Morgan Freeman Now Intro's the CBS Evening News With Katie Couric

[LKellerIII]

Just to amplify your last point, go to Don Morrow's
"Wild World Of Voiceovers" website and look for "the
house that voiceover built," a fancy thing in a rural
area outside Danbury, CT. And he has said that one
commercial can bring in as much as $50,000. He's not
exactly a household word; a lot of us know him from
"Camouflage" in the '60s but I usually have to identify
him as the Shell Answer Man before people know who
I'm talking about.

And I wonder how much his protege, the late Don LaFontaine,
made off movie trailers.

The late Don LaFontaine may have started with movie trailers, but did a lot more than that - especially in the last decade - commercials, radio station bumpers, and for awhile, he was doing TV show trailers for both Fox and CBS.

 

[landtuna]

You didn't step on my foot, uh...dude...I was making the point that there's a reason they hire celebrities to do VOs. Getting back to a decade ago, when it was a bigger trend - there was an article or two about it. As I remember, most of the celebs were doing it as sort of a lark, and because it was fashionable among celebrities to do VOs. But it was my impression that they weren't making big bucks to do it - just the regular fee that any top-tier VO person would be getting...which ain't too shabby, by the way.

The best non-celebrity VO people - some of whom we've never heard of - have become very wealthy people.

I wasn't disparaging VO people or saying they don't make a difference (or a good living). Only that the vast majority of non-industry people don't seem to pay attention or care who is doing the talking (at least before star VO's infested the animated movie industry).

I mean, my VO hero growing up was Mel Blanc. I don't think there were ten kids in the country my age who didn't know who he was (but couldn't identify him by photo).

 

[bpatrick]

Just to amplify your last point, go to Don Morrow's
"Wild World Of Voiceovers" website and look for "the
house that voiceover built," a fancy thing in a rural
area outside Danbury, CT. And he has said that one
commercial can bring in as much as $50,000. He's not
exactly a household word; a lot of us know him from
"Camouflage" in the '60s but I usually have to identify
him as the Shell Answer Man before people know who
I'm talking about.

And I wonder how much his protege, the late Don LaFontaine,
made off movie trailers.

The late Don LaFontaine may have started with movie trailers, but did a lot more than that - especially in the last decade - commercials, radio station bumpers, and for awhile, he was doing TV show trailers for both Fox and CBS.

I knew LaFontaine did commercials; I didn't know about the other things he did that you mentioned. But most of us think of him as "the movie trailer guy." Thanks for the info.

BTW, Morrow always got a kick out of being referred to as "the other Don." He also likes to tell a story about his days doing live commercials on the original, Bill Cullen version of "The Price Is Right." Don Pardo was the announcer then, and the staff liked to rib the two about the similarity in last names.

But back to Morgan Freeman: He can do anything he wants, as far as I'm concerned. In fact, if he doesn't win an Oscar for "Invictus" there is no justice.

 

[LKellerIII]

I wasn't disparaging VO people or saying they don't make a difference (or a good living). Only that the vast majority of non-industry people don't seem to pay attention or care who is doing the talking (at least before star VO's infested the animated movie industry).

I mean, my VO hero growing up was Mel Blanc. I don't think there were ten kids in the country my age who didn't know who he was (but couldn't identify him by photo).

I'm not sure why we're tussling a bit here, landtuna - I didn't think you were disparaging VO people.

My arm-chair interest in VO work is from my childhood - my father worked in the animation business, so he spent time with a lot of VO people that did cartoon work. He liked to attend the recording sessions (even though they had nothing really to do with his job), and he'd come home with great stories about them and their antics - some of them were minor celebrities like William Conrad and Paul Frees. He loved Conrad, who was a major partier and practical joker - this was in the 60s, way after Conrad's film and radio drama (Gunsmoke) work, but before he gained back some fame doing Cannon and other TV shows.

Sadly, I don't remember any Mel Blanc stories.

Here in the Bay Area, there was a long-running series of radio commercials for a local dairy called Berkeley Farms. The tag on the ad was a funny voice (presumably a talking cow) that said: "Farms in Berkeley?? Moooooo!" I lived here about 5 years before I realized it was Mel Blanc doing a cross between Barney Rubble and Yosemite Sam.

BTW - there are quite a few clips on You Tube of the Jack Benny Program, including some of Mel Blanc's work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9s8U0O0XPE