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Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman

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Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman
File:Fetchlogo ruff vm.gif
Title credits
GenreChildren's game show
Created byKate Taylor
Developed byWGBH
Written byGlen Berger
Jim Conroy
Directed byClifford Saito
Adam Dalley
Joe Truesdell
Peter Lyons
Wayne Simpson
Dean Raymond Robert V. Lange
Chris Whitbeck
StarringJim Conroy
(Contestants)
Voices ofJim Conroy
Narrated byJim Conroy
Theme music composerTerry Tompkins, Rocco Gagliese, Steve D'Angelo for Eggplant LLC
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of seasons5
No. of episodes100 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producerKate Taylor
ProducersPaul Serafini
Marcy Gunther
Eric Handler
Production locationsBoston, Massachusetts and other parts of the USA
EditorsArnie Harchik
Jessica Rueter Andrews
Lisa Wolf
Kathyrn Farrelly
Alan Grazioso
Jennifer Lorenz
Joe Headrick
Arnie Harchik
John Warren
Mark Geffen
Maureen Barillaro
Karen Silverstein
Camera setupMark C. Helton
Dan Lang
Stephen McCarthy
Multi-camera (For Studio Segaments)
Running time30 minutes
Production companyWGBH-TV
Original release
NetworkPBS Kids GO!
ReleaseMay 29, 2006 (2006-05-29) –
November 4, 2010 (2010-11-04)

FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman is a children's television series for old children aged 6-12 on PBS during the PBS Kids GO! block of educational programming. It is a game show/reality show parody that is hosted by an animated anthropomorphic dog who dispenses challenges to the show's real-life contestants. Premiering on May 29, 2006, the show has since completed four seasons, with a fifth season that premiered on October 4, 2010. The series will end on November 4, 2010 as WGBH announced that due to lack of funding that the series would be cancelled after five seasons and 100 episodes. In June 2008, the series received its first Emmy for Best Original Song for its theme.

Production

Fetch is produced at WGBH Studios in Boston. Seasons are filmed about a year before they air. Season four began this show in High Definition (HD) in 2009. Production for season 5 is in post production at this time. Auditions for season 6 took place on January 9 & 10, 2010.[1] However, WGBH announced that while casting has already been completed, due to a lack of funding, Fetch! will be cancelled after its fifth and final season. The challenges are filmed mostly in Boston and various other parts of the USA, depending on the challenges. The challenges are filmed in the summer time when the children are out of school. The challenges which are shot out on the field are a cut documentary-style, very similar to network reality TV shows. After the FETCHers finish filming the challenges, contestants are acted with the voice of Ruff. Jim Conroy travels to Boston from NY for the two weeks they spend shooting in the studio. The fourth camera simply captures Conroy doing his lines as Ruff in the audio booth. The kids hear him in the studio and he hear their lines/reactions in his headphones. Ruff's lines are the only lines that are scripted out, though depending on the situation he will sometimes ad-lib an answer to a question from a FETCHer. Once all that is done the show goes into editing. First the editors go in and pick out their challenge clips and put them in order of the show. Then they are sent to Jim Conroy in NY to voice the episodes where the animation needs to go. Once that is complete, it is sent back to WGBH where they take the audio clips of the animated characters and place them where they go. Once all of this is done, the episode is sent to global mechanic to animate the show. one out of the four editors have an off-set four-week system in place where one of them is ready to send a cut of a new episode to Vancouver every Friday. This processes takes about 6 months to complete one season of the show.[2]

Studio G set

Studio G is the studio for FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman. There 3 parts to the show that take place in the studio. The parts are the intro to the show, halftime quiz show and the Triumph Tally take place in the studio. Over the years the set has changed a few times. For season 1 and 2 the studio stayed the same, but in season 3 is when the set started to change big time. In season 3 the TV on which the contestants view Ruff was changed to a more current blue flat screen TV. Also Ruff's owner parked her car in the studio. A flamingo and trees were added around the logo of the studio. A Studio G sign was added in Season 2. In Season 4 a brand new remote control Mailbox in place on the blue flat TV Screen which pops out when a challenge is in the mailbox. The wall of fame in the studio was introduced in Season 2 and in Season 3 the Anna and Mike pictures in the wall of fame are smaller except for the question mark picture.

