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Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings Podcast. Do it now? How you doing
Speaker 1: out there? It's me Tigger, I am Doc Wayne Duck.
Speaker 1: It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All right, y'all? Is it great?
Speaker 2: Your favorite firefly you desire?
Speaker 1: Hold old Knock Gud. My name is Jim Cummings and
Speaker 1: welcome to tuned In.
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Speaker 3: Jim Cummings.
Speaker 4: Today, we have a very special guest for you.
Speaker 3: Yes, well you may not know her face, but everybody,
Speaker 3: almost everybody that we've talked to on this show knows
Speaker 3: her face and holds her in the highest regards. Over
Speaker 3: ten thousand studio sessions, correct, over ten thousand studio sessions.
Speaker 2: Eight.
Speaker 3: Emmy's just an amazing career and an amazing person, so
Speaker 3: from what I've heard. Andrea Romano joins us today.
Speaker 2: Thanks for having me, Thanks for inviting me to play.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 2: Something you always said to me every session, whether you
Speaker 2: had two lines or two hundred lines, you always thanked
Speaker 2: me for inviting you to complain. I always thought that
Speaker 2: was so elegant and lovely.
Speaker 1: So oh, I appreciate that.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you well, Oh my.
Speaker 1: God, And I'm so glad she has a really good memory,
Speaker 1: because boy, oh boy, and we were talking earlier, and
Speaker 1: I have to say that my career and our friendship are.
Speaker 2: The same age just about just about me.
Speaker 1: I you know, I would I broke into the business
Speaker 1: by accident. On purpose. I mean I was aiming for it,
Speaker 1: but the way I did it was by accident. You know.
Speaker 1: A customer in my video store said he heard about
Speaker 1: a guy who knew a guy who was casting for
Speaker 1: a thing, and isn't that what you were trying to do?
Speaker 1: And I go, yeah, so I got that job and
Speaker 1: and that's and then they I said, I don't know
Speaker 1: a single soul you should take. You should take a workshop.
Speaker 1: And I said, a workshop, You mean they teach this
Speaker 1: sort of thing? Boy, do they ever have? I have
Speaker 1: good luck to you, And here you were and Sue
Speaker 1: Blue and uh, and so I got in touch with you.
Speaker 1: Do you remember eighty four ish and change? Eighty four
Speaker 1: and change?
Speaker 2: So I was just startying Hanna Barbara.
Speaker 1: Yeah, or eighty five, eighty five maybe eighty five, but
Speaker 1: but yeah, but and it was over forty years as
Speaker 1: the voice caster. Yeah, yes, oh yeah, absolutely, yeah.
Speaker 2: And I'm only forty five, so it's pretty good.
Speaker 1: You were just a little nipper. Yes, indeed, I forgot
Speaker 1: it was.
Speaker 2: The class I met you. Yes, I forgot it was
Speaker 2: in the class. Wow beautiful If I remember correctly, we
Speaker 2: had what somebody referred to as a bunch of ringers
Speaker 2: in that class because so many people then went on
Speaker 2: and had careers. Oh it wasn't Anne Ryerson in there
Speaker 2: and Clark Cam Clark, and I think there was one
Speaker 2: or two other people that also then went on to
Speaker 2: have like good voiceover careers.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh my gosh. Yeah. Made Whitman's Pat Music, Pat Music,
Speaker 1: yeah right, yeah, why she's not Whitman, I don't know
Speaker 1: or the other one.
Speaker 2: But yeah, she's Pat Music because that was her name
Speaker 2: professionally before she got married to Jeff Whitman, and then
Speaker 2: she kept her name Pat Music.
Speaker 1: It's very musical it is.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I would have kept it.
Speaker 1: I would have kept it. And and uh and I said, commings,
Speaker 1: Oh there we go.
Speaker 2: Forgive me.
Speaker 1: She's very popular.
Speaker 2: I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: She was really popular your phone. She's a bigger, bigger
Speaker 1: name on the online.
Speaker 2: I'm really sorry. Technically challenged, Yeah, oh you too.
Speaker 1: Huh, everything's a challenge.
Speaker 2: Well, somebody, I forget I was supposed to do something,
Speaker 2: sign up for something somewhere I think it was with Spectrum.
Speaker 1: Was that you too, Okay, And that's because I'm on
Speaker 1: them anyway, go ahead.
Speaker 2: And they well, if you have this, then do this
Speaker 2: with the roku and then you can do this, and
Speaker 2: then do it. And I'm like, you just said twelve
Speaker 2: words that none of which makes sense to me. Can
Speaker 2: somebody just come to my house and fix this? And
Speaker 2: they say no, they just don't. They don't send people out.
Speaker 2: They just they don't anymore. Very rarely will they say
Speaker 2: I can help you from here. Probably not, probably not.
Speaker 2: And they didn't. Yeah, And the landline I was speaking
Speaker 2: to them on that they supply disintegrated to the point
Speaker 2: where we could no longer hear each other. Myself and
Speaker 2: the person that was trying during that phone call, during
Speaker 2: that phone call, so anyhow, sorry.
Speaker 1: Well, I know I think we have a legitimate gripe.
Speaker 2: I do have something else I have to do with
Speaker 2: that might have been who was calling?
Speaker 1: But I did I hear write ten thoughts ten thousand? Yes,
Speaker 1: I have to think about that. That's a lot of.
Speaker 2: You know, even back when when we first started with Ducktails,
Speaker 2: that was one of the very first series that started
Speaker 2: with a buy of sixty five.
Speaker 1: I was sixty five right off the bat, so it
Speaker 1: was gone.
Speaker 2: With the days of thirteen and twenty six, it was
Speaker 2: sixty five, and then you know, if you only got
Speaker 2: picked up for twenty six, it was pretty much guaranteed
Speaker 2: you were going to at least go to fifty two.
Speaker 2: And of course this was all because of the syndicated
Speaker 2: package it made.
Speaker 1: Ita and therefore, yeah, it adds up.
Speaker 2: So aside from the class, was it Ductails our first?
Speaker 1: Yes? Yes, and I remember I was, and I remember
Speaker 1: it because Disney named the theater El Capitan. I played
Speaker 1: El Capitan, Yes, And you needed an old four hundred
Speaker 1: year old Spanish pirates, so who else would obviously Cal
Speaker 1: Cummings you know, wow, I love do you remember that.
Speaker 5: I remember, I must tell you, my young friend, you
Speaker 5: have to find an old ool in sheep.
Speaker 2: What do you say? You know, that's why you got
Speaker 2: the job.
Speaker 1: But but but.
Speaker 2: That's a really good voice. Thank you very good.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it hurts and it reminds me of my uncle.
Speaker 2: Say, I think I used that a similar that voice
Speaker 2: on pussing Boots.
Speaker 1: Or something that you came something that was it was
Speaker 1: it was I was uh huh, I know el Cabong,
Speaker 1: So that was that was. That was drama and wrong.
Speaker 2: There's so many of those cartoons that are airing again
Speaker 2: and make me so happy. The classic kind of yeah Ratoons,
Speaker 2: the Huckleberry Hounds, which were my personal favorite, oh yeah,
Speaker 2: and to get to meet people like Dolls Butler and
Speaker 2: oh god yeah Blank and June.
Speaker 1: For I never did meet dos Butler. Who is the
Speaker 1: very first legendary guy that you met. You were at
Speaker 1: Anna Barbara.
Speaker 2: You were here, it would have been Dawes and I
Speaker 2: met him, not at Hanna Barbera. I met him.
Speaker 4: Who can just clarify for the audio, Doug.
Speaker 2: Butler is the voice of Yogi Bear Huckleberry Hound Quick.
Speaker 2: So any voice that wasn't Don Messick or was, and
Speaker 2: I do believe that Don Messick and Dowes Butler were
Speaker 2: equally as talented, certainly as well. But Mel had better
Speaker 2: publicity because he was an on camera actor in the
Speaker 2: Jack Benny Show and so he actually had a publicity
Speaker 2: machine in position, and so he got all the press.
Speaker 2: And when Warner Brothers decided to use cartoon character voices
Speaker 2: and said let's save some money and just use one guy,
Speaker 2: that gave Mel a huge foot up in the industry altogether,
Speaker 2: Dowes Butler. When I first met Dawes, I was at
Speaker 2: Hanna Barbara, maybe my first week there, so we're talking
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four. And when he came in, and he
Speaker 2: was a diminutive man, a giant talent. He wasn't much
Speaker 2: taller than I am, and I'm just five foot and
Speaker 2: I shook his hand, and I know I must have
Speaker 2: been shaking like the fans we meet at calm Con.
Speaker 2: And I just said, mister Butler, I'm so happy to
Speaker 2: meet you. Huckleberry Hound was my personal favorite character in
Speaker 2: the whole world, and he spoke to me as Huckleberry Hound.
