FUNKY FUN THING # 9: "ROCK ME AMADEUS" MATCHBOOK

For this month's post, I continue my list of "Seemingly Ordinary Things From My Personal Collection That Have A Story Behind Them And Pertain To My Career In Animation" (or SOTFMPCTHASBTAPTMCIA for short) (or "Stories About Funky Fun Things" for shorter).  If you love 80's music, then you'll know why I love this totally funky fun thing: 

It's from an actual night club (which I believe is closed now) located in Seoul, South Korea.  I paid a visit there in 1996 with my producer, Kara Vallow and our overseas director, Bob Arkwright.

FUN FACT: The owners of the club thought that Bob was actually Chris Slade (the drummer for AC/DC) and insisted that he visit them the following night to perform with their house band.  

As much as we tried to convince them of the truth, they persisted in their belief and wouldn't believe anything we were saying.  So to preserve their dignity, we caved and went along with the charade, telling them that Bob would stop by later that week to jam with them.  Of course he didn't.  So if you're reading this, and you're one of the former owners of the Rock Me Amadeus club in the area of It'aewon in Seoul, Korea, now you know.  And knowing is growing. If you’re unfamiliar with Falco, then watch the video here.

So.  Now that you're all indoctrinated in the cult of Falco, I hope it helps you understand why the 80's were such a fun time in music history and why I tended to hire certain 80's artists to sing on Johnny Bravo.  For example, we had Rick (Jessie's Girl) Springfield and Maureen (Marcia Brady) McCormick performing a duet in the sound booth at Hanna Barbera from our first season episode, "Beach Blanket Bravo." Besides Rick, we also had Billy Vera of Billy Vera and The Beaters voice a land shark in that episode.  Also in the first season, we had the pleasure of having Chuck D from Public Enemy and Montell (This Is How We Do It) Jordan do voices in our episode, "Hip Hop Flop."

Mind you, not everybody was clamoring to work on our show.  We got a lot of responses like, "We respectfully decline" and "Unfortunately, we have a scheduling conflict." which is code for "Yeah, right!"  But even with the Debbie Downer agents, we still got a number of folks to come out and play in our sandbox which made the pimply-faced kid in me all giddy.

In our fifth season, we got a little bit more 80's flava when we hired Jimi Jameson of Survivor to sing an "Eye of The Tiger" parody during a training session with Mr. T in the episode "T is For Trouble."  We even got Sebastian Bach to perform a little ditty in our episode, "Johnny Makeover."  Both guys were fun to work with, but unfortunately we had to do a phone patch from another studio as neither of them were in Los Angeles when we needed them to record.  I remember debating with our writer, Craig Lewis and our producer, Diana Ritchey about which song we wanted Jimi Jameson to sing on cue to prove he was who he said he was.  I think we settled on a few bars of "High On You."  We weren't disappointed.

As I wrote in my last post, "Funky Fun Thing # 8," we created an episode that was a pseudo musical send-up of "Grease" and various 80's teen films.  But in that post, I didn't really elaborate on the process we went through to create the episode and its soundtrack.  

For example, the lead girl, Sandy, was designed by Vaughn Tada and Dan Haskett.  To give authenticity to the era, she was dressed to look a bit like Molly Ringwald while all the guys had swishy hair and, like Johnny's nemesis below, wore colorful wrestling pants.  

And as the pièces de résistance, we hired Vince (Depeche Mode, Yaz, Erasure) Clarke to complete the full 80's immersion. 

The first song in the show was a take on “Da-Doo” from “Little Shop of Horrors” but interpreted with the music stylings Vince originally used on “Only You” by Yaz.  The second song we did ended up being a take on the stylings of “Just Can’t Get Enough.”  And if that weren't enough, we got an even bigger treat when we got Richard Butler, the lead singer of The Psychedelic Furs, to record said last song.  Our working relationship consisted of me coming up with the words and images I wanted to convey for the song, Vince creating music and lyrics, me making changes (barely any!), and then him doing a final mix. 

As we created original musical cues to play throughout the show, Vince had me name songs that best conveyed the mood I wanted to set for the scenes.  Then I just sat tight and waited for him to do his magical musical thing.  I remember that it was like Christmas every time I got an email from him with a new track. So if you listen carefully to the background music, we took inspiration from songs by artists like Human League, Howard Jones, OMD, Spandau Ballet, ABC, and the reason why I'm writing this blog, Falco.    

(Rather than repeat what I've already posted, you can click here to see a picture and read an anecdote about the voice recording session with Tony award-winning actress, Lea Salonga.)

So until next time, do yourself a favor and go listen to some 80's music today.  It's good for the soul.  Especially Rock 'N Soul Part I. (bad 80's insider humor)

MEMORIES OF ED BENEDICT

I wrote the following article in October of 2000 for a zine called Apatoons. It’s just my musings on the late Ed Benedict.

He also worked on my two other Johnny Bravo Specials after I wrote this article.

ED BENEDICT ON JOHNNY BRAVO

When I started Johnny Bravo I wanted to develop a classic Hanna-Barbera style for the show. Not the '70's or '80's "Push it through, it looks good enough" style that the studio was accustomed to, but the very stylized and minimal look that I found appealing. The one that was developed for Ruff and Ready and Yogi Bear. I asked my producer, Byron Vaughns, who we could talk to and he mentioned Ed Benedict. I pessimistically thought, "Yeah, right! Like, Ed Benedict would come out of retirement to design my show." Byron said, "Hey, it's worth a shot."

