Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman
Fetch! (Ooooh, I like that name!) With Ruff Ruffman!
Genre: Children's game show Reality television Comedy Country: United States Release Date: May 29, 2006 - November 4, 2010 Network(s): PBS Kids PBS Kids GO! Created by: Kate Taylor Distributed by: WGBH-TV Starring: Jim Conroy Seasons: 5 Episodes: 100 Next show: Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman (sometimes shortened as Fetch!) is an American animated/live-action television series that was on PBS Kids. It is a reality-game show that is hosted by an animated anthropomorphic dog named Ruff Ruffman who dispenses challenges to the show's real-life contestants. The series ran for five seasons and 100 episodes from May 29, 2006 to November 4, 2010, on PBS Kids, with 30 contestants in that time.

Plot

A game show hosted by a dog encourages kids to do outdoor activities. It's way better than it sounds.

Why It's Rufftastic

1. Catchy theme song.
2. Ruff's crying is pretty funny to listen to and surprisingly doesn't come off as annoying.
3. Ruff is a very likable and hilarious protagonist and mostly does a good job hosting his show, as do his assistants, Blossom and Chet.
4. Entertaining and threatening villains such as Scruff (Ruff's criminal twin brother) and P.U.R.R.S (Pussycat Underground Rather Rotten Society) who seek to take over the world by turning everyone into believing they are cats.
5. Ruff's impulsive actions add great comedy to the cartoon and it can give viewers a laugh.
6. The FETCHers are also very likable and you want them to succeed in the challenges they get into. Rosario Carson is very energetic and funny, Emeline Atwood and Rubye Peyser are real-life friends, and Season 4 winner Liza Giangrande dated Issac Bean before breaking up, but they remain friends to this day.
7. Passable and decent animation for the animated segments.
8. The live-action segments of the show are actually pretty decent and enjoyable to see while watching the cartoon and it can actually give viewers a laugh.
9. Lots of catchy songs, an example is the "Just Drive" song from Ruff Ruffman: Humble Media Genius, which is pretty nice to listen to; it's good for newcomers to learn the dangers of driving.
10. Impressive voice acting with Jim Conroy voicing Ruff and his entire family and great plots for the show. In fact, the show is well-written and it managed to be a great game show.
11. Amazing story arcs, with Ruff being arrested in Season 2, him being fired from his job at the end of Season 3, the search for the Helmet of Victory in Season 4, and the search for Ruff's parents and having to stop PURRS from taking over the world in Season 5.
12. Great guest stars, including the Blue Men, Penn and Teller, Nathan Ball from Design Squad, Crush from Finding Nemo, and sadly, Dawn Brancheau from Seaworld Orlando.
13. The season 5 finale, "The FETCH Finale" was a great way to end the series with Ruff and the FETCHers stopping P.U.R.R.S from turning everyone in the world into cats and Ruff finally finding his missing parents, which was very heartwarming. Last-place contestant Marco Frongillio ended up winning the grand prize. As Ruff says it, "It's the road to victory!"
14. The best part? Season 4 winner Liza Giangrande did a reunion Tiktok with the other season 4 Fetchers, unfortunately, contestant Talia Patapoutian did not attend as she was in Paris at the time.

Not-So Rufftastic Qualities

1. Ruff tends to repeat the obvious.
2. The episode "How Not to Impress the Press" has Ruff becoming a turkey vulture, which is a very nauseating and nightmarish sight, as it almost made Blossom vomit. Don't worry, Ruff turned back to normal, even more so if he didn't accidentally turn himself back into one again: which he did.
3. The spinoffs took away all the charm Fetch! had, and replaced them with stock edutainment morals. Worse, Ruff Ruffman's Humble Media Genius had Blossom replaced with Lupine with no explaination to what happened to her character.
4. While P.U.R.R.S is a great villain, there are so many missed opportunities and plot holes.
   • How will P.U.R.R.S take over the whole world when not everyone has access to television?
   • How will turning everyone into believing they are cats cause P.U.R.R.S world domination?
   • Why does P.U.R.R.S seek world domination?
   • What about the existing cats like Blossom, will she follow P.U.R.R.S, or go against them?
   • Is P.U.R.R.S aware of Tom and Trixie from Go Get It, a game show that copies Fetch!, being undercover agents who also happen to be Ruff's parents?
   • Will Go Get It be cancelled without Tom and Trixie?
   • Despite their plans being foiled, P.U.R.R.S is not fully stopped, and as pointed out by Ruff's father, they were recruited by a secret organization to spy on P.U.R.R.S. What is this secret organization?
5. It may imply that more information will be revealed in Season 6, but it was cancelled due to lack of funding.

Reception

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman received positive reviews from critics and audiences, and it won a bunch of awards, including an Emmy award for Best Original Song for its theme song.

Trivia

• Jim Conroy (the voice actor of Ruff) also voiced Kenny from the 2003 Discovery Family animated series, Kenny the Shark, and Bud Humphrey from the upcoming Disney Channel series, Primos.
• The show was originally going to get a 6th season, but due to lack of funding, PBS Kids cancelled the series after the 5th season.
• On PBS broadcasts of episodes from seasons 1-3, the camera pans up to the monitor featuring the singing cats at the end of the intro (seguing into the show's funding credits); this is cut on international and streaming prints of the show. For the last two seasons, the monitor is replaced by Chet flying around in a plane. The plane crashes, with a trail of smoke filling up the whole screen as Chet's parachute opens.

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