Narration was by Charles E. Stidwell, David Enders, and James Urquhart. A bobtail is a horse or dog with a docked tail, while rag and tag both express the idea of ‘tattered clothes’: the phrase literally means ‘people in ragged clothes together with their dogs and horses’. Ragtag and bobtail definition, the riffraff; rabble: The ragtag and bobtail of every nation poured into the frontier in search of gold. "The dining-room... was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking. The scripts were written by Louise Cochrane, and the series was produced by Freda Lingstrom and David Boisseau. a group of people perceived as disreputable or undesirable. ragtag (n.) also rag-tag, "ragged people collectively," 1820, from rag(n.) + tag(n.); originally in expression rag-tag and bobtail"the rabble" (tag-rag and bobtailis found in 1650s), with bobtailan old 17c. This was in use from the end of the 19th century, for example, in Sabine Baring-Gould's novel, That version of the expression is best remembered via the popular English folk song Rag, Tag and Bobtail may have ended up as the names of the cute and harmless nursery characters on BBC children's Television, but that naming was, probably quite innocently, derived from a less than savoury bunch.

Twenty-six 12-minute episodes were made, two of which were never broadcast,The repeat showings came to an end in December 1965, replaced by All the characters are glove puppets, created and operated by Sam and Elizabeth Williams. The Rabble or Scum of the People, Tagrag and Longtail

The stories were simple and there were no catch-phrases as there were in other programmes in the cycle, but the series is still remembered with affection. This was recorded by Samuel Pepys in his Diary for 6th March 1659: "The dining-room... was full of tag, rag, and bobtail, dancing, singing, and drinking." "The later form 'raggle-taggle' is an extension of 'rag-tag'. See more. Ragtag definition: If you want to say that a group of people or an organization is badly organized and not... | Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples Rag, Tag and Bobtail is a BBC children's television programme that ran from 1953 to 1965 as the Thursday programme in the weekly cycle of Watch With Mother. Those were combined with rag to form the earlier version of the phrase - tag, rag and bobtail. word for "cur." locals complained that rental housing would attract the ragtag and bobtail to their well-groomed suburb First Known Use of ragtag and bobtail 1725, in the meaning defined above History and Etymology for … Tag and ragwas "very common in 16-17th c." [OED] Entries related to ragtag The three main characters are Rag, a hedgehog; Tag, a mouse; and Bobtail, a rabbit; five baby rabbits also appeared occasionally. Synonyms for tag, rag, and bobtail include proletariat, rabble, rabblement, riffraff, unwashed, rout, scum, trash, ragtag and bobtail and subjects. A tag was a piece of torn, hanging-down cloth.