From there, I decided to do some homework on Ed Benedict. I knew that he designed all the major H-B characters but that was about it. Surprisingly, when I asked people around the studio about him, they questioned my wanting to approach Ed Benedict for anything. I was told by several artists and production people that he was a crabby old man who doesn't like to be bothered. They said that he was difficult to deal with and that if I wanted to learn about his artwork that I should just watch the cartoons he worked on and study his model sheets. It was interesting because all these comments came from people who hadn't really dealt with Ed on a one-on-one basis. The only one who could really say anything about him from first-hand experience was Joe Barbera, and he told me that he's the main man to go to if I can get him.

Fortunately for me, the Animation Art department was still in the studio and they had recently dealt with Ed. I knew that they could give me the real answers about the Ed Benedict of today. Mike Ryan, the head of the department, told me that all the stories I've heard about him are true. Ed is a crabby old man who left Hollywood because he hates it. But he also told me that he likes when people visit him and that he still knows how to work a pencil. Then he showed me some of the line art that Ed had recently drawn for them. I was amazed at how clear the composition was and impressed that his linework was the same as it was all those years ago. I had recently gotten a drawing from Joe Barbera and noticed that there was a slight deterioration in his drawing skills. Since they were both in their late eighties, I assumed Ed had also lost a bit of his craftsmanship, but apparently it was still there. From that point on, I was determined to use Ed Benedict and all the rest of the old school H-B guys in one way or another on my show.

Meanwhile, Byron had gotten Ed on the phone. It seems that Ed gave up working in animation because he didn't need the money or the stresses of deadlines. Besides that, he's retired! Fortunately for us, from Byron's conversation, Ed agreed to talk to me and my designers, Miles Thompson and Julian Chaney, about the art of animation. Over the course of a couple of weeks, Ed would call us up and discuss animation but, in his words, "it's like trying to tell you about a pretty girl. No matter how much you describe her, you'll never know how stunning she is until you can actually see her." That prompted me to ask our head of production, Sherry Gunther, to pay for me and one of my designers to fly up and see Ed for a drawing lesson. It was a long shot, but it worked. The next thing I knew, Julian Chaney and I were flying up to Carmel to spend a day with Ed Benedict.

We arrived at his home and were kindly met by him and his wife, Alice. Entering into his kitchen, I saw my first bits of Ed Benedict artwork. He had created about twelve different rabbit sculptures, all made from different things from wood and clay, to paper clips and rocks. Alice told us that he made one every year for Easter. Next he took us past his retro looking family room to his back room working space. As we complimented him on his home decor, he proudly said, "Notice how I don't have any animation artwork on my walls except for this drawing." He then pointed to a framed drawing of Betty Boop given to him by Grim Natwick. "Now he was a good man and a great artist."

From there, Ed told us that he didn't understand why we kept asking him if he could help us figure out the "Ed Benedict" style. To him, there was no "Ed Benedict" style so it urked him that we even made a comment like that. He then proceeded to pull out his sketchbooks from the 1930's. (That right there was worth the trip.) He showed us all the different things he liked to doodle and explained how he doesn't like to dictate the way his art comes about. He also talked of how he dreamed of being a set designer and showed us sketches of sets on the MGM lot that he did during his breaks. He also had landscape paintings, caricatures, horticultural and architectural studies, and most of all, studies discerning composition of shapes within space. From there, he began to draw with that concept in mind.

We were there for hours as he took our development drawings and transformed them into works of art. It was a once in a lifetime thing to have Ed Benedict talk in abstracts and then watching these concepts flow from his pencil. The worst part about it was that he kept drawing over everything he did and then ripped it up when he was finished. By the end of the day, I had grown an appreciation for the art of animation. I had learned more in those couple of hours than I ever had before or since. I had also made a new friend and mentor on my journey through the world of animation.

After that meeting, Ed agreed to do some conceptual design for my show. As long as he didn't have a deadline. He also made it a point to let us know that he wasn't doing it for the money because he didn't need it. I like to think he did it because of the camaraderie between the two of us. Each delivery he made was like getting a Christmas present in the mail. I remember looking forward to his deliveries and the follow up calls to discuss why he did what he did. I felt like the luckiest kid in school because I got one of the greatest animation legends to come out of retirement to work on my production. It was a dream come true.

One of the funnest things about visiting Ed was going through his personal file cabinet of every single piece of artwork he's ever done. He kept all his drawings because people kept asking him for the same designs for animals and people over and over. Knowing full well that he hates having people copy his stuff, I was pleasantly surprised when he allowed me to take selected files of his original artwork to Kinko's and photocopy them for reference purposes. The best part was that he allowed me to make beautiful color copies of his development artwork from "Invitation to the Dance" and "Dixieland Droopy." All that he asked was that I not make any more copies of his material for other people to steal. I can now look at his artwork and study it in ways I could never have without Ed's thoughts and words.

I went and visited him by myself two other times during the course of my show and about three or four times socially after that. Each time I went, I tried to spend a full day with him. Each time I learned a little bit more about Ed as an artist and as a person.

He has a deep love and passion for the art of animation and is saddened and angry of its demise since the golden age. He sketches with a pencil that is not in existence anymore. He loves drawing Vegas showgirls. He doesn't think Pebbles is designed to go with the rest of the Flinstone family (he didn't do that design). He holds his pencil between his third and fourth finger. He loves classic Disney and UPA cartoons. He started Disney the same day as Fred Moore. He likes chocolate chip cookies. He only takes two or three puffs from his cigarettes. In between his cigarettes, he takes the gum out of his mouth, places it on a toothpick, and then puts it back in his mouth after he's done smoking. He's a pack rat. He loves to tinker on his organ and plays it every night before he goes to bed. He doesn't like to be bothered until after 11:30 in the morning and behind all his crabbiness is a person who just likes what he likes and doesn't give a damn about what anybody else thinks.

