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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman | 3/5 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fetch!_with_Ruff_Ruffman | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:45:34.319880+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Supporting === Grandma Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff and Scruff's grandmother, who speaks with a Long Island accent. She loves Ruff, but can be very critical at times. Like her son and daughter-in-law, Wink and Dinah Ruffman, she was a game show host/spy in her youth. Scruff Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff's identical evil twin brother, who is distinguished from him by a five-o'clock shadow. Throughout the show's run, Scruff becomes less evil and seeks to redeem himself and his family name. This likely stems from his girlfriend Petunia Fidolopolus framing Grandma Ruffman for trying to break Scruff out of prison. In season 5, he is paroled and is currently living under Grandma Ruffman's custody. Ruffael Ruffmanowitz (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff's great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, who was an inventor. Great Uncle McRuffmantosh (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff's great-uncle who has a beard and has an exaggerated Scottish accent. He is a scholar with a Ph.D., and usually appears on the show for historical challenges. Spot Spotnik is Ruff's rival, who is tan with brown spots. Ruff sometimes sees him as his old friend, but he is shown to be devious and will do anything to come out on top. He tricks Ruff into thinking that Fetch! is canceled so he can be Charlene's date to a dance, and is responsible for traumatizing Ruff by ruining a ballet he starred in. Charlene is the poodle next door and love interest of both Ruff and Spot, who do not reciprocate their feelings. Helga von Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff's cousin, a fashion designer from Germany. Glen Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff and Scruff's nephew. He wears dental braces and is obsessed with magic and fantasy. He is also Ruff's resident technical genius, and usually fixes the Fetch 3000 in exchange for the Fetchers completing his challenges. Gerry Geranium (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Grandma Ruffman's pet parrot, who Ruff sometimes looks after. In seasons 4 and 5, he explains to Ruff that his parents are alive and aids him in finding them. Blackmuzzle Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is the most feared canine pirate of the seven seas. He appears at the end of "Arrgh – All Me Eggs Are Cracked!" for pledging the show with his own loot. He also appears in "Season Four is Canceled" to attack Ruff's doghouse boat because he was bored and Ruff refused to give him Gerry to replace a frog on his shoulder. He tells Ruff that he recently acquired the internet so he does not have to shout from his ship; in response, Ruff told him to visit his website, allowing Ruff, Blossom, and Chet to lose him. Later on, he tells Ruff in a voicemail to be an oceanographer and helps him navigate the sea. Bluff Ruffman (voiced by Jim Conroy) is Ruff's wealthy cousin, who is an expert at Go Fish and often asks him for favors, such as looking after wild animals. He is also a conman, as he once tricked Ruff into promoting his beef jerky by claiming he had an Egyptian curse. Roxy Ruffman is Ruff's sister. She is mentioned in "Feeling Sheepish Ruff?", in which Ruff looks after her sheep. It is implied that she is Glen's mother. Harriet Hackensack (voiced by Jim Conroy) is the Australian owner of Ruff's network company, which has recently bought at the start of Season 4. She dislikes Murray for stealing her valuable sled Rosebud. Wink and Dinah Ruffman (both voiced by Jim Conroy) are Ruff's "long-lost" parents, who give the FETCHers instructions on how to get off Game Show Island. The series finale reveals they are spies. Tom and Trixie (both voiced by Jim Conroy) are Ruff's rivals and the hosts of Go Get It!, a ripoff of FETCH!. They are actually Ruff's parents, who were working undercover.
== Production == Fetch! (an acronym for "Fabulously Entertaining TV with a Canine Host") was produced at WGBH Studios in Boston. Seasons were filmed about a year before they aired. Season 4 was the first season to be filmed in High Definition (HD) in 2009. The challenges were filmed mostly in Boston (as well as other areas in the US state of Massachusetts) and various other parts of the USA, depending on the challenges, during summertime when the children are out of school. The challenges, which were out on the field, are cut documentary-style, very similar to network reality TV shows. After the FETCHers finished filming the challenges, contestants acted in-studio, with the voice of Ruff. Jim Conroy traveled to Boston from New York for the two weeks they spent shooting in the studio. The fourth camera simply captured Conroy doing his lines as Ruff in the audio booth. The kids heard him in the studio and he heard their reactions in his headphones. Ruff's lines were the only lines that were scripted out, though he would sometimes ad-lib an answer to a question or comment from a FETCHer. Once the lines were recorded, the show went into editing, where the challenges were sorted into the show order. Then they were sent to Jim Conroy in New York City, to voice the dialog for Ruff's animation. Once that was complete, it was sent back to WGBH where editors placed audio clips of the animated characters. Once all of this was done, the episode was sent to Global Mechanic to animate the show. One out of the four editors had an off-set four-week system in place where one of them was ready to send a cut of a new episode to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada every Friday. It took about six months to complete one season of the show. Due to a lack of funding, WGBH announced that Fetch! would be canceled at the end of its fifth season even though casting had been completed for a sixth.