Butch Hartman (The Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, The Garden Cartoon)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
slash Jim Cummings Podcast. Do it now? How you doing
out there? It's me Tigger, I am Doc Wayne Duck.
It's me Bunkers keep Bobcat All right, y'all? Is it
rate your favorite firefly you desire? Hold old knock Gud.
My name is Jim Cummings and welcome to tuned In.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Welcome back, everybody to another episode of Tuned In with
Jim Cummings. I am producer Chris, joined as always by
the legend himself, mister Jim's Cummings, Jim's Cummings.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
Today, I'm well the coming, that's Jim's coming. Hi. How
are you?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
How are you doing today?

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Sir? Not everybody? And that was how it was, But.

Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's going so well. Our pre interview was so well.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Right, and today we have a very special guest for you.
You know, him as the creator of Fairly Odd Parents,
Danny Fantom, Tough Pubby, among others, none other than mister
Butch Hartman.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
How are you doing today, sir, super great man. Thank you.
And by the way, Jim, your producer has an amazing voice.
That's incredible baritone. I know that's true. He should talk
into a microst as a voice living. I'm assuming you
appreciate Yes, I do, yes, yes, And I'm just I'm
sure he's highly intelligent as well.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yes, he is a thousand. He takes right after me.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
All right now now I need an insult my Okay,
I haven't been long enough.

Speaker 3 (01:51):
To be Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
On, hey man, Yeah, thanks for stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
It's very exciting. This is very cool, a very professional
looking room you have here.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
I know it is, isn't it.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
No one can find us unless we want to be fun.

Speaker 4 (02:02):
Unless we want to be found, which is just the
way we like it here exactly, And we just put
our heads down.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
And run for the cars, dive in the backseat. You
would never remember this.

Speaker 3 (02:11):
You and I met Gosh a long time ago, nineteen
ninety four ish. It was over it when Hannah Barbara
was still Hannah the Barbara and they had just become
cartoon Network. We were doing a series of short cartoons
over there, and I believe you had auditioned for a
short cartoon that I was doing, and you had long
black hair, kind of like a wolf, like a wolfman Jack.

(02:32):
Than I could see that a little wolf Jack. Yeah,
and we worked with you. I forget what voice you did,
but you did a voice for us, and it was
so cool and I never forgot you. But I never
worked with you since then. The first time we've sat
down at length, Yes, I know, since lo those many
years ago.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, and yet here we are here, we are we
more or less made it. We're almost here.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
We found our way into the secret room. Yeah, Chris,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Phrase. And you've been nice and busy.

Speaker 3 (03:02):
We've been doing some stuff. Yeah, we're excited.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
I mean, is there anything you don't do? Because okay,
I have it, says right here. Writer, artist, voiceover actor, songwriter,
executive producer. And I understand you you tatted? Is that true?
With the yarn and that I'm kidding?

Speaker 3 (03:18):
Oh yeah, but that's amazing. Oh, you was busy a
lot of hats. Well, it's like you. It's like, I mean,
I love what I do you love what you do?
And and we found a You know, I'm a kid
from Michigan. I don't know where you're from from.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
From la born in Youngstown, Ohio.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Okay, yeah, so you're Midwest and there's no industry in
the Midwest at all. And growing up I'm assuming like you.
I had a black and white TV. I was the
remote control. I had to get up and that's right, yes,
think about this, people. I had to get up from
the floor and walk over to the TV.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
And turn the position and it made a sound.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
It made like a mechanical sound, clunk, clunk. Yes, And
no matter where I was in the world, if I
if I turned the dial too fast, my dad would
appear from everywhere. That's how you break a TV, mister,
right there, he would just instantly appear. But I would watch,
you know, all my favorite cartoons. I'd watch Saturday morning. Yeah,
that's the only place to watch them.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
I'd watch all the Hand of Barbara stuff. I'd watch
the Wacky Races, I'd watch Space Ghast, I'd watch Johnny Quest,
I'd watch reruns The Bugs, Bunny and all that stuff.
And I loved all that stuff. And then I I
was kind of an artist. In kindergarten, I learned how
to draw a little bit, and I'll never forget my
My kindergarten teacher name was Missus Shelley, and I always
mentioned the story. One day she said, hey, kids, I

(04:30):
want you to draw a picture of me. And I'm
a kindergarten can I just drew a picture. Put it aside.
I started playing with something else and she starts raving
about the drawing. Kids are tapping me on the shoulder
Missus Shelley's tin and I looked, she's raving about the drawing,
no kidding. Then she goes down the hall caricature no
one knows. I guess she like because it could have
you know, it could have gone the wrong way. But

(04:51):
she went and got other teachers and brought them in
the room. And so I remember going, I got a
lot of attention for this. Maybe I could get attention
from adults if I keep drawing stuff.

Speaker 1 (04:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
And so I really kind of lunched in from that
age very early. Just wanted to learn more about cartoons
and draw so I and then you're a kid in Michigan,
you don't know what you can even do. My dad
was an auto worker in Detroit and didn't know how
I was ever going to make a living doing this.
Neither did I come my teen years, I found about
this school in California called California Institute of the Arts,

(05:20):
and so in nineteen eighty three I really applied myself
for about a year and a half, gully portfolio together.
In eighty three I came out here to go to
school at cal Arts, founded by Walt Disney, one of
the only schools that taught character animation.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
And so I got in there, and it's so wild
because a ton of the people from my class went
on to be sort of influential in the animation industry,
guys like Kirk Wise, Beauty and the Beast, Kevin Lima,
you know, Tarzan and Yah, Rob Minkoff who had just left.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
But obviously, right, these are all my old partners in crime.

Speaker 3 (05:50):
Lyan King and all those things. Yes, so just major league.
I mean, Andrew stan was a year behind me finding Nemo,
and oh, it was kind of a cool little window
I landed in. And then a guy who worked in
Nickelodeon made fairly out there. But anyway, you know, so
we were kind of a little window that was really
a unique thing.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
Yeah, no kidding, Yeah, pretty fun.

Speaker 4 (06:08):
But that's that's kind of like, oh gosh, what is
what was the oh man? I should have never brought
it up because I'm not going to be able to
remember it. But it was back in the nineteen twenties
and in Paris when when they were all all the
artists were all at the One Cafe and Edgar Allan
Poe was there, and Shakespeare was there.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Shakespeare was in.

Speaker 3 (06:30):
The nineteen yeah, a little earlier.

Speaker 1 (06:34):
But it's just one of those things that where it's
just a breeding ground of talent.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
And it was a wild time. I mean it was
I shouldn't say wild, like it was out of control,
but it was. I look, you know you look back
on things. Yeah, I look back now, and none of
us ever knew where any of us would be. Obviously,
my dream at the time was to work for Disney Studios.
That was everybody's dream, and to this day I never have.
I've never worked, really, no, kidd, never worked.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I never.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
I never. I did an intern ship there my second
year of cal Arts in nineteen eighty four, they picked
two of us to go to a like a one
month internship one of them was a guy named Brett
Holland who's directed tons of stuff in the TV animation industry.
Wonderful guy. And then me orch Hartman. I think they
picked us because we had bh initials. I don't know,

(07:19):
but I ended up making a little short film. I
remember when I got there.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
We got, we got.

