If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, so go ahead and join the tuned In family today at patreon dot com slash Jim Cummings Podcast. Do it now? How you doing out there? It's me Tigger, I am Doc Wayne Duck. It's me Bunkers Deep Bobcat. All right, y'all? Is it great?
Your favorite firefly you desire?
Hold old Knock Gud. My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings.
Today, we have a very special guest for you.
Yes, well you may not know her face, but everybody, almost everybody that we've talked to on this show knows her face and holds her in the highest regards. Over ten thousand studio sessions, correct, over ten thousand studio sessions.
Eight.
Emmy's just an amazing career and an amazing person, so from what I've heard. Andrea Romano joins us today.
Thanks for having me, Thanks for inviting me to play.
Amen.
Something you always said to me every session, whether you had two lines or two hundred lines, you always thanked me for inviting you to complain. I always thought that was so elegant and lovely.
So oh, I appreciate that.
I appreciate you well, Oh my.
God, And I'm so glad she has a really good memory, because boy, oh boy, and we were talking earlier, and I have to say that my career and our friendship are.
The same age just about just about me.
I you know, I would I broke into the business by accident. On purpose. I mean I was aiming for it, but the way I did it was by accident. You know. A customer in my video store said he heard about a guy who knew a guy who was casting for a thing, and isn't that what you were trying to do? And I go, yeah, so I got that job and and that's and then they I said, I don't know a single soul you should take. You should take a workshop. And I said, a workshop, You mean they teach this
sort of thing? Boy, do they ever have? I have good luck to you, And here you were and Sue Blue and uh, and so I got in touch with you. Do you remember eighty four ish and change? Eighty four and change?
So I was just startying Hanna Barbara.
Yeah, or eighty five, eighty five maybe eighty five, but but yeah, but and it was over forty years as the voice caster. Yeah, yes, oh yeah, absolutely, yeah.
And I'm only forty five, so it's pretty good.
You were just a little nipper. Yes, indeed, I forgot it was.
The class I met you. Yes, I forgot it was in the class. Wow beautiful If I remember correctly, we had what somebody referred to as a bunch of ringers in that class because so many people then went on and had careers. Oh it wasn't Anne Ryerson in there and Clark Cam Clark, and I think there was one or two other people that also then went on to have like good voiceover careers.
Yes, oh my gosh. Yeah. Made Whitman's Pat Music, Pat Music, yeah right, yeah, why she's not Whitman, I don't know or the other one.
But yeah, she's Pat Music because that was her name professionally before she got married to Jeff Whitman, and then she kept her name Pat Music.
It's very musical it is.
Indeed, I would have kept it.
I would have kept it. And and uh and I said, commings, Oh there we go.
Forgive me.
She's very popular.
I'm so sorry.
She was really popular your phone. She's a bigger, bigger name on the online.
I'm really sorry. Technically challenged, Yeah, oh you too.
Huh, everything's a challenge.
Well, somebody, I forget I was supposed to do something, sign up for something somewhere I think it was with Spectrum.
Was that you too, Okay, And that's because I'm on them anyway, go ahead.
And they well, if you have this, then do this with the roku and then you can do this, and then do it. And I'm like, you just said twelve words that none of which makes sense to me. Can somebody just come to my house and fix this? And they say no, they just don't. They don't send people out. They just they don't anymore. Very rarely will they say I can help you from here. Probably not, probably not.
And they didn't. Yeah, And the landline I was speaking to them on that they supply disintegrated to the point where we could no longer hear each other. Myself and the person that was trying during that phone call, during that phone call, so anyhow, sorry.
Well, I know I think we have a legitimate gripe.
I do have something else I have to do with that might have been who was calling?
But I did I hear write ten thoughts ten thousand? Yes, I have to think about that. That's a lot of.
You know, even back when when we first started with Ducktails, that was one of the very first series that started with a buy of sixty five.
I was sixty five right off the bat, so it was gone.
With the days of thirteen and twenty six, it was sixty five, and then you know, if you only got picked up for twenty six, it was pretty much guaranteed you were going to at least go to fifty two. And of course this was all because of the syndicated package it made.
Ita and therefore, yeah, it adds up.
So aside from the class, was it Ductails our first?
Yes? Yes, and I remember I was, and I remember it because Disney named the theater El Capitan. I played El Capitan, Yes, And you needed an old four hundred year old Spanish pirates, so who else would obviously Cal Cummings you know, wow, I love do you remember that.
I remember, I must tell you, my young friend, you have to find an old ool in sheep.
What do you say? You know, that's why you got the job.
But but but.
That's a really good voice. Thank you very good.
Yeah, and it hurts and it reminds me of my uncle.
Say, I think I used that a similar that voice on pussing Boots.
Or something that you came something that was it was it was I was uh huh, I know el Cabong, So that was that was. That was drama and wrong.
There's so many of those cartoons that are airing again and make me so happy. The classic kind of yeah Ratoons, the Huckleberry Hounds, which were my personal favorite, oh yeah, and to get to meet people like Dolls Butler and oh god yeah Blank and June.
For I never did meet dos Butler. Who is the very first legendary guy that you met. You were at Anna Barbara.
You were here, it would have been Dawes and I met him, not at Hanna Barbera. I met him.
Who can just clarify for the audio, Doug.
Butler is the voice of Yogi Bear Huckleberry Hound Quick. So any voice that wasn't Don Messick or was, and I do believe that Don Messick and Dowes Butler were equally as talented, certainly as well. But Mel had better publicity because he was an on camera actor in the Jack Benny Show and so he actually had a publicity machine in position, and so he got all the press.
And when Warner Brothers decided to use cartoon character voices and said let's save some money and just use one guy, that gave Mel a huge foot up in the industry altogether, Dowes Butler. When I first met Dawes, I was at Hanna Barbara, maybe my first week there, so we're talking nineteen eighty four. And when he came in, and he
was a diminutive man, a giant talent. He wasn't much taller than I am, and I'm just five foot and I shook his hand, and I know I must have been shaking like the fans we meet at calm Con. And I just said, mister Butler, I'm so happy to meet you. Huckleberry Hound was my personal favorite character in the whole world, and he spoke to me as Huckleberry Hound.
