How are you doing? Oh, dare It's me tigger am dug wing duck.
It's me buncos keep babcat all right? Yeah? Did a rate your
favorite biblin you design? Hold or not Go. My name is Jim Cummings
and welcome to tune Jim. Welcome to tuned in with Jim Cummings here on
the four Finger Discount Network. I am Brendan Dando, joined right now by
the professor Oh pop Culture. Here is Guy Davis. Always a pleasure to
be here. We have producer Chris in the studio. How are you doing,
mister Judge? Hello, Hello, doing good? And now, of
course we are joined by the only man to be thrown out of every nightclub
in Tunetown. It is mister Jim Cummings. Jim, how are you sir?
Oh, it's another day in paradise. Thanks for inviting me out to
play. So I'm just I know, I just joke there. But have
you ever been thrown out of out of a nightclub or thrown out of a
venue for anything? I know you're a bit of a rascal when you're younger.
Have you ever been thrown out of a place before? Um? Nothing
worth bragging about Yes, so that's a yes, but yeah I was much
younger. Yes, escorted out perhap, Yes, yes, there you go,
not kicking and screaming. All right, okay, well how are we
anyway? Gentlemen? How are we doing this? Fine? Weeks? Well?
Here? Yeah? Yeah, it couldn't be happier if I was twins
ready to go to Tutown. Yes, I'm incredibly excited because, as we
alluded to Tunetown, we are here to talk about Bonkers, a show that
I absolutely loved a daughter as a kid. It's very near and dear to
my heart. Although it seemed towards late nineties, early two thousands there it
seemed to sort of quickly trail off into obscurity and you couldn't find it.
And I always saw it as one of those shows where I sit around and
I'd go, did I imagine that show? Did that show actually happened?
Because the theme song was always in my head. I'm like, it definitely
happened, But did anyone else see? It? Was I imagining this show?
And then of course Disney Plus came along and boom, everyone remembered Bonkers
again. So firstly, yes, when someone says bonkers to you, what
are the first memories that fled back into your mind, Like, what what
does Bonkers mean to you? Gosh, it was it was a crazy time
in animation that it was. It followed on the heels of who framed Roger
Rabbit? And I think the idea of a tune, a living, you
know, cartoon character living in making his way in the real world to the
best of his ability, was very much live and kicking. And so that's
what happened with Bunkers. He was tuned and in cartoons, and that studio
broke down or closed down, and he was basically fired and had to go
out into the real world and make his way, and he literally fell into
police work and that's where he met the amazing Lucky Picqual and the rest is
history. It just seems amazing to me that a show that was seemed so
popular at the time we could sort of disappear because you didn't really There was
a couple of video games of Bonkers, but he hasn't really been talked about.
You can't really find any information about Bonkers online. It's just so weird
that this big Disney show just seemed to somewhat disappear. Is it is it
weird to you that Bonkers isn't talked about as much as what it should.
Yeah, you know, I really like him. I like doing him,
and I was buck lucky paqual, you know, so I was you would
get mad at myself and throw myself down the stairs and apologize to myself and
and uh suage myself. And you know it was I And I enjoyed that
aspect of it because it, you know, spoke to my career ativitry.
But you know, I thought it was an adorable show right from the jump,
and uh, it just kept getting better when Bob Taylor took it over.
Yes, uh, And I you know, I just thought it was
really innovative and it was of its time, I think too, And that
might be the key to why it's not on fire now, so to speak,
like dark Wing is is still it was of its time, But that
kind of action translates, you know, it goes across that we could we
could have written dark Wing Duck tomorrow and done it and he would have been
popular all over again. But I think Barker's trading off the who framed Roger
rabbit Groove, I think that made it a bit of its time. I
don't know, well, speaking of you know, digging it right from the
jump, I mean, do you wonder if you could sort of take us
back to when you sort of first learned that this wacky bobcat. I mean,
so, how are you how he was pitched too, and what inspirations
you drew upon too, I guess bringing to life. I mean before he
had his own series, he was a part of the Bonker segments on Raw
Tunage, right, that's another episode in itself, But I mean, can
you sort of take us back to the very beginning and how you got to
know the character and how you i know, I guess fleshed him out.
Well, you know, they it was very obvious that they were still they
wanted to capitalize on Roger Rabbit. So there was a certain you know,
there was a certain aspect there. He had to be whacky and zany and
nutty and you know, off the cuff and just bouncing all over the place,
which he was, and I think that worked really well, and especially
with Lucky Paquell, his human counterpart, because because part of the appeal that
Roger Rabbit had was how he would interact, you know, with you know,
Bob Hoskins character and just driving humans nuts and so that was one of
the keys. And that's where I think Lucky Paquel came in and he was
driven nuts, you know, by Bonkers all the time, and that was
part of the fun. It became part of the show. You know.
It was like, all right, why don't you want to do now,
Bonkers, Oh, for crying out loud, let's go. You know,
he's constantly seeking validation from Lucky, wasn't he. That's been very similar.
Drabbit was like, you know, oh yeah, yeah, he was like
his little favorite nephew or or grandson or something. He was trying to always
please him. He was trying to always please everyone. You know, he
fed off that. I watched them episodes yesterday and it's the chime of it
where at some point you watching you think, Lucky, why are you saying
mean to Bonkers? But by the end he always had a little sort of
bondy. He clearly likes the guy. It's just oh yeah, I mean,
it would be a haven Bulk is in your life, by your side
all the time. It would be frustrating at times, yes, it would
it would be it would be yeah, I understand Lucky's position completely. But
then he's so a door ripple and he's so cute. Did you just have
to love him? And so Lucky did all right? Come on? Was
that always the Bunker's voice or did it evolve from your original idea to be
whacky Loot? Did you do a voice and they went more Roger Rabbit,
more Whacky Ollot or was it always what you Well, it was weird.
It was an interesting process because they wanted to say this is gonna be sort
of like Roger Rabbit, but nobody wanted to say this is gonna be sort
of like Roger Rabbit, because then that meant, you know, they were
doing whatever stealing I don't know. So it was kind of like yeah,
uh huh wink wink, and so you kind of knew. And this one
I can tell you. And it's a it's a cliche when casting director said,
well, you know what, I don't know one hundred percent what I'm
looking for here, but I'll know it when I hear it. Yeah,
and so okay, uh and myself and probably a couple of hundred people,
I mean, everybody auditioned for this, you know, even if it was
going to be a branch off of Roger Rabbit. Is that because it was
so big, it's like, oh, I want to I want to get
it. Yeah, yeah, I think so. I think they had big
plans, you know, and they were they were going to really push it,
and they did. You know, he made TV commercials and he sold
sugar pops and you know all the kids cereal and you know, probably popcorn.
I can't remember. But it was fun and um, and they knew
they knew it had to be over the top and it had to be this
and that and and that. I will tell you this for what it's worth
that UM. I think Chris and I we were talking earlier. Um,
when you're casting something on camera off camera, you can, I think you
can call people back once for a callback. That's called a callback, and
then you can do it again if you still do but if you do it
more than three times, you have to actually give him a session fee.
Well I ended up doing it five times, and uh, you know,
there'd be like a dozen people in the room, like on the fifth time,
the fourth time and the fifth time there were only three of us.
And she told us, she goes, okay, Balkers is in the room.
It was. I think it was Andrea. So we're gonna see what
happens here, and I think no. The first guy to go in he
went in, and then he came out and he was very arrogant and he
had a big hit TV show and he walked by and he picked it up
and he goes, you, fellas can leave what I think I've got this
sad? And he was off and h was he smoking? Yeah? And
yeah he was smoking. And uh it was Jim Carrey obviously, you know,
or not obviously. And the other guy was Max's headroom. He was
Matt Frewer. So I'm thinking, Okay, I'm either doomed or I'm going
to beat the shit out of these two guys and so and a. And
then you know, finally, after probably another week or so, I got
a phone call, well you're barkers, and I went, yes, so
I'd be spark Carries totally nuts. It was crazy and it was a great
time. And that was Jim Carry Yeah, yeah, Jim who yeah,
yeah. I would love to have seen what his version of bonkers was.
Did you see it in person? What his version was? Or wasn't it?
No loser? Who cares? No, I'm kidding second stringer. If
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Well kick things off this month with a revisit of an episode of Dark Win
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in family today at patreon dot com. Slash Jim Cummings podcast link is in
the description of this show. Was Bonker's a role that you were genuinely excited
to try and get, Like, can you remember the last time you're that
excited for a role or you are you always just as excited for any role?
I'm always yeah, I'm always that excited for a role. Yeah,
I mean, Handa was another one that really really got me going. And
Dark Wreen yeah, you know, and some of the classics. I just
was flabbergast, like Pooh and Tigger, you know, I mean, yeah,
Ray was another Biggie I gotta stop talking because I'm just gonna go down,
and another wait, I'm not done the cat. Yeah, and then
Carnage. I don't know if I mentioned this, but he was on Tailspin
anyway. But yeah, but that was for that wasn't for the Bonkers show.
That was for Raw Tuniche obviously. So Raw Tuniche gets canceled after only
twelve episodes. How long after the cancelation were you approached for the Bonkers series
or was it something that they that was discussed you in production of waw tu
Niche. Yeah, it was. It was kind of just grandfathered in.
It was it was just tacked on. You know, they had half an
hour to fill, so they were going to fill it. So when the
show got canceled Raw Tunies, you already knew Bonkers was getting his own series,
Bonkers. Yeah, Bonkers was over in the waiting in the wings,
and and that's when they phased out a bit of oh oh gosh, Miranda
right and phased in you know, Lucky pikel That's an incredible story. In
itself. We're gonna be delving into that in a few moments as well.
Yeah, I just think that the production of this show is just that the
production history of Bonkers is so interesting that I'm really looking forward to discussing it.
But yeah, so, so you knew that Boxer was getting it,
so you went disappointed when Raw Tunie got cancer. You're like, well,
goodbye everybody else? Yeah, yeah, yeah, something like that. Yeah,
and that was alluded to, I think in the one episode I did
it? Okay, did the cancelation have anything to do with the fact that
they were just thinking of the spinoffs? What was Raw tun Hige canceler just
because of writings? Do you know why Raw tun Niche was canceled? No?
No, I don't know why, and I don't and I don't know
why things that are going through the roof ratings wise aren't renewed and done more
of. Yeah, I mean Dark Wing would be a really good example,
and Chippendale Rescue Rangers was another one. But dark Wing was the biggest that
I can think of, you know, in my experience, and it was
like number and because we did the sixty five episodes that you do to make
up like a quarter of the year. And then we did I think two
episodes two seasons for ABC because back then ABC and Disney were not under the
same roof. But so there were plenty of dark Wings there. You could
watch one Saturday morning, six days a week basically. Yeah, and no,
no cartoon that I can't think of was on six days a week.
That was. That was the thing. Besides the Simpsons. It felt like
Disney just owned the animation world in the NY at that time. It's just
you could not escape the Disney animation and animated shows. Absolutely. Hannah Barbara
was in there and Marvel was there too, but it wasn't you know,
Super Friends was They were kind of mediocre friends if Yeah, I know this
is the Bonker's one. But you mentioned dark Wing Duck there, and there
are numerous websites claiming that there was a dark Wing Duck reboot in the works.