On one particular visit to Ed’s home, I was leafing through a stack of old drawings he had done.  Somewhere in the middle of the stack, Ed had me stop on a specific drawing.  It was a sketch he had done on an old magazine page.  I looked at it with the artist’s eye that Ed had taught me to use and was ready to tell him what I saw.  I was ready to give him a compliment on his use of positive and negative space.  I was ready to comment on his use of straights versus curves.  I was ready to show him that all the things he had shared with me had sunk in.

“You see that drawing?” he asked.

“Uh huh.”

“Feel that paper.  I saw that in a magazine and had to draw on it.”

FUNKY FUN THING #8: METAL "GREASE" BELT BUCKLE

If you were born somewhere in the 90's or later, you might not be aware of a time where everyday people attached "works of art encased in metal" to the front of their belts and passed it off as fashion.  (I'm talking about "everyday people" as it relates to myself in the suburbs of Southern California where belt buckles are not the norm.)

Anyhow, the latest "funky fun thing" in my collection as it relates to my work is:

I freely admit that I am a lover of musicals.  Even in Junior High and High School, when it was odd for a guy to love "The Sound Of Music", I lived my life like a Broadway trope, singing wherever I could and dancing to the inner beats in my head.  It's the reason I joined the church choir and the local community show-pop-jazz group, "The Steinbeck Singers Unlimited" (which is a whole other post in and of itself).

In fact, when I first moved down to Los Angeles, I made it a point to visit two distinct "Grease" sets: the drive-in theater (where I sang "Sandy" while swinging on the swing set) and Venice High School where the majority of the exteriors were filmed.

"Tell me more, tell me more... Where'd you get those fluorescent shorts?"

Johnny definitely carried the Danny Zuko torch with his stereotypical macho personality which overshadows the fact that, at their core, they're both loyal and good natured.

As you might imagine, it was an ongoing goal of mine to figure out how to do an homage to "Grease" in our show.  It took a while but, by the time we got to our fifth season, I finally figured out how to accomplish this goal.

My big idea was to have Little Suzy find Johnny's old yearbook and discover that Johnny was "a ninety-eight pound weakling" in high school.  From there, the episode would be about how Johnny became buffed to win the hand of his high school crush through a flashback story set to 80's music (not 50's music because we didn't want to make him that old!).  I had to do a number of rewrites to the outline because the network was worried that the episode was going to be too serious.  After all, the show was about high school heartbreak and unrequited love.  What's not funny about that?

FUN FACT: The Doo Wop Singers for the episode were Cat Cavadini, Tara Strong, and Lea Salonga.  Yes!  That's right!  The Filipino Tony Award winning actress, Lea Salonga!  She did an amazing job harmonizing with Blossom and Bubbles as sort of the fourth "unofficial" Powerpuff Girl.  Did I mention that Tom (Biff Tanner) Wilson was also there?  (What?!  Mic drop!)  It truly was a pleasure to be at this record.  If you scroll back to my "Number 3 Funky Cool Thing" you can see the cast photo.

So for all you folks whose names are signed "Boogedy boogedy boogedy boogedy Shooby doo-wop she-bop," enjoy this cruise down memory lane.

And for those who know nothing about the subliminal "John Travolta" repeated over and over in the "Grease" soundtrack, ask me about it the next time you see me and we'll talk...

FUNKY FUN THING #7: "SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK" VIDEOS FROM 1987

I bought these items at the Longs Drugs store in Salinas, California back in the late 80's:

Growing up in the 70's and 80's, watching Saturday morning cartoons, a phenomenon occurred on ABC every time the clock reached 7 minutes to the half hour.  Pray tell, "What was that phenomenon?" you ask.  Well let me tell you my ever-so-curious blog reader, that's when a Schoolhouse Rock short would air between the regularly scheduled cartoons (along with other bumpers such as "Yuckmouth" and "Beans And Rice").  If you have no idea what I'm talking about, Google it. (You'll be a better person for it.)

For me, the fun part was always trying to figure out which short they were going to surprise me with.  (I was always hoping for "Elbow Room" or "I'm Just A Bill.")

Trying to flip the channel to these animated music videos was a common practice of mine until the mid-80's when they slowly started swapping the shorts with bumpers featuring the hit boy band, Menudo.

By 1985, they put the final nail in the coffin and stopped showing Schoolhouse Rock altogether, replacing them with exercise shorts starring Mary Lou Retton.  I never thought about recording the SR shorts (because they were supposed to go on forever!), so when they stopped showing them, I, along with the rest of the world, were left with the memories of the songs stuck in our heads.  That is, until these cheesy (yet entertaining) videos were released on VHS!

Mind you, the original shorts were intact and brilliant in these collections.  The problem was, as the series musical director, Bob Dorough said, "The quality is poor and there is also some new, inappropriate and inferior material not written by me and more or-less sung by Cloris Leachman and some kids."

So what does this have to do with "Johnny Bravo?"  Everything!  It was inspirational and educational on so many levels for a budding animation geek.  Besides the fact that I can recite the preamble of the Constitution, it helped me hone my timing skills and foster my love of music put to animation.