And at this point, I'm, you know, a twenty seven to twenty eight year old woman, and I burst into tears just, oh gosh, it just wept and oh, because I was transported in time, as watching those cartoons do to you. Now, you you remember the pajamas, the feety pajamas you were wearing, the cereal that you used to eat to watch. Because Saturday morning and weekday afternoons were the only times we could watch cartoons. There wasn't a cartoon network, there wasn't a boomerang, there were none of
the two. You couldn't find cartoons other than those times. Yeah, and so, but to meet Dawes was an absolute throughout mel Mel was fabulous. We did I'm not sure if you were a part of this. I don't think you were. Maybe one of the things I did that you weren't a part of when we remade The Jetsons. Oh, and of course all those guys were on that show.
I was on many Yeah, I guessed it.
Yeah.
And then I sang the song as George Jetson great we Are the.
World or whatever or whatever.
I can't remember the name of it, but it was, honestly, it was actually kind of similar to that. But I was singing George Jetson.
That's great, we remade it. I forgot about it. It was like forty gosh, they made twenty six original episodes and then twenty years later they decided to make forty one additional ones to make a syndicated package.
Oh and was that what that happened?
And then so Gordon Hunt, the director at Hannibar at the time, the voice director, and I was the casting director at the time. We sat down and I said, Gordon, I think they're all still alive, and we reach out to all the original actors first and go from there. And He's like, let's try so.
We we certainly knew about.
Right, But but this is even before. This was way back when. For the original Jetson's voices, this is DAWs Butler and mel Blank as mister Spaceley. This is George O'Hanlon, right, Georgia O'Hanlon a Penny Singleton because the Jetsons was and she was Judy Janet Waldo was jew who still sounded
exactly the same. But what was so cool about doing the Jetsons again after twenty six years or whatever and getting them all back was Dawes was a teacher, and Dawes taught fabulous classes and taught many voice actors that we have right, Roger Rose and many many successful voice actors. And Penny Singleton had dentures at this point and her dancers would click when she would record, so she was taking classes with DAWs to learn how to not click well.
She spoke and Georgia Hamlin had had a couple of strokes, was blind, and so we reached out to his wife and said, do you want to even present him with this? We'd like to see if we can make it work. And she said, let me talk to him. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Called us back and said, I haven't seen him so excited in a decade, And if you are willing to do the extra work that it will take, let's try it. So we would send them the scripts
in advance. She would read every word of the script, every stage direction, every camera pan, every bit of dialogue to George and recorded on a cassette. You might have heard of cassettes, and then when they would come to the session, they would drive in from like way, the heck out thousand oaks or something still something, and she
would play the cassette for him. So, because he was blind, so he would remember the story, and then Gordon would sit in the studio with George and in the lines, and I would sit in the control room and listen
for any issues. And then after we recorded all of his stuff, we would edit it together because sometimes you know the food to raca cycle and those words we edited together, and then speed everybody just a little bit to bring the pitch of their voices back up, because gravity affects our vocal cord the same way it does all the rest of the parts. That they lose their strength,
and that raises the back of that day. Back in those days, we didn't have the ability to just click a button and make We had to actually speed the real to real tape.
So I have a question about that. So does that mean they have to record slower speaking the dialogue?
No, because they were slow. That was the problem. Everybody was considerably older, like in their eighties most of them. And so this actually fixed two problems. It fixed the pitch and it fixed the pace. There you go, that said. Another show that we worked on a bit I believe together was Chippendale's Rescue Rangers, and that show the three main characters, Chipdale and Zipper, all bed right. So they did have to act like this and make it make sense.
So we would record the whole cast who didn't have to be sped record the actors who had to be sped up, by slowing the tape down I think like fifty percent a lot, and then we'd have to play it all back to make sure it was clear and that it made sense and it didn't sound like the actors were acting that way, and then do their pickups. It was a very complicated, joyful.
Remember it so well?
Oh, my gosh, which show did you do? Fat Cat?
That was Rescue Rangers.
Rangers only just threw away the oven myt that you gave me a fat Cat recently because it.
Was so jerky and stable.
It was no good anymore, but it was a gift from you, and I saved it forever. Very hard to throw that away.
Oh that's good. Yeah, God only knows where those are now. I've they had that one little sort of not a mini reboot, but what would you call it?
That? Uh back at the Ductails of Rescue Angels.
Yeah, well, they they had a cameo oh in a.
Oh it wasn't that.
It was like less than ten years ago, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, and it wasn't well received.
I don't remember hearing about it.
No, well, it was like two lines, two or three lines. Fat Cat had a line of the Chividelle. Each had a line.
They made an appearance in another.
It was Yeah, it was some kind of retrospect a feature.
No, it was a series. Yeah, I can't remember for the lifetime.
Was not.
It wasn't a big hit. Apparently it's not a big hit. All good, but it was.
Let us know in the comments, I'm sure you guys know.
Yeah, that's true. You guys know everything. They really do too, they do. Yeah.
They actually information way faster than we did.
I oh, I know.
I used to have I mean IMDb and.
All years off Enyclopedia.
Truly, I had a mimeograft okay, list of the Hannah Barbera classic characters and who voiced them. So, for example, when we did the Jetsons, I had to go back and find out who did Henry the plumber, you know, the handyman and the Jetson thing and find out And here's the interesting thing I learned. All that information, by the way, was actually on three by five cards written in pencil that I found the casting notes for the Jetsons.
And somebody's rollox or something, a.
Box of things in storage, I mean forever took to find it written in pencil.
It's in the Smithsonian now it should be.
And here's the trivia that so few people know is George Jetson. The first episode was originally voiced by Murray Amsterdam, and they replaced him with George Howe Hanlon before it aired. But the little card with the pencil and the line through it didn't erase. Fortunately, they wrote the line through and then put Georgia Island, so he did it first, and that would have been good casting. I think, Yeah, I can.
Tell you that. But yeah, and for folks who don't know who that is, he was on the old Dick Van Dyke Show. And if you don't know who that is, what the hell are you watching this thing?
For any He just turned ninety nine, Dick Van Dyke. Yes, you still still can sing, still can dance a little bit around? Yeah, and really, really, what's his name? Chris the musician who just did a thing with him? Oh he's huge. This is just terrible.