Speaker 2: And at this point, I'm, you know, a twenty seven
Speaker 2: to twenty eight year old woman, and I burst into
Speaker 2: tears just, oh gosh, it just wept and oh, because
Speaker 2: I was transported in time, as watching those cartoons do
Speaker 2: to you. Now, you you remember the pajamas, the feety
Speaker 2: pajamas you were wearing, the cereal that you used to
Speaker 2: eat to watch. Because Saturday morning and weekday afternoons were
Speaker 2: the only times we could watch cartoons. There wasn't a
Speaker 2: cartoon network, there wasn't a boomerang, there were none of
Speaker 2: the two. You couldn't find cartoons other than those times. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and so, but to meet Dawes was an absolute throughout
Speaker 2: mel Mel was fabulous. We did I'm not sure if
Speaker 2: you were a part of this. I don't think you were.
Speaker 2: Maybe one of the things I did that you weren't
Speaker 2: a part of when we remade The Jetsons. Oh, and
Speaker 2: of course all those guys were on that show.
Speaker 1: I was on many Yeah, I guessed it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then I sang the song as George Jetson great
Speaker 1: we Are the.
Speaker 2: World or whatever or whatever.
Speaker 1: I can't remember the name of it, but it was, honestly,
Speaker 1: it was actually kind of similar to that. But I
Speaker 1: was singing George Jetson.
Speaker 2: That's great, we remade it. I forgot about it. It was
Speaker 2: like forty gosh, they made twenty six original episodes and
Speaker 2: then twenty years later they decided to make forty one
Speaker 2: additional ones to make a syndicated package.
Speaker 1: Oh and was that what that happened?
Speaker 2: And then so Gordon Hunt, the director at Hannibar at
Speaker 2: the time, the voice director, and I was the casting
Speaker 2: director at the time. We sat down and I said, Gordon,
Speaker 2: I think they're all still alive, and we reach out
Speaker 2: to all the original actors first and go from there.
Speaker 2: And He's like, let's try so.
Speaker 1: We we certainly knew about.
Speaker 2: Right, But but this is even before. This was way
Speaker 2: back when. For the original Jetson's voices, this is DAWs
Speaker 2: Butler and mel Blank as mister Spaceley. This is George O'Hanlon, right,
Speaker 2: Georgia O'Hanlon a Penny Singleton because the Jetsons was and
Speaker 2: she was Judy Janet Waldo was jew who still sounded
Speaker 2: exactly the same. But what was so cool about doing
Speaker 2: the Jetsons again after twenty six years or whatever and
Speaker 2: getting them all back was Dawes was a teacher, and
Speaker 2: Dawes taught fabulous classes and taught many voice actors that
Speaker 2: we have right, Roger Rose and many many successful voice actors.
Speaker 2: And Penny Singleton had dentures at this point and her
Speaker 2: dancers would click when she would record, so she was
Speaker 2: taking classes with DAWs to learn how to not click well.
Speaker 2: She spoke and Georgia Hamlin had had a couple of strokes,
Speaker 2: was blind, and so we reached out to his wife
Speaker 2: and said, do you want to even present him with this?
Speaker 2: We'd like to see if we can make it work.
Speaker 2: And she said, let me talk to him. I'll talk
Speaker 2: to you tomorrow. Called us back and said, I haven't
Speaker 2: seen him so excited in a decade, And if you
Speaker 2: are willing to do the extra work that it will take,
Speaker 2: let's try it. So we would send them the scripts
Speaker 2: in advance. She would read every word of the script,
Speaker 2: every stage direction, every camera pan, every bit of dialogue
Speaker 2: to George and recorded on a cassette. You might have
Speaker 2: heard of cassettes, and then when they would come to
Speaker 2: the session, they would drive in from like way, the
Speaker 2: heck out thousand oaks or something still something, and she
Speaker 2: would play the cassette for him. So, because he was blind,
Speaker 2: so he would remember the story, and then Gordon would
Speaker 2: sit in the studio with George and in the lines,
Speaker 2: and I would sit in the control room and listen
Speaker 2: for any issues. And then after we recorded all of
Speaker 2: his stuff, we would edit it together because sometimes you
Speaker 2: know the food to raca cycle and those words we
Speaker 2: edited together, and then speed everybody just a little bit
Speaker 2: to bring the pitch of their voices back up, because
Speaker 2: gravity affects our vocal cord the same way it does
Speaker 2: all the rest of the parts. That they lose their strength,
Speaker 2: and that raises the back of that day. Back in
Speaker 2: those days, we didn't have the ability to just click
Speaker 2: a button and make We had to actually speed the
Speaker 2: real to real tape.
Speaker 3: So I have a question about that. So does that
Speaker 3: mean they have to record slower speaking the dialogue?
Speaker 2: No, because they were slow. That was the problem. Everybody
Speaker 2: was considerably older, like in their eighties most of them.
Speaker 2: And so this actually fixed two problems. It fixed the
Speaker 2: pitch and it fixed the pace. There you go, that said.
Speaker 2: Another show that we worked on a bit I believe
Speaker 2: together was Chippendale's Rescue Rangers, and that show the three
Speaker 2: main characters, Chipdale and Zipper, all bed right. So they
Speaker 2: did have to act like this and make it make sense.
Speaker 2: So we would record the whole cast who didn't have
Speaker 2: to be sped record the actors who had to be
Speaker 2: sped up, by slowing the tape down I think like
Speaker 2: fifty percent a lot, and then we'd have to play
Speaker 2: it all back to make sure it was clear and
Speaker 2: that it made sense and it didn't sound like the
Speaker 2: actors were acting that way, and then do their pickups.
Speaker 2: It was a very complicated, joyful.
Speaker 1: Remember it so well?
Speaker 2: Oh, my gosh, which show did you do? Fat Cat?
Speaker 1: That was Rescue Rangers.
Speaker 2: Rangers only just threw away the oven myt that you
Speaker 2: gave me a fat Cat recently because it.
Speaker 1: Was so jerky and stable.
Speaker 2: It was no good anymore, but it was a gift
Speaker 2: from you, and I saved it forever. Very hard to
Speaker 2: throw that away.
Speaker 1: Oh that's good. Yeah, God only knows where those are now.
Speaker 1: I've they had that one little sort of not a
Speaker 1: mini reboot, but what would you call it?
Speaker 2: That? Uh back at the Ductails of Rescue Angels.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, they they had a cameo oh in a.
Speaker 4: Oh it wasn't that.
Speaker 3: It was like less than ten years ago, right, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: and it wasn't well received.
Speaker 2: I don't remember hearing about it.
Speaker 1: No, well, it was like two lines, two or three lines.
Speaker 1: Fat Cat had a line of the Chividelle. Each had
Speaker 1: a line.
Speaker 4: They made an appearance in another.
Speaker 1: It was Yeah, it was some kind of retrospect a feature.
Speaker 4: No, it was a series. Yeah, I can't remember for
Speaker 4: the lifetime.
Speaker 2: Was not.
Speaker 1: It wasn't a big hit. Apparently it's not a big hit.
Speaker 1: All good, but it was.
Speaker 4: Let us know in the comments, I'm sure you guys know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's true. You guys know everything. They really do too,
Speaker 1: they do. Yeah.
Speaker 2: They actually information way faster than we did.
Speaker 1: I oh, I know.
Speaker 2: I used to have I mean IMDb and.
Speaker 1: All years off Enyclopedia.
Speaker 2: Truly, I had a mimeograft okay, list of the Hannah
Speaker 2: Barbera classic characters and who voiced them. So, for example,
Speaker 2: when we did the Jetsons, I had to go back
Speaker 2: and find out who did Henry the plumber, you know,
Speaker 2: the handyman and the Jetson thing and find out And
Speaker 2: here's the interesting thing I learned. All that information, by
Speaker 2: the way, was actually on three by five cards written
Speaker 2: in pencil that I found the casting notes for the Jetsons.
Speaker 1: And somebody's rollox or something, a.
Speaker 2: Box of things in storage, I mean forever took to
Speaker 2: find it written in pencil.
Speaker 1: It's in the Smithsonian now it should be.
Speaker 2: And here's the trivia that so few people know is
Speaker 2: George Jetson. The first episode was originally voiced by Murray Amsterdam,
Speaker 2: and they replaced him with George Howe Hanlon before it aired.
Speaker 2: But the little card with the pencil and the line
Speaker 2: through it didn't erase. Fortunately, they wrote the line through
Speaker 2: and then put Georgia Island, so he did it first,
Speaker 2: and that would have been good casting. I think, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 1: Tell you that. But yeah, and for folks who don't
Speaker 1: know who that is, he was on the old Dick
Speaker 1: Van Dyke Show. And if you don't know who that is,
Speaker 1: what the hell are you watching this thing?