Speaker 3 (07:23):
They give us a little office at the Disney studio
here on Flower Street in Burbank, the little offshoot. They
were just opening up that studio, and I remember they
were making Roger Rabbit. They were experimenting Roger Rabbit. So
all these guys were talking about Roger Rabbit, and I
was looking at all these super talented guys, so talented,
and you're a young kid, going I'll never be able
to do this. These guys are so good. It's like

(07:44):
being in the major leagues of baseball or something. You
think you're talented, but then you get to the majors
You're like, I know nothing, I really have.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
I really got an incredibly talented flop, aren't you. I mean,
this is unbelievable. That's how do you do that?

Speaker 3 (07:59):
You know?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
I was really.

Speaker 3 (08:02):
Really fortunate and blessed to be very stubborn and every
time I would fail, I'd want to do better and
I would.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
Look for opportunities.

Speaker 3 (08:13):
If I couldn't do this job and I got fired
for it, I would learn how to do that job
so I would never be fired for it again. I
came into the industry doing one job, and by the
time I got my own show fairly odd parents, I
could do thirty jobs. If somebody needed it done, I'll
do it. I'll do it, and I would I would,
you know, I want to do backgrounds, I can do it.
I couldn't do backgrounds. I would make it up. I'd
figure it out. Can you do storyboards, I'll do it,

(08:34):
couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
My one of my first jobs ever at Marvel Studios,
I got hired right.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
Out of Square Studios.

Speaker 3 (08:40):
Wow, the one in the San Fernando Valley here right
way back. Yeah, nineteen eighty six. I got hired for
novel productions. I'm like, this is going to be awesome.
I get to do Spider Man and the Hulk and
count My first show is My Little Pony.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
I got like the Hulk sort of a sort of
hulk ish.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
A little ned fear Nick Fury.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Yeah, it's very, very pony smash. Yes, yeah, it's not
the same.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Puny humans confused. Yeah so, But I got fired off
of that show because I was hired to be a
character designer, which I was really good at. But I've
learned and you'll learn in the industry as you do this.
You might be hired for one job, but the first
day you're there, they could switch jobs on you. So
that happened to me. I they brought me in to
do character design, then they go, you know what, you

(09:25):
want to put you on storyboards.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
What's the reasoning behind that.

Speaker 3 (09:27):
I don't know to this day, but in a way,
I'm glad they did because it taught me that I
couldn't do it. I got fired off the storyboard job
because I they had all It's funny I learned about
writing too, because these writers, bless their hearts, they would
write the show with sixty ponies in every scene, like
the gross comes in so and you had to and

(09:48):
you had to be toy accurate. It was based on
the toy my little pony right, And I couldn't draw
the ponies well enough. There were ten of them in
each scene. When you're a character designer, you draw one
drawing a day or two drawings, oh maybe three or four.
But like storyboard, you got to draw ten or twenty
panels a day, which you know, it's like you got
to move that story.

Speaker 1 (10:07):
And it's a little.

Speaker 3 (10:08):
Different because you're very much so because you're cranking through
a script and it's got to be visual because then
everybody else lives off of that storyboard. And I just
wasn't talented enough to do it. So I got fired.

Speaker 4 (10:16):
My hand hurts about it, and we'll be right back. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:22):
Wow, Yeah, it was very It was very trying for
me at the time because I didn't know how to
do it, but I vowed that I would learn. From
that point, I get better at them.

Speaker 4 (10:30):
Well, you you found yourself wearing a lot of hats. Huh,
now you can do like everything.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Well, well, I sort of found myself stumbling into that. Yeah,
I had to when I got my own show finally,
which is a whole nother thing when you're pitching a
TV show. I always tell people that's like trying to
throw a dart through a donut, but the donuts on
a Merry Go Round and the Marry Go Round is exploding,
and it's.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
A perfect You have to so it's not really that hard.

Speaker 3 (10:57):
Not even anyone can do it, can do it, anyone
can do it. It's but everything's got all those planets
have to align perfectly, like the network has to need
something that you have. You have to have the right
idea at the right time, The right people have to
be in the room, the the opening to do a
new show, and even funded at the time has to
be there. And it's all it's a it's a series

(11:20):
of events that have to line up perfectly. But that
means keep trying because you're going to hit that. You're
gonna hit the dart board eventually.

Speaker 1 (11:27):
Event Yeah.

Speaker 3 (11:28):
So when I was pitching my show, I didn't even
know I could pitch a show. Number one. I was
working as a cog in the machine. I was doing
character designs and I was doing props.

Speaker 2 (11:36):
Like is this when you're aba yees?

Speaker 3 (11:38):
Sure, yeah, it was a hammer. I got fired from
my Little Pony. Then I went on to Hannah Barbara
having learned a lot more, and I got put onto
a show called Tom and Jerry Kids and then Droopy
Master Detective. Those are my two shows Detective. So I
would get a list exactly, So I'd get a list

(12:00):
on Monday. We need this prop and then we need
we need a blow of bread, we need a souped
up car, we need a you know, we need a
metal detector. Whatever was in the script. And I would
sit there and draw those things all week. The producer
would sign off on them, and then I'd come in
the next week, wow, and get the next thing. That's
what we did.

Speaker 1 (12:17):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (12:17):
And I got bored with that, and so I was like,
is there something else I can do? And I started
writing scripts on my own. I wanted to write stuff,
and I started writing my own scripts. They're awful, no
one will ever see them. But but then I got
a chance. When I was at Hannah Barbera one day,
they called us all outside. This is the early nineties,
and they called us all outside in the parking lot,

(12:39):
and Ted Turner was standing on a podium in the
parking lot.

Speaker 2 (12:43):
Oh man, because Ted.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
Turner had just bought that part of the world exactly
Anna Barbera, and they were calling, goes, welcome everybody. We
just bought the studio. You're now going to be called
Cartoon Network, and we're gonna use your library. We have
you guys make a bunch of new stuff. For us
have a nice day, and we all went back to
our rooms.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
How did that feel? Was that scary? Was that exciting?

Speaker 3 (13:08):
I was never not scared. I was scared all the time.
But it is a little unsettling when you're like, wow, jobs,
because people get very nervous about jobs.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Obviously everybody wants to keep their job.

Speaker 3 (13:18):
Hollywood is a place where you're changing jobs constantly. Yes,
our show will go for two three years if you're lucky,
and then it will get canceled. Now you're onto the
next show. And it's especially true for live action crew
people trying to get jobs as a lighting tech or
a grip or whatever, makeup and all that stuff. It's
so trying and I really admire those people. But animation too,

(13:39):
same thing. Shows run for as long as they run,
unless you're SpongeBob, which keeps running and never stops running.
Love SpongeBob by the way, but great show. But it's
one of those things where that's a rare thing. Though Spongebobs.
Oh very rare for a show to run that out. Yeah,
it's only one SpongeBob. But so we were doing that.