Chris Good, Chris Christopher Cross.
No, no, let us know. In the comments.
I'm so embarrassed. They just did a huge concert over in Europe and Ireland, and he did a special with Dick van Dyke and wrote a song for him on the spot, wrote a song from on the piano. He's huge. I'm just so embarrassed it'll come sitting the cart.
Do you have any musical background. I do.
As a matter of fact, I originally was going to use music as my as my thing. I played bass, clarinet, and I sang and literally as I was leaving for college with music as my major, to the State University of New York at Fredonia, Upstate New York, as in Hale, as in hell, heal tell you a story about that in a second. I just decided that music didn't do it for me, for it didn't thrill me the way I wanted to be thrilled by my choice of career. And as I looked at this, it was one of
those buck slips. It was one of those hard pieces of cardboard that's about that size and had all the majors that the college offered. And I looked at music, and I went down farther and I saw theater arts, and I went and I checked that and changed my major like a week before I showed up a college because the whole first year is always liberal arts. You have to take all the same courses no matter what you're going to specialize in. And and I'm so glad
I did because it really changed my trajectory. And but the music always helped me because.
Well, you've only overseen about it.
That's why I asked so many voice actors. So many voice actors have musical theater backgrounds. Have you know, we're in a band, And I think it really helps with like the timing and the intonation and everything.
And the reason I ask.
You is because you have to have for your profession, your career, you have to have a good ear. You have to be able to distinguish things.
Yeah, oh that's so true.
It was joyous to direct musicals. It really was absolutely thrilling because I can read music, and also because I was able to let actors, which has always kind of been my theory of let me make an ass of myself. So the actor, if they feel like they're making an ass of themselves, they feel like it's okay. Andrea did it. And so I would sing something for them, not worrying about my performance, just trying to show it needs to be no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.
Na.
And that's all I would have to do. And then they after go okay, and then they could take it to their level of performance, which was far superior to mine. But at least I could. I knew where that note had to get to.
That's important.
It really is State University of New York at Fredonia. It's claim to fame. When the Marx Brothers toured there as a vaudeville group, they threw them out. So duck soup, Hail hell free don oh my Alma moder Wow, that's pretty cool, nicol. So every year, of course they would have a huge screening of duck soup and get.
That's very cool. I didn't know that. I mean, I knew the about to Donia part. I still I got my Andrea lore I know my stuff. Thanks Mary, And that's why you're here too.
So you guys work together on Ducktails, what else?
Rescue Rangers Rangers, there was a series at Disney. We did a lot of Disney stuff together. I also brought you into the Warner Brothers world because I wanted you to be on everything. I was working on Frank. But we did a show, and I'm so glad we're getting the opportunity to speak about it. We did a show called Bonkers.
Yes we did, and it was and it was.
It was one of those situations. Now I was not the casting director on these projects, because Disney had their own casting department, uh, And they went through dozens and dozens and dozens, I'd say hundreds.
And it was inspired by Roger Rabbit, the success of Roger.
Correct as many things work, the animation industry was, you know, reinvigorated by the success of Roger Rabbit people.
And the concept of calling cartoon characters tunes that itself.
Absolutely absolutely, but thank me say thank you Steven Spielberg for bringing you back to everybody.
Ye.
And so when I heard who they were auditioning, and who they had auditioned, and who they had called back, and who they had called back twice and who they called back the third time, and they were now in the fourth and sixth callback for Jim Cummings, who, by the way, was the first person they read for the character. And after months and months of auditions, they cast them. And the first person to read for us.
I don't know.
And then I mean they had gone to the point where they're ever having to pay you for callbacks because Sad, Yeah, I think I got Sad tells you you can audition three times without getting compensated, and after that you have to be compensated because there's more stress, there's more.
Takes time out of your day, absolutely.
And there's more. And I guess deep and deeper. The problem I had with that show was Roger Rabbit was live action and animated. It was very simple to see who the live people were and who the animated characters were. Bonkers was supposed to be about this world where that was the same. There were live characters and there were tunes, but they were all animated. So it didn't make any sense.
I could never It wasn't clearly delineated.
It was not. And then and then some nasty business took place. You may recall where I was directing. I think I did forty episodes of that show, and then we're doing sixty five. Yeah, and then they invited somebody to come sit in and watch. Okay, find a problem, come watch, come watch, and then one day out of the blue, Andrea, we're going to have that person direct the rest of the episodes. It was crummy business. It was bad business.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But my point is, no matter what success you have or where you are, you always get fired. Yeah, You're always elitable to be fired, to be replaced. It doesn't matter if you're Frank Welker or a Jim Cummings or John Demaggio or Tress McNeil. You can get replaced.
Yes, and so especially us, we're like, it's it's a shame.
Business is so crazy.
Yeah. If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts as well as early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and join the tuned In family today at patreon dot com slash Jim Cummings podcast Do it Now.
I was just talking with one of my friends about this, sorry unrest. It's just last week and.
We were talking about awards, right, and in the film industry you can literally win an Oscar and be broke, Like, how many stories have you heard like Oscar winners and.
Please hire me yes, yes, it's just in their acceptance speech, please hire me you need a job.
Yeah, it's now based off that statement. Did you feel more job security behind.
The scenes or no? Is it the same situation.
It's the same situation. I was very lucky that I came into the industry at a time just before it floated, just before so many cartoons were being made and they needed voice directors. And I started as a casting director, and then Jenny McSwain moved on to direct and I became you know, I was there Hanna Barbera, and then Disney Tom Ruzica, who I knew from being an agent
and I was an agent. He was a creative director at Leo Burnett and we had done business together, and he called me one day and said, we're going to create this thing called Disney TV Animation, And frankly, I was shocked. I was like, there is no TV division
for animation right now, just like Warner Brothers. And so he said, yeah, we're going to do this thing called Ductails, and we're going to audition a bunch of different directors and somebody will do the remaining We're gonna have five people auditioned as directors and then one of them will do the remaining sixty and I directed the second episode and they said, we're not even going to audition the
other directors we want. And what was shocking was Hanna Barbera let me stay on staff casting in Hanna Barbara while I went off one half day a week and directed ductals. Never would be today would be allowed. They were so awesome to let me do that. And then I started doing Rescue Rangers and then a bunch of other stuff, winning the Poo.
