Brian Trester sent me this question…
I was wondering how you cast for a voice when the original actor has passed away. I am sure it's difficult. I am thinking of Garfield. I have seen the new Garfield show and while it is good, I still can't get used to the art or his voice. To me, Lorenzo Music will always be the voice of Garfield. This is why I am asking the question.
What I am driving at is it must be hard. You want someone to resemble the voice but at the same time do not want the person to be a carbon copy of the actor. Either way, it seems like a lose-lose situation. If you get a sound-alike, people will complain you're disrespecting the original voice. But if you get a new voice, they complain it doesn't sound like the original or they hate the new voice.
I know Hanna-Barbera had this problem with Scooby Doo and even Shaggy. I also know when Mel Blanc died they had a huge problem with the new voices and complaints. Since you have done a lot in this field, I was wondering how you handle or handled this problem.
In the case of Garfield, Jim Davis made the decision to hire Frank Welker and to have him do a voice that was similar but not exact. Believe me, Frank can do exact. It took me a while to get used to it. The whole first season of the new show when Frank took over, I heard Lorenzo in my head when I wrote dialogue for Frank. It wasn't until we had some finished episodes with Frank doing the voice that I began to hear him as I wrote for him.
I can't say I've ever heard anyone say it was disrespectful to closely imitate a voice. I have heard plenty of complaints when the imitation ain't so good. A lot of us grew up with certain voices burned into our childhood memories and it can be jarring — and even despoiling when the new guy is too far from what we expect.
There's a whole science and a raft of considerations involved in casting a replacement voice for an established character and I could go into it here. But as it happens, it's the topic for discussion the night of March 2nd at the The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences out in North Hollywood. There's a panel there that evening called "…But the Characters Live On" and it's all about new voices in old legends.
The list of those discussing this topic isn't complete yet but so far, it includes Matt Craig and Gary Hartle, who produce the TV series, Wabbit; Andrea Romano, who has cast and voice-directed more cartoon shows than any human alive; Bob Bergen, who now speaks for Porky Pig and Tweety; Dee Bradley Baker, who speaks these days for Daffy Duck; Grey Griffin, who plays Daphne on the Scooby-Doo show; Jeff Bergman, who has voiced Fred Flintstone, George Jetson, Bugs Bunny, and many more, and Mallory Lewis, who inherited the talent of her mother, the great Shari Lewis, and also inherited Lamb Chop.
There will be a few others…and the moderator might have something to say, as well. The moderator is me.
This will disappoint some who read this site but the event — which you can read about here — is only open to Television Academy Members with valid membership cards. Sure hope I can find mine. It will however be watchable by all on the Academy's website and I'll let you know how and when to do that.
Brian, you'll probably get many of your questions answered there and then. If you have more, I'll try to address them on this here blog.
