On American television, who was Crusader Rabbit’s animated cartoon sidekick?

“Crusader Rabbit” was the first animated cartoon series specifically made for television, rather than to introduce a feature film. “Rags”—formally named “Ragland T. Tiger”, with the initial T standing for “The”—accompanied the title character on his quests.

Animator Alex Anderson came up with the idea of a direct-to-television cartoon series while working for Terrytoons Studio. He pitched the idea to Terrytoons, but management decided to remain in production only of theatrical cartoons and declined the offer.

Anderson partnered with another TV cartoon pioneer, Jay Ward. As “Television Arts Productions”, Ward arranged funding while Anderson focused on production. Without a network contract, their budget was tight, so their animation was primitive, with narration, but limited movements by the characters.

Starting in 1947, they produced four-minute episodes, each telling a segment of a crusade. Every segment but the last one in an adventure ended with a cliff-hanger. After test-marketing in 1948, the first episode aired on KNBH TV in Los Angeles on 8/1/49. It was titled, “Crusader Rabbit vs. the State of Texas. Like all crusades, it was a satire. The original series ran in syndication between 1950 and 1952. A revived syndicated series debuted in 1959.

Rags’ name came from the song, “Tiger Rag”. In a recurring gag, another character would ask Rags what the “T” in his formal name meant, to which Rage would reply, “Larry! My father couldn’t spell!”