Ruffus the Dog is a Canadian children's television series which aired on YTV from 1998 to 1999; it was created by Robert Mills, who performs the title character, and developed with Cheryl Wagner. The show was produced through Radical Sheep Productions, a company founded by Mills in 1985 that also created The Big Comfy Couch. The Ruffus character had previously appeared in the educational video series The Adventures of Ruffus & Andy in the early 1990s, as produced by the Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario, where Ruffus and his owner Andy learned medical lessons.
| Ruffus the Dog | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Children's television series |
| Created by | Robert Mills and Cheryl Wagner |
| Directed by | Robert Mills |
| Starring | Robert Mills Bob Stutt Gord Robertson Fred Stinson Karen Valleau Ben Deutsch |
| Composer | JP Houston |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Original language | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Robert Mills John Leitch |
| Producers | Cheryl Wagner Robert Mills |
| Editor | Frank Moressa |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Production companies | Radical Sheep Productions Hunkey Dorey Entertainment YTV |
| Original release | |
| Network | YTV |
| Release | 1998 – 1999 |
When Robert Mills left Radical Sheep in 2002, ownership and rights to the award-winning series were transferred to his new company, Hunky Dorey Entertainment. In 2010 Mills announced all of the original shows would be posted online under a Creative Commons license, and that they want to produce new episodes for online release. The first major production was a re-telling of the Charles Dickens classic A Christmas Carol with Ruffus playing Ebenezer Scrooge. Six of the show's original puppeteers, Robert Mills, Bob Stutt, Gord Robertson, Fred Stinson, Karen Valleau, and Ben Deutsch, returned for the project, as did songwriter JP Houston. Alyson Court, who played Loonette the Clown on The Big Comfy Couch, voiced the Ghost of Christmas Past.
In 2013, the Ruffus Project embarked on production of a new web series entitled: Ruffus The Dog's Steampunk Adventure.
Also in the works were a series of illustrated book titles and a pre-school web series entitled: Ruffus Rhymes.
Synopsis
editRuffus the Dog runs a bookshop in a small town. There, he reads a famous fairy tale to the viewers. In the story, Ruffus and several other characters portray different characters in the tale. At the end, he talks about the moral of the story to the viewers.
Episodes
edit| Title | CC BY-NC-SA-2.5 release date |
|---|---|
| Rapunzel | July 13, 2010 |
| Robin Hood | July 13, 2010 |
| Jack & The Beanstalk | July 13, 2010 |
| Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde | July 20, 2010 |
| The Frog Prince | July 21, 2010 |
| The Brave Little Tailor | July 26, 2010 |
| Around The World In 80 Days | August 3, 2010 |
| The Three Little Pigs | August 10, 2010 |
| Little Red Riding Hood | August 18, 2010 |
| Little Bo Peep | August 22, 2010 |
| Sinbad The Sailor | August 31, 2010 |
| Aladdin & The Magic Lamp | September 8, 2010 |
| Tom Thumb | September 15, 2010 |
| Robinson Crusoe | September 22, 2010 |
| 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea | September 28, 2010 |
| The Three Bears | October 6, 2010 |
| The Emperor’s New Clothes | October 21, 2010 |
| The Three Musketeers | October 28, 2010 |
| The Troll Under The Bridge | November 3, 2010 |
| The Pied Piper | November 10, 2010 |
| The Second Voyage Of Sinbad | November 19, 2010 |
| Rip Van Winkle | February 23, 2011 |
| Gulliver’s Travels | March 14, 2011 |
| Hansel & Gretel | April 19, 2011 |
| King Midas | May 5, 2011 |
| Cinderella | June 13, 2011 |
| Ruffus The Dog’s Christmas Carol | December 17, 2011 |
External links
edit- Ruffus the Dog at IMDb
- Ruffus the Dog
- Ruffus The Dog's Steampunk Adventure website at the Wayback Machine (archived 2016-03-04)
- Case Study of the series by Creative Commons
- Ruffus the Dog is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive