June Foray: Our time with a legend

I cant say enough about June Foray. She was as gracious and kind of an interview as I have ever had. To think that our little show had landed one of the greatest voice actors in the history of film, television and radio and she treated us like we were the Today show. What a classy lady. Now, if you are scratching your head and wondering...who is June Foray? ...let me say this. You know her. You may not KNOW that you know her...but you do. We will start with her most recognizable character...Rocky The Flying Squirrel!!

June is best remembered for providing the voice of Rocky but did you know that she was also Natasia...as in Boris and Natasia, Bullwinkle's arch nemesis? Oh and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Lets just focus on her Rocky and Bullwinkle, Dudley Do Right and Fractured Fairy Tales roles. This piece I found on You Tube has an uncut interview with June. I loved hearing her unedited.



June has worked more than just about anyone I have ever interviewd. From Lucifer the Cat in Walt Disney's Cinderella (1950) to the Smurfs, to Cindy Lou Who in the Grinch to Granny from Sylvester and Tweety June Foray is a living legend. Her resume reads like a who's who of cartoon voices. (CLICK HERE for more)

Please take the time to listen to our interview with the great June Foray! To quote Chuck Jones, great producer for Warner Bros. and the Looney Tunes crew..."June Foray isn't the female Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc is the male June Foray!"

Jeff Cook, "Alabama" founding member has a new gig!

First of all, let me say what a class act Jeff Cook is. On Monday April 20th I had the honor of interviewing Jeff and he was awesome!! (You rock, Jeff!) We talked about everything from the never-to-be-repeated success of the country and southern rock band Alabama to the roots of the band back in the 70's when they were called WildCountry!! Check out the podcast for all the stories. Jeff even talked about the challenges the band faced as they skyrocketed up the charts!



Just to put it into perspective... in their career they had more than 40 number one hits and sold more than 73-million records!!! With hits like Christmas in Dixie, The Closer You Get and Mountain Music they were a staple on the "cassette" shelf...LOL.



This was one of my favorites!



...and this one was awesome as well!



Jeff's NEW BAND is called the All-Star Goodtime Band and they are comprised of friends and friends of theirs!!!



CLICK HERE for a sample of the groups music!

And please check out his website at http://www.jeffcook-agb.com/ you won't be disappointed!

ALF: Somethings make you scratch your head.

I have to admit that I wasn't that into ALF. Not because the show wassn't good...I was in college and was more concerned where the next beer was coming from and not whether or not the Melmac native would find his way home.
ALF was definitely a "one-of-a-kind" show. Very rarely does a puppet get its own primetime show...unless you are the cousin of Jim Henson. This show had many scratching their heads wondering ...WHY? or HOW? But whatever the reason, ALF was extremely popular. IT orginally aired for 4 seasons from 1986 to 1990. NBC had the guts to give it a go. Of course when you have the Cosby Show on your network you've got room to let an odd idea see the light of day.
ALF was the brainchild of Paul Fusco. Fusco produced the series, operated the puppet AND supplied ALF's voice. He was truly the man behind the alien.
AS you would imagine, shooting a sitcom with a puppet provided MANY technological challenges. Keep in mind that it took 3 people to operate the puppet. Paul would do one hand and the mouth while Lisa Buckley would operate the other hand. Throw in Bob Frappiano who, using a remote control, would operate the eyes and facial expressions and you have one tough act to pull off. In later interviews the cast would say that it was a difficult and trying show to work on.
Max Wright who played the Tanner family patriarch said once that it was difficult to work on a show where its so technically challenging and where an inantimate object got all the good lines. Some cast interviews revealed that a 30 minute episode would usually take 20-25 hours to shoot putting everyone on edge and causing tempers to flair. One account said that after the final episode was taped Max Wright walked off the set and to his car without ever saying goodbye to anyone.
Despite the strained tensions on the set ALF was a winner in the ratings and the lovable explorer from Melmac took the 80's by storm.
TRIVIA ALERT!! The final episode wasn't the way it was supposed to end. In that show ALF was taken by the US military and the public was left to wonder what happened to him. But in reality it was scheduled to be a two parter in which the second part wouldv'e shown him being rescued by other survivors of his home planet. It seems that the producers had a verbal agreement with NBC to air the final episode. NBC never made good on a deal and ALF was cancelled. It was, however, wrapped up in a made-for-television-movie later called Project ALF.

And of course we can't leave you without one more trivia tidbit... every episode was named after a popular song title that would describe that show's plot.

OK, there is more than one should ever know about the show ALF. Long live ALF or Gordon Shumway...his real name. Damn, another trivia tidbit. I can't stop! Someone help me. (ALF stands for Alien Life Form) OK that's the last one...I swear!!

CLICK HERE for an early clip of ALF.

See ya soon at...
http://waitiknowthis.blogspot.com/ or http://www.waitiknowthis.com/