The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show

=Animated series=

Infobox Television
show_name = The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show


caption = Title card
format = Animated, Puppet show
runtime = 60 minutes
creator = Barry Mills
voices = Barry Mills
Gus Jordan
Jack Pendarvis
Bill Taft
Sally Timms
Jon Langford
country = USA
network = TNT
first_aired = July 8, 1995
last_aired = August 20, 1997
imdb_id = 0398556|

"The Rudy and Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show" was a programming block of animated cartoons for TNT during the mid 1990s. Hosted by "Rowdy" Rudy R. Moore (a puppet of a young boy, who looked a little like Howdy Doody), and his pet goat Gogo (a live action nanny goat whose real name is Princess), the show featured a variety of cartoon short subjects from Turner Entertainment's library, including Warner Bros.' "Looney Tunes" and "Merrie Melodies", MGM cartoons such as "Tom and Jerry" and "Droopy", and Fleischer/Famous' "Popeye the Sailor". Between cartoons, Rudy, Gogo, and an African American puppet named Jesse B. Weaver (or "Jumpin' J.B." to his friends) would star in short host segments, usually involving floating around in a bizarre colorful spiral and sometimes just randomly screaming "AAAHH!" while floating in the spiral.

Later episodes of the show featured more minor characters, such as the skeleton puppet Boney Bonerton, voiced by show co-producer Jack Pendarvis. Also worth noting are Cowboy Sally and the pirate named Olde Salty Sea Biscuit who would be shown rowing in a canoe in a bathroom sink. Cowboy Sally and Old Salty Sea Biscuit were respectively played by Sally Timms and Jon Langford of the British musical group The Mekons.

Some episodes ran under different titles, such as "Rudy and Gogo 2000", "Rudy y Gogo", and "Taterhole" (which was apparently the name of the fictional location where the show took place). TNT also used the Rudy and Gogo concept as a vehicle for various cartoon and movie specials. The "Rudy and Gogo's New Year's Eve Flaming Cheese Ball" special for the 1995/1996 New Year's Eve showed the cult films The Blob, House on Haunted Hill, and Thunderbirds Are Go and featured Gogo's announcement for the 1996 US presidential election as well the anti-climactic dropping of the giant cheese ball at midnight.

TNT later aired special commercials that featured Gogo running for presidency as an independent candidate. Her theme song was the Spanish language tune "Gogo Para Presidente!", which became a popular segment of the show. In 1996 the Minneapolis rock trio John Updyke's Lick Pussy (later renamed JULP) recorded a version of the song for a 7" vinyl b-side for the Earmark Records label. In 1997 they debuted a music video, directed by Mike "Suade" Newell, at First Avenue Nightclub. This low budget, sepia-toned short featured the band putting up "snipe" posters that read "Vote Goat" on walls and phone poles. It was later included on Newell's DVD entitled "Michael C. Newell - History: 1991-2004."

The program was a favorite in college dorms and had a particularly devoted following in New York University’s Hayden Hall. During the 1995-96 school year, several Freshmen students wrote to the program and were rewarded by having their names appear on screen as friends of the show.

"Rudy and Gogo" ended its broadcast run in 1997 before TNT stopped showing cartoons during the fall of 1998.

External links

* [http://www.rudyandgogo.com Official Site]
* [http://sabatos.net/gogo.php "Gogo Para Presidente" at The Sabatos Network]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=749sFVmy4WU Minneapolis Band J.U.L.P's Version of "Gogo Para Presidente" 1997 Earmark Records music video at YouTube]