Naturally, I had to do an homage:

In this particular episode, Johnny Bravo learns how to pick up women from a more gentleman-ly man using tools such as manners and respect. Like in Schoolhouse Rock, the Sensitive Male educates Johnny through song and fun visual aids. For each lesson, we took inspiration from several SR staples such as "A Noun Is A Person, Place, Or Thing"...

..."Conjunction Junction"...

...and "Telephone Line."

To make the show even more authentic, we hired the legendary jazz artist, Jack Sheldon, the original singer of "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just A Bill" to voice the Sensitive Male.

(BACK ROW: Donna (Casting Director) Grillo, Jack Sheldon, Collette (Assistant Director) Sunderman, Lou (Composer) Fagenson, Seth (Writer) MacFarlane  FRONT ROW: Bodie (Music Supervisor) Chandler, Kara (Line Producer) Vallow, Me

Here's a pic from the 1996 recording with the rest of the cast in the sound booth at Hanna Barbera:

BACK ROW: Collette Sunderman, Seth MacFarlane, Cynthia McIntosh, Jamie Torcellini, Michelle Nicastro, Candi Milo  FRONT ROW: Jeff Bennett, Mae Whitman, Me, Butch Hartman, Donna Grillo

Unfortunately, (well, fortunately too) it wasn't until 2002 that we were able to bring the team back together to record an episode for the final season of Johnny Bravo.  Entitled, "Traffic Troubles," Johnny goes to Musical Comedy Traffic School in hopes of meeting some high kicking musical comedy chicks.  Instead, he gets a lesson a la Schoolhouse Rock from the Sensitive Male.

BACK ROW: Craig Bartlett, Robert Serda, Jeff Bennett, Grey Delisle, Seth MacFarlane, Diana Ritchey, Jack Sheldon  FRONT ROW: Lou Fagenson, David Faustino, Me, Collette Sunderman

It was the first time and only time we had Seth come back to the show, but this time as a voice artist instead of a writer.  We even reprised his song, "Manners," but changed the lyrics to be about taking your driver's license test.  The other fun thing about the episode was reconnecting with Jack Sheldon again.  To bring everything full circle, he even agreed to be the house band at our final cast party where he brought along his trio.

So, to go back to those videos, we watched them over and over as reference because the original cartoons weren't readily available at the time (Curse you YouTube for being in your infancy!).  Today, the shows are on demand and I can watch whatever, whenever I want. Although, I often wonder, is my life really better that I don't have to sit through Cloris Leachman singing and dancing?  Only time will tell...

FUNKY FUN THING #6: "IT'S A SMALL WORLD" ALBUM

I've had the following item since I was a toddler (I can't give an exact date, but I can say that it was well worn)...

My guess is that my parents bought the album for me after my first trip to Disneyland in 1973.

That's me in middle with the golden vest.

If you're just joining my blog, this list is about seemingly ordinary objects that have special significance to my career in animation.  So it goes without saying that this Disneyland album was one of the many inspirations for me as a child.  I listened to this album ad nauseam while staring at the simple, yet intricate, designs of Mary Blair on the cover.  It fed by cartoon obsession when it wasn't Saturday morning.

The thing that I didn't expect was that I would one day sing for the man who directed this amazing album: Paul Salamunovich.

Paul Salamunovich conducted choral music on the scores for more than 100 films and TV projects, including Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather (1972) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992). His work also can be heard on Flatliners (1990), First Knight (1995), Air Force One (1997), A.I. Artificial Intelligence(2001), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Peter Pan (2003), Angels and Demons (2009), and on the NBC drama ER.

With the choir at St. Charles Borromeo, he recorded five albums of sacred music and was featured on Andy Williams’ 1969 recording of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

Salamunovich sang on the soundtracks of such films as Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), How the West Was Won (1962) and The Trouble With Angels (1966). His musical contributions spanned the spectrum from classical, pop, and jazz to folk and new age music with such diverse artists as Stan Kenton, Liz Story and Cirque de Soleil.

Salamunovich guest-conducted throughout the world and prepared choirs for such notable conductors as Igor Stravinsky, Robert Shaw, Bruno Walter, Eugene Ormandy, Alfred Wallenstein, Georg Solti, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Valery Gergiev, and Simon Rattle.

But even though he was a world renowned maestro, I was first introduced to him as Paul Salamunovich: choir director for Loyola Marymount University.

1990 LMU Yearbook Photo, 2nd row, 2nd to last

For me, animation is all about timing.  Having said that, music is an integral part of understanding timing.  You need to understand the life that's in music if you want to bring life into any character.  It's like finding the heart in a performance.  It's an intangible that you need to experience in order to find.  Animation is often about taking your drawings and creating moments.  There's a certain rhythm to life and, if you miss it, you miss the moment.  In fact, Chuck Jones often used musical bar sheets to time out his animation. 

Through studying music under Paul, I also learned the subtleties of interpretation.  In 1990, we were one of four men's choirs invited from the United States to participate in The Pacific International Festival of Male Choirs in Vancouver.  It was an international festival where some of the greatest choirs in the world gathered to perform.       

I'm in the 3rd row, fourth from the left.

Before we went onstage, we sat backstage and listened to another choir perform "The Battle Hymn Of The Republic."  It was the exact same arrangement we were planning to perform, but you could tell there was a definite difference in interpretation of the text.  The tempo was slightly slower, the intensity of the singers wasn't evident, and the richness in their sound wasn't very deep.  I don't say that to be pompous (God knows that our choir wasn't great because of my singing), but because Paul knew how to interpret music on a page.  

