Hooray! I found 1980s Daddy Walrus!

[Bob Gonzalez]

Well, here's a memory. Jay, back me up on this. Syncing our voices with the script and the animation was a real challenge, to put it nicely. If you notice the visual, mouths tend to move rapidly and without pause, so trying to make sounds that coordinated with the mouth movements usually meant us saying to Del Lewis (our director) and Karl (forgot his last name, our engineer), "Hey, what about if we change this line to ..." We didn't want it to end up looking like one of those Steve Reeves Hercules movies, after all. Jay, you remember?

I also remember that I patterned my Daddy Walrus voice after a combination of George C. Scott and Kabuki actors I had heard in films. Very theatrical. Del liked it and thought it was appropriate. I listen now and think, "Hmmm, I don't know ..." What do you think? I think Patty Whitely as Astro is really marvelous, though. And Brian as Dr. Elefun. And, of course, Jay!

So what other people from the cast are here on this forum?

[jayrath]

Carl Battaglia. Del is in St. Louis. Linda, our producer, is here yet.

Re: mouth movements, we were so, so careful. And I think the fans hit us for that. The Canadian cast seems to have been less careful, but it allowed better readings, rather than what was, at times, staggered deliveries for us.

I never would have guessed as to your vocal patterns!

[jayrath]

Oops -- and Carl was another director. We had two engineers. They've all also posted here.

[Bob Gonzalez]

Thanks, Jay. I'll see what I can add. Your memory is MUCH more detailed than mine. Maybe watching more of the episodes can jog it. It's almost 30 years! Wow!

[jayrath]

Thanks, Jay. I'll see what I can add. Your memory is MUCH more detailed than mine. Maybe watching more of the episodes can jog it. It's almost 30 years! Wow!

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Why, no, Bob! I'm only 35 myself!

(Right?)

As for my memories, it helps to have the scripts and all the notes. But I'll be the first to admit I'm wrong, if anyone else has different recollections.

[Bob Gonzalez]

Well, I'd love to hear some other cast members' memories.

Shall I reveal how much we were paid for doing 52 episodes over about a month and a half, right? Especially Patty, who was in the bulk of EVERY SINGLE EPISODE and I remember had to stay after we all were done at the very end recording the "Tune in next week when Astro ..." tag lines. I remember waiting around a lot, reading our books. But I loved that recording studio, really professional, which for us fresh faced kids barely out of college - or not yet out of college - was fantastic.

[jayrath]

(Excuse us, everyone, for getting caught up in front of you -- or maybe you enjoy seeing this reunion?)

I don't know about your contract, but mine ran from December (the pilot) through September. Three seasons in a few months. And yes, the pay was awful, and no residuals -- but we won the bid in the first place because we were non-union.

What I remember best (ahem) is being so tired, and my throat so raw, that we drank cough syrup out of the bottle and napped in the studio. Pulling an 8 hour day and then coming back after dinner to work again until 10 or 11.

[Alittleacorn]

(I think it's a humorous reunion to read while eatting popcorn...okay, grapes v.v I have no popcorn.)

Wow, I had no idea you two were voice actors from the 1980 show, (Just finished watching that too) It's an honor to meet the both of you! ^_^

Really you were the one to write the English theme Jay? =D That is so cool, and I had feeling it was sung by the voice actors (If i read that right) because I swore I heard that lady Patty Whitely who plays Astro in it.

I hope you don't mind me asking but did the two of you do more voices than Skunk and Daddy Walrus for the 1980 show? Because I know it's common for a number of characters to be voiced by one actor.

And, I'm sorry about the raw throats and cough syrup, that couldn't have been pleasant =(.

[AprilSeven]

I'm someone who didn't even know there was a 1980's and 2003 version of Astro Boy until about 6 months ago -- so I'm still catching up and haven't seen most of the 80's series, but it seems like it almost overshadows the original)

Glad to hear there's talk of a reunion, and also that Astro won't be as young, because for me he seemed too baby-fied. Can't wait for that!

[Bob Gonzalez]

I hope you don't mind me asking but did the two of you do more voices than Skunk and Daddy Walrus for the 1980 show? Because I know it's common for a number of characters to be voiced by one actor.

(I hope I did this quote thing right. I just eliminated the parts I didn't want to quote.)

I do remember voicing lots of small supernumerary characters. I just don't remember any right now. I'd have to watch and listen closely to hear if I recognize my own voice. I really laid the hoarseness on pretty thickly for Daddy Walrus, so the other voices I used would not sound like that at all. I'm making it one of my summer projects to watch the series again and see if I can identify voices and remember more things for all of you who are interested. Thanks all of you for your interest, really. It's really wonderful to find enthusiastic viewers of the series!