Today on Stu's Show, Stu Shostak plays host to voice actor extraordinaire Billy West, who's best known for his work on Ren & Stimpy, Futurama, Doug and dozens of others. He's also in lots of commercials, like he's the red M&M and the voice of the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee and he's been Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker and Elmer Fudd and…oh, he's just a brilliantly clever performer. He will doubtlessly do his legendary Larry Fine impression and it'll be so good that Stu won't be able to resist poking him in the eyes and breaking plates over his head. Don't miss this one, people!

Stu's Show can be heard live (almost) every Wednesday at the Stu's Show website and you can listen for free there and then. Webcasts start at 4 PM Pacific Time, 7 PM Eastern and other times in other climes. They run a minimum of two hours and sometimes go to three or beyond. Then shortly after a show concludes, it's available for downloading from the Archives on that site. Downloads are a bargain 99 cents each and you can get four for the price of three. Even if the shows weren't really good, that's the kind of bargain you can't pass up!

A few nights ago, the New York branch of the Writers Guild gave out awards at the Edison Ballroom back there. It was hosted by Lewis Black and I suppose I should warn you that the following clips contain naughty words, humor in questionable taste and many unflattering remarks about the current occupant of the White House. First, here's Mr. Black's opening monologue…

And now, here's an award presented by Triumph the Insult Comic Dog…

Here's a real good piece by Matt Taibbi on Milo Yiannopoulos and the premise that Free Speech is endangered whenever someone doesn't give such a person a forum — and usually, a nice speaker's fee. And make sure you read all the way through to the end because the last half-dozen paragraphs are pretty important.

An up-and-coming cartoon voice actor sent me this question and asked that I leave his name out of it…

I was in the audience at one of your Cartoon Voices panels in San Diego, wishing I was established enough to be up there on the stage with the pros. I heard you make a remark that intrigued me and I was wondering if you could elaborate.

I have watched as the industry has transitioned from hand-drawn animation to computer animation and I never imagined that would affect the voice actors. After all, a voice role is a voice role, right? But I heard you say offhandedly that casting voice actors for CGI shows is different from casting them for hand-drawn shows and I can't imagine how. Can you tell me how?

Well, it may seem like a small thing but it does matter. My job in casting is to do the show right with as few actors as we need to pay to come in. As is allowed by the Screen Actors Guild contract, many of those actors will do two or three parts.  Some of the actors in the session will be regulars — folks who voice characters who are in every episode. They may double or triple and do "incidentals" (characters unique to each episode) but I will probably also need a few guest actors to do all the incidentals.

Let's say in a scene for one cartoon, I as the writer want to have a two policemen walk in and each say two lines and exit. Piece o' cake. I describe the policemen I want the artists to draw and they draw them. I as the voice director assign the roles to two of the actors in my session. Simple.  At least, that's how it was in a hand-drawn show.  It was very cheap to bring in a new character so there were a lot of them.

But with CGI animation, every character is a computer model that has to be designed from every possible angle. We need to design them from the back even if you only see them from the front. Someone builds a fully functional computer model and that costs a heap of money. So instead of spending the dough to design two policemen, I have one do it. Right there, there's less for actors to do and if I think small that way throughout, I might need one or two less actors in the session.

Plus, there's this: If you watch a CGI show, you'll notice that if a policeman walks into a scene in one episode, it's usually the same policeman who walked into the last episode. If there's a TV newswoman, it's usually the same TV newswoman. If you look carefully at most crowd scenes, you may notice a lot of "extras" who were major characters in other episodes because each different figure is expensive.

So CGI shows generally have fewer characters per episode…ergo, fewer voice jobs.  And the jobs you do have are usually spread around among fewer actors.

Let's say in Show #1, I have that policeman and since guest actor Victor Voiceover is in that episode playing a big role, I have him also do the two lines as the policeman. Then two shows later, I write an episode about a race of Worm People. The big guest role is that of their leader but one scene calls for a policeman to walk in and say a few lines. On a hand-drawn show, it would probably be a different policeman so it wouldn't matter who did his voice and I could hire any actor.

