The Radio Personality Who Became An Iconic TV Star: “Laugh-In’s” Gary Owens

For six years Gary Owens was the on- and off-stage voice of “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” But his voice acting career went way beyond just that one iconic show.

In this 2004 interview Owens talks about his carere and his book How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice.
Get your copy of How to Make a Million Dollars With Your Voice by Gary OwensAs an Amazon Associate, Now I've Heard Everything earns from qualifying purchases.

You may also enjoy my interviews with Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg

For more vintage interviews with celebrities, leaders, and influencers, subscribe to Now I've Heard Everything on Spotify, Apple Podcasts. and now on YouTube
#Voice acting #VoiceOver # radio # Hollywood

that because Roman and Martin laugh in that was so powerful.
For six wonderful years, Ruth, Fuzzy and I were the only two
regulars who did every show withDan and Dick.
Long time radio and TV personality Gary Owens today on
Now I've heard everything. I'm Bill Thompson.

(00:25):
Can you make $1,000,000 using just your voice?
Well, certainly you can. A lot of people over the years
have made quite a nice living using just their voice in voice
overs, voice acting, radio, evenautomated systems.
Now it's true that only a few, ahandful, reach the pinnacle of
success and really make a lot ofa ton of money using just their

(00:50):
voice. And that's where Gary Owens
comes in, because Gary Owens wasa very popular, very successful
radio personality in Los Angelesback in the 1960s and in the
late 60s when he was recruited for a new television show, an
unusual show called Rowan and Martin's Laugh In.

(01:10):
And now, despite numerous requests, NBC presents Rowan and
Martin's laugh in. Now over the next six years,
Gary Owens was the on and off stage voice of Rowan and
Martin's Laugh in. Now even though he may be best
known for that, Gary Owens actually had a long, very long
and very successful voice actingcareer.

(01:34):
Now he's not one to gatekeep. So in 2004, Gary Owens wrote a
book called How to Make $1,000,000 with Your Voice.
Now keep in mind this interview was over 20 years ago.
Nobody had heard of AI and what it was going to do to the voice
over business. So a lot of his advice may be a
little bit dated now, but not toworry because the stories he
tells more than makes up for that in just a moment.

(01:57):
Our conversation. We're about to take a step back
and listen to an iconic voice from our recent past.
It's one of over 10,000 interviews noted radio
personality Bill Thompson did over a 30 year span.
We think you'll enjoy it so. Here now from 2004.
Gary Owens. Well, it's for anyone who wants

(02:20):
to make money in the voice over business.
Now, that could be being a newscaster, which you were.
Also, it's for people who want to make money in cartoons,
commercials, movie trailers, TV promos, anything along that
line. And the great part today, when I
started in the business, everyone had it.

(02:40):
Just I had to sound like Ken Nordine, who is one of the best,
and the late Norman Rose who just passed away, who was the
voice of Juan Valdez and the narrator for The Martian
Chronicles. But today, so many agencies and
so many casting people like the person next door, and especially
if the person next door is Donald Trump.

(03:03):
But anyone can really get into the commercial business or the
cartoon business. I've been so lucky over the
years. I've done probably 3000 animated
cartoon episodes starting back in the early 60s Walt Disney
directed my first one at Disney Studios and it was such a
pleasure to work with him and just a magnificent time doing

(03:25):
very. I'm still doing cartoons.
As a matter of fact, I may be doing super chickens narration
in the in a few months here, butalso I'm the voice on Buzz
Lightyear Space Ghost. I was Space Ghost from 1966 to
1994. That's a long time to do a
cartoon. And Roger Ramjet, Blue Falcon,

(03:49):
Dino Mutt, Felix the Cat, Swat Cats, Garfield the cat.
I was the announcer on that for eight years.
As a matter of fact, this evening we're having a reunion
of Bobby's World with Howie Mandel, and I played Captain
Squash. It was his alter ego on that.
I'm on Powdered Toast Man. I'm, well, I am powdered Toast

(04:10):
Man on Ren and Stimpy. And so I've done a lot of
cartoon characters, primarily either the narrator or the
villain some time ago. Well.
One of the things I like best about this book is that, yes,
it's a very instructive book on getting into the business
yourself. But correct me if I'm wrong
here, did you sneak in a lot of parts of an autobiography of you
have yet to write into this book?
Well, that's true. I'm writing an autobiography,