Battle Hymn Of The Republic (You can click on the link and listen to our recording.) 

*Credit also has to be given to our pianist, the legendary Bob Hunter.  The above arrangement was so complicated that the other choir had to bring in a second accompanist to handle it.  Bob did it all by himself.

Through the LMU choirs, I learned how to listen.  I mean really listen. There's subtleties in balance, tone, and pitch that I never would have discovered had it not been for my choral training.  By showing me when to breathe and why, how to phrase a sentence, how to dramatically tell a story, and the importance of balance in a group's dynamics, Paul taught me how to go from being a kid to becoming a world class performer.

Obviously, it took some time getting there.

So the next time you're on "It's A Small World" at Disneyland, rather than sit there and complain about how the song keeps going on and on, just shut up, look at all the beautiful designs, and listen.  Once you appreciate all the countless hours of work and talent that went into making the ride, you can leave and work out your issues at The Radiator Springs Racers at California Adventure because that thing is awesome!  (Just make sure you get a Fast Pass early.)

FUNKY FUN THING #5: SCOOBY DOO ANIMATION CEL

With the help of Star With (the Xerox Department Supervisor) and Allison Leopold (the Ink and Paint Department Supervisor) , I was able to create my next favorite funky fun thing...

Working at Hanna Barbera in the pre-digital world was like a dream come true because they had all their original artwork onsite!  I created the piece above by using the original model sheets, xeroxing them onto a cel, and borrowing a paint station in the Ink and Paint department (after hours of course!).  I later got it signed by Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, Don Messick (the voice of Scooby Doo), and Casey Kasem (the voice of Shaggy).  It's basically a stock pose of Scooby and Shaggy superimposed in front of an image of the Mystery Machine.

Yes, the Mystery Machine.  Mystery Inc.'s signature mode of transportation.

Even Batman loves the Mystery Machine!

Animation Art had a real life Mystery Machine (which was awesome!) custom made for signings and appearances to draw crowds.  There was a bit of grumbling from some of the artists when they unveiled it because it wasn't made from a vintage Ford, VW, or Corvair van, but I didn't care.  It was the Mystery Machine!  It was so cool driving in to work every day and seeing it in the parking lot.  So when we were producing interstitials for "Johnny Bravo" I, of course, asked to do my interview inside, where else...?

One time, back in 1997, Butch Hartman, Seth MacFarlane, and I got permission to bring the van out to Glendale for a school visit with Mae Whitman and her elementary school class.

The interesting part was, when we pulled into the school parking lot, we were followed in by a police car! (You would think they would be in front of us as escorts, but fat chance there!)  As a hoard of kids ran up to the chain link fence to see all the commotion, we started to stress out about the ramifications of getting a ticket in a vehicle we didn't own.  When the officers pulled up beside us, I asked, "Is there anything wrong, officers?"  One of them nonchalantly answered, "Nah.  We just wanted to see if Shaggy was in the back."

Seth and I grabbing some Carl's Jr. after the school visit.

In 2003, I was able to use the Mystery Machine one last time during our wrap party for the fifth season.  We had them drive the van out to Loyola Marymount University where we parked it out in the middle of their Sunken Gardens and used it as a photo op.

"Seriously.  Why rent a photo booth?"

The Mystery Machine is a definite crowd pleaser and Warner Brothers often uses it when there's something eventful going on.  For example, here's a pic of Jay Bastian (the head of development for Warner Brothers) and I during the unveiling of the Hanna Barbera relief statue at the Academy Of Television Arts and Sciences in 2005.

So it's fair to say that I've taken my share of pictures with Mystery Inc.'s mobile of choice.

There are several vans now.  Most of them created specifically for the live action movies.  One of them is on permanent display at the Warner Brothers Studio Lot so now everyone can take a picture with it!  Scooby Doo is now a Warner Brothers property and is a part of their lineup. Whatever your feelings are about that, it's nice to know that he's being well taken care of after all these years.

Besides being a big fan of Scooby Doo, I'm mentioning it because I did an on-camera interview for the DVD featurette, "Scooby-Doo The Whole World Loves You" which, according to Amazon.com, "focuses on Scooby's continued popularity and fans continued love of the character. Features interviews with various writers, directors and actors who have worked on Scooby TV and Movie projects over the last 40 years. (20 mins)"  For me, it was a tremendous honor to be a part of it because I'm such a huge fan.  I can't really say I'm the "ultimate" fan because I don't dress like anybody from the show and I haven't named my kids Velma or Fred.  But I have been known to say "Jinkies!" so I got that going for me.

For the DVD, I mostly talked about my work on our "Bravo Dooby Doo" episode and Mr. Barbera's involvement in the show.  The most random anecdote about my interview is that I wore a shirt with green stripes for the interview.  Why is that interesting, you ask?  Well, whenever they do these interviews, they do them in front of a green screen so they can lay down whatever images they want to in the background by altering anything that's green on camera.  (I don't want to go into too much technical details when we have Wikipedia for that.)  Anyhow, I ended up changing shirts with one of the crew members who happened to be my size.  It was just another reminder of why it's important to shower before you leave the house. So, if you're watching the featurette and thinking, "Man, that Van sure is a fancy dresser,"  then I apologize for misleading you into thinking I'm so fancy.

That was really the only anecdote I have from the recording session. Besides the fact that they put some man makeup on me before the shoot.  At least that's what they said it was.