Cast and crew

Main article: List of FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman characters

With the exception of Blossom and Chet, who don't speak, all character voices are provided by Jim Conroy. The contestants are not professional actors and are real children who actually do the activities. They range in age from 10 to 14.

Characters include:

  • Ruff Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is the host of the show. He doesn't like cats, or at least thinks that dogs are superior to them in most ways. He has a crush on Charlene. Ruff grouses about his contract to produce a reality TV program, and the stresses of running one. He loves all food, American-Chinese take-out in particular. His physical appearance features "eyebrows that hover mysteriously above his head". Ruff has many relatives and ancestors, all with a similar physical appearance to him, and he has five other brothers and sisters besides Scruff and Roxy. According to the episode Ruff Bounces Back, Ruff is a mutt and is proud of it. At the end of season 4, Ruff mentions about his mom and dad, stating that they had vanished when he was a pup, but Jerry the parrot explains that they're still alive, implying that that will be the storyline for season 5.
  • Blossom, whose full name is Princess Blossom Pepperdoodle Von Yum Yum is a cat and was Ruff's intern for Season 2. She is usually simply called "Blossom". Quite serious, she is usually seen taking notes on her laptop. She has never spoken, but only makes strange squeaking sounds to get Ruff's attention. She was promoted to supervisor in Season 3. Ruff didn't enjoy Blossom's company at first, but eventually forms a close bond with her. Despite all of the hijinks that Ruff puts her through, she continues to be loyal to Ruff and the show, particularly when she decided to 'work' for Harriet Hackensack so she could find out the reason for her misocyny (hatred for dogs). In "Don't like Fencing? Try Fencing!", Blossom is shown watching Design Squad (and also shows that she is a fan of Nate from the show).
  • Grandma Ruffman, also voiced by Conroy, is Ruff Ruffman's stubborn grandmother who appeared in eleven episodes so far: Grandma Ruffman's Recipe for Success, The Small Fork Is For Dessert (Unless You're a Dolphin), Tape Loops and Loop-the-Loops, There's Food Safety and Then There's Food Safety, Socket to Me, The People vs. Grandma Ruffman, the FETCH! with Scruff Ruffman Finale, Season Four is Cancelled, Is It a Bird? Is It a Plane? It's... Ruffmanman!, Ruff Needs His Herring Checked, Gearing Up for Getting Ruff's Goat, and How to Really Train Your Dog. Like Ruff, she is also pretentious, and animated in Macromedia Flash. As a writer, she attempted to market her products on her grandson's show, and as a grandmother, she constantly fusses about insignificant things, such as Ruff's manners and other FETCHers staying behind in the studio. However, she cares for Ruff, going as far as to retrieve the stolen Fetch 3000 Scruff stole in the premiere of Season 4.

Synopsis

FETCH! is a reality-based game show where young contestants take on various challenges to gain points. During these challenges, the contestants must complete a variety of tasks assigned to them ahead of time (and on the fly) by Ruff and surrogates, depending on the situation. There is also an educational component, as contestants often must learn something (i.e. Astronomy, Carpentry, Food Science, Biology, etc.) in order to complete the task.

Not all contestants leave the studio each episode to complete tasks. As determined usually by the Fetch 3000, the contestants who remain behind in the studio participate in the "Half-Time Quiz Show", in which Ruff asks them questions based on the activities of the contestants out on challenges (see below). Once the contestants complete the activities in the field to the best of their abilities, they return to the studio and Ruff tallies their points. A prize is awarded to the contestant with the most points. At the end of the season, a final point tally is conducted, with the winner of the tally being declared winner of that season and wins the "Grand Prize".