Yes, what was the name of.
The producer that used to direct, Carl Gears? Carl?
Carl Gears.
He wants me to come in and direct because he didn't want to direct anymore. He wanted to be able to sit back and just listen. I think it was Carl who was the one. He was whoever was used to let us sit down on the carpet and he would tell us the story of the episode like we were kids getting read and nighttime story.
Yeah you remember that, that was him and Carl. Yeah, Carl did that. He had the beard and the glasses and it always wore a vest. Great great guy. Really sorry for.
Whoever he was. I can't remember the name. Embarrass it might be called. But what was so lovely is you know, usually when you do an animated series, my experience had been all the actors sit around with the scripts. I have the script and describe what action was important. The actors make their notes, we rehearse, we just set any we'll set any guest voices that maybe had not been established yet, and then you record. But this was different.
He would describe the story. He would we literally would sit on the floor with our you know, blankets and pilos practically, and he would describe the story and then we would get up and record it. And it was joyful thought, it was fun.
Yeah, and we did that a lot of them at the old B and B R. Yeah, that was great. That was Now it's a sandwich shop.
Is that what it is?
Sandwich shop?
Oh my goodness, that is where it is. And isn't Dubbing Brothers also over there to I think they have a little piece of it. There is still some recording in there in that same building, but by farther on Magnolia.
Yeah, well there's everything there.
You know, we're still there yesterday.
That's crazy. And you know, speaking of bonkers, I can still remember and I just it's such a weird little thing. It just popped into my head. I think I might have mentioned it before. But during those callbacks, and we had so many callbacks, it was down to me Matt Frewer, who was a Max headroom, and a guy who was on a show called in Living Color at the time called Jim Carrey. Yes, And it was the only time I ran into him in my professional life ever. You know,
I think he's so brilliant. But he went in first maybe alphabetical order, who knows, and and he had a briefcase. Then he came out and he goes, gentlemen, you and he picked up his briefcase and Jim carried out at the building. I'm gonna kick his ass, yeah, And so I did once and you know.
Came into audition that show that was his first animated series. Yeah. One of the humans was a police officer. He was he was a fabulous, fabulous just loved him on the podcast great. And then you know who else was in that show was read a Moreno. And I remember, like they when we would get to all the callbacks and go, Okay, here's the preferred here's the preferred moreno or or or I'm like read a moreno, yes, triple threat. She's got an show everything, and she wants to do our show.
And she brought her daughter to the sessions. Was because she was getting a big kick out of it.
It was so much fun. She was so she was game, absolutely game. And and to watch actors like that learn from animation voice actors, they just they would watch. They would just look and go and we say, she used to overlap, like you doing normal. You can't overlap the animation and talking about how to turn pages and you can't turn pages on your dialogue. You have to wait those little time. But you don't have to teach them acting. No, you don't have to teach him anything about finding the character.
It was so cool because I would get there early so I could sit next to her. And she was just as pretty as a picture. She was gracious and she brought her daughter and she goes and she and she goes, this is fuck this. You can do it. You can do anything. Because you know what I always have a problem with, I'm a little too much.
I could be too much animation. Not here, honey, No, it's like I you just go. This is like a license to.
Steal any more lines, you know, And she.
Was like she was game, and wasn't Nancy Carlor on this too? Nancy?
She was the dear bonkers. She was Bunker's girlfriend, who who she didn't really like him that much, but.
He should liked her because she was dreaming.
Because she was dreaming, she was kind of spicy.
She was like, is that Chris Chris the books? Yeah, I remember, I've used a million times. Why is your heart pounding out of your chest like that?
Yeah?
So sweet?
Yes, wonderful, wonderful Yeah yeah yeah yeah. But then we did I don't make him like that anymore.
But we also did a lot of Warner brother stuff together, and you came in and played on Tiny Tooths and you sang on some of the main titles.
Yeah, yeah, I was on the main title. It It took a while to to for it to fade off, because it was every like eight or nine shows, somebody else would be singing the well that was Tasmania. But and then Rob says something, you know, it was fun, It really really was.
Came to play on.
One of my favorites was when the Animaniacs went to Ireland and you hired me to be an Irish guy. But I wasn't allowed to say anything. But I was supposed to never shut up, but I couldn't say anything. So you told me I had to do Irish Gibberish for the whole thing, and and I would always ended in mick, you know, and oh, yeah, this is great, you know. And I said, I'm gonna call my dad everybody. I got to be some really Irish guy.
I went to Ireland for the first time last year. I was invited to Dublin Con.
Oh my gosh, well that's where green comes from.
That's it is where green comes from. And the fans are fantastic. I know, what a country Ireland. And then we stayed and towards Scotland for a couple of weeks too, and that was magnificently.
Did you survive and enjoy any meals there? I mean, did you like to eat?
You know?
I I enjoyed my Jamison jamison, just kidding. No, I haven't eaten meat in fifty years, so I don't need organs.
It's not meat, it's laps and lands.
Flash, I know, it's no you know, grate cheese, wonderful cheese, excellent. No, I had no trouble eating those wines.
Fine, I understand they have some beer and whiskey over there.
You know. I learned to drink jamison.
Yeah.
And I also learned that Guinness in the North of Ireland, Murphy's in the South of Ireland. Yeah, both those foamy, dark beers. But yeah, so I learned that Hinden Walls.
And they served them like room temperature.
Yeah they do. It is like a meal though, I mean really and absolutely delicious. Loved it and there was no fish and chips available in the country anymore because and I them all, Okay, everywhere we went, I was, well, let's have a Soladh fish and chips, yeah, because they really know how to make it. But we went even to Belfast and that was phenomenal and I love it, loved it. Yeah, I stole your story about the Irish accent and.
Beautiful thing. Yeah. Yeah. We had so much fun doing those.
So much fun. And you know, we had the great work with Steven Spielberg. I mean he would Stephen Spielberg that it was great.
It was.
I mean, there was that moment when I said, okay, stand by Stephen one second I turned.