(04:32):
finishing it late next year. But yes, there are a lot of
autobiographical stories in there.
I told McGraw Hill, hey, wouldn't it be fun to just use
some anecdotes of things that have happened?
Because I've been in the business now for a long time and
it's all been good for me. It's just been euphoric as can

(04:53):
be. And yes, there are quite a few
anecdotes. One of my favorites happened
some years ago when I was working with Howard Cosell.
I was interviewing Howard Cosellon his book, one of his new
books, and I said, Howard, you're a barrister.
Now we're broadcasting from the LA Coliseum before a Rams
Washington Redskin game. And so I would get out there and

(05:14):
do my radio show from 3:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon.
So ABC would be setting up with Howard Cosell and Frank Gifford
and Alex Karas and the gang. So at this point I said to
Howard, have you ever been stumped for an answer?
Being a lawyer? Probably not.
He said, no, Owens. I haven't, as a matter of fact.
I said, well, I'm glad because you're going to have to take

(05:37):
over. I have to go to the bathroom.
So I run out of the studio. He slammed the door behind me.
Now, this is up way above the football field.
And at 3:00 in the afternoon, only a few security guards are
there. And I was going to wait for one
minute, just letting Howard adlib on whatever he wanted to.
Then I try to open the door and it's locked.

(05:57):
And I yell up and down the hall.There's nobody there.
So I have to run all the way down to the Rams locker room to
find a security guard. 26 minutes later, Howard is still
talking. Only my engineer is in there
with him, and we're going live on the air.
And so as I get the door finallyopen, Howard, I'm so sorry.

(06:18):
And that's the correlation between George Allen of the
Washington Redskins, George Allen of the Los Angeles Rams.
That's it. Oh, and I'm out of here.
And I said, my gosh, he's ad libbed for 26 to 8 minutes on
the spur of the moment. You know how many people could
do that? Oh well, you've done it.
The part. I've done it.

(06:38):
Yeah. I did it with Joan Rivers.
Yeah, I. Was going to say.
You've got some, you've got a couple of stories in your book
here where somebody backstage just something is going wrong
and they say, Gary, go out and and and fill for 45 minutes.
One of the strangest things thathappened, Bill, was a few years
ago we were doing a Muppet special, Miss Piggy special for
CBS Television. And the hosts of the show were

(06:58):
Dick Van Dyke, Rita Moreno and myself and Johnny Mathis.
And so it's an all Hollywood audience at the Ambassador
Hotel, the Coconut Grove and everybody from Ginger Rogers to
Tally Savalas to Lou Rawls, thateverybody is there.
And because they all want something to do with Miss Piggy
or Kermit the Frog. So Kermit the Frog is the host

(07:19):
of it. I come out dressed in a tuxedo.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome tothis wonderful affair.
Here's your host for this evening, Kermit J Frog and of
course, then Jim Henson. Thank you very much, Gary.
Tonight at that point, the lights go out in the the old
Coconut Grove and they're fumbling around.

(07:40):
Everybody say, what's the matterhere?
Something's going on. So Jim comes over and he says,
Gary, can you fill for 45 minutes?
And I should probably not because I I think I'm I'm talked
out because we did that in interviews prior to the show.
And he said, well, you're going to have to.
So I go out in the audience now,I'm not sure what I'm going to

(08:01):
do go out And I see Michael Landon there, Jim Garner and of
course, Dick Van Dyke, all of whom at that time were doing
camera commercials and film commercials.
So I said, come on up on stage, guys, come on with me, Dick,
you're already here. So we're all set.
Michael Landon, ladies and gentlemen, the great star of the

(08:23):
House Behind the Little House onthe Prairie, Bonanza, etcetera,
etcetera, etcetera. And of course, the wonderful Jim
Garner of the Rockville Files. So I get them up on the stage.
They have no idea what they're going to do.
And I said for the next 5 minutes, they're going to
discuss the merits of their commercials that you see on TV
every day. Now I run backstage and just

(08:45):
trying to get my thoughts together.
And I did, and I came out for another 40 minutes.
But that was a saver. I don't know how I ever thought
of it, but putting the blame on them I guess.
See, that story helps illustrateone of the things I thought you
know, the title of your book could just as easily be How to
Make $1,000,000 with Your Personality.
Because it's, it's more than just a pretty voice that you