Speaker 2: For any He just turned ninety nine, Dick Van Dyke. Yes,
Speaker 2: you still still can sing, still can dance a little
Speaker 2: bit around? Yeah, and really, really, what's his name? Chris
Speaker 2: the musician who just did a thing with him? Oh
Speaker 2: he's huge. This is just terrible.
Speaker 1: Chris Good, Chris Christopher Cross.
Speaker 4: No, no, let us know. In the comments.
Speaker 2: I'm so embarrassed. They just did a huge concert over
Speaker 2: in Europe and Ireland, and he did a special with
Speaker 2: Dick van Dyke and wrote a song for him on
Speaker 2: the spot, wrote a song from on the piano. He's huge.
Speaker 2: I'm just so embarrassed it'll come sitting the cart.
Speaker 4: Do you have any musical background. I do.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I originally was going to
Speaker 2: use music as my as my thing. I played bass, clarinet,
Speaker 2: and I sang and literally as I was leaving for
Speaker 2: college with music as my major, to the State University
Speaker 2: of New York at Fredonia, Upstate New York, as in Hale,
Speaker 2: as in hell, heal tell you a story about that
Speaker 2: in a second. I just decided that music didn't do
Speaker 2: it for me, for it didn't thrill me the way
Speaker 2: I wanted to be thrilled by my choice of career.
Speaker 2: And as I looked at this, it was one of
Speaker 2: those buck slips. It was one of those hard pieces
Speaker 2: of cardboard that's about that size and had all the
Speaker 2: majors that the college offered. And I looked at music,
Speaker 2: and I went down farther and I saw theater arts,
Speaker 2: and I went and I checked that and changed my
Speaker 2: major like a week before I showed up a college
Speaker 2: because the whole first year is always liberal arts. You
Speaker 2: have to take all the same courses no matter what
Speaker 2: you're going to specialize in. And and I'm so glad
Speaker 2: I did because it really changed my trajectory. And but
Speaker 2: the music always helped me because.
Speaker 1: Well, you've only overseen about it.
Speaker 3: That's why I asked so many voice actors. So many
Speaker 3: voice actors have musical theater backgrounds. Have you know, we're
Speaker 3: in a band, And I think it really helps with
Speaker 3: like the timing and the intonation and everything.
Speaker 4: And the reason I ask.
Speaker 3: You is because you have to have for your profession,
Speaker 3: your career, you have to have a good ear. You
Speaker 3: have to be able to distinguish things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh that's so true.
Speaker 2: It was joyous to direct musicals. It really was absolutely
Speaker 2: thrilling because I can read music, and also because I
Speaker 2: was able to let actors, which has always kind of
Speaker 2: been my theory of let me make an ass of myself.
Speaker 2: So the actor, if they feel like they're making an
Speaker 2: ass of themselves, they feel like it's okay. Andrea did it.
Speaker 2: And so I would sing something for them, not worrying
Speaker 2: about my performance, just trying to show it needs to
Speaker 2: be no no no no no no no no no
Speaker 2: no no no no no no.
Speaker 4: Na.
Speaker 2: And that's all I would have to do. And then
Speaker 2: they after go okay, and then they could take it
Speaker 2: to their level of performance, which was far superior to mine.
Speaker 2: But at least I could. I knew where that note
Speaker 2: had to get to.
Speaker 1: That's important.
Speaker 2: It really is State University of New York at Fredonia.
Speaker 2: It's claim to fame. When the Marx Brothers toured there
Speaker 2: as a vaudeville group, they threw them out. So duck soup,
Speaker 2: Hail hell free don oh my Alma moder Wow, that's
Speaker 2: pretty cool, nicol. So every year, of course they would
Speaker 2: have a huge screening of duck soup and get.
Speaker 1: That's very cool. I didn't know that. I mean, I
Speaker 1: knew the about to Donia part. I still I got
Speaker 1: my Andrea lore I know my stuff. Thanks Mary, And
Speaker 1: that's why you're here too.
Speaker 4: So you guys work together on Ducktails, what else?
Speaker 2: Rescue Rangers Rangers, there was a series at Disney. We
Speaker 2: did a lot of Disney stuff together. I also brought
Speaker 2: you into the Warner Brothers world because I wanted you
Speaker 2: to be on everything. I was working on Frank. But
Speaker 2: we did a show, and I'm so glad we're getting
Speaker 2: the opportunity to speak about it. We did a show
Speaker 2: called Bonkers.
Speaker 1: Yes we did, and it was and it was.
Speaker 2: It was one of those situations. Now I was not
Speaker 2: the casting director on these projects, because Disney had their
Speaker 2: own casting department, uh, And they went through dozens and
Speaker 2: dozens and dozens, I'd say hundreds.
Speaker 1: And it was inspired by Roger Rabbit, the success of Roger.
Speaker 2: Correct as many things work, the animation industry was, you know,
Speaker 2: reinvigorated by the success of Roger Rabbit people.
Speaker 1: And the concept of calling cartoon characters tunes that itself.
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, but thank me say thank you Steven Spielberg
Speaker 2: for bringing you back to everybody.
Speaker 1: Ye.
Speaker 2: And so when I heard who they were auditioning, and
Speaker 2: who they had auditioned, and who they had called back,
Speaker 2: and who they had called back twice and who they
Speaker 2: called back the third time, and they were now in
Speaker 2: the fourth and sixth callback for Jim Cummings, who, by
Speaker 2: the way, was the first person they read for the character.
Speaker 2: And after months and months of auditions, they cast them.
Speaker 2: And the first person to read for us.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: And then I mean they had gone to the point
Speaker 2: where they're ever having to pay you for callbacks because Sad, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think I got Sad tells you you can audition
Speaker 2: three times without getting compensated, and after that you have
Speaker 2: to be compensated because there's more stress, there's more.
Speaker 4: Takes time out of your day, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And there's more. And I guess deep and deeper. The
Speaker 2: problem I had with that show was Roger Rabbit was
Speaker 2: live action and animated. It was very simple to see
Speaker 2: who the live people were and who the animated characters were.
Speaker 2: Bonkers was supposed to be about this world where that
Speaker 2: was the same. There were live characters and there were tunes,
Speaker 2: but they were all animated. So it didn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: I could never It wasn't clearly delineated.
Speaker 2: It was not. And then and then some nasty business
Speaker 2: took place. You may recall where I was directing. I
Speaker 2: think I did forty episodes of that show, and then
Speaker 2: we're doing sixty five. Yeah, and then they invited somebody
Speaker 2: to come sit in and watch. Okay, find a problem,
Speaker 2: come watch, come watch, and then one day out of
Speaker 2: the blue, Andrea, we're going to have that person direct
Speaker 2: the rest of the episodes. It was crummy business. It
Speaker 2: was bad business.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: But my point is, no matter what success you have
Speaker 2: or where you are, you always get fired. Yeah, You're
Speaker 2: always elitable to be fired, to be replaced. It doesn't
Speaker 2: matter if you're Frank Welker or a Jim Cummings or
Speaker 2: John Demaggio or Tress McNeil. You can get replaced.
Speaker 1: Yes, and so especially us, we're like, it's it's a shame.
Speaker 4: Business is so crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah. If you're a fan of everything we do here
Speaker 1: at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the
Speaker 1: show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts as well as
Speaker 1: early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings,
Speaker 1: and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and
Speaker 1: join the tuned In family today at patreon dot com
Speaker 1: slash Jim Cummings podcast Do it Now.
Speaker 4: I was just talking with one of my friends about this,
Speaker 4: sorry unrest. It's just last week and.
Speaker 3: We were talking about awards, right, and in the film
Speaker 3: industry you can literally win an Oscar and be broke, Like,
Speaker 3: how many stories have you heard like Oscar winners and.
Speaker 2: Please hire me yes, yes, it's just in their acceptance speech,
Speaker 2: please hire me you need a job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's now based off that statement. Did you feel
Speaker 3: more job security behind.
Speaker 4: The scenes or no? Is it the same situation.
Speaker 2: It's the same situation. I was very lucky that I
Speaker 2: came into the industry at a time just before it floated,
Speaker 2: just before so many cartoons were being made and they
Speaker 2: needed voice directors. And I started as a casting director,
Speaker 2: and then Jenny McSwain moved on to direct and I
Speaker 2: became you know, I was there Hanna Barbera, and then
Speaker 2: Disney Tom Ruzica, who I knew from being an agent
Speaker 2: and I was an agent. He was a creative director
Speaker 2: at Leo Burnett and we had done business together, and
Speaker 2: he called me one day and said, we're going to
Speaker 2: create this thing called Disney TV Animation, And frankly, I
Speaker 2: was shocked. I was like, there is no TV division
Speaker 2: for animation right now, just like Warner Brothers. And so
Speaker 2: he said, yeah, we're going to do this thing called Ductails,
Speaker 2: and we're going to audition a bunch of different directors
Speaker 2: and somebody will do the remaining We're gonna have five
Speaker 2: people auditioned as directors and then one of them will
Speaker 2: do the remaining sixty and I directed the second episode
Speaker 2: and they said, we're not even going to audition the
Speaker 2: other directors we want. And what was shocking was Hanna
Speaker 2: Barbera let me stay on staff casting in Hanna Barbara
Speaker 2: while I went off one half day a week and
Speaker 2: directed ductals. Never would be today would be allowed. They
Speaker 2: were so awesome to let me do that. And then
Speaker 2: I started doing Rescue Rangers and then a bunch of
Speaker 2: other stuff, winning the Poo.