(14:02):
We were a little bit nerve wracking, but it was
It was sort of interesting because a guy named Fred
Seibert came along who was then hired to run the
new excuse me, the new Hanna Barbara Cartoonyes. And Fred
told all of us artists who'd been sitting there drawing
the props and the characters, Hey, we're taking ideas for
new cartoons. If you guys have anything, we'd be happy

(14:24):
to listen, and that what ever happens. Ever, this is
nineteen ninety three, right ninety two ish, and I'll never
I didn't realize then, but that meeting with Fred. At
first meeting, I didn't realize I'd be working with Fred
for the next thirty years or getting on because Fred's
an exac priest unfairly parents.

Speaker 1 (14:41):
Oh okay, because I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Yeah, because I pitched a few shows to Hannah barbera
cartoon network, some shorts. Fred was there. They did okay,
And by the way, at this time, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo,
Powerpuff Girls, all those kind of shows were there. I
worked on most of those and then Fred left.

Speaker 2 (15:04):
What was your sorry to cut you off. What was
your role on those shows?

Speaker 3 (15:07):
Oh? I did on Johnny Bravo. I was a writer
and director and storyboard artists starting shows, so I became
a writer as well.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
How great is Jeff Bennett?

Speaker 3 (15:17):
Oh, Jeff is voice actor. Jeff Bennett is one.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Other than you. He's amazing, He's incredible.

Speaker 3 (15:24):
Jeff is Jeff never stops, he never winds down. Yeah,
you could power a small kind of a nuclear battery
with Jeff. Yes you could, and you could run some
kind of a device.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
He made me a laugh harder than any any other
person on this podcast. When he was on the podcast,
I was in tears. He was doing an impression of
James Woods and.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I was James Woods.

Speaker 3 (15:48):
He does James Wood.

Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yes, wow, it was so funny.

Speaker 3 (15:53):
No, Jeff is so good. But I met Johnny Bravo.
But going back to I was a writer director of
Johnny Bravo on Dexter's Lab. I was a storyboard artist
and a writer. And then my friend Fred left Hanna
Barbara to go to Nickelodeon because Fred was doing a
show and hand of Barbara called the oh yeah, car,
excuse me, the what a Cartoon show? Yes, what a cartoon?

(16:15):
And if you watch What a Cartoon? It was thirty
minutes of three different cartoons. Every time you watched a
half hour, there'd be three different cartoons created by three
different people. And a couple of my short cartoons got
in there that I created with different people.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
Was this with Pith Possum or no, I'm trying to
think of them.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
We had a hit one called Hillbilly Blue, Okay, one
called Fish and Ship. Fish and Ship was a shark
and a links. They worked for the Bomb Squad, see perfect.

Speaker 1 (16:43):
Of course, of course they worked for the bombs obviously. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
And so then we then Fred left to go to
Nickelodeon and he started something very similar called the Oh
Yeah Cartoon Show, which was the exact same thing.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
Ah, so Fred, that is similar.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
That was super similar. Yeah, up for the title. But
Fred says, Hey, I've got this new show over here.
I'd love to have you come over and pitch me
a short cartoon at Nickelodeon. But I'm in Hannah Barbara
and this is February of ninety seven. I said Fred,
I can't leave. I was on Johnny Bravo at the time.
I can't leave, Van Partible Creator, and I was working

(17:18):
with Seth MacFarlane look guy named Seth MacFarlane over there.
He and I were writing together love Seth and Van
and I'm so I'm working on that and Fred goes, hey,
do you have any short cartoon ideas? I said, Fred,
I can't leave hung up the phone eight or nine
months ago. By now it's October and Johnny Bravo's over
and we're not getting picked up, and now I'm out

(17:39):
of a job. So I call Fred back. This is
eight nine months later. Hello, hey, Fred, it is Boye.
She goes, hey, man, I got one slot left over here.
Do you have any ideas? This is Tuesday? I go, great,
I got a great idea. He goes, can it be
your Thursday?

Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (17:52):
I go, I got something great for you? Hung up
the phone. I had nothing.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
Yeah, no idea at all. What I didn't give up
show Buz what to give up show biz?

Speaker 3 (18:00):
And I'm did a clean horse. So I'm like, well,
uh okay, I'm gonna come up with a show right now.
So I really this is literally how it had time
is its two o'clock, lunch is over. I sat and
I drew a little boy. And because I always write,
what you know, I was a little boy once, so
I drew a little boy. I was gonna name him Mikey,
after my brother, but my brother and I had an

(18:22):
argument that week, so I crossed out Mikey.

Speaker 1 (18:24):
I named him after my other brother. Of god, I
didn't know.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
I didn't know, so I named I had my main character,
and I named him after my other brother, Timmy. I said,
there's Timmy, and I need Timmy to have a friend
that gets him into trouble. Maybe it's like a science friend.
But I couldn't do science because Dexter's Lab was already
a show. So that, well, maybe it's a magic friend.
Oh that's cool, like a fairy godmother. So I drew Wanda.
Her name was Venus at the time, So I drew

(18:51):
Venus and Timmy. And then I've never seen a fairy
godfather before, so I drew this weird guy with green hair,
and I was like, that's pretty funny. What am I
going to name? The Sky and Seinfeld had just released
the episode where they they relieve the revealed Kramer's first name. Oh,
which is you remember?

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Gosh on Seinfeld, is it something like Achilles or something.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
It's It's Cosmo, Cosmo Cosmo, And I thought Cosmo is
a great name, so I wrote Cosmo, and then I wrote,
I changed Venus's name to Wanda because of magic Wanda,
magic wand so I have Cosmo, Wanda and Timmy and
I had this drawing. Took fifteen minutes for this drawing,
and then I thought, now he needs a villain. So
I drew a mean babysitter. I called her Vicky because
it's ikey with a V. And then I had this idea.

(19:39):
I had this idea, this idea obviously obviously, So I
had this idea for the show. And I know kids
like to have secrets, so I drew a picture of
the fairies turned into goldfish, like when the parents come in,
they could turn into goldfish in his room.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
And when you're thinking about this, you're like stressed out.
You said you only have two hours right day?

Speaker 1 (19:56):
Two days? Ok.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
But I'm I'm like what do I I'm I'm like Okay.
So I got these drawings, and I had to go
home and write a script because I wanted to come
in on Thursday with an idea. And at this point
in my life, I'd never written an entire script by
myself professionally. I'd written with other people all the time.
I had partners and writers and other front cohorts and things.
So I went home and I had my first computer,

(20:18):
which which was a Commodore something like that. It was
a MacBook Performer, an Apple Performa, and it was a
giant tube screen and everything.

Speaker 1 (20:29):
Oh good.

Speaker 3 (20:29):
So I wrote on that and I wrote my first
fairly oddparent script. It was pretty good, I thought. I
took it in on Thursday to Fred, hung the drawings
up on the wall, had my script read it, and
he goes, I love this. Let's make it.

Speaker 1 (20:42):
and more. You'll feel the difference, so go ahead and
join the tuned In family today at Patreon dot com

(21:03):
slash Jim Cummings podcast Do It Now.