But in the CGI show, it's going to be the same policeman and often the producers want to keep the voices on repeat characters consistent…so I hire Victor to do guest voices on that episode so he can do the policeman's lines. And of course, since he's there and we're paying him, I think, "Hey, Vic would be great as The Leader of the Worm People" so I assign him that role and he also does the three lines as a pizza delivery guy. And then the week after, since we spent all that cash designing Worm People, I bring them back again, which means I bring Victor back again.

And then a few shows later, I build the main storyline about that pizza delivery guy since we spent so much money making his computer model…and that means we bring Victor back yet again.  Over the course of thirteen episodes, I might need to book Victor eight times to do guest voices.  In a hand-drawn show, I might have had twice as many guest roles and spread them around among a greater number of actors.

There's nothing really different about what the actors do in a CGI show as compared to a cartoon drawn by hand. There's just fewer characters, which means fewer jobs, and a tendency to hire the same folks over and over for guest roles.

At the San Diego Comic Fest, I got into a brief (thankfully, brief) political discussion with an old friend of mine.  I can remember when, not that long ago, this fellow thought that the tales of Bill Clinton philandering were (a) all unquestionably true and (b) solid proof that the man was unfit to hold public office.  He still thinks that but he's fine with Donald Trump.  The tales of him abusing women, despite his recorded bragging about it, are unproven and surely way exaggerated and should not be mentioned, lest they tar a good Man of God who's going to do great things for this country.

That's one of the things that's so maddening about what's going on.  It's not even a matter of Party over Principle.  It's the realization that with some people, there's no Principle at all apart from "our side winning."  Here are some links…

• Trump is sure having a hard time sounding convincing when he says Anti-Semitism is a bad thing.  It's like he's thinking, "How can I officially come out against it without losing the support of people who hate Jews?"
• Our reality-show prez has been promising to bring back jobs for coal miners.  I respect the grand and dedicated tradition of that profession but I think it's a lot like being a Betamax repairman these days. The best thing that could be done for the miners might be some kind of retraining and placement program.  Here's Brad Plumer on what Trump can and cannot do for them…and the "can" does not include bringing back that industry the way they want.
• Joe Conason on why that Russian Dossier on Trump can't be ignored.  Something in there really smells and it isn't the part about the alleged Moscow hookers.
• Daniel Larison writes about "American Exceptionalism" and the flawed premise that you must not think America is a very great thing if you're against us getting into a lot of wars.  What's scary is that a lot of people who believe that are the people Trump is playing to.

I do these on the similarly-flawed premise that if I do all my reading and writing about Trump in the morning, I can pay little or no attention to him the rest of the day.  It hasn't worked yet but still, in the immortal words of Elmer Fudd, "I twy and I twy…"

The first Comic-Con International was held under a different name in San Diego from August 1–3 in 1970.  That is darn close — and getting closer with each passing day — to half a century. The four people above were each present for at least one day of that convention.

The gentleman at left is Gene Henderson.  Next to him is Jackie Estrada.  Gene and Jackie have both been of great service to the convention over the years, working on various aspects of it.  In the back are, also reading from left to right, illustrator Bill Stout and me.  We believe we four are the only people who have been there for at least one day of every one of those forty-eight conventions…but before we say that too loudly, we want to ask around a bit and make sure.

Is there anyone else?  Anyone who has shown up on at least one day of every single Comic-Con International, including the years when it was called the Golden State Comic-Con, San Diego's West Coast Comic Convention or the San Diego Comic-Con?  (It became Comic-Con International as of 1995.)  If there is, we'd sure like to know.  Drop me a note if you are one or know of one.

The Oscars are coming up. We would like it if even one of the acceptance speeches sounded anything like this one by Rowan Atkinson…

Trump seems to be trapped in a vicious circle: The more he gets criticized by the press and ridiculed by comedians, the more his ranting provides ammo for those who criticize or ridicule him.