(09:05):
have to have to succeed in this business, isn't it?
Well, it certainly is it. It helps a lot.
There are some people who are just great readers, though, you
know, who don't necessarily become personalities, especially
in the commercial field. If you're a narrator, you don't
necessarily have to have a personality with it.
But for television and for cartoons, you have to exude some

(09:26):
kind of a voice. Heidi Fleiss bought 1000 copies
of our book, By the way, she misread the title.
She thought it was How to Make $1,000,000 with Your Vice.
But yes, having a personality does help a lot.
I've hosted probably 12,000 radio shows since I've been in
the business and, oh, I don't know, at least 1000 network

(09:48):
television shows. I've been on 15 series.
A lot of people don't realize that because Roman and Martin
laugh in it was so powerful. And it's still powerful these,
you know, 30 years later. But first thing I ever did was I
was the announcer on Bewitched for Quaker Oats and then The
Wonderful World of Disney for about 7 years.

(10:08):
Then they did The Green Hornet with Bruce Lee not as the
announcer, but as a newscaster, later newscaster.
On that. And then, of course, laughing.
Rowan and Martin was laughing came along and for six wonderful
years Ruth, Buzzy and I were theonly two regulars who did every
show with Dan and Dick, who werethe hosts of course, and it was

(10:29):
just wonderful. I still see the whole gang
frequently. I had never realized until I was
reading your book exactly how your role in that show was, was,
was, was shaped, how it came to be.
Well, it was kind of strange, Bill, because George Slaughter,
who was producing the Judy Garland show, used to listen to
my radio show every day and I'd get notes from him and I knew he

(10:52):
was a famous producer, but I'd never met him in person.
And he phones one day and he says I've got ATV series.
It's just goofy, like your radioshow.
People will do bad jokes, run inthrough the window, climb out
through the door, whatever it might be.
So he said, I'd like to hire youfor the show now.
They weren't sure what part I was going to play.

(11:13):
Someone professorial who soundedauthoritative, like a librarian,
a judge, a psychiatrist, a psychologist, someone who would
yell at people, you know. Well, Miss Feebley, get me the
file on the letter W Thank you. And so George and I and Artie
Johnson and I had worked together.

(11:34):
I owned a company with Mel Blankfor 20 years.
And Mel, of course, was the voice of Bugs Bunny, Big
Tasmanian devil, all these. So Artie and I had worked
together with Mel for some time.And Digby Wolf, our first head
writer on the program. Who, by the way, was the singing
voice of Cary Grant in the movieFather Goose and when he came

(11:54):
over from Australia. So we're all going out to lunch,
which were right across the street from the Slaughter
Friendly offices. And of course, that there was
the Smokehouse restaurant where the Captain and Tennille were
discovered for the first time. And so we go over there and
we're right. You know, we've been typing.
In those days, they were not computers.

(12:15):
So I've got purple typewriter ribbon Nerf on my hands.
And so George Slaughter and I gointo the bathroom and we're
washing up. And as I walked into the
acoustic tile bathroom, I put myhand over my ear, imitating the
announcers out of the 40s and 50s who were doing dance band
remotes. And I said, my the acoustics are

(12:36):
good in here. And George says that's what I
want you to do. You be the intermediary between
Rowan and Martin and Goldie Hawnand Ruth Buzzy and Joanne Worley
and Artie Johnson and Henry Gibson and the whole cast.
So in other words, I would come on after Dan and Dick are
talking about some wonderful comedy routine and say,

(12:58):
suddenly, ladies and gentlemen, in an abandoned warehouse
somewhere in Creeberly City, we hear Cato say, and then you
could put anybody in. Goldie could say hi if you're a
librarian, whatever it might be.So I was the intermediary
between for all, every show for six years at NBC Television.

(13:19):
And they put my ear print in cement at NBC.
And so that was a big occasion. Rowan and Martin stood on my
head. It was the day of the
earthquake, February 9th, 1971. Not a good day for a publicity
stunt, but it's still there, andI think that Jay Leno parks on
it. After this short break, Gary

(13:44):
Owens has a little advice that may now sadly seem a little
outdated. You know, AI is not just for 22
year old coders. A lot of us older adults are
drawing on our life experience to find unique and creative ways
to use AI at home or at work. We've got an AI success story

(14:04):
you'd like to share. Tap the link below to visit our
YouTube channel. AI after 40 and Let's keep
Learning together. Now back.
To my 2004 conversation with Gary Owens.
But, you know, you make a really, really good point in
this book in terms of, you know,helping others get into the

