Monday, October 27, 2003

Rod Roddy, R.I.P.

One day while we were doing Garfield and Friends, I wrote an episode that involved a game show and required an authentic-sounding game show announcer voice. Several actors in our cast could have supplied it but for some reason, I was seized by the idea of getting the genuine article. Our producer, Lee Mendelson, was always very nice about letting me act on such feelings so even though it cost us money he didn't have to spend, he let me hire one — and I knew exactly which one I wanted. I first knew of Rod Roddy as the announcer for the TV sitcom, Soap, and first saw him in action when I dropped by a taping of the game show, Press Your Luck.

He was pretty good at both but he didn't attain "superstar announcer" status until he stepped into some pretty large shoes. After the legendary Johnny Olson died, everyone in town with a voice lower than Emo Phillips tried out for the coveted job on The Price Is Right. Rod got it and he was a terrific choice. He didn't do as great a warm-up as Johnny did...but then again, no one did, and the audience at The Price is Right didn't require much warming. Otherwise, Roddy did the job about as well as you could do it.

He'd been doing it for about seven years when I called his agent to see if we could book Rod for one short Garfield cartoon. It turned out Rod was taping The Price Is Right the same day we were recording Garfield and he had another job earlier in the day. The agent suggested other clients with game show chops. I said no...I wanted Rod Roddy. Our studio wasn't far from CBS and we were on CBS, so we were like "family" — or so I argued. Was there any way Rod could swing by our studio on his way to the taping and record about twenty lines of game show copy, please, please, please? The agent said he'd check with Rod and get back to me.

An hour later, he did. Rod, he said, loved Garfield and would love to be a part of an episode but he was super-conscientious about not being late to his Price Is Right taping. The only way it could possibly work would be if he could arrive at our recording studio at 11:30 and be out by 11:45 but that probably wasn't workable, right? I said, "I'll take it."

At exactly 11:30 AM one day, Rod Roddy and his entire voice walked into the studio and reminded us he only had fifteen minutes. He was wearing a silver lamé sport coat with brown satin lapels that made him look like an extremely large baked potato. I introduced myself, handed him the copy and told him, "I'd like you to try and sound like that guy on The Price Is Right." He gave me an odd look, realized I was kidding, then marched into the booth and read all twenty lines, precisely the way I wanted them. Without even reading the script first.

I looked at the clock. It was 11:35. I said, "Great, Rod. Can you do it one more time and take it a little more over the top?" He read it again with more energy, verging on self-parody. When he finished, it was 11:39 and I said, "Thank you, Mr. Roddy. You can go to your day job." As he signed out, he apologized for the hurry but I told him, "I have a feeling if we kept you here all afternoon, you couldn't have done a better read than that. I'll probably use the first take." That pleased him.

Five minutes later, a lady who was working in the adjoining studio came running in with paper and pen for an autograph, asking "Is the Price Is Right guy still here?" She was crushed to hear that he was long gone and all I could think of was this: There are hundreds, maybe thousands of men and women who make their living as announcers. Only a select few land some on-camera job where they can do it and become celebrities at the same time. Announcing a game show may seem to some like a really silly, trivial job...but there's a certain beauty to anyone doing something well. And Rod Roddy got one of those jobs and became famous, in a daytime TV kind of way, because he was really, really good at what he did.

• Posted at 8:00 PM · LINK

Rent-a-Pundit

One of my favorite political commentary websites is Joshua Micah Marshall's Talking Points Memo. I like Liberals who are respected by most Conservatives and Conservatives who are respected by most Liberals, and Marshall is in the former category. The other day, he mentioned that he was thinking of covering the New Hampshire primary not for any magazine, as he usually does, but just for his weblog. If he could get enough donations, he said, he'd go to New Hampshire and report his observations, unfettered by the needs and editorial dictates of some employer. Well, before he even announced a dollar goal, he had nearly $5,000 in contributions, which is more than enough. I'm looking forward to this, not only because Marshall is a perceptive reporter and commentator but because it's a fascinating new model for online journalism. If it works, the possibilities are endless...and exciting.

• Posted at 3:17 PM · LINK

Oh, The Places Your Mail Will Go!

If you get a letter from me in the next year and you aren't the Gas Company, it will probably have one of these on it — the stamp that was unveiled today to honor the late Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel. I think it's terrific that he is being so honored, and also that the U.S. Postal Service didn't hire some other artist to execute an illustration of the Good Doctor and his characters. Unless I miss my guess, that's a slightly retouched photo surrounded by actual Seuss drawings, and I think that's great.

There's an unfortunate tendency sometimes to honor an artist by having another artist pre-empt their work. But this is all Seuss, all the time, so I've ordered a couple hundred. Rumor has it that we will see a Charles Schulz stamp before long. If so, I hope it's actually Schulz art. After all those years of not letting anyone else draw his strip, it would be a shame if someone else drew his stamp.