Speaker 1: Yes, what was the name of.
Speaker 2: The producer that used to direct, Carl Gears? Carl?
Speaker 1: Carl Gears.
Speaker 2: He wants me to come in and direct because he
Speaker 2: didn't want to direct anymore. He wanted to be able
Speaker 2: to sit back and just listen. I think it was
Speaker 2: Carl who was the one. He was whoever was used
Speaker 2: to let us sit down on the carpet and he
Speaker 2: would tell us the story of the episode like we
Speaker 2: were kids getting read and nighttime story.
Speaker 1: Yeah you remember that, that was him and Carl. Yeah, Carl
Speaker 1: did that. He had the beard and the glasses and
Speaker 1: it always wore a vest. Great great guy. Really sorry for.
Speaker 2: Whoever he was. I can't remember the name. Embarrass it
Speaker 2: might be called. But what was so lovely is you know,
Speaker 2: usually when you do an animated series, my experience had
Speaker 2: been all the actors sit around with the scripts. I
Speaker 2: have the script and describe what action was important. The
Speaker 2: actors make their notes, we rehearse, we just set any
Speaker 2: we'll set any guest voices that maybe had not been
Speaker 2: established yet, and then you record. But this was different.
Speaker 2: He would describe the story. He would we literally would
Speaker 2: sit on the floor with our you know, blankets and
Speaker 2: pilos practically, and he would describe the story and then
Speaker 2: we would get up and record it. And it was
Speaker 2: joyful thought, it was fun.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we did that a lot of them at
Speaker 1: the old B and B R. Yeah, that was great.
Speaker 1: That was Now it's a sandwich shop.
Speaker 2: Is that what it is?
Speaker 1: Sandwich shop?
Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, that is where it is. And isn't
Speaker 2: Dubbing Brothers also over there to I think they have
Speaker 2: a little piece of it. There is still some recording
Speaker 2: in there in that same building, but by farther on Magnolia.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well there's everything there.
Speaker 2: You know, we're still there yesterday.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. And you know, speaking of bonkers, I can
Speaker 1: still remember and I just it's such a weird little thing.
Speaker 1: It just popped into my head. I think I might
Speaker 1: have mentioned it before. But during those callbacks, and we
Speaker 1: had so many callbacks, it was down to me Matt Frewer,
Speaker 1: who was a Max headroom, and a guy who was
Speaker 1: on a show called in Living Color at the time
Speaker 1: called Jim Carrey. Yes, And it was the only time
Speaker 1: I ran into him in my professional life ever. You know,
Speaker 1: I think he's so brilliant. But he went in first
Speaker 1: maybe alphabetical order, who knows, and and he had a briefcase.
Speaker 1: Then he came out and he goes, gentlemen, you and
Speaker 1: he picked up his briefcase and Jim carried out at
Speaker 1: the building. I'm gonna kick his ass, yeah, And so
Speaker 1: I did once and you know.
Speaker 2: Came into audition that show that was his first animated series. Yeah.
Speaker 2: One of the humans was a police officer. He was
Speaker 2: he was a fabulous, fabulous just loved him on the
Speaker 2: podcast great. And then you know who else was in
Speaker 2: that show was read a Moreno. And I remember, like
Speaker 2: they when we would get to all the callbacks and go, Okay,
Speaker 2: here's the preferred here's the preferred moreno or or or
Speaker 2: I'm like read a moreno, yes, triple threat. She's got
Speaker 2: an show everything, and she wants to do our show.
Speaker 1: And she brought her daughter to the sessions. Was because
Speaker 1: she was getting a big kick out of it.
Speaker 2: It was so much fun. She was so she was game,
Speaker 2: absolutely game. And and to watch actors like that learn
Speaker 2: from animation voice actors, they just they would watch. They
Speaker 2: would just look and go and we say, she used
Speaker 2: to overlap, like you doing normal. You can't overlap the
Speaker 2: animation and talking about how to turn pages and you
Speaker 2: can't turn pages on your dialogue. You have to wait
Speaker 2: those little time. But you don't have to teach them acting. No,
Speaker 2: you don't have to teach him anything about finding the character.
Speaker 1: It was so cool because I would get there early
Speaker 1: so I could sit next to her. And she was
Speaker 1: just as pretty as a picture. She was gracious and
Speaker 1: she brought her daughter and she goes and she and
Speaker 1: she goes, this is fuck this. You can do it.
Speaker 1: You can do anything. Because you know what I always
Speaker 1: have a problem with, I'm a little too much.
Speaker 2: I could be too much animation. Not here, honey, No,
Speaker 2: it's like I you just go. This is like a
Speaker 2: license to.
Speaker 1: Steal any more lines, you know, And she.
Speaker 2: Was like she was game, and wasn't Nancy Carlor on
Speaker 2: this too? Nancy?
Speaker 1: She was the dear bonkers. She was Bunker's girlfriend, who
Speaker 1: who she didn't really like him that much, but.
Speaker 2: He should liked her because she was dreaming.
Speaker 1: Because she was dreaming, she was kind of spicy.
Speaker 2: She was like, is that Chris Chris the books? Yeah,
Speaker 2: I remember, I've used a million times. Why is your
Speaker 2: heart pounding out of your chest like that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: So sweet?
Speaker 1: Yes, wonderful, wonderful Yeah yeah yeah yeah. But then we
Speaker 1: did I don't make him like that anymore.
Speaker 2: But we also did a lot of Warner brother stuff together,
Speaker 2: and you came in and played on Tiny Tooths and
Speaker 2: you sang on some of the main titles.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I was on the main title. It It
Speaker 1: took a while to to for it to fade off,
Speaker 1: because it was every like eight or nine shows, somebody
Speaker 1: else would be singing the well that was Tasmania. But
Speaker 1: and then Rob says something, you know, it was fun,
Speaker 1: It really really was.
Speaker 2: Came to play on.
Speaker 1: One of my favorites was when the Animaniacs went to
Speaker 1: Ireland and you hired me to be an Irish guy.
Speaker 1: But I wasn't allowed to say anything. But I was
Speaker 1: supposed to never shut up, but I couldn't say anything.
Speaker 1: So you told me I had to do Irish Gibberish
Speaker 1: for the whole thing, and and I would always ended
Speaker 1: in mick, you know, and oh, yeah, this is great,
Speaker 1: you know. And I said, I'm gonna call my dad everybody.
Speaker 1: I got to be some really Irish guy.
Speaker 2: I went to Ireland for the first time last year.
Speaker 2: I was invited to Dublin Con.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, well that's where green comes from.
Speaker 2: That's it is where green comes from. And the fans
Speaker 2: are fantastic. I know, what a country Ireland. And then
Speaker 2: we stayed and towards Scotland for a couple of weeks too,
Speaker 2: and that was magnificently.
Speaker 1: Did you survive and enjoy any meals there? I mean,
Speaker 1: did you like to eat?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: I I enjoyed my Jamison jamison, just kidding. No, I
Speaker 2: haven't eaten meat in fifty years, so I don't need organs.
Speaker 1: It's not meat, it's laps and lands.
Speaker 2: Flash, I know, it's no you know, grate cheese, wonderful cheese, excellent. No,
Speaker 2: I had no trouble eating those wines.
Speaker 1: Fine, I understand they have some beer and whiskey over there.
Speaker 2: You know. I learned to drink jamison.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I also learned that Guinness in the North of Ireland,
Speaker 2: Murphy's in the South of Ireland. Yeah, both those foamy,
Speaker 2: dark beers. But yeah, so I learned that Hinden Walls.
Speaker 4: And they served them like room temperature.
Speaker 2: Yeah they do. It is like a meal though, I
Speaker 2: mean really and absolutely delicious. Loved it and there was
Speaker 2: no fish and chips available in the country anymore because
Speaker 2: and I them all, Okay, everywhere we went, I was, well,
Speaker 2: let's have a Soladh fish and chips, yeah, because they
Speaker 2: really know how to make it. But we went even
Speaker 2: to Belfast and that was phenomenal and I love it,
Speaker 2: loved it. Yeah, I stole your story about the Irish
Speaker 2: accent and.
Speaker 1: Beautiful thing. Yeah. Yeah. We had so much fun doing those.
