radio

When people talk about the greatest voice actors in cartoons, Mel Blanc is always at the top of the list, and for good reason: he solely provided the voice of the majority of the Looney Tunes characters, save for Elmer Fudd, who was voiced by Arthur Q. Bryan. His first real contribution was providing the voice of Porky Pig, a gig originally given to an actor named Joe Dougherty whose genuine stutter made it impossible for him to control the character's voice.

Blanc also worked in radio before and during his time at Warner Bros., working with such legends as Jack Benny, Abbot and Costello, and Burns and Allen. It was radio that helped him to create solid but unseen characters, a talent that carried over beautifully into animation.

After the jump is a clip from the Tonight Show featuring the man himself being interviewed by Johnny Carson. It's rather bittersweet to see these two great comedic minds on screen together, and to think of what the world of entertainment lost when they each passed away.

[via Frederator]

Check out the picture on the right. It just looks like a plastic bust of Homer Simpson, but it's actually a radio. The eyeballs are the tuning and volume knobs, which I guess means that while listening to the radio Homer takes on the appearance of "incredibly brain damaged Homer" complete with wandering eyes. I also found this SpongeBob SquarePants shower radio, this Tweety Bird combination phone and clock radio on eBay, and this Garfield radio (did you know he's coming back to TV?) which is very similar to one my brother had when we were younger, except his was a clock radio and the alarm was Garfield's voice saying, "time to wake up, sleepy head." If you pressed his nose / snooze button, Garfield would say, "Nah, don't get up. Stay in bed, sleep longer."

Now I'm curious: does anyone out there have any unique promotional toys for old (or new) TV shows that stand out from the usual plastic crap you can find in large chain stores? Let loose in the comments, this is your chance to break out your awesome toys and make everyone else jealous. Yes, it's childish, but what's the point of having these collectibles if not to make other people jealous?

I haven't a lot of time to really delve into Shokus Radio, but I've heard enough to recommend it to anyone with an interest in the early days of television. Besides interviews with folks in the TV industry, the internet radio show also replays classic radio programs that later became TV shows, featuring the likes of Jack Benny, George Burns and Gracie Allen. Also, episodes of Dragnet, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and You Bet Your Life. Every episode also includes the original commercials. You can see a schedule here.

There's also big band music, rock music, and some hip-hop show hosted by an eight year old girl. You know, if you like that sort of thing along with your Jack Benny Hour.

[via Mark Evanier]

Man, no sooner do I finish typing up a post about the passing of animation composer Shirley Walker when I find out via Cartoon Brew that another person from the world of animated entertainment has passed away. This time it's Sid Raymond, an actor who appeared in both television and radio and was the voice of both Baby Huey and Katnip for Famous Studios. Raymond also appeared in a series of commercials for Schlitz Beer in the 1960s as a goofy bartender. Over his career, Raymond appeared in over 400 TV shows, though he never gained the popularity held by those he acted alongside, such as Paul Newman and Ernie Kovacs.

Mark Evanier writes about the actor, and includes a video of an old Baby Huey cartoon. I've also placed the video after the jump, for those of you who remember baby Huey and those of you who want to know who the heck that is.

The picture on the left shows Sid Raymond (in headphones) and cartoon historian Jerry Beck.

Oldies 1510 WRNJ in Hackettstown, New Jersey broadcasts a show called "Time Travel," hosted by Dan Hollis and Jeff O'Boyle. The program focuses on pop culture of the past, television included. If you're like me and don't live in "Joyzee" you can now download and listen to some of the interviews from the show's archives through a new Web site that could really use a redesign.

The archives include interviews with a bunch of folks associated with the golden age of animation, not to mention other great TV from the past, including voice actress June Foray, Noel Blanc (son of Mel), Joan Benny (daughter of Jack), Lee Mendelson and Marty Krofft. If you dig all that old timey stuff, this is definitely worth checking out. As you can see from the archives, many of the greats from the past have long since gone on to that great TV in the sky, but hearing their own children talk about them is the next best thing.

[via Cartoon Brew]

If you didn't get your fill of voice actor Billy West when Joel interviewed him awhile ago, you can listen to an audio interview with the voice actor on the Paul Harris Show by clicking here. West, who, as many of you know, did the voices of a bunch of the characters on Futurama, plus the voice of both Ren and Stimpy during part of that show's run, not to mention a ton of other characters both classic and new. West talks about how he comes up with voices for the characters, and tells a funny story about watching The Diary of Anne Frank because one of the actors, Lou Jacobi, was part of his inspiration for the voice of Zoidberg on Futurama. He also talks about how voice actors often get treated like second class citizens in Hollywoodland. A very funny interview, definitely worth checking out.

[via Mark Evanier]

We know there's been an ongoing rhubarb between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olbermann for some time now. Apparently O'Reilly is so incensed with Olbermann that the mere mention of the Countdown host's name on his syndicated radio show will get you disconnected and banned from the show. On a recent show, a caller was able to say this much: "I like to listen to you during the day, I think Keith Olbermann's show --" before O'Reilly cut him off and then announced to the caller that his phone number would be turned over to Fox security. 

To be fair, I don't listen to Bill's radio show, so I can't say one way or the other how "serious" he was being when he did this. If any of our faithful readers happened to be tuned in to the show when this went down, I'd love to hear your take on it. 

[via News Hounds]

Fred Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee and the actor best known for the role of District Attorney Arthur Branch on Law and Order, recently signed on to ABC Radio as a "special program host and senior analyst." When he's not providing commentary, he'll be filling in for venerable radio icon Paul Harvey when Harvey is on vacation. I just hope Thompson can make those air purification systems sound as appealing as Harvey can. I've purchased so many of them I'm afraid I'll be contaminated if I try to leave my apartment.