Well, I spent the morning at my doctor's office getting a check-up and using my Medicare card for the first time. Turns out that despite the best efforts of the Trump administration to drive it up, my blood pressure is decently low and everything else is jes' fine. Then the rest of the day was taken up hosting that event at the Television Academy. It was called "But the Characters Live On," discussing how others have taken over the roles of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, etc. Also, we had Mallory Lewis — daughter of Shari Lewis — who does an uncanny simulation of her mother, keeping mom's characters alive.
Let me identify the folks in the above photo. In the top row, left to right, you have Jeff Bergman (currently the main voice of Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd), Grey Griffin (formerly Grey DeLisle, now the voice of Daphne on the Scooby Doo cartoons), and then Gary Hartle and Matt Craig (producers of the cartoon show, Wabbit.)
On the couch, also left to right: Dee Baker (current voice of Daffy Duck), Bob Bergen (who does Porky Pig), me, Andrea Romano (casting and voice director) and Lamb Chop and Mallory Lewis.
After I came out and talked a little about the topic, I brought out Andrea and talked with her for a while, then I brought out Gary and Matt and talked with all three of them. Then we added Dee, Jeff, Grey and Bob to the stage. There was a reading of a Wabbit script by the voice actors, then we showed the finished cartoon. Following that, I interviewed Lamb Chop and Mallory, and we closed with a dramatic reading — a highly-abridged version of Hamlet cast, of course, with all cartoon characters — followed by an encore where Bob Bergen taught the entire audience how to sound like Porky.
The performers and interviewees were all sensational and if you missed it, fear not. A video of the whole thing will be up on the Academy website in a week or two. I'll let you know when. Here are a few other random thoughts…
- Everyone was good but I was especially impressed with Mallory's ability to sound exactly like her mother. I worked with Shari Lewis on a project that never reached fruition and I'd talked to Lamb Chop then. I know Mallory has a genetic advantage but that's the closest "voice match" I ever heard in my life.
- Boy, the new Wolf Theater out on the campus of the Television Academy is terrific. What a great facility.
- Three of the four voice actors have been on my Cartoon Voices panels at Comic-Con International in San Diego. I took the opportunity to conscript Jeff Bergman for this year, plus Grey is coming back. (I'm doing a Cartoon Voices panel at WonderCon on April Fool's Day. We'll have Katie Leigh, Dan Gilvezan, Bill Farmer, Daniel Ross, Elle Newlands and maybe one more person.)
- So I'm in the Green Room doing my last notes before we start…and in come some Academy staff members with cupcakes and everyone sings "Happy Birthday" to me — which I ordinarily hate but I've got Bugs, Porky, Tweety and Daphne leading the singing so it's kinda surreal and fun.
And that's about all that comes to mind at the moment. It ran about 90 minutes but where I was, center-stage, it felt like about ten minutes. A great time was had by all, including the Birthday Boy.