TNT with Rudy & Gogo

Greatest show on TNT!

According to IMDB.com this counts as a show rather than an advertisement. However this show had tons of promos during it’s run in the mid 90s on TNT, so I actually found a good reason for this to be acceptable as an article for Advertisements Time Forgot. So let’s treat it like an advertisement as well as a show. Plus I bet you’ll likely to not meet many people who actually know the existence of this show. If you did remember watching this show under the age of 12, then you’re between the ages of 28-17. With that said, on to the article.

Vote Goat!

Rudy is like Charlie McCarthy & Howdy Doddy mixed together.

If Cousin Skeeter had a brother he'd be just like J.B.

The Rudy & Gogo World Famous Cartoon Show as a programming block of cartoons and live action shorts or film during the mid 90s on TNT. This was back when TNT had their own cartoon line-up or in this case cartoons Ted Turner had TV rights to at the time. The hosts are two marionette puppets name “Rowdy” Rudy R. Moore & Jesse B. Weaver along with their pet goat name Gogo(who is a live action goat). Most of the times these characters are seen floating around screaming with colorful spiral in the background as if they had too many drugged mushrooms or something. Along with them either watching a clip of a cartoon or live action film. Or a combination of them interacting with the stock footage. Other times there be a cast of a dozen supporting characters including Boney Bonerton, Abe Lincoln, an Alien, Cowboy Sally, Rapping Sailorman, & Tuba Frog. They even had real life celebrities guest star in certain episodes like Jeff Goldblum, Will Smith, Ed Lover and Doctor Dre from Yo! MTV Raps.

Contestant of the What did the Evil Pirate Say?

He sings like Brook from One Piece.

We never see his face.

The shows had an unusual use of different titles like “Rudy and Gogo 2000”, “Rudy y Gogo”, and “Taterhole”. As well as marathon specials that were titled “Rudy and Gogo’s Thanksgiving Leftover Special”, “Rudy and Gogo’s Funtime Movie Parade”, & “Rudy and Gogo’s New Year’s Eve Flaming Cheese Ball”. The New Year’s Eve one featured the films The Blob, Queen of Outer Space, House on Haunted Hill, and Thunderbirds Are Go. This marathon special was known for first announcing Gogo’s announcement for the 1996 US presidential election. This lead to the creation of the campaign song “Gogo Para Presidente”. An ever popular song that continued to run on the show for the rest of its run on TNT. Besides the marathon specials, the use of stock footage was what made this show memorable.

Uh Oh, Jango! It's Danger Island Next!

Among the continuing use of stock footage, this show has a habit of using repeated footage of the Skeletons from a 1931 Warner Bros. cartoon called “Hittin’ The Trail For Hallelujah Land”(I like to thank Syrinx9 from IMDB for the info on that cartoon), which due to the ethnic stereotypes it landed itself in the “Censored 11” list(a list of cartoons that can’t be censored or be shown on TV). Mainly due to one of the characters being name “Uncle Tom”, the use of blackface characters, and showing Uncle Tom being superstitious upon encountering the skeletons. The footage of the skeletons are used for every time a character thinks something is haunted or is scared. The other running use of stock footage would have to be the “Skeleton at the door” gag. Which starts with showing a clip of a someone knocking on the door from the Tex Avery short “Who Murdered Who”, then one of the characters would say “Who is it?” Then shows a clip of the skeleton coming out of the door saying “A skeleton”. Then all of the characters yell at the site of a skeleton coming out of a door. I know both of these gags are skeleton related but the one that involves the door was my favorite one of all.

The Cheering Bulls, They might be from Chicago.

The last episodes of the show featured very little, if any, host segments and the series ended its run in August, 1997. In fall 1998, TNT stopped showing cartoons all together and the network started to change its image. Thus was the end of the era as TNT only cares about Drama shows and live actions movies that don’t fall into the B-Rated or Cult Classic genre. All of the cartoons that did air on TNT would air on Cartoon Network, but a lot of them are now easy to purchase on DVD. Cause Cartoon Network would only show old cartoons upon special occasions as they’re more focused on their newer properties. I can still remember when most of their programs were Hanna-Barbara related along with Warner Bros. related cartoons.

We're here when things get creepy.

My last thoughts on this show, it was one of the best shows to ever be shown or advertised on TNT. It’s also something that wouldn’t likely to ever be returned, since some of the stuff that was used as stock footage or shown as the movie or short of the show are no longer own by Ted Turner or any representative of TNT. If enough money is invested to make a DVD Box Set collection possible, then everyone who missed out on seeing the show can get a glimpse of what TNT used to be like. In closing, I present to you some videos I managed to find off of youtube.