It was a nerve wracking at all.
Mind the room.
Yeah, I remembered with Jane in the background. She she stood in the background of everybody's picture, Jane President of Warner Brothers.
Jean mccurty, j mccurty.
And and uh and I remember her. I seen her at White House, but she's standing there in the background always with me, shaking hands with the Yes, I have.
Those, absolutely I do. But yeah, it was great. It was intimidating. I've directed many directors since that was probably my first I directed lands I directed, and.
Just as a point of reference, So what was Steven Spielberg known for at the time.
At the time would have been Jaws.
T was out there, that's for sure.
You know.
During the time when we were working with him, he directed Schindler's List, and he was like, it's not my usual fare, you know, because an of us really knew what was going on. And he was like, you're gonna need to watch a cartoon after you see Schindler's List. I mean, such a stunning director.
You know. That's so weird because I did that movie. It was Balto and I was like the third guy. They kept hiring really famous people. And one of my pals over there said can you maybe just start Jim Cummings. He's not famous, but maybe he can do it. So they brought me in. It was Kevin Bacon was Balto and I was Steel, the bad guy. So I got to replace a couple of guys like that. Featherstone was another one, and he directed me all day. I was you know, Steven Spielberg and that was.
He was a great guy, my favorite.
And Jeff Dane it's my agent. And the time he had to come all of a sudden, never went to work with a a day. He goes, wait, I'm sorry, who's going to be the you know, I could probably spare some you know, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. So I go, yeah, I know, of course you are. And and he sat there and my favorite thing, Stephen goes, I don't think I've told this before. So this is He goes, guys, I need a break. I need a break. Yeah, okay, yeah, Hey, how you doing Bill? Yeah? Oh no, no'm I'm at work.
Yeah yeah, I'm at work. Uh yeah yeah yeah. Well this one's animated. No, this it's not that one. This one's anime made it yeah oh yeah, oh yeah, well yeah I know it is kind of weird doing them both at the same time, but you know, it's it's work. It's worked anyway. Listen, I gotta go say hi to Hillary and he and I said, were we talking to the president? He goes, oh, yeah, yeah, and I go, oh, of course, yes, sure, cool, yeah, I mean why not I lost.
I have a similar but not quite as good story. Very good. Yeah, it's a very good one. I was directing. I did the first five or six Land Before Time sequels. Yes, I snuck in on one and oh, yes, you did only one.
I think, so maybe one or two.
And so I was doing maybe the second one. And we had just won an Emmy for Animaniacs, and Stephen Spielberg was supposed to come to our offices over at the Sherman Oaks Gallery and collect his Emmy, and we were gonna do a big thing around the table and chat and laugh and spend some time with Stephen, which is always fun. And he kept canceling in that day. It doesn't work out, so I had to go to
a session. I had to go direct Land Before Time and so I'm in the middle of directing the session and somebody comes in from the front office and says, got a phone. I said, I'm sorry you guys. I really apologize, but I have to take this phone call. They're calling me from an emergency for some sort I don't know. Pick it up. Hello, Andre, It's Stephen, Hi, Steven Stevie. And he said, I understand. He's like, congradulations on your emmy. I se, congratulations to you on your Emmy.
And he said I understand you're directing Land Before Time And I said, yeah, you edited the first one, the feature film, after it had sat on the shelf for years, into something that could actually be released. And he said, oh, yeah, absolutely, and then he started I don't want to say bad mouthing, but he started joking about some of the characters ducky, totally derivative, blah blah. And I'm in the room with all the producers of the current show and I'm like, yeah.
Uh huh uh.
Huh absolutely right.
Yeah.
We talked for about five minutes and I said, I really appreciate the call. I'm so sorry I couldn't be there. I was looking forward to seeing you, but thanks, thanks so much, and take care. Okay, bye. Yeah, I'm sorry you guys.
Yeah, I was.
Steven Spielberg and there do you do. Oh so not exactly as good as yours, the president, but.
Working on damn good, I should say, was amazing. I have I'm going to tell this one because we both know this guy. But after Lion King, I was a long time ago. It was a Saturday and I was I was fiddling around. I was trying to get unclogged my daughter's Olivia. She was like twelve at the time or eleven. She's forty now, you know. I was unclogging her drain because lots of we just put the hair right down that we don't care. And so I'm doing that and it's Saturday, and she goes dad telephone and
I said, oh, honey, can you take a message? Yeah, I mean yeah, just take a message. I'll call him in a minute, okay, And I'm going and you know, and she goes, okay, So so cee a t z okay a t z e and b e R. It was Jeffrey Katzenberg. So I said, who oh, that is coming. That is hold on Jeffrey. And I swear to the Lord, how many times have I told you not to call
me on a Saturday? I swear to God. I said that, you know I did, and uh and he laughed like I think and uh and he said, well, Jim, I just and he just called me up to congratulate me. And I thought that's great, great, Yeah, and it was cool. And they didn't they didn't tell him that I sang be prepared until after he signed off on it. Oh wow, So that was kind of cool.
Well, we all have our tricks, yes, I mean, I think about when we did Animaniacs and we had just finished Tiny Tunes, and we knew who we wanted to play certain roles. So when we submitted to mister Spielberg, whom we have tremendous respect for him, we're not trying to do anything underhanded, but we were trying to control the narrative by numbering the auditions rather than puting names. Five. Remember that the five submissions for Yako Warner, three of
which were Rob Paulson. All that because we knew we wanted Rob. Rob was the guy we knew we needed him to make it work.
And so he's away exactly.
So we had three choices of Rob Paulson to choose from and two other people if he didn't like Rob. But so we you know, it's like you said, we didn't tell him about changing somebody's voice or doing whatever until after the fact, until after they approved it. And again not trying to be duplicitous, just trying to get the job done the best way that we knew possible.
Speaking of I think that's that clears the slight.
Indeed, I think speaking of animaniacs and music and doing all that, Stephen Julie Bernstein did a tremendous amount of the music for a lot of the shows we've worked down together together with the brilliant and dearly departed Richard Stone, and to make us all feel older. Their youngest Madeleine is getting married next week.
Okay, I mean the little toddler.
