Short-Lived Shows: Roger Ramjet

Roger Ramjet, a very funny cartoon that originally aired in 1965, could be mistaken for a Jay Ward creation, as its aesthetic, pop cultural references, and "too smart for the little kids watching it" sense of humor bear a striking resemblance to Ward's Rocky and Bullwinkle. While I was born about eleven years too late to catch Roger Ramjet when it first aired, I did catch occasional episodes on Cartoon Network while I was in college, and actually found it much funnier than Rocky and Bullwinkle (again, a show it had no connection with). Luckily, you can catch a bunch of episodes on YouTube, and I highly recommend that you do. The series featured Gary Owens (Laugh-In announcer and original voice of Space Ghost) as Roger Ramjet, the leader of a group of spunky cadets known as the American Eagles. Ramjet would often try to save the day, but ultimately he was more interested in saving his own skin. The show, as I said, sampled from the same well of humor as Rocky and Bullwinkle, but was much tighter, and much more rapid fire with its gags. Rocky and Bullwinkle's gags were constructed in such a way that one could clearly see the set up, and the punchline that followed. As funny as that show was, its pacing was actually very methodical. Roger Ramjet, by contrast, would overload every line with several gags, sometimes eschewing its limited animation and instead simply having the characters' words flash onto the screen. There was never any lesson learned in any of the episodes, at least none parent's would want kids to remember. It was, essentially, a satire of so-called heroism, the story of a man who wants to save the day, but is really only interested in looking out for his best interests.

And what the heck, because I like you all so much I stuck a three-minute episode in after the jump. Happy viewing.