Yeah, or is it happening or not? Well, if it is,
I'd like to know about it. Yeah, I think we can put
that to bed, right because you think if if it's if it's in the
works, surely dark Wing Duck himself would be aware of it, right,
one would think, And you know, we did have a little I think
I might have been a two episode arc in the Last DuckTales rebod where where
Rake Mallard came back and blah blah blah, and it was a really hard,
hard episode to follow. But there was a guy kind of doing a
version of dark Wing Duck and it ended up that my guy, Drake Mallard,
ended up being Nega Duck and it was it was interesting, but there
was somebody else doing I can't remember the name, but it was kind of
like a dark Wing TV show that somebody was playing dark Wings and it was,
like I said, it was little, little convoluted, but interesting,
and ultimately it came out and everybody was very excited about it. Yeah,
yeah, definitely, I'll take more. I'll be to put it. If
they call, I'll answer. How about that, Jim, And let to
go back to Roger rev for just a second, Veno Mine. I mean,
clearly the influence of that film was fairly heavy on Bonkers, and that
even though Greg Wiseman, who worked on some of the initial episodes, has
sort of denied that. He said the Tomb World aspect was really the only
inspiration for the movie. But I mean I was a round an eighty eight
and just recalled what a huge influence and what a big splash. Who framed
Roger Rabbit made? It was agazine covers, magazine articles. I agree,
the world coverage. Did it really feel like a game changer for those people
in animation? I mean for pretty much everyone in animations, like this is
really broadening the scope of what we can do. M yeah, you could
tell. I remember when the one scene when the toaster or one gets mad
in the kitchen and walks off the set and it goes right into the real
world, and I was thinking, oh, wow, okay, I've never
seen that before. I mean, it didn't knock me out, but once
you got the juxtaposition, like you know, Eddie Valiant and uh you know,
of course Bob Hoskins doing all the things with Roger, and it's kind
of reminded me of Lucky Picquell and Bonkers. Yeah, you know, some
of the interactions there, so I think, you know, they definitely took
some Roger Rabbit lessons. At the time, it was it was quite the
thing, so um yeah, and I thought it was done well and that
movie was just so so groundbreaking for film in general. At the time too,
you know it was. I mean, one thing that just always stands
out to me for who framed Roger Rabbit is that one scene where Rogers and
handcuffs with I can't even remember the detective's name, but I remember hearing a
story about the animators saying something about like bumping the lamp they wanted to put
really push the limit. And in that scene, you know, they bumped
the lamp and you can see how much how difficult that shot would be with
a live actor and then matching the lighting onto an animated thing that's not even
there, and it just shows like how how much they were really trying to
push the button with that, and then you see it transcending, you know,
years later with bonkers and then even influencing the mask and just all different
kinds of mediums. Absolutely, yeah, it's very true. What I remember
the most is that poor little shoe getting phone into that acid, getting the
stuff of Nightmas. Yeah. That and then you find a foster off a
cliff. What are you doing to me? Uh? The one one kick
I got up that was a shave and a hair cut and no tune can
resist it, no tone you're waiting for it too bit, you know,
good stuff. You watched Rodger Rabbit, and I feel like the voice of
Rodge Rabbit and Bunkers there's the similarities there. Did you look at Rodger Rabbit
for any inspiration or did you have to try and pretend not to look.
No, you said that they went to Ye, it's like it's meant to
be sort of a branch of Rodger Ubbot. Did you ever look at Rodger
Ubbit as any form of inspiration for Bunkers? I really didn't. They said
that he's well, you know the description, you know, he's I mean,
he was every bit as energetic I guess as Roger Rabbit was. And
Rodger Rebbitt was never mentioned in the description of the character. H No,
no, no, they just they just indicated that they were going to tap
into the tune world, you know, so in that I guess, and
that's way, but it wasn't even mentioned. Yeah, but they saw I
think they saw this vein of opportunity here. Um. Wow. You know,
if we treat cartoon characters like they've got their own town or they've got
their own jobs, they can get up and go to work and do this
and that. Um, maybe we can Let's let's make one a carp yeah,
you know, because cops get into oh currents of grief. And then
let's make him one Yeah, partner up with a real guy who was a
carp and he's kind of a curmudgeon. And uh and then you get that
that ying and yang. So it worked. I thought, yeah, I
touched, I touched on earlier about the production of the show. I want
to double into it now. So it's an incredible story. Really. We
have what we call the Miranda episodes and the Lucky pacal Era, who were
both played Bonker's partner in their respective ears, so ye had. Dwayne Capizzi
and Robert Hathcock were the original team to produce S Bonkers, although when the
first twelve Miranda episodes returned from being animated, Disney apparently weren't happy with how
it look and how it turned out. Have you any memories of seeing those
episodes? Did you ever see them? And what was it that Disney should
like about them? Yeah? I you know, I I liked them,
you know, And uh, I thought Miranda right. First of all,
she had a pretty cool name. Because you have to be read your Miranda
rights when you're thrown in jail, and it was Carla DeVito played Miranda,
and she was a dolly. She was married to Robbie Benson and she was
an amazing singer for a guy named meat Loaf and she was in his videos
and he was just ye yeah, and she was great. She was a
great gul So, I mean, I got along with everybody like that.
But I think, what Bob, I'm sorry that uh not not Bob half
cock, but Bob robbed bob tail. Well he brought by bringing in Lucky.
It gave it, gave it, gave Bonker someone to really play off
like he couldn't he couldn't jump all around, you know, Miranda and dive
down her shirt and come up in her back pocket, because that would have
been like, oh whoa, whoa, that was quite a crippy just took
there. Oh boy, where's the video? You know? Whereas he did
that with Lucky Paquelle all the time. You know, some big guy that
looks kind of like uh Curly of the Three Stooges or Oliver Hardy, you
know, and and he was he was a bit of foil, yeah,
you know, it was too polite kind yeah yeah, And he could you
know, Lucky Paquelle could take a punchy or and be blown up and somehow
still survive. So yeah, I think that. I think that's what they
were looking for. Yeah, if you're gonna have mismatch patners, then you
know one's got to be infuriated by the other all the time. Oh yeah,
And I just want to chime in here too, because it's always fascinated
me, Like when you were actually recording, would you in the booth,
you know, switch from Lucky to Bonkers and back and forth, or would
you do one takes one character and then another take is another? Yeah?