This one, the one I've known her since first, she's getting married next week. It's just it just but the was dying.
No, I said, it beats dying. Every birthday means you're still here, exactly.
But it's it's lovely that we're all still friends.
You know that we all still see each.
Other and try to stay in touch. And I'm not on any social media, so I don't have that connection, but people do reach out and everyone's a while here. Hey, I just saw so and so at the end of the day, and they send their regards. Oh, thank you very much.
Well, occasionally I'll see Tress and Jess and Rob on and off probably the most of me.
Do you do comic cons?
Oh?
Oh yeah, I do a few, all only the special ones. It's it's hard, there's there's I don't do all of them. I know, I keep hitting this.
Yeah, I don't do all of them.
I don't either. Some of them are too It's not that they're too small, it's that the complication of getting to that place and and and I'm no big star. I'm just not. I'm not. When I was working, before I was retired, I was a bigger draw because people felt like they could get in front of me and do their voices in my face, which was always a mistake.
Oh.
They used to chase me down at San Diego Comic Con, literally chase me, because I'd be there doing five or six panels and I'd be running for one panel to get to the opposite end of the Sandy Rodney dangerfield. Not even no, they would just run up and start doing it in my face, like because they knew this was the only chance they saw me read from running and I was like, if you put it on a tape and send it to my office, I promise I will listen to it. I listened to everything that's sent
to me. I have always done that. Oh yeah, whether they're union or not union, whatever, I always listen, make notes. And if they would call up to follow up, I would tell them, well, you need some acting experience. These voices, I couldn't tell what they were. I didn't know how to cast them. I didn't you need to make sure that they're identifiables. Oh that's a good professor voice. Oh that's a very good doctor. That would be very good exactly.
And often people would do too short a clip. They would try to show, you know, fifty voices in fifty seconds. It's like you can't. No, I have to tell that you can sustain it. You were joking about Rodney Daingerfield a second ago. Someone would go, you know, don't get no respect, but they can't do anything else and sound like Rodney Dangerfield. And so I would need people to do fifteen seconds or so. But yeah, I don't do
very many. I like the big fat ones because I travel, and I like traveling, although it's a little scary right now, isn't it? With aeroplane issues. It's a little bit scary. But I'm still going to get it online next week.
Yeah, well I had COVID already. If that's an issue, No, that wasn't it.
It's the it's the airplanes going down.
Oh, the planes knocking into each other, separate the lack of air traffic control.
Yeah, it's always nice to aim.
Yeah, and because I'm married to a Brazilian, we're not traveling internationally because who knows if you easy to get back even though he's a dual citizen.
If you're a fan of everything we do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as well as early in ad free access to the show itself, prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and join the tuned In family today at Patreon dot com slash Jim Cummings podcast Do it now.
You know, in regards to like big actors coming into animation, I heard a podcast you were on. You were talking about that how it really changed things and you know, people like Mark Hamill, and you know, we're starting to kind of see the you know, it was lucrative and they wanted to get into it. I'm curious that that push or that I don't know, decision to start getting you know, on camera actors. What level does that come from? Does that come from you guys as a casting director?
Does that come from production? Who really is.
And I'll tell you where it kind of started. And I have to take some of the blame or credit, however you look at it. Gordon Hunt and I when we were over at Hanna Barbera, they and you heard this a million times. I'm sure when we get a breakdown for a show, we want new voices, we want different voices.
I forgot about that.
I was too strong.
We don't want the same old Yeah. Fine, yeah. So Gordon Hunt had been the casting director at the Mark Tapeer Form downtown Los Angeles, the Music Center, and he said, you know, there's an awful lot of really talented actors who do stage work, and because they're used to that boosted energy, that slightly higher energy than people who are
strictly on camera. Because the camera captures everything, you can be so a little tiny prince, you know, fabulously on camera cartoons doesn't make it, and so we said, let's start auditioning some of those people. Let's start bringing in some of those actors, the Jeffrey Tambors.
And what was the reasoning behind it, just to experiment, to.
Supply the producers what they were asking for, which was different voices, different people, not the same old people. And then the Mark Hamill's who reached out and said I want to be a part of the Batman series. And then come to find out he was such a huge collector of Batman memoribilea and stuff. I think most of which got lost in the fire, which breaks my heart.
But you know, Mark came and worked for me. I did hire him right after he reached out saying I want to play on Batman, and I hired him and he did a great guest star and then he said at the end of the session, he pulled me over to the side. He said, I had so much fun, and I thank you for the gig, but I really want to be a part of Batman. And coincidentally, there was a decision made to replace the Joker voice, which I never would have done. I love Tim Curry's Joker.
I wouldn't have done it myself, but my job is to supply the producers with that which they asked for. And so Mark auditioned and was crazy good. We already had five episodes in productions only come up with his own voice, but he had to match Tim Curry's mouth flaps because they were already animated. And you know, from most people, when they think of The Joker, they think of Mark Hamer.
Absolutely, when they think of.
Batman, they think of Kevin conroyly. But I have been adamant about this from the get go, and I will always fight for the right actor. If they happen to be a celebrity, I'll fight for them. If they're a rank and file voice actor, I will fight for them. And many times I had to say, absolutely, this is the right guy. I know he's not the big, fat celebrity you want, but he's going to come through for
you if you're going to do a series. First of all, he's not going to take off from New York and do a Broadway play for six months.
And I never did that.
And there were people who did. You know, there were people who auditioned for me. There was one after audition for Superman, and we were like absolutely, you are. We would love for you to be Superman. And then we called the agent and the agent said, oh, he's leaving next week for a run on Broadway. We're like, well, why didn't you tell us this? This was back in the day when they get the phone patch. There wasn't even
ISDN or any kind of satellite recording. It was listening over a phone line to an actor who had not had any experience doing this yet, so we couldn't. We couldn't. Where we found the fabulous Tim Daly who became our Superman and was fantastic. And then Tim went to New York to do Madam Secretary and something else and was not available. And then we found the glorious George Newburn who then became Superman. So so, but always I would I always fight for the right actor for the role.