Prizes are not always desirable, and sometimes the prize holder winds up with a "booby prize"; for example, in Good Dancing and Bad Teeth, Anna and Brian had to dance a waltz in the studio. During the first season the contestant had the choice of keeping the prize, or giving it to a fellow contestant. From (Season 2-5) there are two unknown prizes from which the winner chooses one. Usually, the chosen prize is "mailed" to the mailbox in Studio G, although occasionally large prizes are hidden elsewhere on the set. In one season two episode Rosario gave his prize to Nina, and in another Rosario gave his to Madi. In a season 4 episode, Sterling returned his prize to the mailbox.

Points

Out on challenges, contestants have the potential to earn up to 100 points. The contestants in the studio have a chance to win a maximum of 50 points in the Half-Time Quiz Show in which they have to answer 10 questions about events during the challenges. Each question is worth 5 points. They have a total of 60 seconds (for Season 1 and 2 it was 90 seconds but it usually varies by wide amounts of time) to answer all the questions. They can pass on the question and return to it if time permits. Usually, there is also a Fetch Fairness Guarantee, which states that every contestant will have had an equal number of challenges (usually 13) and quiz shows (usually 6) before the final episode. Additionally, there are between 5 and 10 "Bone-us" points (sometimes 15 or 20 points) available for one or two (sometimes even three or four) stand-out contestants. On rare occasions, there is the possibility to earn more than 100 points (outside of any bonuses). The record so far for most points earned in one episode is 125, by Brian, Noah and Khalil on Season 1, Episode 5. In Season 4 contestants are able to have 1/2 points (i.e. 515½ points)

Cultural references and guest stars

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman contains a surprising amount of cultural references for a PBS Kids show. In the season 2 premiere, when Madi does a rather sloppy job at making chocolate candy, Ruff remarks that it is the "Jackson Pollock candy." In the following episode, Ruff mentions that he likes REO Speedwagon. In season 4, when Talia found a horseshoe crab while working on a shrimp boat, a horrified Ruff exclaimed, "That looks like Darth Vader's head with a million legs coming out of it!"

The show also had some guest stars. In season 2, Ruff sends Madi and Willie to meet the Blue Man Group, and although he intended for them to meet a "blues" band, Ruff was genuinely impressed. In season 3, Sam meets Senator Edward Kennedy. In season 5, Crush the sea turtle from the movie Finding Nemo makes an appearance via Ruff's FETCH 3000.

Episodes

Main article: List of FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman episodes

As of 7 October 2010, 100 episodes have aired over 5 seasons.

SeasonEpisodesOriginally airedWinner
First airedLast aired
120May 29, 2006 (2006-05-29)June 29, 2006 (2006-06-29)Anna Sheridan
220May 28, 2007 (2007-05-28)June 28, 2007 (2007-06-28)Michael "Mike" Spence
320September 29, 2008 (2008-09-29)October 30, 2008 (2008-10-30)Jay Brosnan
420September 11, 2009 (2009-09-11)[4]October 15, 2009 (2009-10-15)Liza Giangrande
520October 4, 2010 (2010-10-04)[5]November 4, 2010 (2010-11-04)[3]Marc "Marco" Frongillo

New Episodes

New episodes air Mondays through Thursdays, but specific air times vary for each individual PBS station. Monday's episode is usually repeated on Friday, unless another program has been scheduled for Friday. In some markets, the show airs on weekends.[6] After November 4th 2010 there will not be any more episodes produced.

Cancellation

The show had auditions for their sixth season in January 2010 but on June 14, 2010 WGBH Boston announced that Season 5 will be the final season due to lack of funding. On June 27, 2010 Jim Conroy, the voice of Ruff, made the official announcement at the Daytime Emmy award ceremony. On Jim's Facebook page he said, "It's such an impossible task going up against Sesame Street and The Electric Company. So you have to consider the nomination as a win. Can't complain. PBS gave us 100 episodes and 5 seasons. Many good shows never saw that kind of time." FETCH will air its fifth and final season beginning on October 4, 2010.[7]

Auditions

To try out for FETCH!, potential contestants were required to be between the ages of 10 and 14 and able to live in the greater Boston area over the summer, during school vacations, and a few weekends during the school year. FETCHers needed to be able to be filmed without missing school. Auditions were handled by Maura Tighe Casting.[citation needed]

Go Get It!