Speaker 2: So much fun. And you know, we had the great
Speaker 2: work with Steven Spielberg. I mean he would Stephen Spielberg
Speaker 2: that it was great.
Speaker 4: It was.
Speaker 2: I mean, there was that moment when I said, okay,
Speaker 2: stand by Stephen one second I turned.
Speaker 4: It was a nerve wracking at all.
Speaker 2: Mind the room.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remembered with Jane in the background. She she
Speaker 1: stood in the background of everybody's picture, Jane President of
Speaker 1: Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2: Jean mccurty, j mccurty.
Speaker 1: And and uh and I remember her. I seen her
Speaker 1: at White House, but she's standing there in the background
Speaker 1: always with me, shaking hands with the Yes, I have.
Speaker 2: Those, absolutely I do. But yeah, it was great. It
Speaker 2: was intimidating. I've directed many directors since that was probably
Speaker 2: my first I directed lands I directed, and.
Speaker 3: Just as a point of reference, So what was Steven
Speaker 3: Spielberg known for at the time.
Speaker 2: At the time would have been Jaws.
Speaker 1: T was out there, that's for sure.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: During the time when we were working with him, he
Speaker 2: directed Schindler's List, and he was like, it's not my
Speaker 2: usual fare, you know, because an of us really knew
Speaker 2: what was going on. And he was like, you're gonna
Speaker 2: need to watch a cartoon after you see Schindler's List.
Speaker 2: I mean, such a stunning director.
Speaker 1: You know. That's so weird because I did that movie.
Speaker 1: It was Balto and I was like the third guy.
Speaker 1: They kept hiring really famous people. And one of my
Speaker 1: pals over there said can you maybe just start Jim Cummings.
Speaker 1: He's not famous, but maybe he can do it. So
Speaker 1: they brought me in. It was Kevin Bacon was Balto
Speaker 1: and I was Steel, the bad guy. So I got
Speaker 1: to replace a couple of guys like that. Featherstone was
Speaker 1: another one, and he directed me all day. I was
Speaker 1: you know, Steven Spielberg and that was.
Speaker 2: He was a great guy, my favorite.
Speaker 1: And Jeff Dane it's my agent. And the time he
Speaker 1: had to come all of a sudden, never went to
Speaker 1: work with a a day. He goes, wait, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: who's going to be the you know, I could probably
Speaker 1: spare some you know, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go.
Speaker 1: So I go, yeah, I know, of course you are.
Speaker 1: And and he sat there and my favorite thing, Stephen goes,
Speaker 1: I don't think I've told this before. So this is
Speaker 1: He goes, guys, I need a break. I need a break. Yeah, okay, yeah, Hey,
Speaker 1: how you doing Bill? Yeah? Oh no, no'm I'm at work.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I'm at work. Uh yeah yeah yeah. Well
Speaker 1: this one's animated. No, this it's not that one. This
Speaker 1: one's anime made it yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, well
Speaker 1: yeah I know it is kind of weird doing them
Speaker 1: both at the same time, but you know, it's it's work.
Speaker 1: It's worked anyway. Listen, I gotta go say hi to
Speaker 1: Hillary and he and I said, were we talking to
Speaker 1: the president? He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, and I go, oh,
Speaker 1: of course, yes, sure, cool, yeah, I mean why not
Speaker 1: I lost.
Speaker 2: I have a similar but not quite as good story.
Speaker 2: Very good. Yeah, it's a very good one. I was directing.
Speaker 2: I did the first five or six Land Before Time sequels. Yes,
Speaker 2: I snuck in on one and oh, yes, you did
Speaker 2: only one.
Speaker 1: I think, so maybe one or two.
Speaker 2: And so I was doing maybe the second one. And
Speaker 2: we had just won an Emmy for Animaniacs, and Stephen
Speaker 2: Spielberg was supposed to come to our offices over at
Speaker 2: the Sherman Oaks Gallery and collect his Emmy, and we
Speaker 2: were gonna do a big thing around the table and
Speaker 2: chat and laugh and spend some time with Stephen, which
Speaker 2: is always fun. And he kept canceling in that day.
Speaker 2: It doesn't work out, so I had to go to
Speaker 2: a session. I had to go direct Land Before Time
Speaker 2: and so I'm in the middle of directing the session
Speaker 2: and somebody comes in from the front office and says,
Speaker 2: got a phone. I said, I'm sorry you guys. I
Speaker 2: really apologize, but I have to take this phone call.
Speaker 2: They're calling me from an emergency for some sort I
Speaker 2: don't know. Pick it up. Hello, Andre, It's Stephen, Hi,
Speaker 2: Steven Stevie. And he said, I understand. He's like, congradulations
Speaker 2: on your emmy. I se, congratulations to you on your Emmy.
Speaker 2: And he said I understand you're directing Land Before Time
Speaker 2: And I said, yeah, you edited the first one, the
Speaker 2: feature film, after it had sat on the shelf for years,
Speaker 2: into something that could actually be released. And he said, oh, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 2: and then he started I don't want to say bad mouthing,
Speaker 2: but he started joking about some of the characters ducky,
Speaker 2: totally derivative, blah blah. And I'm in the room with
Speaker 2: all the producers of the current show and I'm like, yeah.
Speaker 1: Uh huh uh.
Speaker 2: Huh absolutely right.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We talked for about five minutes and I said, I
Speaker 2: really appreciate the call. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there.
Speaker 2: I was looking forward to seeing you, but thanks, thanks
Speaker 2: so much, and take care. Okay, bye. Yeah, I'm sorry
Speaker 2: you guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was.
Speaker 2: Steven Spielberg and there do you do. Oh so not
Speaker 2: exactly as good as yours, the president, but.
Speaker 1: Working on damn good, I should say, was amazing. I
Speaker 1: have I'm going to tell this one because we both
Speaker 1: know this guy. But after Lion King, I was a
Speaker 1: long time ago. It was a Saturday and I was
Speaker 1: I was fiddling around. I was trying to get unclogged
Speaker 1: my daughter's Olivia. She was like twelve at the time
Speaker 1: or eleven. She's forty now, you know. I was unclogging
Speaker 1: her drain because lots of we just put the hair
Speaker 1: right down that we don't care. And so I'm doing
Speaker 1: that and it's Saturday, and she goes dad telephone and
Speaker 1: I said, oh, honey, can you take a message? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, just take a message. I'll call him
Speaker 1: in a minute, okay, And I'm going and you know,
Speaker 1: and she goes, okay, So so cee a t z
Speaker 1: okay a t z e and b e R. It
Speaker 1: was Jeffrey Katzenberg. So I said, who oh, that is coming.
Speaker 1: That is hold on Jeffrey. And I swear to the Lord,
Speaker 1: how many times have I told you not to call
Speaker 1: me on a Saturday? I swear to God. I said that,
Speaker 1: you know I did, and uh and he laughed like
Speaker 1: I think and uh and he said, well, Jim, I
Speaker 1: just and he just called me up to congratulate me.
Speaker 1: And I thought that's great, great, Yeah, and it was cool.
Speaker 1: And they didn't they didn't tell him that I sang
Speaker 1: be prepared until after he signed off on it. Oh wow,
Speaker 1: So that was kind of cool.
Speaker 2: Well, we all have our tricks, yes, I mean, I
Speaker 2: think about when we did Animaniacs and we had just
Speaker 2: finished Tiny Tunes, and we knew who we wanted to
Speaker 2: play certain roles. So when we submitted to mister Spielberg,
Speaker 2: whom we have tremendous respect for him, we're not trying
Speaker 2: to do anything underhanded, but we were trying to control
Speaker 2: the narrative by numbering the auditions rather than puting names. Five.
Speaker 2: Remember that the five submissions for Yako Warner, three of
Speaker 2: which were Rob Paulson. All that because we knew we
Speaker 2: wanted Rob. Rob was the guy we knew we needed
Speaker 2: him to make it work.
Speaker 1: And so he's away exactly.
Speaker 2: So we had three choices of Rob Paulson to choose
Speaker 2: from and two other people if he didn't like Rob.
Speaker 2: But so we you know, it's like you said, we
Speaker 2: didn't tell him about changing somebody's voice or doing whatever
Speaker 2: until after the fact, until after they approved it. And
Speaker 2: again not trying to be duplicitous, just trying to get
Speaker 2: the job done the best way that we knew possible.
Speaker 1: Speaking of I think that's that clears the slight.
Speaker 2: Indeed, I think speaking of animaniacs and music and doing
Speaker 2: all that, Stephen Julie Bernstein did a tremendous amount of
Speaker 2: the music for a lot of the shows we've worked
Speaker 2: down together together with the brilliant and dearly departed Richard Stone,
Speaker 2: and to make us all feel older. Their youngest Madeleine
Speaker 2: is getting married next week.
Speaker 1: Okay, I mean the little toddler.