I did for the most part, I would bonkers. Please. Well,
I can't do this. I'm not even done with my coffee. Come on,
Lucky, be a spark. We're just getting a red gun. Did
it all right? Fine, you run down to the park and I'll watch.
Okay, I'm gone, you know. And then when they were and
I kind of came up with we were talking about it earlier, they have
an overlap and you constantly, you know, these two guys did. And
the thing is, let's even if I were twins, I wouldn't have been
able to overlap because the animators have to have this track for Bunkers, and
now we're moving his lips. Then they have to have this track for Lucky
Piquel or you know whoever, and now we're going to do their lips and
make their face. So you can't have them on the same track because they
overlap. So I accidentally invented a little way to give them the same tracks
but still give them the feeling of the comedy of the overlapping, you know,
and one guy. And so I would record all of Bonker's lines first,
and it would be, Oh, come on, Lucky, let's go.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I know, but but don't worry
about it, because I got discovered. I got Oh no, I'll drive,
you know. And then they would play that in my ear and then
we would record, Yeah, well that's because you're a tune. No,
No, I am not gonna do no, I'm gonna drive. All right,
you can drive. And I would go back and forth and it would
go boom, it would come right together. Wow, So you didn't live
in you will listen? Yeah, well, yeah, what's the degreed dificutly
on that? Yeah? Uh not not very I mean it, there's no
room for error, is it? Uh no, but we had it down,
you know, and I knew about no no, no, no,
I mean I just had the luxury of knowing my own timing. Yeah,
you know what I mean I had I wasn't doing it with someone else.
Yeah, so you know, I I've fed the lines and then I responded
to them. So prior to all that, I mean, when the character
of Lucky was going to be introduced, I mean, were there auditions for
someone to voice Lucky or was it just a case of we got Jimmy.
I'm pretty sure. Yeah, no, No, there were many named,
many people really auditioned for him. Yeah. I think ed Asner, we
even you know, it just feels like it just feels like being at a
menu and reading the entire menu was still just ordering what you always order anyway.
It's like, what the time of all the auditions? Just yeah,
Jimmy the whole time? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, he's already there.
Something that just popped in my head too. Do they do they pay
you separately for each voice? Like is that another technically if they're auditioning,
is that another page? Yeah? Yeah, true. I Well, the
way it works is in animation, you can do two voices and it's usually
your character and the male man or you know, the pizza delivery guy.
Hey, I gotta you know, here's a package. You say him right
here, thanks for a lot, Pally, then you're going. But it
wouldn't ever be the two main characters, which you know, Bonkers was and
obviously and and like a piquel, so um, you know I wanted the
third character. By the way, you get a ten percent bump. I
forgot to tell you that, so you know, like a thousand bucks,
then you've got eleven hundred. So I don't know what the price is now,
but you know it's that type of thing. You've voiced many characters and
Bonkers. It wasn't just ease two. Oh oh yeah yeah, so so
I did. Okay, really I think everybody should watch it on Disney Plus.
By the way, I was curious how it breaks down, so yeah,
yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah. Getting back to when those
first twelve came back in the Miranda episodes, they called and they weren't happy
about it. Was there any fear at the time of all, is this
show going to actually get the green light? Or was it just they're not
terrible that as they could be better. No, we don't. I don't
even think we had much downtime. Okay, you know we might have taken
two weeks off three, you know, because they had it in the works.
Well you know, they were getting them back and they were saying,
well, this is pretty good. It's not bad. You know, it
could be better. I don't know how to make it back. And then
Bob Taylor came along. He said, little air, how about this,
and he revamped the show. If you notice some Bunker's looks a bit different,
He's got different first of all, in a police uniform instead of a
green turtleneck. That's one thing. And um, you know he's in a
different world, that's for sure. And uh, you know, I think
the animation was more fanciful. It was more I don't know, lighthearted for
lack of a better word. I felt the Lucky era was more who framed
Roger Rabbit esque with the way it was answering back and forth. Do you
feel like they were doing those first twelve episodes trying to steer away from being
too Rodger Rabbit and then this went you know what stuff, let's just let's
just go for steer into it. Yeah, it just could be yeah,
I you know, I never had a conversation like that to verify that,
but but that certainly is what happened, because the first first X amount were
good. They were good, but they weren't like, wow, that was
good. Well let's this again. And I'm glad they stuck in there because
he I think he's a bit of a gem, you know, like I
said, he was of his time, but you know, I think it
works now why wikipeci in half'clock replace? Then? Was it? They couldn't
come to terms on a new direction. And then you had Robert Taylor saying,
oh no, well I'm ready to go in this direction. Here they
went, well, this guy's willing to go the way we want, we're
going to stick with him. Like how did that come about? Well?
Why did they do? They leave? They pushed out, do you know
it? Well, you know, Disney has a stable you know of I've
been over there at Disney Animation, and everybody kind of helps everybody else.
Yes, you know, there's a lot of you know you know, you
know, well, well we're gonna have a guest writer, We're gonna have
a guest producer, and they all they all kind of bounce off each other
and they're all pals. I can't imagine anybody getting mad and saying, oh,
you've stole my show, you know, because it doesn't come those decisions
don't come from your peers, they come from your bosses. Yes, so
so there's no animosity of any type, like all working on other various shows
like goof Troop and everything anyway, So it was it wasn't like you're being
fired. I was just like, well, you got work on that show
instead. I guess yeah, I'm sure it was yeah, because they were
still there. How did Karla take the news because she was essentially no longer
gonna be on Bonkers anymore. I mean, she's her first real big voice
acting geek, and all of a sudden she's not there anymore. I'm surprised
she didn't get another role on the show, or does she not want another
role where she goes, well, I'm not Miranda, I'm out. Do
you remember anything. I don't. I don't know we'd ever talked talked about
that, um, you know, but I think there was a bit of
a lark in it for her, you know, you know, her husband
was Robbie Benson. Then she's an amazing singer. You know, she had
that big song, big hit song with meat Loaf for everybody can remember that,
dude. Um, but you know she had other fish to fry.