And you know, as you know, many of these series, when they first come up with these projects, they're not over scale their scale. Everybody's getting the same dough. But there's no memorization, there's no wardrobe, there's no makeup unless they're doing you know, epks and interviews afterwards. Factor can show up in their pajamas, you know, as long as their voice is warmed up, they can come do the gig.
And so there was a lot of appeal. I remember Brookshields reached out to me and said, I am pregnant. I can't do on camera work. I want to stay in Los Angeles. Can you find something for me? Absolutely? I thought she was a lovely actress and found something that she came in and she was excellent. And the number of people I've had the opportunity, I mean, as a casting director. It allowed me to hire people I
admired across the board, I mean ridiculously. The downside of that was hiring them and then having to replace them if they couldn't cut the mustard. And I would work with them for hour hours after school, you know, con Tinuesday after school, and you just keep them and make jokes and do everything I could to get the proper voice. I remember Michael and Sarah was working with us on as a mister Freeze on Batman and he did the first episode and I thought he was terrific, and Bruce
Tim said it's not working. I want to replace him, and I said, please let me keep him after school and we kept him after we released everybody else, and I worked with him for another hour and found exactly the voice that he then did for twenty more episodes. Oh, I didn't have to replace him. But there was someone I was after for years and I finally got it. Wasn't that he didn't want to work with me or anything. He just wasn't available. He was busy working on camera.
Actor got him perfect role for him, came in, never spoke louder than this, and he was the villain of the episode, the villain so quiet anyone. And I'm like, I'm going to keep pushing you. I'm going to keep pushing you. I need bigger, I need louder, hear you. And he said, I just I don't go any louder than this. And of course I knew, because I knew it was on camera work that he did, and I had to replace him.
Oh my gosh.
And so when the contract came here, that is after I will show the contract, girl said to me, you know he was drunk. What because she sat right next to him as he executed his contracts at the session and she said he wreaked of alcohol. So, long story short, when I went back to the agent to find out, he was nervous because he hadn't done this, and so he fortified himself with alcohol, which made him even more intimidated and couldn't do the job. And I know he
could have done it. I know he couldn't have done it. He just you know. And we did the ensemble records. It was a Justice League, so there's you know, fifteen twenty actors. We had those huge recording facilities that had fifteen microphones. I could record everybody at the same time. And I think he just was intimidated and couldn't.
Yeah, I've seen that in actors. There was a video directed video thing that I did years ago with a very famous person. I won't tell you, but uh think Star Trek and and he he was in the studio and and he's looking around like this and uh yeah, oh no, no, what oh dear, and and uh yeah and and and and everybody's going and uh and went on went on and it turns out, you know, we did the whole thing. And then it turns out they
called me back in for pickups. They rewrote a few things, and I said, how did that go the other day? Do I still have the same buddy on the screen? And and he said he was so intimidated by what was going on around him because he couldn't. And I was like, he didn't even have to memorize. He's he's a really famous guy. He's making a ship ton of money. What the hell is that? You know?
That funny, but you get to see it. You see it in the weirdest way. Is the way the nervousness, like an actor hasn't really done that. You can do it. But they sit there doing the entire recording session doing this, Oh yeah you can't. Everything you do, we hear, and he would like chat to the actor next to him while somebody else was recording.
I'm like, yeah, that's we are.
Live the whole time, all those weird things. But I wanted to mention it reminded me of did I finish? Did you finish a story?
Day?
Yeah?
That was it.
It was so I had the great opportunity I directed a so called The Boondocks for I was just about to ask you about the boon and I got to work with the great Samuel Jackson, And of course they had to do a parody of fiction. By the way, can I swear?
Yeah, okay, just check it.
So the episode was about and forgive me. Forgive me, I'm going to say the N word a couple of times. And I never was comfortable to saying the N word. There was one episode where we had to say it fifty six times in the episode and have two quick stories.
He said, fife anyway right now, were directing on this, Okay, do the initial casting.
But I did all the episode casting, and so the very first time I had to record Kevin Richardson on that episode, he wasn't available for the ensemble record. I had to record him by himself where at Salami Studios where when the actors, when I'm sitting, when the actors are sitting, I can just barely see like this much of it, that's right. And so I said, okay, Kevin, I'll reach into the first line and you just you know, we'll just go on from the scene from there. So
we're at line fifteen. This is take one, and the guy before he says, yo, nigga, what's up there? The hose that? And I'm waiting for Kevin to read his line and nothing and nothing, and so I stumped up and look and he's completely like agog his mouth is open. I'm like, it's because I said Nigga isn't just like I've ever seen Kevin Richardson like speechless. No, that was that was it. You did it, I did it.
So the episode was just for the record. He's one of the most talented guys on the block and stunningly looks like it looks like world class wrestlers. So you're not going to mess with him.
First beautiful black man, beautiful talent.
Oh lord.
So Samuel Jackson, first time I'm directing him, and the scene is all about the episode is all about forgive me again, Niga technology, right when there's my space and all those and so it starts with the two characters. It was Samuel Jackson and Eddie Murphy's brother, Charlie Murray the two characters, and Charlie wasn't available for the session, so I had to read with Samuel Jackson. I just
was so happy to read with Samuel Jackson. So the scene begins and with Charlie Murphy's character is saying something about nick technology is great. I'm at the strip club. I got a titty in one hand, a titty in the other hand, and I'm checking my messages, and then Samuel Jackson's line comes, so I read him. I got a titty in one hand, titty on the other hand,
and I'm checking my messages. Samuel goes into the scene, ruin the whole scene once, the scene the second time, so I got titty in one hand, titting the other hand, and run the scene the second time. I said, anything you want to pick up, Samuel, anything you want to do again? He goes, can we just run the whole scene one more time? I said, absolutely, no problem, of course, I got everything I need, so you can do anything you want. And I said, do you need me to read in that first lining?
And he goes, please, Yeah, he just wanted to hear it.
It was so cute. And then also that scene went on to have the you know, say what again? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have to that scene with him, which is just so fantastic. So those kinds of things where I got to work with actors who I admire so much, whether it was Chlorus Leachman or you know, I'm Bewitched h Elizabeth who insisted I call her Lizzie.
Lizzie.
Wow, so sweet.
So Gina King must have been great.
