen announcer for Laugh-In…

In the end, though, the characters and storylines are secondary at best in Roger Ramjet. At heart it’s a matter of trying to keep up with all the lightning-quick jokes and wordplay, the non-sequitors and references.

The Roger Ramjet theme, based on Yankee Doodle, which I well remember
The theme lyrics, which include
Roger Ramjet he’s our man
Hero of our nation
For his adventure just be sure
And stay tuned to this station.

Roger Ramjet – Episode 01 – Dr Ivan Evilkisser;
You can find more episodes on the sidebar, or by Googling under the videos category.

ABC Wednesday – Round 17

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto. View all posts by Roger

14 thoughts on “R is for Roger Ramjet”

There could have been other namecalling wich was less pleasant… you lucky devil 😉

Truth be told, I’ve never heard of Roger Ramjet…and I think I may have missed something fun!

I have to admit I never heard of that cartoon either.
Love how you have found so many Rogers to talk about.

either roger green or roger ramjet,
bot r names are sound….

have fun with rosy run of r

Fun post for R ~ Roger ~ my son loved Bullwinkle ~ but don’t remember Roger Ramjet ~

Happy Week to you,
artmusedog and carol

So Roger Ramjet was a sort of Superman!
I’ve never heard of him, but I can understand that he was very popular!
Wil, ABCW team

There was a cartoon character named Roger Rabbit, too. “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” was a movie released in the 1980s. I had forgotten about it. Thanks for jogging my memory!
Lea

A new one on me, he looked like the blond guy from Wacky Races at first sight! Will check him out…

That is interesting. I need to do some research on my name now. 🙂
Happy ABCW!

I thought he looked familiar but didn’t know why until the wacky races comment above.

You thought you were made by Rocky and Bullwinkle? That’s funny:) And a subversive cartoon? Maybe I lived too long near Hollywood that I think they’re pretty normal:)
Oh, before I forget, the post I was working on, and you commented on, I accidentally “posted” instead of putting in “draft.’ So it will be a few weeks later, you will see it actually posted.