Here's Mel Blanc guesting on Johnny Carson's show for May 26, 1983. I used to see Mel a lot when I worked at Hanna-Barbera and occasionally talk to him a bit. A year after this appearance with Johnny, I actually directed him for a brief voiceover for a CBS special and got to have a long conversation with the man. I told that story here — and I just realized I had the year in it wrong so I have corrected it. It was September of 1984.
Every time I saw Mel at H-B or that day in a recording studio, he was walking shakily with a cane. Given the severity of the 1961 traffic accident, it was amazing that he could walk at all…and I notice that when he made his entrance on Johnny's show, he managed to not use or seem to need that cane. I can't say I ever knew him well except in the sense that we all knew him well from growing-up with his voice so often in our ears. He really was as good as his reputation said he was.
At Comic-Con next month, there will be a panel on 4:30 on Saturday afternoon, July 22. I think I'm not supposed to announce program items before the con does but they'll forgive me for this one. The brilliant cartoon voice actor from Australia, Keith Scott, will be in town for the con. He'll be on the Cartoon Voices panel I'm hosting earlier that day at 1 PM and then later, in the 4:30 panel, Keith will be discussing the history of cartoon voice actors with myself, Jerry Beck and Leonard Maltin. The panel will cover just a smidgen of what's in two must-have books that Keith recently released.
We will, of course, be talking a lot about Mel Blanc, the man who pretty much defined what it means to be a cartoon voice actor. Here's Mel in 1983…