Speaker 3 (21:07):
So we sold one short and then I did a
storyboard for that. Remember I couldn't do storyboards, so I'm
pretty good, So I drew my storyboard and then Nickelodeon
saw my storyboard and loved the storyboard so much they
bought four more shorts from me just on the storyboard.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (21:23):
So now I got five shorts. I'm doings. It took
me a lot two years to make those pretty much
by myself. There were seven minutes long each. I had
like a crew of two people.

Speaker 2 (21:32):
Wow. So you were animating, No, I.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Was almost anime. I mean I did everything, but they
did the animation overseas in Korea. They had to deal
with Thekorean studio, so the animation itself. But I did
all the writing, the storyboard, the layouts, the character design, yeah, everything,
the voice directing, all that stuff. And so then we
did the those shorts. Then they focused tested those shorts
and in front of a room full of kids, which

(21:56):
is the most horrifying experience of because you're behind a glass.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Are you okay?

Speaker 3 (22:00):
And you can't go in the room. The kids have
to just give their opinion yes. And fortunately the kids
that day they smiled favorably.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
The kid gods were smiling.

Speaker 3 (22:10):
They smiled, and then we ended up. The Nickelodeon loved
the show and they gave me six half hours to do.
So now I went from eight or nine shorts to
six half hours, and we premiered those six half hours
on May thirtieth, two thousand and one, and or the
first of the Sex and it did so well, thank god,
it did so well that night that they wanted to

(22:33):
instantly buy twenty more episodes from me, but it would
take me about a year to make them, and so
I'm thinking, well, we can do it. So they had
to rerun those first six half hours for a year,
just kept rerunning, and they kept going up and up
in the ratings, and I'm so grateful that, my goodness.
So the early fans of Fairly our Parents were very low,
thank all of you out there that watched, and so

(22:54):
we were very who you are, you know who you are,
And so the show took off from them. And then
they just gave me a ton more episodes to do
and is able to hire a bigger crew, and it
just really start taking off at that point. Went through
a lot of Creolas had too, who had to And
people don't realize this too. Yeah you want to draw cartoons,
Yeah you want to do this for a living. But
I tell people all the time, you know, you have

(23:17):
your headphones in. As an artist, you always put your
headphones in. You look, because I'm an artist too, I
can speak to this in your little cubby hole and
you got your music or your Netflix on or whatever,
and you're just you're safe. Oh it's lunchtime. Headphones out,
going to lunch. Come back back to the headphones. But
if you want to be an entrepreneur and you want
to make it in this industry in a real way
where you're not just an artist anymore, you guys are

(23:38):
taking the headphones out and start meeting people, because when
they buy a show from you, you're not just an
artist anymore. You're now a producer, showrunner.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Oh yeah, So you've.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Got to interact with the network. You've got to like
know how politics in the studio work, When when's the
right time to approach about a new pickup to get
not a pickup truck, but like picking up more episodes right,
and all that type of stuff. So there's really a
lot to learn when it and a lot of people they
either embrace it or they get fearful of it. Yeah,
So I just encourage you all to embrace it because
you can do it well.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Show business has the word business built right in.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
And aren't we learning And especially now in Hollywood at
this time as we sit here, it's a little tricky
in Hollywood right now, there's not a lot going on. Yeah,
as far as new things going on, Yeah, you're so right,
and this happens sometimes, but it's again for those people
I mentioned earlier, like the live action crews and the
animation people. You know, a huge big streamer recently. I

(24:32):
here just heard this from my agent, had like forty
new animation projects going in the last year and they
cut it down to eight. WHOA, So like they just
made a huge slash because of audience. Either the audience
isn't watching stuff or they're making stuff. Nobody say these
things happen.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
So I kept telling myself, why do I want to
be the one that's constantly having to leave a job.
I'd rather create the jobs for people. I'd rather be
a producer or someone who comes up with an idea.

Speaker 2 (25:02):
It's funny you say that, because doing my research on you, like,
it really stood out to me that you're like a
very creative entrepreneur. Basically that that's what it kind of
read to me. You know, all the things that you've
done and all the avenues that you've gone down, I
could tell just even on paper that you have like
a very entrepreneur, your old spirit.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
What's interesting about the beautiful thing? Well, thank you for
saying that, but I mean, I you know, it's funny.
I I never envisioned myself as that as a young person.
The initial drive was just I want to do cartoons
for Disney, and that's what got me out here. But
once I was out here, I had to learn how
to get along everybody else, you know, and sometimes it works,
sometimes it didn't. But I had to learn, Okay, I'm

(25:40):
good at this, I'm not good at that. Find your
niche what are you good at? And I realized I
want to be a writer. How am I gonna do that?
I'm I just an artist and I'm a writer. I
tell every artist out there, you're not just an artist,
You're a storyteller. You're a storyteller. You with your voices
a storyteller. Yes, and you're hired to help tell the
story through this character's voice. The shows can sink or

(26:01):
swim based on whether you can do the voice or not,
because people fall in love with that character.

Speaker 1 (26:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:06):
If I say envisioned SpongeBob's voice, everybody can do it.
Everybody knows it. It's so identifiable. Mickey Mouse's voice, the
Pooh's voice, whoever it is. So those characters bring a
story to life, and I really wanted to learn how
to do that and how do you do it in Hollywood?
How do you get a show from your brain onto
a screen somewhere that people can enjoy?

Speaker 1 (26:26):
You know, it's got to be the biggest challenge. Yeah,
really taking it from your imagination and putting it on
any screen.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
It takes a hell of a trip.

Speaker 3 (26:35):
It takes a long time. I mean, I mean, I
don't know if you read comic books as a kid.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I still do.

Speaker 3 (26:39):
Yeah, I recomic book. But how long did it take
for a decent Spider Man movie to get made? A
decent oh, a serious one?

Speaker 2 (26:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (26:47):
You know it came out in sixty four or sixty two? Yeah, right,
and then the first Toby MacGuire movie was what in
two thousand and two? It's forty years, right, So you're thinking,
my goodness, I mean to get a decent one made? Yeah,
or even like I remember when the first Avengers movie
came out and you have Captain America, Iron Man and
Thor the same shot. You're like, they finally did it correctly. Yeah, yes,

(27:08):
but it took forever, and Hollywood takes forever because there's
so many people involved in so many decisions.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
And one of the worst movies ever made. I haven't
seen it. Mark Hamill says he's got a copy somewhere,
and I'll keep bugging him. It was the Fantastic Four
movie made in Roger three years thirty years ago.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:29):
Yeah, is that the one where they had like long
bamboo poles with the Reed Richards stretch stretcher. Yeah, with
a glove on it, and the guy's really he's going
like this and there's a guy running up behind him,
ghee with the pole going out, running backwards with it,
and I.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
Guess it just makes a good special effect.

Speaker 1 (27:51):
Yeah, you know, and of course you know the sleeve
is wrapped around it tightly and you're going, no, no,
that's not that's not his arm.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
When they made that movie, actually, because they were going
to lose the rights to the characters, they had to
make something.