(14:25):
business, which is that anytime you hear a a human voice
somewhere, whether it's on, you know, an answering machine or
the voice that comes out of the Coca-Cola machine when you put
your dollar in. Thank you.
Somebody had to voice that and they got paid for it.
Well, that's true. I'm just signing a contract this
week with the company that has me answering the phone.
Lily Tomlin is part of it. There are quite a few people

(14:47):
part of it. Rich Little is part of it and
you don't realize how many people you reach on just a dial
tone kind of thing, you know. And it is a big business.
You can use your voice in so many ways.
Johnny Grant, who's the mayor ofHollywood, big public speaker
and a very close friend to Bob Hope and Gene Autry for years
travelled with them and would give MC jobs all the time, you

(15:11):
know. And so he gives his tips and how
to be a great MC or a public speaker.
Paul Moyer, a top newscaster, tips on how to be a newscaster.
I think Paul may be the highest paid Los Angeles, not just Los
Angeles, but local newscaster inAmerica.
And Willard Scott, my friend, who is there in Washington with
you. Hi, Willard.

(15:32):
And how to be a weatherman. Robert Easton, how to be a
dialectician. For example, on commercials and
cartoons, many times you must do, say, a Russian voice or an
Italian voice or whatever it might be.
And this tells you in his standpoint, he's taught Meryl
Streep, Marlon Brando, Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, all these

(15:54):
peoples, when they do a movie and have to do a foreign voice,
he's the guy who teaches them. And apparently very well.
Oh yes. Very much, I'm working on
English right now. Hope, hope I do well with it.
My wife gets a kick out of when we when we get our movie tickets
with the little automated kiosk.There's a voice in there that
says your tickets are being printed.

(16:15):
Oh yeah, that's right. But there's but there's, there's
a software glitch at the theaterwe go to.
So he says your, your tickets are being printed.
And it sounds like the poor guy is stuttering and I'm sure they
didn't pay him to stutter. The your tickets are being
printed. It might have been Foster
Brooks. Well, that's, that's another
really fun part of your book is that you you tell the most
fantastic stories and you know everybody.

(16:37):
I mean, you've known everybody for 40.
Years. Thank you, Bill.
I I guess I have. I've worked with an awful lot of
people, you know, just doing 12,000 radio shows by itself,
not counting television and movies I've done.
I'm working on my 19th movie in February.
Jonathan Winters and I are goingto be in it Ernest Borg Night.
I have a company with Jonathan and I have another company with

(16:58):
Jon Rappaport, the producer of MASH.
As I mentioned in the book, backin the early 60s, some young
guys all about 1819 years old were working in our newsroom at
KMBC Los Angeles and I was hosting the afternoon show.
And so I bring these kids in whoare just wonderful, just
wonderfully talented people. Albert Einstein was there before

(17:21):
he became Albert Brooks, the famous movie star.
His father was Parker Carcass, who was a big star on the Eddie
Cantor show for years. But every one of those Einstein
boys have done very well. So Albert at that time was still
Albert Einstein. Ken Levine, who became the
producer of Cheers and Frasier was there.

(17:44):
John Rappaport, who was the is the producer of Mayesh or he was
and Tom Straw, producer of NightCourt and the Whoopi Goldberg
Show. And every one of those kids grew
up to be a phenomenal producer of some kind.
John Rappaport used to play the Maharishi back in those days,
the days of Ravi Shankar and so on.

(18:06):
And I would say, well, it's the Maharishi.
Welcome to the Gary Owen Show. Thank you, Mr. Owens.
It's a pleasure to be here. Did you bring any of your
relatives with you today? Yes, I brought my baseball.
Playing brother Peewee Harishi. Oh really?
And how about your sister? Yes, that my sister is a famous

(18:27):
singer. She is Della Harishi, so
anything with Reese or Reese in the title would work.
But we would do bad jokes like that and we just had a reunion
tonight. As I say, we're having a reunion
of Bobby's World and we get together frequently.
We had a group in Hollywood, andyou may find this quite

(18:49):
interesting. Every Saturday afternoon at
3:00, we would sit in front of Noah's Bagels on Larchmont Ave.
in Los Angeles and do nothing but just tell stories and have a
cup of coffee or soda or whatever it might be.
And in that group, Steve Allen, Richard Mulligan of Empty Nest,
and wonderful actor, of course, Ron Carey of Barney Miller, Hal

(19:15):
Linden, Oh my gosh. Chuck McCann.
Oh. Yes, yes, you know.
Wonderama in New York and oh, Jack Riley of The Bob Newhart
Show and a man named Robert Blake.
Robert Blake was a regular with us and we would just, you know,
and he was a wonderful storyteller and he'd done so

(19:36):
many motion pictures from the time he was nine years old,
playing Little Beaver on Red Ryder and The Treasure of Sierra
Madre. And so, you know, what a
fascinating group to get together, and we've been doing
that for a lot of years. I don't know where Robert is
these days, but he's probably busy.
I think I think he's got other things on his plate right now.

