Ramar of the Jungle

If you want adventure and action this is the show to watch. Ramar brought medical help to all who needed it, the local natives who he had to educate to modern medicine, fellow adventurer Professor Ogden, or animals. After helping out in Africa he spent his final season in India.

I enjoyed this series as a kid in the 1950's, and I am enjoying it even more now with the DVD releases. Dr. Reynolds and Professor Ogden (Jon Hall and Ray Montgomery) were one of the smoothest working teams ever! Some of their adventures were in Africa while others were in India, but they never failed to provide wholesome (although sometimes violent) entertainment. Their supporting characters (James Fairfax as Charlie, Ludwig Stossel as Peter Van Tyne, M'Liss McClure as Trudy Van Tyne, Nick Stewart as Willy-Willy, and Victor Millan as Zahir) were always dependable, loyal, and lovable. If you like jungle adventures, this series is really fun to watch!

I stepped off the school bus in 1954 and saw a man installing an antenna on the roof. My brothers and sisters and I ran into the house and the first show we saw was Ramar of the Jungle. I'll never forget it as long as I live. TV was simple and entertaining back then. We weren't allowed to watch all day but there wasn't much for a kid to watch after the cartoons in the morning until late afternoon when Ramar of the Jungle came on and other shows like it. At night we watched mostly westerns and cop shows and shows about WWII. They are all fond memories of my childhood. I watch a lot of the same shows today and think how corny they were compared to what we have today but we loved them at the time. Before we got our TV, we had to go into town and watch my big brother's TV. It was usually the Wednesday night fights we watched.

I watched this faithfully, every episode, at ages 5, 6, and 7. Then I watched reruns. We had just gotten our first TV and this series was pure magic to me. I learned about other peoples, other ways of life, and Africa. Even though now when I joyfully revisit Ramar, and I see the inaccurate mixture of jungle and savanna animal habitats, it doesn't matter, because Ramar showed me the world and taught me so much at such a young age. I also learned fair play, honesty, service to humanity for other than material gain, and good versus evil. Charlie was a favorite too, with his British accent!

Ramar was weekly viewing fare in our house. What would seem corny to today's children was then watched in awe. Information would come to the party via a runner who had to cover more miles than a Range Roveer to get there. I seem to recall a Territorial police official who seems to appear out of nowhere to take someone into custody after Reynolds and Ogden ended their criminal career. Looking back I can still see some of the makeup and costumes that had a lot to be desired to be convincing by today's standards. But, that was then and the good guys always won. There was always a good moral ending to each episode. Babbet the monkey, was a great character too. I even had a "Ramar of the Jungle" board game! I would love to watch this series today.