Yeah and uh so yeah. But still though Disney Afternoon's voice, I think,
gig, you're not going to turn that down? No, no,
no, no, yeah I didn't. When so when the new directions of
Robert Hayley's taking the show in a new direction, did you have any input
into that that new direction of the show or did you just be told this
is where we're going now. And what were your feelings when you were told
this is the direction we're heading now with the show. I was glad,
yeah, you know, I was glad that they had something a new concept
waiting in the wings, which is kind of what the way it felt.
And uh, I was elated. I was like, Okay, yeah,
we're still doing We're still going. Let's let's do it. Let's do it,
you know, take a week or two off and jump right back in.
And the only thing that we had to wait for was casting new people
like Earl Bone was as chief Knifki. Yeah, Ron Perlman was in there.
There are a lot of people, you know, Bonkers had an amazing
guest starable cast, not just cast in general. Yeah, oh yeah,
oh yeah, and was amazing as Chief Knifty you know Bunkers. Yeah,
you know that that kind of dithering kind of guy. And uh and and
you know it was easy for me to be Piquel and Bonkers because I knew
how to drive myself crazy, you know. So so it worked. You
know what would you have saying, but would have been the most notable differences
between the Miranda and the Lucky episodes? Besides the fact that you were doing
two characters, the two main ones, what were the more notable differences?
Could you sense it change in the tone of the comedy or yes? Yeah,
because you know Miranda. I mean again, you know he could he
could bug the hell out of Lucky Pequel. You know, he could drive
him nuts, and he was going to be in every show and he'd be
standing in there right no them, And like I said before, there was
a lot of slapstick humor that you couldn't do with this nice young lady.
Yeah, you know, you're not gonna put a pie in her face.
You're not going to throw her into the mud or dump a bucket of fish
on her head. You know, if you did, it would not be
on now. Yeah, you know, there were no girls, and there
wasn't a fourth stooge named Dorothy. You know. The three stooges were slapstick
comedy all the way. And you know Balkris was in that category. So
completely get what you're saying that too. It's completely correct. And what you're
saying, you could not do all those things to a female character. But
was there any pushback by saying, well, you were, you got a
female lead and now all of a sudden you're removing the female lead and you
were placing it with another male. Was there any pushback on that or not?
Not to my knowledge, that's your knowledge, Okay, No, I
don't think so. And besides, he had a little daughter, yes he
did. He had a lovely wife and daughter. Yeah. Yeah, and
of course uh and Sherry and um and also uh, my good buddy.
You know, April Winchell was was my wife again, and I've had two
wives in cartoons named Peg and now I'm married to Peggy. So you never
know, art imitates life or something. Alously, had Nancy cart right there
for a while as Forn Deer as well. Yes, that's right, Nancy
Current. Yeah, yeah, she's a sweetie. We mentioned earlier. The
look of the Bonker's character also went through some changes as well, a bit
of an overhaul during This Island. I mean, I was wondering about your
and your thoughts on that, and you look at and maybe how if it,
if it changed, you approached if it changed, how you approached the
role at all? No, because you know, when when we started back
in there were no you know, the animation is the last Yeah, okay,
you know, it's the last thing you see, so you're not even
seeing sketches or anything like that or sort of rough dripping. Yeah, and
he still looked the same, kin't you know? He just had you know,
when he was when they were pulling his eyes out or pulling his ears
over and tearing them around his head or what have you. That was in
a animation. I didn't have to There were no actual Bobcat's harm during the
production of this character. I'll just find it that, you know, you
are bonkers, and if you're going through a character design change, you just
think that at least say, hey, Jim, your thoughts. Yeah,
but then they never asked for your input. You're just Jim the bar stodes.
They didn't do anything like that. No, no, but I'm okay
with that. It wasn't necessary, you know, Yeah, we knew at
that point, we knew what we were doing, yes, and it was
an improvement, So it was yeah, I can. I don't even remember
the Lucky Pacal. I don't even I didn't remember the Miranda episodes when I
was a kid. But the original broadcast order for this show throws everything out
of whack, since nine of the original Miranda episodes they aired earlier in ninety
three, constant culminating on June sixth, my mom and My sister's birthday.
Then the show premiered for syndication on September fourth, my Birthday, with the
new format with Lucky pisal in the two part Going Bonkers Slash Got Happy Birthday,
then after the major then after that majority of the block of the Lucky
piccal Our episodes aired, the remainder of the Miranda episodes aired, and then
a further twenty episodes. So it must have been so confusing for the kids
at home watching his going why was there a woman? Now it's back to
Macall. Now it's Miranda. Now it's back to Macaula. Did you have
any idea that was happening at the time and confusing go on this podcast?
Yeah, no, it's a no. You know, I can remember watching
cartoons as a kid in Gotch there was one named Basco and uh Calvin and
the Colonel and Rocky and Bullwinkle, and it never occurred to me that there
was any linear transformation or yeah, yeah, I can't know, it just
was. It was Okay, I like this cartoon. Oh, I like
this one too. Yeah. Oh, here's somebody new I like it.
You know, That's that's what I hope happened. It looks like it did.
Yeah, so I suppose you're not really overthinking it when your kids just
bright colors and funny wackiness. Oh yeah, absolutely. And where's my chocolate
milk? What was his kid's question? What was your treat of choice when
you're watching cartoons as a kid? Was it cereal? Like? What was
all was your afternoon Sarah snack? Cereal? Cereal? And they I don't
think they have it anymore, but the company Craft had malted milk and I
would put it in there and you turn it and stir it around, and
it was just great. So I like that. That was Yeah, you
two school cartoons? Was it was cool? I think you call a bisquick
in the in the States, we just call it quick here, but it
was uh oh yeah, put a spoonful of it in your milk. Here,
have a little chocolate mini milkshag, a couple of a couple of biscuits,
and uh yeah, watching Scooby Doo and School to Go. Yeah,
take me right back, I'm gonna come over to your house. What was
your cereal choice? Uh, sugar pops and Coco Crispies. Okay, Alphabet's
pretty good, not bad. What about you, Chris? What was your
Breakfast of Champions when you were a kid? I was right, literally at
the Breakfast of Champions. I was big on raisin brand. What I know,
I was. I was weird. I love the raisin. I love
to let it soak in them in the milk. And that was all about
the raisin brand. Are you Benjamin Button? Did you start old and getting
younger? What's going on? Yeah? I don't know what it was.