• Posted at 2:55 PM · LINK

Fair and Balanced

Not only have I been meaning to mention Atrios but I wanted to give you all this link to Ron Paul's weekly essays. Paul is a Libertarian Congressguy from Texas but unlike some prominent Libertarians, he seems to have a decent sense of reality. I don't always agree with him but then I don't always agree with anyone, including myself. At times, Paul sounds like what Republicans would sound like if they actually sounded like Republicans.

• Posted at 11:59 AM · LINK

Bang Bang

Atrios is one of the most-read political bloggers who skews Left. And if you think I post often, you should see this guy. Anyway, I've been meaning to mention him here but he just put up an amazing transcript from C-SPAN transcribed by someone else. Here's the link to it. It's a call from a lady who apparently intended to remain anonymous, discussing what she saw at the Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington. It turns out this woman is...well, you'll see.

• Posted at 11:37 AM · LINK

The World's Foremost Authority

A new production of Larry Gelbart's play, Sly Fox, is set to open next April in New York. Richard Dreyfuss stars in a role originated by George C. Scott, but never mind that. The most interesting bit of casting involves a smaller role. "Professor" Irwin Corey is in the company, and some theater buffs think will make him the oldest performer to ever play on Broadway. The professor is 89 (some reports say 91) and he still does occasional stand-up gigs, plus he recently became a great grandfather. Here's an article about him from when he was a much younger man of 87.

• Posted at 9:55 AM · LINK

Nudge, Nudge

The wonderfully silly Eric Idle has embarked on what he's calling his Greedy Bastard Tour. You can find out if and when the greedy bastard is coming your way, and read a weblog/diary he's posting of the experience here.

In the meantime, John Cleese is setting up his own website at www.thejohncleese.com. Why the "the?" Because one of those professional John Cleese impersonators who doesn't look very much like John Cleese (there are several) has already claimed www.johncleese.com. Doesn't seem fair, does it?

• Posted at 1:25 AM · LINK

Update

For the record, tomorrow's Daily Variety carries the following notice...

WGA animation writing award winner Mark Evanier is a three-time Emmy nominee. Information in Thursday's paper was incorrect.

It's kind of an interesting way to phrase it. I was advised not to ask for the correction for fear they'd write something that implied I'd claimed the three Emmys and they had just now caught me in a fib. The above doesn't admit that the mistake was theirs, but it also doesn't tell what they're correcting. Unless someone hauls out last Thursday's issue — which no one will bother to do — they won't know what's being corrected. They might assume the original piece had said I was a two-time Emmy nominee, for instance. I'd have preferred it if they'd said something to indicate the mistake, whatever it was, was wholly on their end. But I guess this will do.

• Posted at 1:10 AM · LINK

Time to Spend Money!

I've just ordered my copy of the new Looney Tunes DVD set from Amazon, and you can do the same thing by clicking here. Knowing you, I presume you'll want one because from all reports, it's an excellent presentation of the material, and we all know how wonderful the material is. I also know you'll want this, the four DVD set, as opposed to the two DVD set that's also being released and which only has half the cartoons on it. The line-up of chosen cartoons is pretty good. Matter of fact, the main complaint I've heard about it is that they picked films that are so good, they're shown constantly to the point where some of us are sick of them. (I have a personal rule: I don't attend any cartoon festival where they're showing What's Opera, Doc? It's not that it's not a fine cartoon but for about two decades, it was a rare program of cartoons that did not include it, usually as the finale. I once attended a Betty Boop fest, secure in the knowledge that it would all be Max Fleischer shorts animated three thousand miles from the WB Cartoon Studio and — sure enough — the host came out and announced, "In addition to some great Betty Boop cartoons, we have a bonus for you tonight." The minute he said that, I knew: What's Opera, Doc? Had to be...and it was. I don't think it's as wonderful as some other cartoons Chuck Jones directed and and even if it were the best, enough is enough. I don't need another viewing...I can see it in my sleep and hear Elmer's voice echoing, "Kill da wabbit," deep in my eustachian tubes. Blessedly, What's Opera, Doc? is not in this new DVD release...but I'll bet it's in the next one.) Anyway, I would have preferred some more obscure shorts but I understand: The better this release sells, the more likely it is that someone at Warner Home Video will say, "Hey, we've got to release all our cartoons on DVD," which is probably inevitable but it would be nice if they got on with it. So once again, here's the link to order yours. And make sure you watch Early to Bet, which is on Disc Four, and which is among my favorite WB cartoons that we aren't all sick of seeing.

• Posted at 12:23 AM · LINK