FUNKY FUN THING #4: SPINAL TAP EARPLUGS

I got the following at the Universal Amphitheater, June 5, 1992...

David St. Hubbins: It's such a fine line between stupid, and uh... 
Nigel Tufnel: Clever. 
David St. Hubbins: Yeah, and clever. 

I was there with my friends from college to see the world's loudest Rock N' Roll Band on their "Break Like The Wind" Tour.  I remember sitting in the balcony (We were in college!  They were the best seats we could afford!) and watching Rob Reiner walk in from the back of the audience as all heads turned towards him and chanted, "Meathead, Meathead, Meathead..."  My favorite moment (among many) came when Nigel was introducing the next song and yelled into the microphone, "The sun never sweats!  Look it up!"

I've been a huge fan of Spinal Tap for a long time.  Like most guys, I like to quote the movie at random times ("The numbers all go to eleven.") and get an instant chuckle followed by a series of other quotes from the other guys I'm with ("Eleven.  Exactly.  One louder." "You can't really dust for vomit." "It's such a fine line between stupid and clever.").  So you can imagine my excitement when I got to work with Michael McKean and he recorded the following for my answering machine...

David St. Hubbins Recording

It was super cool because his monologue randomly came to him without any prompts.  But as awesome as it was to get him to record a bit for my answering machine, there was more to the story than that. Michael was actually at the studios to record the part of King Raymond for my "What A Cartoon" short, "Jungleboy."  Below is the "Awkward Family Photo" cast recording we did after the session.

Back Row: Kris Zimmerman (Recording Director), Michael McKean, Maurice LaMarche  Front Row: April Winchell, Cody Dorkin, Candi Milo, Me, Roger Rose

Prior to this recording, I had done "Johnny Bravo And The Amazon Women" with one David L. Lander (A.K.A Squiggy from "Laverne And Shirley").  At that time, David was talking to me about a CD-ROM that he and Michael had been working on and like a fanboy, I told him, "You know, if you ever do anything with Lenny and Squiggy, I would be more than happy to do anything just to be a part of it!"

Apparently, the boys got the rights back to their characters after "Laverne And Shirley" ended and never did anything with them except for this 1979 live comedy album.

FUN FACT: On the noted album, "Lenny And Squiggy present Lenny And The Squigtones," the guitar work was done by Christopher Guest who was credited as Nigel Tufnel, the character he played on "This Is Spinal Tap."

In that initial meeting with David and Michael, my then writing partner, Jason Rote, and I pitched them an animated idea for a "Lenny & Squiggy" movie.

My office at Hanna Barbera circa 1996.  From left: Jason Rote (writer), David L. Lander, Michael McKean, Me, Miriam Goodman (clean-up artist)

Both of them were on board to do something with the idea and still are today.  Unfortunately, because our schedules have been so all over the place, the project has somehow taken a back seat to other things going on in our lives.  But once they agreed and trusted us with the characters, we had several meetings where David and Michael basically taught us everything there is to know about Lenny and Squiggy and schooled us on the art of being stupid.  It was like a master class in improv (which makes me so glad we recorded those sessions!). Over the years, I've had other story sessions with the two of them, we've developed a script, we've gone into a recording studio and laid tracks, and even got character designs and an animatic.  It's been a long process, but we hope to someday take it out and get it made.

The neatest thing about this project has been the friendship I've struck up with David.  As many of you may know, David has multiple sclerosis and has been a spokesperson and advocate for finding a cure since he went public with the fact in 1999.  Knowing what I know, I see him as a remarkable and strong human being who can't help but create comedy amidst his situation.

In my time with him, he's shared some amazing stories about his time as a kid growing up on the east coast and watching live theater in it's hey-day, not to mention his time with The Credibility Gap.  For me, it's fun to hear him talk about baseball because, if I remember correctly, he said that if he never went into acting, he would've loved to be a baseball announcer (which he got to do in "A League Of Their Own.").  So it made me happy to know that, for a while, he was a scout for the Anaheim Angels and later the Seattle Mariners.

I'd like to end with an excerpt from the rarely seen press kit for David and Michael's 1979 album.  I think the two gave some great insight into their characters when Lenny wrote about Squiggy...

And Squiggy wrote about Lenny...

FUNKY FUN THING #1: MY FARRAH FAWCETT SHAMPOO BOTTLE

Since 1995, I've been teaching an animation class off and on at Loyola Marymount University.  And whether I teach beginning animation or character design, the thing I always stress is character.  Sure, there are tons of amazing artists out there, but it takes a lot more than great technical skills to create a character that can make an audience "feel."  So (transition to blog topic), since I'm constantly trying to help students find ways to flesh out seemingly ordinary characters, I thought, why not do the same with this blog?  Why not write about seemingly ordinary objects that have special significance to my career in animation?  Thus began my excavation through the "boxes of stuff" that have survived my countless office moves from studio to studio.  (The experience was fun, but it made me feel like I was on an episode of "Hoarders!")

At first, I called these posts, "Fifty Cool Things" (nice round number), but since I've got this new website, I've decided to loosen things up, make it more open-ended (it could be 50, it could be more), and call these posts, "Stories About Funky Fun Things!"  So, without further adieu...

Like most kids who grew up in the 70's, I had a huge crush on Farrah Fawcett.  But as much as I was crushing on her, I didn't feel the need to use her shampoo to make my hair feel soft and bouncy.  (Filipinos don't do soft and bouncy.)  I actually bought this after it was discontinued.  The funny thing is, I didn't spend hundreds of dollars at some collector's show for it.  I actually found the bottle on a shelf at a neighborhood San Francisco drugstore in the 90's! (I'm guessing that restocking wasn't one of their strong points.)