I didn't. I didn't really like the super sugary cereals. Captain Crunch always
like cut the roof of my mouth and yeah, I always did you have
did you have cocoa pops in the States? Oh yeah I did? Yeah,
yeah, yeah, coco pops. That was my that was my thing.
And as fruit lips, fruit loops with the two canes, Oh yes,
yes, yes, apple Jack's too. That wasn't bad. Yeah,
God, I'm going down memory lane here. We should do a whole episode
about breakfast cereals. Yeah, why not? Kay eat double l old double
good kill load. Best to you. Nice testing with Cummings. Let's do
it. Yeah. I know I'm not going to remember remember his name.
But when I first started, I did a lot of work in San Diego
and I would drive down there. It took me. I lived in Corona,
which was a lot closer, but um I ran into a fellow and
he he was a veteran. He was an older guy, and I was
the young little punk you know, who was doing this stuff. And and
we're talking about this job and that job, this job. He goes,
well, you know what, you got to shoot for one of these?
And I said, what's that? He goes, well, I sing,
I do jingles, and I go, well, okay, I sing two.
And I was sick as a dog. Six six sick in my age.
You called me up and said, you gotta get down to studio.
I got something going for you. And he said, what, I don't
know if I can do it. He said, well, gargle, do
something, take some lavorus, do whatever. Just get down there, saltwater
blah blah. So he went down and I don't know if it was big
there. In fact, you know, it might be so old that you
might not remember Chris, but there was. Kelloggs is a cereal brand that
they've got all sorts of cereals and yeah, oh yeah, And the jingle
was kay eat double l oh double good ket log Kelloggs best to you,
boom boom, and that probably played for like fifteen twenty years kitching. And
it was the tag on and it was the tag on all of their all
of their commercials. That's the thing. If if if you can create a
good jingle, they are timeless. They last forever. Yeah oh yeah,
yeah, every time it airs, you kitching, kitching, kitching, every
time it airs. We like it, we do, indeed, yes,
But with with bonkers, so it seems a new cannon now for the show
is to begin with the Lucky Bacal episodes, the two part first one where
he meets Lucky and things like that go through that entire block, and then
you have the episode New Partners on the Block where Lucky and a few supporting
roles they leave after he gets a job with the FBI and goes to Washington
and Miranda becomes a new partner with with Bonkers and in her episodes what and
the series, but that episode their New Partners on the Block, the transition
episode? Was that seen as like a finale when you're making it? Was
that the last one you made? Do you remember? No? I don't
think it was. It was a bit disjointed to be to be honest,
And I think they were kind of speckling them together and trying to make it
less, you know, seamless, and uh, yeah, you know,
I really do. And we had so many guest stars, yeah, on
that show. And I think it was because it it had it had a
bit of notoriety because maybe because of Roger Rabbit, but it was still Disney
and it was going in and the Disney Afternoon block was building, and uh,
and people liked to dabble, I think, and um, you know,
to get in fact, I had read it down because we were Chris
and I were looking at it earlier and I realized there were so many people
like movie stars, TV stars, and I could give you a few of
them. First of all, Trust McNeil, Maurice LaMarche, Okay, my
buddy, Jeff Bennett, Corey Burton, Disney star Wart and uh April April
Winchell, my wife Peg again, Pat Fraley and Bob Ridgeley and b J
Ward and Ron Perlman, you know, sons of anarchy, Uh, Sherry
Lynn, Frank Welker who is the legendary Frank Welker and Oscar winner, Grammy
winner, Emmy winner, Rita Moreno, if you can believe that, and
Carol Channing. Oh yeah, and I think I said, Ron Pearlman,
Charlie Adler and Nancy Cartwright, pre pre Bart Simpson and Earl Bone who played
Chief Knifki and my old pal Brad Garrett and Taylor was one as well,
I believe, Oh yeah, sure, yeah, that's right. Yeah,
and he was also Uncle Fester. You mentioned Nancy Cartwright, they said pray
Simpsons. This wasn't pray Simpsons. She was doing the Simpsons when she did
this, the sim well, the Simpsons started in eighteen nine, and this
was so she must be doing like I was saying, yeah, she must
be doing The Simpsons at the same time. So do you come to the
studio and do the show or was it done? Oh yeah, but it
didn't. Yeah, I'm just finding supplising that someone because The Simpsons was such
and a phenomenon in that time in the early nineties that she you know,
she was doing twenty wasn't that far away, you know, Burbank twenty century.
You know, you're from one lot one studio to another. It's at
the time it was common. Yeah, if I'm not mistaken for all the
voice artists to record in the studio. Like just how you mentioned Brendan,
you know, was recording remote really a thing? Or like, explain that
to us how the recording process back then differs to now. Yeah, and
what you prefer? Yeah, well, I prefer having everybody in the room.
Yeah, yeah, there's no question. You know George Luca the Star
Wars franchises, Uh, you know that where Hondo came from, they had
everybody in the room too, at the same time, or as many as
they could. And I like that. It's so much better, And you
know, I've said it before. You know, I tend to ad lib,
and if they keep your ad oftentimes that means the person's line before or
mostly after kind of doesn't work, you know, it throws it off.
The line is good, but the line behind it no longer works, and
they usually want the good line that has the laugh attached because you know,
you know what I mean, the more creativity. And so therefore now they
have to get somebody back into fix the line prior to. And I was
notorious for that, but what are you gonna do? I think the afford
it just the energy in the room just creates a better performance, you know,
and more I'm assuming it would a laugh for more improv as well.