Speaker 2: This one, the one I've known her since first, she's
Speaker 2: getting married next week. It's just it just but the
Speaker 2: was dying.
Speaker 1: No, I said, it beats dying. Every birthday means you're
Speaker 1: still here, exactly.
Speaker 2: But it's it's lovely that we're all still friends.
Speaker 1: You know that we all still see each.
Speaker 2: Other and try to stay in touch. And I'm not
Speaker 2: on any social media, so I don't have that connection,
Speaker 2: but people do reach out and everyone's a while here. Hey,
Speaker 2: I just saw so and so at the end of
Speaker 2: the day, and they send their regards. Oh, thank you
Speaker 2: very much.
Speaker 1: Well, occasionally I'll see Tress and Jess and Rob on
Speaker 1: and off probably the most of me.
Speaker 2: Do you do comic cons?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I do a few, all only the special ones.
Speaker 2: It's it's hard, there's there's I don't do all of them.
Speaker 2: I know, I keep hitting this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't do all of them.
Speaker 2: I don't either. Some of them are too It's not
Speaker 2: that they're too small, it's that the complication of getting
Speaker 2: to that place and and and I'm no big star.
Speaker 2: I'm just not. I'm not. When I was working, before
Speaker 2: I was retired, I was a bigger draw because people
Speaker 2: felt like they could get in front of me and
Speaker 2: do their voices in my face, which was always a mistake.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 2: They used to chase me down at San Diego Comic Con,
Speaker 2: literally chase me, because I'd be there doing five or
Speaker 2: six panels and I'd be running for one panel to
Speaker 2: get to the opposite end of the Sandy Rodney dangerfield.
Speaker 2: Not even no, they would just run up and start
Speaker 2: doing it in my face, like because they knew this
Speaker 2: was the only chance they saw me read from running
Speaker 2: and I was like, if you put it on a
Speaker 2: tape and send it to my office, I promise I
Speaker 2: will listen to it. I listened to everything that's sent
Speaker 2: to me. I have always done that. Oh yeah, whether
Speaker 2: they're union or not union, whatever, I always listen, make notes.
Speaker 2: And if they would call up to follow up, I
Speaker 2: would tell them, well, you need some acting experience. These voices,
Speaker 2: I couldn't tell what they were. I didn't know how
Speaker 2: to cast them. I didn't you need to make sure
Speaker 2: that they're identifiables. Oh that's a good professor voice. Oh
Speaker 2: that's a very good doctor. That would be very good exactly.
Speaker 2: And often people would do too short a clip. They
Speaker 2: would try to show, you know, fifty voices in fifty seconds.
Speaker 2: It's like you can't. No, I have to tell that
Speaker 2: you can sustain it. You were joking about Rodney Daingerfield
Speaker 2: a second ago. Someone would go, you know, don't get
Speaker 2: no respect, but they can't do anything else and sound
Speaker 2: like Rodney Dangerfield. And so I would need people to
Speaker 2: do fifteen seconds or so. But yeah, I don't do
Speaker 2: very many. I like the big fat ones because I travel,
Speaker 2: and I like traveling, although it's a little scary right now,
Speaker 2: isn't it? With aeroplane issues. It's a little bit scary.
Speaker 2: But I'm still going to get it online next week.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I had COVID already. If that's an issue, No,
Speaker 1: that wasn't it.
Speaker 4: It's the it's the airplanes going down.
Speaker 2: Oh, the planes knocking into each other, separate the lack
Speaker 2: of air traffic control.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's always nice to aim.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and because I'm married to a Brazilian, we're not
Speaker 2: traveling internationally because who knows if you easy to get
Speaker 2: back even though he's a dual citizen.
Speaker 1: If you're a fan of everything we do here at
Speaker 1: tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show
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Speaker 3: You know, in regards to like big actors coming into animation,
Speaker 3: I heard a podcast you were on. You were talking
Speaker 3: about that how it really changed things and you know,
Speaker 3: people like Mark Hamill, and you know, we're starting to
Speaker 3: kind of see the you know, it was lucrative and
Speaker 3: they wanted to get into it. I'm curious that that
Speaker 3: push or that I don't know, decision to start getting
Speaker 3: you know, on camera actors. What level does that come from?
Speaker 3: Does that come from you guys as a casting director?
Speaker 3: Does that come from production? Who really is.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you where it kind of started. And
Speaker 2: I have to take some of the blame or credit,
Speaker 2: however you look at it. Gordon Hunt and I when
Speaker 2: we were over at Hanna Barbera, they and you heard
Speaker 2: this a million times. I'm sure when we get a
Speaker 2: breakdown for a show, we want new voices, we want
Speaker 2: different voices.
Speaker 1: I forgot about that.
Speaker 4: I was too strong.
Speaker 2: We don't want the same old Yeah. Fine, yeah. So
Speaker 2: Gordon Hunt had been the casting director at the Mark
Speaker 2: Tapeer Form downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center, and he said,
Speaker 2: you know, there's an awful lot of really talented actors
Speaker 2: who do stage work, and because they're used to that
Speaker 2: boosted energy, that slightly higher energy than people who are
Speaker 2: strictly on camera. Because the camera captures everything, you can
Speaker 2: be so a little tiny prince, you know, fabulously on
Speaker 2: camera cartoons doesn't make it, and so we said, let's
Speaker 2: start auditioning some of those people. Let's start bringing in
Speaker 2: some of those actors, the Jeffrey Tambors.
Speaker 4: And what was the reasoning behind it, just to experiment, to.
Speaker 2: Supply the producers what they were asking for, which was
Speaker 2: different voices, different people, not the same old people. And
Speaker 2: then the Mark Hamill's who reached out and said I
Speaker 2: want to be a part of the Batman series. And
Speaker 2: then come to find out he was such a huge
Speaker 2: collector of Batman memoribilea and stuff. I think most of
Speaker 2: which got lost in the fire, which breaks my heart.
Speaker 2: But you know, Mark came and worked for me. I
Speaker 2: did hire him right after he reached out saying I
Speaker 2: want to play on Batman, and I hired him and
Speaker 2: he did a great guest star and then he said
Speaker 2: at the end of the session, he pulled me over
Speaker 2: to the side. He said, I had so much fun,
Speaker 2: and I thank you for the gig, but I really
Speaker 2: want to be a part of Batman. And coincidentally, there
Speaker 2: was a decision made to replace the Joker voice, which
Speaker 2: I never would have done. I love Tim Curry's Joker.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't have done it myself, but my job is
Speaker 2: to supply the producers with that which they asked for.
Speaker 2: And so Mark auditioned and was crazy good. We already
Speaker 2: had five episodes in productions only come up with his
Speaker 2: own voice, but he had to match Tim Curry's mouth
Speaker 2: flaps because they were already animated. And you know, from
Speaker 2: most people, when they think of The Joker, they think
Speaker 2: of Mark Hamer.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, when they think of.
Speaker 2: Batman, they think of Kevin conroyly. But I have been
Speaker 2: adamant about this from the get go, and I will
Speaker 2: always fight for the right actor. If they happen to
Speaker 2: be a celebrity, I'll fight for them. If they're a
Speaker 2: rank and file voice actor, I will fight for them.
Speaker 2: And many times I had to say, absolutely, this is
Speaker 2: the right guy. I know he's not the big, fat
Speaker 2: celebrity you want, but he's going to come through for
Speaker 2: you if you're going to do a series. First of all,
Speaker 2: he's not going to take off from New York and
Speaker 2: do a Broadway play for six months.
Speaker 1: And I never did that.
Speaker 2: And there were people who did. You know, there were
Speaker 2: people who auditioned for me. There was one after audition
Speaker 2: for Superman, and we were like absolutely, you are. We
Speaker 2: would love for you to be Superman. And then we
Speaker 2: called the agent and the agent said, oh, he's leaving next
Speaker 2: week for a run on Broadway. We're like, well, why
Speaker 2: didn't you tell us this? This was back in the
Speaker 2: day when they get the phone patch. There wasn't even
Speaker 2: ISDN or any kind of satellite recording. It was listening
Speaker 2: over a phone line to an actor who had not
Speaker 2: had any experience doing this yet, so we couldn't. We couldn't.
Speaker 2: Where we found the fabulous Tim Daly who became our
Speaker 2: Superman and was fantastic. And then Tim went to New
Speaker 2: York to do Madam Secretary and something else and was
Speaker 2: not available. And then we found the glorious George Newburn
Speaker 2: who then became Superman. So so, but always I would
Speaker 2: I always fight for the right actor for the role.
Speaker 2: And you know, as you know, many of these series,
Speaker 2: when they first come up with these projects, they're not
Speaker 2: over scale their scale. Everybody's getting the same dough. But
Speaker 2: there's no memorization, there's no wardrobe, there's no makeup unless
Speaker 2: they're doing you know, epks and interviews afterwards. Factor can
Speaker 2: show up in their pajamas, you know, as long as
Speaker 2: their voice is warmed up, they can come do the gig.