The bottle usually sits on my shelf at work, nestled in between all the happy meal toys and photo frames.  As far as the autograph goes, it wasn't me who got it from her.  My friend, Robert Ramirez, actually directed her on "The Brave Little Toaster Goes To Mars" and had her sign it for me.  On the bottle, she wrote, "Van, I have another one for you.  Love, Farrah Fawcett.  1995."  I was like, "What does that mean?"  Robert told me that, at the time, I guess she was thinking about releasing a new line of hair care products.  If you Google it, I'm sure you'll find that that never happened, but it's fun to think that it was in the works.

Anyways, knowing that she was willing to voice a cartoon, it dawned on me: working with Farrah Fawcett was an attainable goal!  After writing her a nice letter and sending her a tailor made script, we ended up working with both Farrah and her son Redmond on the episode, "Johnny Bravo Meets Farrah Fawcett."  In the episode, Farrah shows up at her cousin Suzy's birthday party to work the kissing booth.  The whole afternoon was a whirlwind, but one of the things I remember her saying was, it was the script that really convinced her to do the part (Thank you Michael Ryan!).  After she got into the studio, everything went so well, that I got her to pose for a "Charlie's Angels" picture with us!

From left: John McIntyre (director), Michael Ryan (writer), Farrah Fawcett (Jill Monroe), & me

For this photo, she positioned her fingers like a gun, held her arm out straight with her palm facing down, and said, "I've always wanted to hold a gun like this."  Apparently it made you look more tough.  As you can see from the photo, she was the only one that held her gun that way.  And she looked the toughest.  (I also notice that it was a big sweater day.)  She capped off our time together by autographing one of my Charlie's Angels photos...

Thus ended my afternoon with Farrah Fawcett.

FUN FACT: Farrah's assistant videotaped segments of the session to use for her upcoming special, "All Of Me," where she showcased her painting talents.  I never saw it, but I hear that none of the footage from our recording session made it into the special.

MEETING DON KNOTTS

As far as guest appearances on "Johnny Bravo" go, Donny Osmond has made the most, clocking in at five (six, if you want to count the JB video game). Interestingly enough, coming in at a close second, is the incomparable, Don Knotts!  (Change voice to the Count from Sesame Street.)  With three!  Three guest spots!  Ah ah ah!

Don Knotts' first guest spot came at the climax of our Scooby Doo crossover.  We did a play on the traditional unmasking of the ghost, having the Scooby gang rip off mask after mask from the head of the culprit, only to reveal another villain from a past episode. We used the old Alex Toth and Iwao Takamoto models of Professor Hyde White (the very first Scooby villain), Harry The Hypnotist, Bigfoot, Joe Barbera (to which Johnny Bravo asked, "Who's that?"), and the one and only Don Knotts!

FUN FACT: We also tried to use Phyllis Diller, but we ran into a problem getting the use of her likeness.

Don Knotts' people?  They loved the idea.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to work with him, but it wasn't the last he heard from us!

Fast forward five years.

It wasn't until the 5th season rolled around that we revisited the idea of actually bringing Don Knotts into the studio to voice himself.  Actually, the idea came about when we tried to get Jon Bon Jovi in the studio and his people passed on the offer.  Lucky for us, we were able to rewrite the role for Don Knotts (because why not, right?).  Below are some rough design ideas by the talented Dan Haskett...

The episode was our fifth season opener, "Johnny Bravo Goes To Hollywood!"  Don Knotts played himself as part of the official "Hollywood Welcome Wagon" (which included Alec Baldwin, Jessica Biel, a hobbit, and a dinosaur).  The group greeted Johnny at the gates of Hollywood with a musical hybrid rap / song.

He couldn't have been nicer.  At one point, we were sitting beside each other in the recording booth, waiting to hear playback, when I decided to make some small talk.  It went a little something like this:

Van: So Don, what do you usually do in your spare time?

Don:  Well, I watch a lot of movies.

Van: Oh yeah?  What theater do you usually go to?

Don:  Oh, I just stay home.  They just send them over to me.

Van: Oh. Cool.

(awkward pause)

Van:  So, is this the first rap you've ever done?

Don: Why, yes.  I think it is.

That's about all I remember.  Not much, but it was enough for me to remember how surreal, yet cool, it was to have some random Don time.

LEFT FROM BACK: Collette Sunderman (director), Don Knotts, Diana Ritchey (producer), Craig Lewis (writer), Robert Serda (engineer), Karie Gima Pham (recording assistant) FRONT: Pete Oswald (PA), Megan Brain (Production Coordinator), me

Finally, we got to work with Don one last time when he voiced our "Cartoon Makeover" episode where he played himself again.  Teamed up with The Blue Falcon and "Weird" Al Yankovic, the three formed an ambush makeover team that made superficial improvements on established cartoons.

We wanted to have him come in with the rest of the cast...

FROM LEFT: Jeff (Johnny Bravo) Bennett, Collette Sunderman (director), Robert Serda (engineer), Tom Kenny, Diana Ritchey (producer), Gary (The Blue Falcon) Owens, and "Weird" Al Yankovic

...but unfortunately, Don wasn't feeling too well that day, so we had to pick up his lines at a later date.  Again, he was completely professional, saying every line we threw at him.  One of my favorite ones was where we got to play out our "Three's Company!" "Andy Griffith Show" meta-geekiness by having him say, "That kid could benefit from a few Furley Fife skills!  Hyah!"