(19:57):
I. Guess so.
Oh, bless your heart. Listen, I have, I have so many
more things I want to ask you too, but I'm running out of time
already. Is there anything else that you
wanted to add or anything you thought I should ask about the
book that I didn't? Oh, you're wonderful.
You asked some great questions. No, it's just anybody can learn
how to do. Let's see, anybody can use their
voice to make money and it is a great money making business.

(20:19):
You know, people, it depends on the luck of everyone.
That's what our business is about.
But a friend of mine, Don Lafontaine, makes about three
and a half $4 million every year, primarily just doing movie
trailers. Yes, you'll find it, you know?
Oh yes. Yes, yes.
And you probably heard his voice1000 times.

(20:40):
Oh, absolutely, yes. And.
It's it's a great business, but you know, you can sound like the
person next door. So it's a book of tips.
It's not a very expensive book and it's doing very, very well.
We're in our second printing right now.
Excellent. Jeff Lindbergh and I thank all
of you people who purchased copies already and wish you well
if you're buying one. Bill, thank you so much.

(21:02):
You're a wonderful interviewer. You know, there there was a Bill
Thompson in Hollywood Fiber McGee and Molly.
Fiber McGee and Molly, but he was also did one of the voices.
What's the Disney movie Lady andthe Tramp?
Yeah, and he also was Droopy Dogand.
And the reason I know all this is because not only do I watch
the credits, but also Internet Movie Database for a long time
had me confused with them because I did a brief voice part

(21:26):
in a movie back in the late 80s and which I played radio
announcer. Oh.
Yeah, good. And for some reason they lumped
Bill Thompson, the one time 2 minute radio announcer, with
Bill Thompson, the guy from the 40s who did all the voices for
Disney and things right. And he also was a regular on
February. McGee and Molly.
That's right. Yes.
Wallace Wimple, who had the voices.

(21:48):
Hello there. Yes.
Hello. And it became Droopy dog, you
know? Well, that's great, Bill.
Well, it's nice talking to you. Oh.
Thank you so much for. Your time appreciate it.
All righty. Well, good luck to you.
Thanks. All righty, bye, bye bye.
Gary Owens died in 2015. He was 80.
Now you can get your copy of Howto Make $1,000,000 Worth of Your

(22:10):
Voice by Gary Owens by tapping the link in our show notes by
clicking the link in the description below.
If you're watching this on YouTube or by going to our
website, heardeverything.com, wemay earn an Amazon Commission if
you make a purchase. Heardeverything.com is where you
can also find my conversations. With two other hugely.
Successful voice actors. A 1988 conversation with the

(22:31):
legendary Mel Blank. When I create a voice, I always
try to make it for all ages. And like Tweety was a little
baby bird, I had to give him a baby voice.
Oh, I thought I. Thought a buddy, dad and
Sylvester was a big sloppy cannon to get my sloppy voice.
Incidentally, that's the easiestone to do.
I do my street voice with a spray on it.

(22:51):
And my 1989 conversation with the great Stan Freeburg A.
Creative writing teacher told meI should give up all hopes of
becoming a humorist or a creative writer.
But Needless to say, the first time I heard an audience of
people laughing at something that I'd written, it occurred to
me that the woman was full of art.
Gum erasers, you know. And of course, we post new
episodes of Now I've Heard Everything every Monday,

(23:13):
Wednesday, and Friday. And you can find us wherever you
find podcasts. And thank you so much for
listening. Next time on Now I've Heard
Everything, The TV correspondentwho discovered a great story
right in her own family. A 2010 conversation with Rita
Cosby. Seen that old suitcase?
I opened it up. My jaw dropped.
I saw a card of an XPOW named Richard Kozabotsky and I went,

(23:38):
Oh my gosh, this is my father. That's next time.
Now I've heard everything. I'm Bill Thompson.