Speaker 2: And so there was a lot of appeal. I remember
Speaker 2: Brookshields reached out to me and said, I am pregnant.
Speaker 2: I can't do on camera work. I want to stay
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles. Can you find something for me? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: I thought she was a lovely actress and found something
Speaker 2: that she came in and she was excellent. And the
Speaker 2: number of people I've had the opportunity, I mean, as
Speaker 2: a casting director. It allowed me to hire people I
Speaker 2: admired across the board, I mean ridiculously. The downside of
Speaker 2: that was hiring them and then having to replace them
Speaker 2: if they couldn't cut the mustard. And I would work
Speaker 2: with them for hour hours after school, you know, con
Speaker 2: Tinuesday after school, and you just keep them and make
Speaker 2: jokes and do everything I could to get the proper voice.
Speaker 2: I remember Michael and Sarah was working with us on
Speaker 2: as a mister Freeze on Batman and he did the
Speaker 2: first episode and I thought he was terrific, and Bruce
Speaker 2: Tim said it's not working. I want to replace him,
Speaker 2: and I said, please let me keep him after school
Speaker 2: and we kept him after we released everybody else, and
Speaker 2: I worked with him for another hour and found exactly
Speaker 2: the voice that he then did for twenty more episodes. Oh,
Speaker 2: I didn't have to replace him. But there was someone
Speaker 2: I was after for years and I finally got it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't that he didn't want to work with me or anything.
Speaker 2: He just wasn't available. He was busy working on camera.
Speaker 2: Actor got him perfect role for him, came in, never
Speaker 2: spoke louder than this, and he was the villain of
Speaker 2: the episode, the villain so quiet anyone. And I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to keep pushing you. I'm going to keep
Speaker 2: pushing you. I need bigger, I need louder, hear you.
Speaker 2: And he said, I just I don't go any louder
Speaker 2: than this. And of course I knew, because I knew
Speaker 2: it was on camera work that he did, and I
Speaker 2: had to replace him.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2: And so when the contract came here, that is after
Speaker 2: I will show the contract, girl said to me, you
Speaker 2: know he was drunk. What because she sat right next
Speaker 2: to him as he executed his contracts at the session
Speaker 2: and she said he wreaked of alcohol. So, long story short,
Speaker 2: when I went back to the agent to find out,
Speaker 2: he was nervous because he hadn't done this, and so
Speaker 2: he fortified himself with alcohol, which made him even more
Speaker 2: intimidated and couldn't do the job. And I know he
Speaker 2: could have done it. I know he couldn't have done it.
Speaker 2: He just you know. And we did the ensemble records.
Speaker 2: It was a Justice League, so there's you know, fifteen
Speaker 2: twenty actors. We had those huge recording facilities that had
Speaker 2: fifteen microphones. I could record everybody at the same time.
Speaker 2: And I think he just was intimidated and couldn't.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've seen that in actors. There was a video
Speaker 1: directed video thing that I did years ago with a
Speaker 1: very famous person. I won't tell you, but uh think
Speaker 1: Star Trek and and he he was in the studio
Speaker 1: and and he's looking around like this and uh yeah,
Speaker 1: oh no, no, what oh dear, and and uh yeah
Speaker 1: and and and and everybody's going and uh and went
Speaker 1: on went on and it turns out, you know, we
Speaker 1: did the whole thing. And then it turns out they
Speaker 1: called me back in for pickups. They rewrote a few things,
Speaker 1: and I said, how did that go the other day?
Speaker 1: Do I still have the same buddy on the screen?
Speaker 1: And and he said he was so intimidated by what
Speaker 1: was going on around him because he couldn't. And I
Speaker 1: was like, he didn't even have to memorize. He's he's
Speaker 1: a really famous guy. He's making a ship ton of money.
Speaker 1: What the hell is that? You know?
Speaker 2: That funny, but you get to see it. You see
Speaker 2: it in the weirdest way. Is the way the nervousness,
Speaker 2: like an actor hasn't really done that. You can do it.
Speaker 2: But they sit there doing the entire recording session doing this,
Speaker 2: Oh yeah you can't. Everything you do, we hear, and
Speaker 2: he would like chat to the actor next to him
Speaker 2: while somebody else was recording.
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, that's we are.
Speaker 2: Live the whole time, all those weird things. But I
Speaker 2: wanted to mention it reminded me of did I finish?
Speaker 2: Did you finish a story?
Speaker 1: Day?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 1: That was it.
Speaker 2: It was so I had the great opportunity I directed
Speaker 2: a so called The Boondocks for I was just about
Speaker 2: to ask you about the boon and I got to
Speaker 2: work with the great Samuel Jackson, And of course they
Speaker 2: had to do a parody of fiction. By the way,
Speaker 2: can I swear?
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, just check it.
Speaker 2: So the episode was about and forgive me. Forgive me,
Speaker 2: I'm going to say the N word a couple of times.
Speaker 2: And I never was comfortable to saying the N word.
Speaker 2: There was one episode where we had to say it
Speaker 2: fifty six times in the episode and have two quick stories.
Speaker 3: He said, fife anyway right now, were directing on this, Okay,
Speaker 3: do the initial casting.
Speaker 2: But I did all the episode casting, and so the
Speaker 2: very first time I had to record Kevin Richardson on
Speaker 2: that episode, he wasn't available for the ensemble record. I
Speaker 2: had to record him by himself where at Salami Studios
Speaker 2: where when the actors, when I'm sitting, when the actors
Speaker 2: are sitting, I can just barely see like this much
Speaker 2: of it, that's right. And so I said, okay, Kevin,
Speaker 2: I'll reach into the first line and you just you know,
Speaker 2: we'll just go on from the scene from there. So
Speaker 2: we're at line fifteen. This is take one, and the
Speaker 2: guy before he says, yo, nigga, what's up there? The
Speaker 2: hose that? And I'm waiting for Kevin to read his
Speaker 2: line and nothing and nothing, and so I stumped up
Speaker 2: and look and he's completely like agog his mouth is open.
Speaker 2: I'm like, it's because I said Nigga isn't just like
Speaker 2: I've ever seen Kevin Richardson like speechless. No, that was
Speaker 2: that was it. You did it, I did it.
Speaker 1: So the episode was just for the record. He's one
Speaker 1: of the most talented guys on the block and stunningly
Speaker 1: looks like it looks like world class wrestlers. So you're
Speaker 1: not going to mess with him.
Speaker 2: First beautiful black man, beautiful talent.
Speaker 1: Oh lord.
Speaker 2: So Samuel Jackson, first time I'm directing him, and the
Speaker 2: scene is all about the episode is all about forgive
Speaker 2: me again, Niga technology, right when there's my space and
Speaker 2: all those and so it starts with the two characters.
Speaker 2: It was Samuel Jackson and Eddie Murphy's brother, Charlie Murray
Speaker 2: the two characters, and Charlie wasn't available for the session,
Speaker 2: so I had to read with Samuel Jackson. I just
Speaker 2: was so happy to read with Samuel Jackson. So the
Speaker 2: scene begins and with Charlie Murphy's character is saying something
Speaker 2: about nick technology is great. I'm at the strip club.
Speaker 2: I got a titty in one hand, a titty in
Speaker 2: the other hand, and I'm checking my messages, and then
Speaker 2: Samuel Jackson's line comes, so I read him. I got
Speaker 2: a titty in one hand, titty on the other hand,
Speaker 2: and I'm checking my messages. Samuel goes into the scene,
Speaker 2: ruin the whole scene once, the scene the second time,
Speaker 2: so I got titty in one hand, titting the other hand,
Speaker 2: and run the scene the second time. I said, anything
Speaker 2: you want to pick up, Samuel, anything you want to
Speaker 2: do again? He goes, can we just run the whole
Speaker 2: scene one more time? I said, absolutely, no problem, of course,
Speaker 2: I got everything I need, so you can do anything
Speaker 2: you want. And I said, do you need me to
Speaker 2: read in that first lining?
Speaker 1: And he goes, please, Yeah, he just wanted to hear it.
Speaker 2: It was so cute. And then also that scene went
Speaker 2: on to have the you know, say what again? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I have to that scene with him, which is just
Speaker 2: so fantastic. So those kinds of things where I got
Speaker 2: to work with actors who I admire so much, whether
Speaker 2: it was Chlorus Leachman or you know, I'm Bewitched h
Speaker 2: Elizabeth who insisted I call her Lizzie.
Speaker 1: Lizzie.
Speaker 2: Wow, so sweet.
Speaker 4: So Gina King must have been great.
Speaker 2: Regina King, What an angel, What a talented actors and
Speaker 2: director and person I mean crazy, I got to most deaf,
Speaker 2: I got to direct and oh my gosh, crazy, wonderful, talented,
Speaker 2: Kat Williams, brilliant, so Snoop.