Speaker 1 (28:05):
Yeah, they had, Yeah, and they.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Never even intended to release that movie, but they had
to measure. I think the company that owned the rights
had to make a film by X date or they
would lose their in Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (28:15):
That explains the bamboo.

Speaker 3 (28:16):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Jesus to have any bamboo.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
Quick, Dave, get the bamboo. Yeah, man, I haven't seen that.
What's your favorite superhero movie?

Speaker 2 (28:26):
We might as well jump in and do this.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Oh me, yeah, yeah, oh man? Right now are your favorites?
Oh wow? I mean if that helps.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
I'm a huge Marvel fan, always have been, me too,
and especially I think they've done up in my my
My last favorite Marvel movie was Endgame was and after
that in my own opinion, In my opinion, I think
I think the ones prior to Endgame were better than
the ones came after Endgame.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I think I'll just leave it. I think you're
in the majority opinion.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
But out of the ones that came before Endgame, Captain
America Winter Soldiers one of my all times.

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:59):
Yeah, because they actually made Captain America and nothing. They
didn't do it good in the first Avengers movie, but
he just became an amazing character in that movie, and
he could fight great, and the story was great. The
story was kind of scary, like it was a really
compelling action.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
And oh, by the way, Captain America is in, I
mean it was really cool, you know. I thought that
was really cool. But I also loved I loved Infinity War.
I thought it was fantastic.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
Yeah, I'll never for I even just got the chills
thinking about the first time I saw that in theaters,
and I'll never forget that. I will never forget this
audibly said in the theater when it rolled credits, because
I remember thinking, I'm sorry, I'm just gonna tell this
for a second. Yeah, I'm sitting in the theater, I'm watching.
I think it was like the first or second night
it came out. I went by myself because I didn't

(29:43):
have any friends at the time. They were working with
Jim and I will go with you next year. Yeah,
thank you for Doomsday next year. Yes, we'll go. Anyway,
the movie, I'm like, oh, no, you know, I see
the big fight sequence and I'm like, really, they're going
to drag this on for another thirty minutes, like how
they're all going to beat Thanos, you know, because I
didn't know at the time that they're planning on doing another.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
One spoiler alert, spoiler alert, this big.

Speaker 2 (30:07):
Spoiler And when everybody starts to fade away and then
they roll credits, I went what all these people looked
at me? I was like, I'm sorry, Like I just
cannot believe they have the balls to do that.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Was that was crazy because I thought I thought the
same thing. It was so compell Name another movie, and
I'm sure there's a bunch out there. I just can't
think of him now, But name another movie that has
an ending like that, with that many amazing characters in it. Yeah, yeah,
it got you to that point after all these years.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
These movies and movies of build up to that.

Speaker 3 (30:38):
For sure.

Speaker 2 (30:38):
Oh man, it was great.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
It was epic and I still to this day love
that movie. I'll watch it over and over again. Like
there's some great fight sequences. The character the Spider Man
Tom Holland in that movie is so great. He's just
a great spider man. He is, and it really is
him at the beginning when he's fighting with Doctor Strange
and Tony Stark and all that just it's so fun, right,
you know, this guy's problem is Stark.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
Bouncing on the bed. I think in the background, wasn't
that him? You know? It's like and he thinks he
treats me like a kid.

Speaker 3 (31:07):
Ohos and on the bed right right right? H super fun.
But I think they really handled the Marvel movies great
because of the humor they put in them. Yeah, and
I and again, if I had told you thirty years
ago there'd be a Justice League movie that would fail
and a Black Panther movie, they'd be the most successful
movie in the world, you'd have laughs at me, you

(31:27):
decide you're kidding me. But I mean that's how it
turned out, right, Yeah, I mean, and Black Panther was
a great character. They did a amazing job on that.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Yeah. And Stanley, he was way ahead of his time.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Oh my gosh. You know, I never had him. I
never all my years. He's the one guy wanted to meet.
I never made him. But a huge, huge, mad respect
for Stanley and you know what he's created and all
that stuff.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Oh, he's an American genius. I mean, he's an icon.

Speaker 2 (31:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:52):
And just an incredible voice too, mister voice actor. Yeah,
stan Lee would talk.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Yeah, this sort of thing.

Speaker 1 (32:00):
Is the stand excel.

Speaker 3 (32:02):
See y'all, excel, see y'all.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
I envy it.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
He kind of goes into a Peter fuck a little bit,
A little bit, excuse me, man, A little bit, ye,
a little bit. I guess no one in the audience
knows Peter Faulk.

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Yeah, maybe they do, some of them.

Speaker 3 (32:16):
Do perhaps, Yeah, I know it was again Peter Fox,
great actor.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
I love.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
I used to watch a lot of classic TV. I
don't really watch a lot of stuff that's modern anymore.
I'll be on YouTube with me, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
You know what.

Speaker 2 (32:27):
I like love YouTube. I love you.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Yeah, oh that's yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
I can't watch anything.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
And I like the black and White channel and it's
all old fifties and sixties cowboy flicks.

Speaker 3 (32:39):
Yep, shoot and there I'm sure he is.

Speaker 1 (32:42):
Yeah, but it's like Sugarfoot and Bronco Lane and Cheyenne
is one of my favorites. Is there gotta be raw? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah, okay, Well Clint Rowdy yates Clint eastwood yates his
name exactly.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
Absolutely.

Speaker 2 (32:58):
I want to jump back really quick. So what it
was like writing with Seth MacFarlane.

Speaker 3 (33:03):
Seth is undoubtedly one of the funniest guys in the world,
and I knew it back then. I met Seth who
is a buddy. Seth and I met in like ninety
four ninety five because we were in Hanna Barbara a
bunch of us, I say, older guys. I was in

(33:23):
my thirties. I was like thirty one and this one
of the HR people comes up and says, hey, you know,
we had this contest for some young film students. We'd
like you guys to watch their films and vote on
the best one, and whoever wins gets an internship here
at Hannah Barbara. And we're like, oh, so it was me,
Craig McCracken, Guinny Tartakowski, Van Partible, and a bunch of

(33:44):
other guys. We all go into this room, like ten
of us. We watched like eight or nine student films
from the Rhode Island School of Design, right, that's where
Seth went to school. So we sit through about nine
really boring films and then Seth's film and it's about
a five minute student film and it is hysterically funny.
We're all crying.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
We're crying, oh man.

Speaker 3 (34:06):
And we're like, well that's we think that guy is
the clear winner. And about two weeks later, Seth was
in the studio and he was a young kid. Uh
just just just imagine Seth mcfarlande as a young, like
embryonic version of himself. But he was super funny and
he we had him on the righting staff at Johnny Bravo.
He and I really hit it off. We had like
the exact same sense of humor, and we started writing

(34:29):
together and I would say a joke, he would finish it,
same with me. We actually ended up writing one of
our funniest episodes on Johnny Bravos called Johnny Bravo Meets
Adam West. We had Adam West come in and fight
crying with Johnny Bravo. So we actually called Adam West
and he came in. Yes, so here we are. One
of my dreams come true. Meeting Adam West.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
Oh my god. Yeah, get to hang.

