The Ruff Ruffman Show

Pet-Sitting Tip #1: Make Sure It's a Hamster- Ruff, expecting the delivery of a hamster for his new Pet-Sitting Service, receives a rhinoceros instead. His failed efforts to make a leash to bring the rhino to heel eventually lead him to enlist the help of live-action kids to help him test the strength of household materials.

Pet-Sitting Tip #2: Plarn It!- Fluff, the rhinoceros Ruff is pet-sitting, has just destroyed several valued items belonging to his roommate, Blossom. When Ruff’s attempts to paste, tape, and glue the items back together fail miserably, his kid viewers introduce him to “plarn,” a versatile material made from plastic bags that can be woven, knit, or crocheted to recreate the items Fluff shredded.

With Blossom due home any moment, Ruff frets that she won’t approve of his pet-sitting a rhinoceros. His desperate plan? Disguise Fluff as a dog. His dog breed research leads him to the perfect pooch to base Fluff’s costume on—the shaggy, dreadlocked Puli Dog. Ruff and Chet set to work analyzing and sorting different materials based on their “shagginess” scale.

Ruff confides to his viewers that pet-sitting a rhinoceros disguised as a giant Puli dog is hard, especially if you have to take them out for a walk in the rain. Their first try leads to a very unhappy Fluff, whose absorbent mop costume is now soaked. Ruff has to find a water-resistant material he can use to keep Fluff dry.

A music-video in which Ruff and Fluff show viewers that clothing made out of different materials has different properties. Ruff sings about how Fluff always dresses appropriately for every occasion, while Ruff has the wrong choice of attire. On a hot day, Fluff wears a cool cotton while Ruff dons a hot rubber slicker.

It’s Grandma Ruffman’s Birthday and Ruff has decided to give her an “Ruff Ruffman Action-to-the-Maxion Skate-Pro Plushie” as a gift. Ruff decides to roll the plushie (mounted on a mini-skateboard) right up to Grandma’s front door, but her perfectly flat sidewalk foils his plan. Ruff recruits help from live-action kids who explain that he needs an incline to deliver his present to Grandma.

Ruff is at the edge of the frozen pond in the zoo’s penguin enclosure trying to figure out how to retrieve the plushie, but finds the ice is too slippery to walk on. When Blossom shows Ruff a curling video, he realizes he can send another object on the ice to ricochet against the plushie and send it to the edge.

Ruff follows the kibble truck carrying his plushie to the county fair where the annual “Llama Pull” competition is about to begin. “Llama Pull” competitors must pull 200 pounds of dry kibble on a sled over a surface of their choosing-mud, grass, or pavement. The contestant that travels the fastest wins all the kibble.

Scouring the games at the County Fair for his plushie, Ruff finds it at the milk bottle toss booth operated by his nephew Glen. Glen insists that Ruff has to get the plushie back by winning the game. Ruff is given a choice of three balls (a pompom ball, bouncy ball, and soft ball) and must knock down all the bottles with just one throw.

Ruff has finally managed to track down and deliver the now battered plushie to his Grandma for her birthday. When asked why he was late to her party, Ruff explains via song his trials, tribulations, and experimentations with force, friction, and gravity with the plushie.

"Ruff has decided on a new business venture: a catering company called “Ruffet’s Food Delivery Service.” Not to be outdone, his twin brother Scruff starts his own catering venture, and they wind up both landing their first gig with the same customers—a couple of live-action kids, who recruit the brothers to create a four-course meal for their friend’s party.

For the second course, the kid clients order finger sandwiches. Ruff toasts the bread. This, the kids say, will not do—everyone knows finger sandwiches must be on un-toasted bread! But Ruff doesn’t have any more bread! Attempts by Ruff to “untoast” his toast do not go well. If toasting required heat, then he can untoast the toast by freezing it!

The live-action kids want a delicious egg dish in the shape of a duck. Ruff dives in with equal parts confidence and ignorance. Blossom fashions a duck-shaped mold, and Ruff fills it with boiled eggs, but his dish is disqualified for being egg-shaped eggs in a duck-shaped pan. He learns that liquids (as opposed to solids) conform to the container they are in.

The live-action kids request an orange, green, and purple dessert—it can be any kind!—so long as it has these colors on full display, each color completely separated from the others. Ruff blends up a smoothie of orange juice, mint ice cream, and raspberry sorbet—only to find that it turns brown. Yikes. He tries to unmix the liquid smoothie and finds out this is a no go.

With the kids calling it a tie between Ruff and Scruff, the brothers agree to merge their businesses and become partners. In a Broadway-style duet entitled “Now We’re Cookin’!”, the brothers sing about all they know about food prep and review the lessons learned in the previous episodes in a big splashy musical number with lots of tap-dancing and fun with food.

Ruff is offering a new service called “Ask Ruff First!” or “ARF!” Before you start any project, get useful tips from a dog who knows a thing or two (or nothing at all). In this episode, some live-action kids call Ruff with a problem. They’re building a tower-like structure for a mini-golf course in their yard, but it keeps tipping over in the wind.

Today’s “Ask Ruff First” question comes from kids who ask Ruff if it’s possible to make a chair out of newspaper. Ruff answers them by reading an excerpt from his new adventure novel, Captain Ruff and the Alien Felines of Rigel-9! In this chapter, Commander Ruff has been thrown into a deep dungeon, which only contains his cellmate Chet, and a small stack of newspapers.

Two live-action kids call in to “Ask Ruff First” because their hamster is bored and needs some excitement in his life. Can Ruff help? Ruff, noting that not only does the hamster look indeed bored, draws on a moment in his past when was hoping to compete in the dogcathalon.

A live-action kid wants to know if Ruff has any tips for building a birdbath. Ruff says he has first-hand experience for what a bird needs in a birdbath. He tells how years ago he was cast as the lead in a Broadway musical called “Hello Birdie!” During a crucial scene, Ruff (singing, in bird costume, and hanging from cables) is lowered into a birdbath, but the bath topples over.

A music-video in which Ruff reviews the different approaches to structural puzzles mentioned in the four previous videos. The musical genre is “new-wave upbeat dance party.” The song is structured so that Ruff lists approaches that won’t work, and then suggests the approach that will.