There's a certain poetic justice happening with his TV coverage. Not that long ago, the programming folks seem to have come to the conclusion that covering Trump's campaign speeches, usually in full, was good for ratings. That helped him a lot to get where he is today. But now, the folks who do late night programming seem to have concluded that calling Trump a clueless, lying lunatic is good for ratings. Live by the Nielsens, die by the Nielsens. Here are some links…

• As Kevin Drum notes, enthusiasm for getting rid of Obamacare is faltering among Republicans now they they've gotten rid of Obama. I agree with his observation that "Hating Obamacare was mostly just a way of hating Obama."
• Matt Taibbi explains what Trump is trying to accomplish by repealing the bi-partisan provision of the Dodd-Frank bill known as the Cardin-Lugar Amendment. Hint: It isn't to keep his promise to cut down on the power of special interests to get what they want out of government.
• Daniel Larison explains why it would be foolish and counter-productive for the Trump administration to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization. Some people sure want them to.
• Trump just selected Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster as his national security adviser. Fred Kaplan explains why this might turn out to be a pretty good choice.

Lastly: I've been catching up on TV programs I missed while I was away and I have to say I was really disappointed in Bill Maher for having Milo Yiannopoulos on his show and for acting like the mere fact that some people don't want this man to speak in certain venues means that he has something to say worth hearing. Yiannopoulos struck me as one of those people who has learned that saying outrageous things that piss people off is a good career move…so he says outrageous things that piss people off.

I am reminded of when I worked with the late "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, back when he was a superstar bad-guy wrestler. Out of the ring, Roddy was a great, funny fellow who admitted his villainy was all an act…but, as he put it, "It made me rich and famous and I didn't have to work on a loading dock anymore."  To some, being a hated somebody is better than being a non-hated nobody, especially if there's money in it.

No principle of Free Speech guarantees anyone a forum to air their views. I live not far from where Maher does his show and there's a derelict-looking guy who's sometimes about, yelling hatred of Jews and Blacks and women who don't stay home and just make fudge and babies…and there are no coherent views behind any of this. It's just kind of a desperate primal scream to be noticed. I look forward to seeing him on Real Time in the near future.

• It's kinda fun watching a president who repeats and spreads any silly thing he hears or thinks complain that the news media isn't accurate.

That's me interviewing Disney Legend Floyd Norman on Saturday at the San Diego Comic Fest…a different kind of comic book convention in San Diego but a very enjoyable one, nonetheless. Enjoyable for me, anyway. If you go to Comic-Con just to see movie stars and hear about next year's movies and to shop the giant Dealers' Room, you might have been lost at this intimate gathering which was just about comic books, especially older comic books. I love The Big One in July but for a guy like me, there's a lot of fun in just hanging around for a few days with folks of my generation, talking about how comics used to be.

Which is what I did. This was a small con in a small space with a small array of dealers (some of whom had very small prices) and a small guest list and I sure wasn't bored. I don't think anyone was.

The theme of the con was Jack Kirby, who would have turned 100 this August. On Facebook, I saw someone say that this con took us back to the days of the other San Diego Con, when you could sit by the pool in the evening and talk with Jack. I didn't check the pool at the hotel but I don't think he was there. They did though have three people who worked with Jack — myself, my then-partner Steve Sherman and Jack's favorite inker, Mike Royer. We did a number of panels about him and there were others. Attendees seemed quite happy.

The convention, by the way, concludes today. I had to get home. I kinda wish I was back there instead of back here.

Last night, I took advantage of being in San Diego to go into town, dine with friends at one of my favorite restaurants when it wasn't full of Comic-Con people and see a production of the musical 9 to 5 mounted by the San Diego Musical Theater group at the Spreckels Theater.

I didn't see the musical based on the 1980 movie when it played Broadway or elsewhere and was curious but I mainly went because my friend Candi Milo was in it. Candi who is one of the best voice actresses working today did not surprise me by getting every possible laugh anyone could ever get in the role she played — that of Roz, the loyal secretary to the boss played by Dabney Coleman in the film. I knew she'd be funny. Then again, I didn't know she'd be that funny.