Regina King, What an angel, What a talented actors and director and person I mean crazy, I got to most deaf, I got to direct and oh my gosh, crazy, wonderful, talented, Kat Williams, brilliant, so Snoop.
Dogg, snep dog Jesus.
First of all, getting these wrappers into the studio was just impossible. Snoop Dogg was late three months. We finally get him in.
That's a long wait, and like.
I always do, as I always do, I walk them to the microphone and you start the comforty.
We share a blunt with you.
Chat chat with them. Make sure you here's the script in friend, you had a chance to look it over. Okay, good stand by. I'm a Salami Studios studio. See. So I have to leave him and walk around through the hallway and then get into the recording booth to the control room and I look up and he's gone. He's already upstairs with the blunt. He's outside, like, damn it, how do I get him? I got him in the studio and now he's disappeared. Oh, I finally got it.
He spent the horrording.
I needed him for about an hour. We did his work and then he's like well, and we booked a studio for like five hours we knew we're going to be there. He's like, can I just play? And it's your studio, go nuts, And so he stayed. The longest, thinnest fingers you've ever seen. You know that he's a tall drink of water, you've seen it, but when you shake his hand, it's just it's an amazing thing. How long and thin, really talented, did a very good job.
Happy to work with him on a couple of other projects as well.
But that's great.
Michael Michael, Michael b Jordan, Michael multiple times, be Michael B Jordan multiple times. Fabulous guy creed himself And it was before it was just as he was beginning to find his night and came to play and he played cydebalg for me on something and I did a boon.
I have to ask you, what was Aaron McGruder.
Like and is a genius? There's no question he's He created a comic strip that was so far and above anything like it that was being done politically, just what was happening in the world culturally, the whole thing. Aaron had a really hard time wrapping his head around a production schedule and what they needed overseas in order to animate to get it back to make air dates, and so he would constantly rewrite scenes, and rewrite scenes, and rewrite things that were already in animation, and so he
had a really hard time making air dates. And studios aren't very tolerant because you get fined if you listen to air date a lot of ADR, and he would rewrite during the ADR and it would be like, you know what, give me a minute, I'm going to come up with a new thing here, and fifteen years, fifteen minutes later he would have line and it would be brilliant, it would be great. It's just that there's a time concern that we all had to get used to. I
would have loved to have done eight hour sessions. Sometimes I can't. I had to get it rehearsed and recorded in four hours. That's all I had. It's all the screen actors gives me. And I liked ensemble records. I liked us all on the same I liked you guys acting with each other, perfectly, willing to step in when I needed to to read you a line in so you could have somebody to act against if they weren't there.
But to do every single actor solo, and I retire at a good time because the pandemic hit and everybody recorded separately, everybody recorded from and some of them something will still do at home. And so to me, casting was always kind of like making the cake, putting all the stuff together and making the cake. The recording sessions were getting to eat the cake with everybody. We all got to eat the cake. And so when that was taken away for me, that was a big that I
was true. I just like, no, that's not I don't I'm not interested in individual I mean, well, we had to, of course, but I really liked the ensemble. I liked because so much of acting is reacting. So time you if you're recording all by yourself and the actor before you has not recorded yet, I have to read you in. I have to get at least five or six different versions from you, because for good measure, in case's going to cut together.
Yeah, that's right, that is so right.
God.
Yeah, I have a weird my famous Robin Williams story about that we did.
He was the.
Genie in Aladdin and I was Brazil, the guard and there's this one scene where he uh and the third one where he grabbed a hold of me and went like this, and uh, all of a sudden, we're in a courtroom and he was the judge, and he was the prosecuting attorney, and I was in the witness stand sitting there like this, and and I had lived a couple of things, and and and they kept him excellent and and uh, and he had already recorded, and so
he had to come back. They had to record a couple of things because his line didn't work, because they wanted to keep mine. And so they did that one or twice, and he goes and and finally they said, well, okay, well we finally got got the scene. And I go, yeah, would you would you like to see it? And I said sure, yeah, yeah, And it's and it's Robin. It's me doing this and saying something. And then boom, he snaps it and puts me in the thing there and he goes, I'm sorry, but I will not be upstaged
by a tertiary character. And he reached over and grabbed my feet and rolled me up into a blind and threw me out into the universe. So I got personally dissed. I got well, they had like one or two of my zingers in there. And then he goes, I'm sorry, but I will not be upstage by a tertiary character. So he got the two ends so he can get knew that he was insulted, and then he got rid of my ass and well I don't know about that, but he was tired of living around me. He was like, no, no, no.
Around here, all right, I hate to do this. We're stacked up this time. Just I flew by, we have another people yeah, way, I know. Yes, I was just about to say we need to do this again.
We didn't even talk about this stuff.
This was definitely part one. Yes, absolutely that that hour just flew by. You're such a high energy versus it's a pleasure to our quickest period and honestly, like to all you guys watching, to me, this is what the heart of Tuned In with Jim cummings In is. It's it's just like you guys go way back, and it's like getting to peer in to what those sessions were like and your inner personal relationships. To me, it's so different than just like a normal interview or a normal
podcast because of that past history. And you guys are peers rather than you know, somebody like me with no relation. You know saying, oh, what was it like on this? What was it like on that?
You know?
And I think that's why this went by so fast. It's because it's just like good friends catching up.
Good good. You heard it here first right from her mouth.
We can do it again next week if you want to.
Yeah, yeah, Andre Romano.
Everyone, thank you so much for one here the only thanks for having me.
And stay tuned for part two. As always, if you like this kind of content, like and subscribe, it'll help the YouTube algorithm show you more videos like this. And if you like it so much that you want to see even more than nobody else gets to see. Guess what, there's a patreon that's right tuned in. When Jim Comming's on Patreon, you get bonus content, exclusive episodes that nobody else here on YouTube gets to see. So make sure to subscribe for that. If that's what you're into, everything.
Else you'll feel different.
Jim Commings closet on Shopify if he want some merchandise, and am I forget anything anything else?
I don't know.
I think that's it.
That's about it well too.
For now, I'm producer, Chris Jim Cummings Andrea Romano Thank you so much for joining us. We will see you in the next film.
Yay. Thanks buddy, was so fun to listen to me. Believable