Speaker 3 (34:49):
Out with him. Big guy, big guy. You're pretty tall, Chris.
He's like, wow, was tall you?

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'm six three?

Speaker 3 (34:55):
He's about your size. Yeah yeah, but he's batman.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
No offense.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
But he came in and he was so pleasant. That's right, Robin.
You're a growing boy and you need your nourishment. And
uh so we would uh we we did a great
episode and it was so Imagine me, I'm in a
room with Seth and Jeff Bennett and Adam West. According
to this episode, Oh it's killer.

Speaker 1 (35:17):
He just wasn't.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
He did his impression of Adam West. Jeff did his
pression of Adam West, not James Woods.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
That's what it was, Okay, Adam, because Jeff and I
worked on that. Actually i'll tell you that came about,
but so we do. We do that episode and then
as about a year went by, Seth and I were
just laughing about that episode. It was called Johnny Brob
who Meets Adam West. We're like, man and Seth and
I are writing more stuff.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
For like, you know, if I got the title.

Speaker 3 (35:42):
Exactly right, I wouldn't love that. So I'm going like, Man,
if I ever get my own show, I'm gonna have
Adam West. He goes, Yeah, if I ever get my
own show, I'm gonna have Adam West. We actually wrote
a pilot Seth and I for Adam West. And Adam
West was like a rich guy who was a private
detective who had a secretary named Robin, my girl named
Robin Rob you find my case. We thought it was

(36:04):
hilarious and didn't get picked up. But he said that
I vowed, if we either get a show, we'll have
Adam West on and lo and behold he got family
guy and had Adam West.

Speaker 2 (36:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
And I had fairly on parents and I've had Adam
West on my show is a character named Catman. He
plays Catman cat Man. Adam West is cat Man. That's
up and Adam West came in to do it multiple times.
That's a perfectly great idea for me, Timmy. That's fantastic.

Speaker 1 (36:29):
Oh but Adam every every cliche.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Adam was such a great sport and did it so
perfectly perfectly, I should say. And so the cat Mobile, Timmy,
that kind of thing really really great.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, and it's that the release of the cat Mobile, Timmy.
You know, it's at that little release that he does.

Speaker 3 (36:49):
Yeah, that's sort of a that's right, Robin. I think
we're exactly Commissioner. Yeah, I was kind of.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
I could listen to that all day. I have no
idea why.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
It's funny when you when you rewatch Batman now, the
writing is so hysterical, it is so funny.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah. And I used to like when they were repelling
coming up the side of a billing building and somebody
would always have a cameo like Jerry Lewis would.

Speaker 3 (37:18):
Pop out of the wind, what are you doing with
the thing, and the.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
You know, excuse me, citizen? Yeah, yeah, yeah, everybody was citizen. Yeah.
I stole that from him as dark Wing, I would
I would call people citizen easily a citizen. Yeah, that's
so fantastic, you know, just my little mini tribute to.

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Oh my gosh, you know so Chris, like you you
what did you watch animated growing up? All your favorite cartoons?
You have to say mine, It's okay.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Honestly, I know I really did watch Fairly Odd Parents.
That was, yes, Fairly Odd Parents. You know. I had
a little sisters, so I actually really enjoyed Powerpuff Girls,
but like Pokemon was like my go to. That was
like Pokemon. Yeah, I was only allowed to watch an
hour of TV a day, and it was either an
hour of TV or video games or a mix of both.

(38:07):
Good parents and me and my brother loved playing Nintendo
like love, so a lot of the time we would forfeit,
you know, like playing We would forfeit two playing video
games rather than watching cartoons. But always Saturday, you know,
like you get your maybe we could stretch it on
a Saturday morning, you know, get like an hour and
a half, two hours of Jim and.

Speaker 3 (38:26):
I had no Nintendo. We had garden hose. We had
a garden hose, and yeah, that's true. We'd scored people,
and yes, that was it, but.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
I'm not gonna lie fairly. Odd Parents was definitely a
frequently watched show.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
I am grateful, yeahful, that means a lot. There you go,
you know, we go to the I've seen you at
the comic cons obviously, and it's such a joy to
hear people that have grown up with the show and
that they really love not just though I hear this
phrase all the time, and I'm so grateful when I
hear it is you made my childhood, you made much.
I hear that all the time. Yeah, and it really

(38:58):
makes me emotional because it really means that it shows
that you made something that really mean something that people
agree and they really really really hold it in a
dear place. Yes, really, And I don't ever want to
take that for granted.

Speaker 1 (39:08):
Yeah, good for you. Yeah, I feel the same way.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
You know.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
It's and it's interesting because the people have an oftentimes
and it's always you know, the wife or something. She'll
she'll start crying when when I'll do one of the characters,
I'll say, well, you're really sweetish honey, you know, and
then they just fall apart and then they're a puddle
and and it's very rewarding. That's came out wrong, but

(39:36):
you you guys know what I meant.

Speaker 4 (39:38):
But I'm sure it's the same for you, you know,
because you you know you I've said it before.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
You're most of the time I'm alone in a room
with a microphone and there's a producer and director. That's it,
you know, and you don't you don't get feedback, you know.
But when you go to these conventions and people talk
this and they they know the whole scene, they know
the whole series, and it's and it's very it's like,
oh okay, so yeah, good, you like that. Good, Okay, Well,

(40:05):
I guess I wasn't a total failure.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
When you're doing And that's because, like Jim said, when
you're doing that, when you're in such a mode of
production and you're producing show after showcase, you're always on
a deadline. I got to get the scriptriten by this time,
I got to record the actors. I gotta do the music,
I do the sound effects. Get that. I'll go to
the next one. Write that script, edit that script, do
the storyboard, oversee the character design. And you're doing like
eight or nine shows at once in various stages of production,

(40:31):
you don't really have and you've watched the show. By
the time it goes out the door, you've seen it
like fifty times at least me as the producer, it's over.
So once it goes out the door, I don't really
watch it.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
No, I don't have time. You've seen it.

Speaker 3 (40:42):
I've seen it, and people go like, remember that show.
You did the episode, and I'll be like, gosh, I
wish I could. I'm not trying to be I'm not
trying to blow them off, but I just don't. I
don't remember that particular far because I've got seventy four
shows in my head, yes and various state. And then
when I was doing Danny Fantom, I had two shows
going at once, and so you got two you know,

(41:02):
a lot of juggling, a lot of juggling, a lot
of memorizing things, and you know, keeping people happy. And
I lived in two worlds. I was a writer and
an artist. So I would write in the morning with
the writers, and then I would draw with the with
the artists, and I kind of live in both worlds,
and so we ended up doing a lot of things
each and every day. So by the time you get home,
I would tell my wife, I'm like, I think God

(41:24):
gave me extra hours in the day. I don't know
how I got so much done today. No good, you know,
But when you have a great team, because it's never
one person. I don't ever want anyone thinking it was
just me. I had an amazing team of people helping
me the whole time.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
and more. You'll feel the difference, So go ahead and
join the tuned In family today at Patreon dot com,

(41:58):
slash Jim Cummings pop cast.