Joy Yandell played Violet (the Lily Tomlin role in the film), Allison Spratt Pearce was Judy (the part Jane Fonda had) and Karyn Overstreet, who looks a lot like Dolly Parton or at least did on stage, played the Dolly Parton role, Doralee. All three leading ladies have powerful singing voices and did fine jobs of disappearing into their characters and making us feel their pains and frustrations.

David S. Humphrey had the Dabney Coleman role and managed to pull off the Dabney Coleman trick of being very funny and very sleazy at the same time. In fact, everyone was pretty good and the whole show was professionally directed, choreographed and staged.

So did I like everything about it? Well, I did have this teensy complaint: I wish all these talented people had been in a better show. The musical itself seemed unspectacular to me with no memorable songs except for the title one. Dolly Parton wrote them and I guess I'm more forgiving of pedestrian lyrics and "near" rhymes in country pop tunes than I am in something done for Broadway.

The storyline itself was starting to feel dated when the film first came out. I recall a lady I knew at the time remarking that the core problems of sexism and discrimination in the workplace weren't really about obvious a-holes like the one Coleman played but from the kind who can retain some veneer of respectability and innocence.

The message of the show is that women should stand up for themselves and not allow discrimination by gender or to be the victims of unwanted sexual aggression. I'm 100% behind the message but I thought the show got a little ham-handed with delivering it.

That said, the audience last night loved it all and many were on their feet for the closing ovations…so what do I know? If you're in the area, you might want to take it in. The show's there through February 26 and I guarantee you laughter every time Candi Milo is onstage. And other times, as well.

We're coming to you today from San Diego, which is currently experiencing the tail end of that big, big storm that hit Southern California yesterday.  I, having the foresight to drive down here on Thursday, did not have to spend even two seconds on the freeway in it.  My house-sitter back in L.A. reports that it dumped many, many gallons of H2O on my neighborhood but did no noticeable damage unless you count the opening of a few new Great Lakes that were formerly busy intersections.

Yesterday before the San Diego part of the storm commenced, I went out to buy a few things for myself and some friends here and my "to do" list concluded with a swing through some McDonald's to get a sack o' burgers. Now, you'd think that finding a McDonald's would be, like, the easiest thing in the world for a G.P.S.  I told mine to search for some, it made a list of several thousand and then I told it to direct me to the closest one, which it said was 1.8 miles from where I made the request.

1.8 miles later, I found myself puzzled, driving down a street lined with hospital buildings with no Golden Arches to be seen.  Then I noticed a sign which explained it: My G.P.S. had brought me to Ronald McDonald House.

So I told Henrietta — that's what I call the Lady in the G.P.S. when I have her voice enabled — to take us to the next-closest McDonald's and eight minutes later, I was in one, waiting to order. Ahead of me was a gent in his twenties who wanted to order eight Chicken McNuggets.

The young lady behind the counter explained politely to him that they sold McNuggets in quantities of six, ten, twenty, etc. They didn't sell eight. The customer said he wanted eight. Six was not enough. Ten was too many.

With the patience of Job or maybe a Bernie Sanders supporter, she explained how on the little keyboard where she enters orders, there was a key for six, a key for ten, a key for twenty…but no key for eight. He argued back that eight was a better number — and what would be even better would be if McDonald's had a per-nugget price and one could get the quantity of their choice. "In America," he proclaimed, "too many times 'they' make decisions for you."

"That might be wonderful," she said. "But right now, I can only sell you six, ten, twenty…" The fellow seemed genuinely to have the idea that this teenager in a paper hat could remake Corporate Policy or that convincing her of the wisdom of an eight-pack would lead to its introduction at McDonald's around the world.

I finally had to step in and tell the guy that the Ghost of Ray Kroc couldn't get a box of eight here and that he should reconsider if after all the time he'd spent filibustering this matter, he wasn't now hungry enough to down two more. He finally decided it did. If he hadn't, I'd still be there, probably being just as obnoxious complaining that they should have opened a second register.

But I got back to the hotel before the skies opened and there was a lovely opening ceremony last night for the San Diego Comic Fest. I'd tell you more about it but I'm due downstairs. More later.