Oh yeah, oh definitely. You know that's that's part of the deal.
You can because you're feeding off what they said. They're feeding off what you
said. Now this one over here, now she's feeding off what everybody said,
and it's a it's an organic thing, you know. I I like
doing it as a play almost, you know, like it was a stage
production, and you know we did all the gummy bears were like that,
and I mean there'd be like ten people in the studio at one time.
Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, back in the day you've said Duck Quen
Duck was very a lot of improvisation there. They'd write it in the scripture
stage, which would say, yeah, so was there a lot of improv
with bunkers and luck Yeah, man, and you imagine a lot of that
must have been improvised, right, let's just you talking to yourself. Oh
yes, yes, absolutely, yeah, you know, and and he just
spoke like one hundred miles an hour, so you had to be listening quickly.
Yeah, just you know, tune in because uh, you know.
And I would always try and sneak into double one Tundra every time I could,
and uh, sometimes they'd bust me, and sometimes I snuck them through.
Yeah. I think I told you the one about the Christopher Robin the
move Hounds. What's that Robin? I don't know that one. Yeah,
okay, well I'll be telling this out of school. But when um,
when Christopher you and McGregor is he was in the phone booth and there was
some altercation with it. You know, a guy drove into the phone booth
because Pooh was he overheard Tigger and Pooh talking in the back stating he wait,
oh my God, it's the stuff he's are talking. And he pulled
off, and then a little Maddie the girl gets out of the car and
runs away, and there's a policeman there saying and he goes, no,
you don't understand that. That little tiger there he said something to me.
And that little bear he said, and I'm telling you they talked to me.
They said something. He goes, well, ain't you on the sauce?
Mate? Is that what your problem is? Have you had a bit
of a nip? Is it? I'll tell you what. Let's go,
let's room right along. Oh, don't worry, darling, you can go.
And the little girl was okay, and I go, thank you,
warrufus and and it's in the movie. I was making the choke. Really,
I was making a joke. I thank you officer. You know,
it's what we should have said. But yeah, and it's in the movie.
I remember seeing the movie and ego, did you not catch that?
Yeah, it was in character and it was said, I mean, she
said thank you, officer, and I said thank you orafice And but it's
just the charming innocence of winning the pooh that it works, you know,
So yeah, yeah, I'm glad I didn't say what you know, I'm
thinking, I see yeah, But let's let's touch on the guest stars.
I feel like, you know, you're saying earlier that a lot of actors
like to dabble in it. But I just think everyone loves to play a
good villain, and there were so many good villains in this show. I
think there's more villains in this than Duck being Duck. Like, I just
think this is just so focused on the villain aspect, and they're also unique
in their own way, so much fun. Oh yeah, yeah, Well,
I like villains just as much as good guys, you know. Oh
yeah, he's he's not the bad guy. He's just good at being bad.
With Frank Welker, so he plays full apart rabbit in the show Your
Buddy. Oh yeah. In the show he's usually you know, does the
voices of just animal sounds and things like that. With everything. Now,
he's just incredible with animal sounds. Unbelievable. You know, he's on the
mount Rushmore of voice actors. Frank Oh absolutely couldn't be a nicer guy.
Does someone like him when you're working with him in the studio, he must
just improve your performance, because almost to the point where you're like, I
have to be bad because Frank's here. Oh yeah, well yeah, I
don't. I don't know if we touched on this, but I remember the
first time I met him with Hanna Barbara and there was a line for a
lion. They needed a lion. Yeah, yeah, yeah, And it's
just I mean, from that day on, I was just flabbergasted. You
know. The joke is like, you know, okay, Frank, we
need a giant snail from Mars and he's got electrical antenna shooting over here and
he needs to roar. And Frank would go, well, what part of
Mars is he from? So that he could zero in and get get dirt
motions now and uh, and he would do it. What did you learn
from Frank? Well, not to be a mime, but you know,
I think there's a certain and I already kind of had this, but you
you have to have the freedom it might set to possibly fall flat on your
face. You know, you have to just try it and if it works,
it works, and if it doesn't, I gotta try something else.
And because he had a bag of tricks, he does have a bag of
tricks that you know, never ends. So you would like to ask real
quick about about Ron Perlman as well, who you mentioned earlier. I mean,
he's got a very imprective, very impressive voice acting resumet on this on
screen career. I mean, I'm a bit of a hellboy fanboys though.
Oh sure, I've been lucky enough to get him on the phone a couple
of times. And honestly, it's like hearing an earthquake on the other end
of the line. Yeah, and I'm wondering, Yeah, what it's like
to actually record with the guy. Oh, he's a great guy. He
is absolutely wonderful, you know, and I worked with him a lot,
and uh, one of my favorite things is when you know, he was
playing, um, you know, in bonkers h and when he would get
real intimate like that, and you know, I just want to be honest
with you, and you know, and and he wasn't being bombastic, he
wasn't being over the top or anything, but but just when he would get
really sincere and you could almost hear him refraining from using four letter words.
You know, I want to be in this, you know, serious with
you and stuff, and you know, and because of all this other stuff,
you know, and you could hear, because you know him so well,
you could hear the words he's not saying. A cool guy, A
really cool guy. I just imagine that he guys. I wouldn't mind being
the scene. Yes, mister pim whatever you say, yes, yes,
yeah, or Ilse will send the sons of Anarchy after you. Exactly right.
Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna ask you. Do you miss playing Bunkers?
Oh? Yeah, I mean I miss playing all of them. I
mean not in a sad way, but in a in a beautiful reminiscing sort
of way. It was a great fun time in my life, fun periods.