Speaker 1: Dogg, snep dog Jesus.
Speaker 2: First of all, getting these wrappers into the studio was
Speaker 2: just impossible. Snoop Dogg was late three months. We finally
Speaker 2: get him in.
Speaker 1: That's a long wait, and like.
Speaker 2: I always do, as I always do, I walk them
Speaker 2: to the microphone and you start the comforty.
Speaker 1: We share a blunt with you.
Speaker 2: Chat chat with them. Make sure you here's the script
Speaker 2: in friend, you had a chance to look it over. Okay,
Speaker 2: good stand by. I'm a Salami Studios studio. See. So
Speaker 2: I have to leave him and walk around through the
Speaker 2: hallway and then get into the recording booth to the
Speaker 2: control room and I look up and he's gone. He's
Speaker 2: already upstairs with the blunt. He's outside, like, damn it,
Speaker 2: how do I get him? I got him in the
Speaker 2: studio and now he's disappeared. Oh, I finally got it.
Speaker 1: He spent the horrording.
Speaker 2: I needed him for about an hour. We did his
Speaker 2: work and then he's like well, and we booked a
Speaker 2: studio for like five hours we knew we're going to
Speaker 2: be there. He's like, can I just play? And it's
Speaker 2: your studio, go nuts, And so he stayed. The longest,
Speaker 2: thinnest fingers you've ever seen. You know that he's a
Speaker 2: tall drink of water, you've seen it, but when you
Speaker 2: shake his hand, it's just it's an amazing thing. How
Speaker 2: long and thin, really talented, did a very good job.
Speaker 2: Happy to work with him on a couple of other
Speaker 2: projects as well.
Speaker 1: But that's great.
Speaker 2: Michael Michael, Michael b Jordan, Michael multiple times, be Michael
Speaker 2: B Jordan multiple times. Fabulous guy creed himself And it
Speaker 2: was before it was just as he was beginning to
Speaker 2: find his night and came to play and he played
Speaker 2: cydebalg for me on something and I did a boon.
Speaker 4: I have to ask you, what was Aaron McGruder.
Speaker 2: Like and is a genius? There's no question he's He
Speaker 2: created a comic strip that was so far and above
Speaker 2: anything like it that was being done politically, just what
Speaker 2: was happening in the world culturally, the whole thing. Aaron
Speaker 2: had a really hard time wrapping his head around a
Speaker 2: production schedule and what they needed overseas in order to
Speaker 2: animate to get it back to make air dates, and
Speaker 2: so he would constantly rewrite scenes, and rewrite scenes, and
Speaker 2: rewrite things that were already in animation, and so he
Speaker 2: had a really hard time making air dates. And studios
Speaker 2: aren't very tolerant because you get fined if you listen
Speaker 2: to air date a lot of ADR, and he would
Speaker 2: rewrite during the ADR and it would be like, you
Speaker 2: know what, give me a minute, I'm going to come
Speaker 2: up with a new thing here, and fifteen years, fifteen
Speaker 2: minutes later he would have line and it would be brilliant,
Speaker 2: it would be great. It's just that there's a time
Speaker 2: concern that we all had to get used to. I
Speaker 2: would have loved to have done eight hour sessions. Sometimes
Speaker 2: I can't. I had to get it rehearsed and recorded
Speaker 2: in four hours. That's all I had. It's all the
Speaker 2: screen actors gives me. And I liked ensemble records. I
Speaker 2: liked us all on the same I liked you guys
Speaker 2: acting with each other, perfectly, willing to step in when
Speaker 2: I needed to to read you a line in so
Speaker 2: you could have somebody to act against if they weren't there.
Speaker 2: But to do every single actor solo, and I retire
Speaker 2: at a good time because the pandemic hit and everybody
Speaker 2: recorded separately, everybody recorded from and some of them something
Speaker 2: will still do at home. And so to me, casting
Speaker 2: was always kind of like making the cake, putting all
Speaker 2: the stuff together and making the cake. The recording sessions
Speaker 2: were getting to eat the cake with everybody. We all
Speaker 2: got to eat the cake. And so when that was
Speaker 2: taken away for me, that was a big that I
Speaker 2: was true. I just like, no, that's not I don't
Speaker 2: I'm not interested in individual I mean, well, we had to,
Speaker 2: of course, but I really liked the ensemble. I liked
Speaker 2: because so much of acting is reacting. So time you
Speaker 2: if you're recording all by yourself and the actor before
Speaker 2: you has not recorded yet, I have to read you in.
Speaker 2: I have to get at least five or six different
Speaker 2: versions from you, because for good measure, in case's going
Speaker 2: to cut together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, that is so right.
Speaker 4: God.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I have a weird my famous Robin Williams story
Speaker 1: about that we did.
Speaker 4: He was the.
Speaker 1: Genie in Aladdin and I was Brazil, the guard and
Speaker 1: there's this one scene where he uh and the third
Speaker 1: one where he grabbed a hold of me and went
Speaker 1: like this, and uh, all of a sudden, we're in
Speaker 1: a courtroom and he was the judge, and he was
Speaker 1: the prosecuting attorney, and I was in the witness stand
Speaker 1: sitting there like this, and and I had lived a
Speaker 1: couple of things, and and and they kept him excellent
Speaker 1: and and uh, and he had already recorded, and so
Speaker 1: he had to come back. They had to record a
Speaker 1: couple of things because his line didn't work, because they
Speaker 1: wanted to keep mine. And so they did that one
Speaker 1: or twice, and he goes and and finally they said, well, okay,
Speaker 1: well we finally got got the scene. And I go, yeah,
Speaker 1: would you would you like to see it? And I
Speaker 1: said sure, yeah, yeah, And it's and it's Robin. It's
Speaker 1: me doing this and saying something. And then boom, he
Speaker 1: snaps it and puts me in the thing there and
Speaker 1: he goes, I'm sorry, but I will not be upstaged
Speaker 1: by a tertiary character. And he reached over and grabbed
Speaker 1: my feet and rolled me up into a blind and
Speaker 1: threw me out into the universe. So I got personally dissed.
Speaker 1: I got well, they had like one or two of
Speaker 1: my zingers in there. And then he goes, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: but I will not be upstage by a tertiary character.
Speaker 1: So he got the two ends so he can get
Speaker 1: knew that he was insulted, and then he got rid
Speaker 1: of my ass and well I don't know about that,
Speaker 1: but he was tired of living around me. He was like, no, no, no.
Speaker 3: Around here, all right, I hate to do this. We're
Speaker 3: stacked up this time. Just I flew by, we have
Speaker 3: another people yeah, way, I know. Yes, I was just
Speaker 3: about to say we need to do this again.
Speaker 2: We didn't even talk about this stuff.
Speaker 3: This was definitely part one. Yes, absolutely that that hour
Speaker 3: just flew by. You're such a high energy versus it's
Speaker 3: a pleasure to our quickest period and honestly, like to
Speaker 3: all you guys watching, to me, this is what the
Speaker 3: heart of Tuned In with Jim cummings In is. It's
Speaker 3: it's just like you guys go way back, and it's
Speaker 3: like getting to peer in to what those sessions were
Speaker 3: like and your inner personal relationships. To me, it's so
Speaker 3: different than just like a normal interview or a normal
Speaker 3: podcast because of that past history. And you guys are
Speaker 3: peers rather than you know, somebody like me with no relation.
Speaker 3: You know saying, oh, what was it like on this?
Speaker 3: What was it like on that?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 3: And I think that's why this went by so fast.
Speaker 3: It's because it's just like good friends catching up.
Speaker 1: Good good. You heard it here first right from her mouth.
Speaker 4: We can do it again next week if you want to.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Andre Romano.
Speaker 2: Everyone, thank you so much for one here the only
Speaker 2: thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: And stay tuned for part two. As always, if you
Speaker 3: like this kind of content, like and subscribe, it'll help
Speaker 3: the YouTube algorithm show you more videos like this. And
Speaker 3: if you like it so much that you want to
Speaker 3: see even more than nobody else gets to see. Guess what,
Speaker 3: there's a patreon that's right tuned in. When Jim Comming's
Speaker 3: on Patreon, you get bonus content, exclusive episodes that nobody
Speaker 3: else here on YouTube gets to see. So make sure
Speaker 3: to subscribe for that. If that's what you're into, everything.
Speaker 1: Else you'll feel different.
Speaker 3: Jim Commings closet on Shopify if he want some merchandise,
Speaker 3: and am I forget anything anything else?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think that's it.
Speaker 4: That's about it well too.
Speaker 3: For now, I'm producer, Chris Jim Cummings Andrea Romano Thank
Speaker 3: you so much for joining us. We will see you
Speaker 3: in the next film.
Speaker 1: Yay. Thanks buddy, was so fun to listen to me.
Speaker 1: Believable