So thank you Jon Bon Jovi, wherever you are.  Without you, we would have never have thought about using Don Knotts!

VOICEOVER AUDITIONS

HAPPY NEW YEAR!  (I hope you can tell by the all caps font that I say those words joyfully and emphatically.)

I wanted to start off the new year with a new post.  Something useful to the reader.  But since every person has different interests, and you can't please everyone, I'm devoting this post to the up-and-coming voice actors in the house.  So if you're an up-and-coming voice actor AND you're a reader, then today is your lucky day!

The fact is, it's almost impossible to tell what a person looks like by the sound of their voice.  I remember doing a USO visit and a woman yelled out, “What?  Who are you?”  I explained to her that I was the creator of Johnny Bravo and she said, “Oh no you're not.  Now just turn around and tell the REAL creator he can come on in!”  We playfully went back and forth, but she was convinced that I was supposed to look and sound like Johnny.  She liked my impression of him, but I couldn’t help but feel that I disappointed her by not being tall, blonde, and buffed.

If you're an actor who wants to get into voice acting, it's not enough to be the guy/girl in your circle of friends who does funny voices.  So you do a great William Shatner?  The truth of the matter is, the producers are probably going to hire the real Shatner over you.  There's so much more that an actor needs to have in his/her arsenal if he/she wants to stand out amongst the regular professionals who do this full-time and are constantly honing their craft.  When we're auditioning actors, we listen to hundreds of voices.  We know after only a few seconds whether or not an actor has the chops to handle a character for multiple episodes.  So what does an actor need to do to stand out amongst the other hungry actors?  Well, that's a whole other master class in and of itself.  But here's my two cents...

I just finished teaching a character design course at Loyola Marymount University, and part of the course was a field trip to the Walt Disney TV Animation Studios.  While we were there, we met with the wonderful (and I'm not just using that adjective because it's synonymous with the World of Disney) Dave Wright, the Executive Director and Head of Casting for Disney Television Animation.  He meticulously walked my students through the casting process from voice auditions to recording.  While showing the students how to audition and direct, he did an excellent job of articulating how painstakingly hard it is to be an actor in the field of voice work.

Much to Dave's credit, he was able to recreate the feel during a voiceover recording so the students could take what they've learned in the classroom and see how it compares to what folks are doing on a professional level.  Needless to say, it was a priceless piece of the educational pie.  Many DVD's have extras that show you what it's like in the sound booth, but nothing compares to listening to the mistakes, the retakes, and the decisions that actors and directors make in the thick of things.

Jeff Bennett smiling from the other side of the booth at Studiopolis in North Hollywood, 2009

It’s an absolute skill to be able to come in cold and read a page of sides and really nail the character.  I feel for each and every actor going into the booth, thinking that they have a shot at impressing the producers and directors.  Unfortunately, 9 times out of 10 they’re totally off.   Which is good news to some actors and bad news for others.  The thing that actors need to know is that they are coming in to solve the producer’s problem.  And believe you me, we REALLY want every person that walks through the casting door to succeed.  What we want is someone to match or exceed the expectations that we’ve already put down to paper.  Unfortunately, the agents think that just because a person looks the part, they obviously should be able to act the part.

At auditions, I usually sit to the side and stare at a drawing to really see if the actor’s voice has merit and matches the character.  Often, a person comes in who looks the part, but after hearing them, I can tell that they're anything but.  One time, a guy came in who had some really odd beats of silence, which made me curious as to what was going on in the booth.  Sure enough, he was acting and getting into character amidst those beats of silence.  I watched as he made faces and contorted his body to embody the character, but then when I turned away, his voice came out flat and dry.

The saddest part for me is when veteran actors come in deflated.  I can recall one particular instance when a really talented guy (I’m sure if I said his name you could name a number of roles he’s played over the past few decades) entered already thinking he wasn’t going to get the part.  I’d been in the booth with him before and he was always fun and witty, but this time he lacked any kind of life in his reading (at least any kind I was used to).  In the end, he was better than most, but not quite what we were looking for.  But it made me think, how many auditions does he do every week?  And out of those auditions, how many gigs does he actually get?

I’m guessing that most actors get passed on more than they get booked.  There are a select few that are constantly working, but for the most part, many of these “voice actors” end up falling by the waste side.  And I don’t blame them.  I would have a hard time going to audition after audition, being judged and berated, with the hopes that I might book a gig.  I would go mad.

Hopefully you're not left thinking, "Why is Van posting such a downer at the start of the new year?"

Well, there's some good news that goes along with this. (Thank you, Van!)

There are a lucky few that make the cut.  There's always someone new that breaks through all the mucky muck that holds others back.

The other side of the recording booth at Hanna Barbera.  From left: Kara Vallow, Ed Collins, Bodie Chandler, Maureen McCormick, 1997

Basically, what I want to say in this new year is, keep trying.  Keep working on your craft, hone your skills, and study.  Take classes.  Do regional work and make your mistakes where it's not on a national or international stage.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.  Honestly, if you really want to hear stories from the trenches, (mind you, this is not a paid plug, but he's a good friend) I would listen to Rob Paulsen's Talkin' Toons podcast.  You can get all the episodes on iTunes.  It really goes into detail about voice acting and directing.

I hope to see y'all and work with you in the booth someday.  Good luck!