The first series Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera produced for television was Ruff & Reddy, which went on in 1957. Matter of fact, it debuted on December 14, 1957 — 54 years ago today, forever changing the world of animation. Some would say "…and not for the better" and we could spend hours debating that. Matter of fact, I could spend hours debating it with myself. I'd have to factor in my personal fondness for Bill and Joe, along with my awareness of them as genuine Job Creators who kept animators working at a time when many thought that art 'n' craft would soon employ no more people than Mr. Disney could accommodate. I guess the main talking point would be my love of the early H-B cartoons, starting with the debut of Ruff & Reddy.
I was five at the time and I'm pretty sure I saw it the first morning it was on. It was new animation but not all new and not all animation. A fellow named Jimmy Blaine hosted the show, which was on NBC Saturday morning. He had two talking puppet birds with him. Each episode contained a few minutes of him talking with the birds, a couple of Ruff & Reddy episodes and one old cartoon (often Fox & Crow) from the rarely-opened Columbia/Screen Gems vault. Having already memorized all the old theatrical cartoons that were shown on TV, this was a refreshing new trove to enjoy.
Our video today is a series of Post cereal commercials that I guess aired on the Ruff & Reddy program, though I don't recall them at all. They have somewhat better animation than the episodes of that series. Don Messick did the voice of Ruff and he's also the spaceman in the first commercial. The announcer on it is Dick Tufeld. Daws Butler played Reddy with a voice not too different from the one he'd do the following season for Hanna-Barbera on their first all-animated series, Huckleberry Hound. Daws also supplied the crocodile with a voice similar to the one he'd do for H-B in '58 as Quick Draw McGraw. I liked the shows starring both of those characters more than I liked Ruff & Reddy but at the time, I liked Ruff & Reddy a lot. And I still do, especially when they're not selling cereal…