As I sit and wait for Donald to call and offer me the position of National Security Adviser, let's see what else we can talk about…

• The Gallup Poll currently shows Trump with a Disapproval Rating of 56% and an Approval Rating of 38%. That's an 18 point deficit. To put that number in context, Obama started out his first term around 50-50 and in eight years, the worst he had was a few brief periods when his deficit was three or four points.
• And yet, I agree with both Kevin Drum and Jonathan Chait that from Trump's point o' view, everything probably looks just peachy and presidential and he can't fathom why the polls are lying to him and much of the press is talking about an administration that's inept and in chaos.
• Jonathan Chait also reports on how Republicans in Congress are doing with the only thing they seem to care about, which is giving very wealthy Americans a huge tax cut.
• And Andrew Sullivan has all sorts of observations about Trump and the folks with whom he surrounds himself. I think Mr. Sulllivan tries too hard to come up with "life experience" reasons why people like Ann Coulter become rabid Conservatives. I think the ones who get very rich advocating an extreme position of any kind generally do it because it makes them very rich. But some of his other observations are worth a click.

I'm going to try to take some time off from Trump Dumps to finish not only some assignments but some blog posts on other topics. Let's see if I can manage it this time.

• Each day, Trump should have an insane press conference to denounce as "fake news" reports that yesterday he had an insane press conference.

Brian Trester sent me this question…

I was wondering how you cast for a voice when the original actor has passed away. I am sure it's difficult. I am thinking of Garfield. I have seen the new Garfield show and while it is good, I still can't get used to the art or his voice. To me, Lorenzo Music will always be the voice of Garfield. This is why I am asking the question.

What I am driving at is it must be hard. You want someone to resemble the voice but at the same time do not want the person to be a carbon copy of the actor. Either way, it seems like a lose-lose situation. If you get a sound-alike, people will complain you're disrespecting the original voice. But if you get a new voice, they complain it doesn't sound like the original or they hate the new voice.

I know Hanna-Barbera had this problem with Scooby Doo and even Shaggy. I also know when Mel Blanc died they had a huge problem with the new voices and complaints. Since you have done a lot in this field, I was wondering how you handle or handled this problem.

In the case of Garfield, Jim Davis made the decision to hire Frank Welker and to have him do a voice that was similar but not exact. Believe me, Frank can do exact. It took me a while to get used to it. The whole first season of the new show when Frank took over, I heard Lorenzo in my head when I wrote dialogue for Frank. It wasn't until we had some finished episodes with Frank doing the voice that I began to hear him as I wrote for him.

I can't say I've ever heard anyone say it was disrespectful to closely imitate a voice. I have heard plenty of complaints when the imitation ain't so good. A lot of us grew up with certain voices burned into our childhood memories and it can be jarring — and even despoiling when the new guy is too far from what we expect.

There's a whole science and a raft of considerations involved in casting a replacement voice for an established character and I could go into it here. But as it happens, it's the topic for discussion the night of March 2nd at the The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences out in North Hollywood. There's a panel there that evening called "…But the Characters Live On" and it's all about new voices in old legends.

The list of those discussing this topic isn't complete yet but so far, it includes Matt Craig and Gary Hartle, who produce the TV series, Wabbit; Andrea Romano, who has cast and voice-directed more cartoon shows than any human alive; Bob Bergen, who now speaks for Porky Pig and Tweety; Dee Bradley Baker, who speaks these days for Daffy Duck; Grey Griffin, who plays Daphne on the Scooby-Doo show; Jeff Bergman, who has voiced Fred Flintstone, George Jetson, Bugs Bunny, and many more, and Mallory Lewis, who inherited the talent of her mother, the great Shari Lewis, and also inherited Lamb Chop.

There will be a few others…and the moderator might have something to say, as well. The moderator is me.

This will disappoint some who read this site but the event — which you can read about here — is only open to Television Academy Members with valid membership cards. Sure hope I can find mine. It will however be watchable by all on the Academy's website and I'll let you know how and when to do that.

Brian, you'll probably get many of your questions answered there and then. If you have more, I'll try to address them on this here blog.