Speaker 3 (42:00):
Do it now, but then as a voice, actors come in.
I was really blessed with an incredible cast of actors.
That's why I don't believe you and I ever worked together,
because I had Darren Norris, Suzanne Blakeslee, Yeah, Tara Strong, absolutely,
Carlos Alas, Racki, Rob Paulson, Gray Delile, and I. Indeed,

(42:21):
just those six can do one hundred voices each.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Oh yeah, for those of you watching four of those
six have been on this podcast, so go check them out.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
Yeah, that's two were never talking to again.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
Yeah, we still need to get Darren, and we still
need to get who's the other.

Speaker 3 (42:36):
One you mentioned Darren Susanne to Tara Carlos.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Carlos, we had great Ale.

Speaker 3 (42:44):
Gray is amazing Gray. Gray is never out of energy,
and she is never out of ideas. Gray always has
like all of them I just mentioned, always have an idea.
If you're a voice actor, always come in with an idea.
It makes when you can make my life as a producer,
make my life easier. You are bat in a thousand already.

Speaker 1 (43:03):
Oh that's good, good enough.

Speaker 3 (43:04):
If you've got to come in, you know what it is.
When you come in, Please have an idea. Please have
because I'll give you a script. And we worked really
hard on this script. The only rule we had on
Fairly Odd Parents was if we're all my shows, if
you can make it better, great, But if you're just
going to come in to change it just because you
feel like it.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
You have to do that. Yeah, there's that. Yeah, there's
a certain element out.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
There because I would know people all the time. I
don't have time to mess around. It's like I got
three hours in here. We get it done in two
because I got to move on. Because our actors are
so good. If you're going to be a prima donna,
please don't even bother coming in, but you've got.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
To come in.

Speaker 3 (43:36):
And one if you're going to come in and work
with people, yeah, we can't wait to have you in.
I mean we I want everybody to benefit.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
You know they can so yeah, absolutely, well, yeah, it's
a there's a thing you know, always do one as
written and if you have another idea, you can throw
that one in, but you got to give them as
written first.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Exactly right.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
You know, you got to do it, do it right,
do it.

Speaker 3 (43:57):
And the great thing is about the people I mentioned
all my cast they're they're sort of writers in their
heads anyway.

Speaker 1 (44:03):
They write and oh yeah, and.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
They could sing as the character. Oh yeah, I mean,
and you're like, man, these people are so good because,
like I said, we can write the funniest script in
the world, and if the voice isn't right, because I've
auditioned people for major parts in my shows, and you
could swear this person is going to get it right.
And they come in they're dynamite on this show. But
for some reason, on this particular party, just for some reason,

(44:24):
isn't landing.

Speaker 1 (44:25):
And it's not just me.

Speaker 3 (44:26):
You can tell in the room it's not landing. So
you're like, damn, really, had I had high hopes for
this person. Yeah, we're gonna name them all right now,
but you had I hope you had high hopes for
this person. And but they're great on this other thing
that they do. Or you bring a celebrity in. They're
always pushing celebrities on us, like people from television, and
I'm happy to do.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Yeah, yeah, but sometimes that works. Sometime they're not all.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
Robin Williams exactly, or Adam West or Adam West would
come in, he would nail it.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Adam West hysterical. I get those two confused.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
Yeah, yeah, But if you got Adam West coming in
playing at him w even better.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
That was what we wanted.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
It wasn't Adam West coming and doing like a boy
scout or something right right, But if you bring people
in that can do what you need them to do,
Like when you bring William Shatner in, You're just gonna
get William Shatner, and that's what you need to live
with and be happy with that. Right, that's so yeah,
and uh, you know they and but that's what you're
bringing him in for us to get that character.

Speaker 4 (45:21):
Yeah, you're hiring Shatner right. One of my favorite outtakes
is the one where he's chastising with the guy where
this poor stupid guy gave him a line reading.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
Poor guy. I don't know why I did that.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
It was painful. If you ever, it's out there on
the interweb somewhere, just google Shatner and what was it?

Speaker 2 (45:41):
What was it?

Speaker 3 (45:42):
I said, I'm the guy said, I'm William Shatner. Come
along with me as I take you into the journey
of the car.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Something like that.

Speaker 3 (45:49):
Oh. Shantner didn't like that. Yeah, he got very upset.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
With the yeah, and they said give him give it
a little more style, like, hey, old fellow, well met
excuse me, Well, you know a little little brio with
a little spinaz uh you have spinas, I don't or whatever.

Speaker 2 (46:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
It was like a sabotagebotage.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
You say sabotage, I say sabotage. Yeah, yeah, I say,
oh okay, yeah. And then the guy was too stupid
to know the outtakes. It's really good.

Speaker 3 (46:24):
It's poor people. Yeah, yeah, I know, but anyway, but anyway,
I tell people that are voice actors, please get the
acting part because the funny voices are great. But if
you can act on top of that and again make
my life easier than you're really going to have a
real special time.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Yeah, there you go, carve that into stone, folks.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
There we go, there we go.

Speaker 2 (46:45):
Ye.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
What's what's keeping you the busiest nowadays? Are you doing
right now? I'm I know you're doing conventions here.

Speaker 3 (46:52):
And there, are doing conventions. My I have an agent
who thought it'd be fun if I did those, because
during COVID they all stopped. I really hadn't done a
lot of convey engines prior to COVID. Did a couple,
and I know. It's a great way to keep in
touch with the fans. They can be a lot of
fun to get out there and meet see year old
friends and everything. It's a grueling travel schedule though I

(47:13):
did eighteen conventions last year. How many months are in
the year. So I was my wife and I were
just when you get home, you got to pack them
and go to another one. And yeah, they're fun, but
this year is a lot less, which I pulled it
back a little bit. But what's keep me busy now
is I am my own production company now is called
Butch Hartman Studios. What a creative, clever name.

Speaker 1 (47:33):
But I see where you're going with this.

Speaker 3 (47:34):
Yeah, thank you, but I want to keep making stuff.
I left Nickelodeon in twenty eighteen and I was like,
what am I going to do now? And my wife
and I are Christian people and we wanted to make
a show. I looked at the Christian marketplace and I
saw that there's a lot of cartoons for kids, but
not as many as there should be. And I thought,
why don't we make some high quality cartoons for kids

(47:56):
in the Christian market space because it's a big market.
And I wish I'd learned more about the Bible as
a kid, because I know one ever taught me. I
had to learn as an adult. And I wish I'd
known a lot of truths in there as I was younger,
because I didn't get I didn't. I didn't get saved
until I was thirty five years old, and so I
took me a long time. And when I finally did,
I went man, I wish i'd known this back then

(48:18):
I wish I had learned this back then, and so
I we can make a cartoon that teaches the Bible,
but it's super funny too.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
That looks great.