Go Get It! was Ruff competition for season 5. The host were Tom and Trixie and they were cats.

Funding

In seasons 1–3, Ruff would announce the funding through the FETCH 3000. In season 4 and 5 he would do it on a projector.

Awards

  • APEX 2009

Grand Award for The Ruff Guide to Science

  • U.S. International Film and Video Festival 2009

"Certificate for Creative Excellence" in the Children's Programming category

  • 2009 Daytime Emmy Nominations

Outstanding Children's Series Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series Outstanding Achievement in Main Title and Graphic Design

  • iParenting Media Award 2009

Winner – Television "2009 Best Products"

  • Parents' Choice Awards 2009

Silver Honor Winner: TV show

  • WorldFest Houston 2009

Gold Remi Award "TV Series – Family/Children"

  • WorldFest Houston 2009

Platinum Remi Award "TV Series – Family/Children"

  • MITX Award 2008

Winner – Best Kids, 'Tweens and Teens site

  • 2008 Daytime Emmy Award

Outstanding Original Song – Children's And Animation – FETCH! Theme Song

  • 2008 Daytime Emmy Nominations

Outstanding Writing in a Children's Series Outstanding Original Song – Children's And Animation – FETCH Theme Song Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Editing

  • U.S. International Film and Video Festival 2008

First Place "Gold Camera Award" in the Children's Programming category

  • Clarion Award 2008 Competition

Winner – Television Special Audience Program

  • Parents' Choice Awards 2008

Silver Honor Winner: Web site Recommended Award Winner: TV show

  • WorldFest Houston

Gold Remi Award for "TV Series – Family/Children"

  • iParenting Media Award 2008

Winner – Television "2008 Best Products"

  • PRIX JEUNESSE 2008 Festival

Runner-Up Fourth Place – Ages 7-11 Non-Fiction

  • New York Festival International 2008

Bronze World Medal in Youth programs

  • 2007 Daytime Emmy Nominations

Performer in an Animated Series Original Song – FETCH Theme Song

  • U.S. International Film and Video Festival 2007

Second Place "Silver Screen Award" in the Children's Programming category

  • Clarion Award 2007 Competition

Winner – Television Special Audience Program

  • Parents' Choice Awards

2007 Gold Award Winner

  • WorldFest Houston

Bronze Remi Award for "TV Series – Family/Children"[12]

References

  1. ^ [1][dead link]
  2. ^ http://www.newenglandfilm.com/magazine/2009/10/ruff
  3. ^ "Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman – 'The FETCH Finale' Episode Info – MSN TV". Archived from the original on 2012-09-08. Retrieved 2010-09-23.
  4. ^ "Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman". Kentucky Educational Television. Archived from the original on August 5, 2009. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
  5. ^ "Television · Oregon Public Broadcasting". Opb.org. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  6. ^ http://pbskids.org/tvschedules/airdates.html?program_id=5485171&display_date=2010-11-04&display_feed=2495&station=WVIZ
  7. ^ http://www.wgbh.org/about/studiotours_faqs.cfm#5
  8. ^ "Award#0610406 - FETCH With Ruff Ruffman, Season Two". nsf.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  9. ^ "Award#0714741 - FETCH! Future Scientists Initiative". nsf.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  10. ^ "Award#0813513 - FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman Season Four". nsf.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  11. ^ "Award#0840307 - FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman, Season Five". nsf.gov. Retrieved July 1, 2010.
  12. ^ http://www.pbs.org/parents/fetch/program/kudos.html
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