You know, it went on forever, you know, still is so
you know, they all become kind of members of my family, and it's
always fun to run into somebody, and you know, whether it's conventions or
my kids, over the years have had friends who are just stuck on one
character, stuck on this one, stuck on that one. And um,
I mean I don't really miss them because they're still there, but I really
like that people, you know, they glom onto them and they become meaningful
to them. Yeah, and and that that you know, I heard these
stories and you know, I get these emails and I'll do I'll do cameos
for people, and they're really hard felt, and they're really really and it's
just it's just nice to know that this character or that character meant something and
got got someone through something, you know, and I've got stories put you
on your knees. But but yeah, I mean it's nice to know that
you're touching people. Do you get many fans asking for Bunkers on cameos or
approaching you at conventions talking about Bunkers or is it mainly just dark Wing and
Whinny and teach Um. Yeah, I mean maybe one and ten, one
in twelve. Yeah, not not that many, not that many. But
I you know, I can't complain, No, of course no. But
now I've got a question for you. Is there any chance that do you
know Bunkers? Is any chance you can join us in the studio for a
moment. We've got a few questions for him. Well, I don't know,
that depends only if you're nice. I'm always polite, always polite.
So all right, then, working working alongside Lucky You sure had its speed
bumps. But tell us what were some of your favorite memories of riding around
in that old police car with mister Bicall. Oh, well, I had
my friend Toots and I would put him on top of the ceiling of the
car there and I would say okay, God's okay, and he would go
bye bye baby. He would come here and it was very fun. Lucky
loved it. I'm just kidding. It can't drive him crazy. Did you
miss having Lucky around once? Around it? I mean, God, bless
it. We love him, Miranda, But did you did? Did you
miss Lucky once he went off to the FBI. Well, you know it's
crazy because I used to show up at his work every day, so I
couldn't miss him. But apparently he didn't miss me either, because he would
say, it's nice to see you. Now. I can't miss you if
you don't go away, so I can't end to go and I'm not sure
what he meant by that. Well, we have got a surprise for you,
mister Bonkers, because our friend Jim comings here. You know, he's
pulled a few strings. You know, he knows a few people, and
he's managed to track down your old pal Lucky. So Bonkers for the first
time in nearly two years, say hello to Lucky Picau Hello, Unlucky big
hell. Yeah, yeah, by all means do it? Well, you
know, Barkers, it's only been thirty years, and I don't see any
reason to rush things. I'm kidding. We did get over here, you
a little knucklehead. I love this kid. What's up? You gotta go?
He's gotta go. No, I don't. I could stay. No,
you gotta go, but no, seriously, I could buy be honest,
Lucky, you've missed him before you go there, Bunkers, I gotta
ask you know, Lucky, you gave Bunkers your police badge before heading to
Washington. Bunkers, did you did you keep that police badge at all?
If he's manage to hold onto it all these years? Or did Bunkers keep
it? Of course I did? After all, it said made by the
cracker Jack Corporation. It's very near and dear to me. And yeah,
okay, I gave him one from cracker Jack. Barks. Let's not talk
about this right now. Well, it's no, it's obvious that the chemistry
is still there between the two of you. So well, what would you
two, what would you two say? The idea of recording some audio commentaries
of Bonkers episodes for our tuned in Patrion channel. Oh that sounds like a
good idea. I was just going to think of it, but you thought
of it before me, and then I was going to think of it after
you did. But it would be redundant, which I am mature what that
means. But sure, no, I think there's something to work with the
amazing So I'm sure you guys have a lot to catch up on. So
go on and enjoy the bright lights of La once once more, and we'll
wrap up the show. So thank you gentlemen for joining us, but we'll
see you off. We're plenture dig it later. That was fun, wasn't
It's always having bonkers around. I mean, I couldn't live with the guy,
but he's always fun to have around for two minutes. Yeah, yeah,
yeah. A nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live
there. Yeah, and I have good news. He doesn't do books on
tape. It's kind of like when you're an archer or an uncle and they
handed kids. Oh I love kids, here, take them back now,
bah bah yeah yeah, yeah, oh yeah, this has been fantastic.
I'm bonkers. Like I said at the start, of this podcast. One
of those shows that you never hear people talking about it anymore. It's a
real shame, and I'm glad that we finally got some true proper insight into
the show. I guarantee you there are so many fans out there that are
just clamoring to hear your stories about this gym M not good. Yeah,
I mean, I you know, Rob Poulson has a way of putting it.
He says, you know, people like to go to the circus and
then every now and then sneak over and lift up the tent and lift up
the you know, the flap of the tent and see what's going on in
there. What are they really doing? You know, And that's kind of
what you're doing here. So it's a beautiful thing. It's funny you brought
up Rob Poulson. I'm pretty sure he sang the the intro for Bunkers,
did he not? No? Huh. I don't know who that was.
It was a sped up voice. He had something to do with the intro.
It says on all the various Bonkers Wiki pity pages Rob Poulson intro theme
for Bonkers Wow. Underneath it says edited by Rob Poulson. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, and the liner notes by Rob Paulson. No, I didn't
know that. I mean I feel like I would have had it. I
had Okay, now you want to call him, let's call him. Let's
go find out. Well, we'll do that on the next one. We'll
do that on the next one. But of course, guys as Bonkers and
Lucky just said they're gonna be doing some audio commentaries of Bonkers episodes. I
feel like we should do the new Partners on the Block episode. The one
was the transitional one where Lucky leaves the show. We'll do that one with
Lucky in Bonkers on our Patreon channels. So if you want to get access
to that, there's got to be a supported on our tuned in Patreon channel
at patreon dot com slash Jim Cummings Podcast. You can find the link for
that in the description of this podcast. Also, don't forget to follow us
on all the various social medias at Jim Cummings Pod on Twitter, Instagram,
TikTok, YouTube and Facebook. And if you want to get in touch with
the show, it's just Jim Cummings Podcast at gmail dot com. Well,
gentlemen, once again, Thank you so much for joining me this week.
It's been absolute blasts to go back and revisit one of my favorite shows from
when I was a kid, Bonkers and we'll see you all in the next
episode. I've tuned in with Jim Cummings and it's just that easy.