Speaker 3 (48:26):
And so my wife and I developed a cartoon called
the Garden Cartoon, which is about a little lion named
Lenny and a little lamb named Lucy, and they live
and work in this miraculous garden where anything can grow.
And so every day they get up and they get
a task from the boss. The boss is God. He
shines down as a rainbow and he's like, hey, hey,
my my awesome workers, how are you today? What's going

(48:47):
on in boss? Because they work for him, they call
him boss. So that's and so he'll give me an assignment.
I want you to go polish all the goldfish today
and so all right, so, and of course of course
they'll they'll they'll do the task, but they'll get it wrong,
and through a scripture and an original song, they get
it right. So we just ended up producing forty episodes.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
Four zero, and that's what the Angel Studios right you're working.

Speaker 3 (49:09):
We did forty episodes and the first ten half hours
are on Angel Studios right now, which is really good.
We just released our first Garden movie called The Greatest
Thing Ever, came out July first, and that's also that's
out everywhere else but Angel Studios. We're gonna get it
on Angel Studios. But it's on Apple, it's on Amazon,
it's on Fandango, it's on everywhere fine movies are sold.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
And that's right.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
So we're gonna get We're working to get season two
on Angel Studios now. And we have a Garden Christmas
movie that's coming out this Christmas.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
So you're big timing.

Speaker 3 (49:42):
Yeah're big timing, Yes exactly. But it's a great thing
to not only do your own stuff, but to do
it for a good not that all the other shows
don't have a good reason, but in my heart, this
is a good reason because it's going to teach kids
the Bible like that.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
I like that production company. I feel like they've been
doing a lot of good stuff lately.

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Angel.

Speaker 2 (50:00):
Yeah. Yeah, just King, Yeah, Yeah, you're in that.

Speaker 1 (50:04):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
I thought it was a great movie.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
I loved it me too.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:07):
They did a real nice job on that surprise. I
was like surprised by it. It was so good.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 3 (50:12):
Yeah, Angel and Angel is a great company.

Speaker 1 (50:14):
They're not.

Speaker 3 (50:14):
They've treated us so great, and I know, yeah, but
this goes back to the entrepreneur thing. Yes, because here
I am as an artist wanting to draw cartoons all
day still at my age sixty years old now, and
I'm like, I but I got I got to put
the pencil down, and I got to get on the
phone and talk to distributors now, and I got to
talk about, you know, the deal and the percentages and
all this stuff, because those are real things that can

(50:37):
make or break a production.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Yeah, that's for sure.

Speaker 3 (50:39):
If we don't get the revenue coming in, we can't
make anything.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Apparently, So there was something to do with money or
it's something like that.

Speaker 3 (50:46):
It's it's the old Yeah, it's a they called clams. Yeah,
piastres back in the thirties, Hey, twenty five clams. Yeah,
whoever it was.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
I have a question for you that's on a little
more of a serious note. Yes, sure, I know you
very religious man, and I'm curious operating in Hollywood. You know,
Hollywood is notoriously not very you know, secular.

Speaker 3 (51:08):
Well, it depends on the religion. I guess you would tell.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, but I wanted to ask you. Have you ever
at any point in your career been challenged by your
faith working in Hollywood.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Oh many times, yes, many times, and especially by those
who perhapsly who perhaps don't subscribe to the same beliefs
I do. But listen, I know what that's like because
I was the same way. When I would encounter somebody
years ago before I was a Christian. Let's say I
met a Christian, I would probably look sideways at them
or I would mock them because I didn't understand. And

(51:40):
then when I realized for me what I uh, the
truth about Jesus and the Bible and stuff. When I
when the when, as the Bible says, the scales fell
off my eyes. I realized the truth. And then I
start telling people about it. I got those same reactions.
And it's just like Jesus said, you know, he says,
I think it's in the Book of First John. I
think I'm to get that wrong. If the world hates you,

(52:02):
be of good cheer, because it hated me. First Jesus
is like, I know exactly what you're going through, you know,
because he he doesn't come to you night he comes
to divide. He's not coming to divide on purpose, but
the very fact that we believe in Jesus or don't
believe in him is a division thing. Yeah, And so
you know, as a Christian person, it's my job because

(52:24):
when you call yourself a Christian, that means christ like.
So it's my job. And I don't get it right
all the time. I'm a human being. I make mistakes
all the time. I think I've made sixty four on
this podcast already. Are you counting the mistakes of Sorry
about that, yes, I said, but I realized that, you know,
I'm always going to get it wrong. That's why I
need a savior to help me get it right, you know.
And and when he died, And the great thing about

(52:47):
Jesus is he died for you. He's the only God
that died for you. And I go like, man, if
he died for me, If he did that for me,
the least I can do is try to emulate him
as best as I can.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
I'm never going to get it perfectly right, but nobody can.

Speaker 3 (53:02):
And that's what But that's why we need him, you know.
And so knowing that truth and raising my daughters with
that belief, and now seeing my granddaughter get raised that way,
and again, if I can inject a little bit of
that into some entertainment that a kid can watch at least,
you know, and entertain him along the way. And by
the way, the great thing about being a Christian is
it's a complete choice of your very own. You're not

(53:24):
born a Christian. You got to make the decision for yourself.
God has no grandchildren. Just because my dad's a Christian
doesn't mean I am automatically. You've got to make the
decision for yourself. Yeah, that's my wife and I are
pastors now we actually pastor a church. Really, thank you, buddy.
It's a If you told me I was going to
be a pastor of a church, I would have laughed
at you. I was, this is the Lord, I'm telling you.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
But I's impressive.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
Well, it's it's another thing like it's a it's a
blessing and it's also a challenge because when you're a pastor,
you're a shepherd and there's people that come to you
with needs and you're like, I hope I can answer this.
How how did Jesus handle this? You go, how do
you handle that question? But Jesus is always going to
speak truth to you. It'll because he is the way

(54:11):
the truth and the life, the Bible says, So the
truth is always going to come out, whether you like
it or not. You know, you know, hey, but you
shouldn't smoke cigarettes.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
Why not?

Speaker 3 (54:19):
You know, well, it's eventually going to hurt your body.
Well I don't want to hear that. Well, it's the truth,
you know what I mean. So somebodys don't want to
hear the truth, whether it's whether we like it or not. So,
and this isn't to judge anybody smoking cigarettes, but I'm
just pointing there's things we want to do that we
might not necessarily think we want to stop, but we

(54:40):
know they're bad for us what we do right right,
So but the Lord is here to tell us, Hey,
why don't you look over here, you know, follow me,
and I'll show you a different way. It's going to
require something from you though. There's always a price to pay.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yes, but there's a bigger price to on the other side.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
You know. As we as we get older, I started
seeing that are the side a little more thoroughly, and
I start realizing, like, look, I'm all about legacy right now,
Like what legacy can I leave? It's not about just
making money to pay bills. It's about what legacy? What
am I going to leave behind in this earth? And
I encourage everybody to think about that. You might not
even have lofty goals at this point, but someone's going

(55:20):
to be influenced by what you do. Someone's going to
be whether it's one person, thousand people, ten thousand people,
but what are you doing on this earth that's going
to inspire somebody else to reach to a higher level?
And you might not have that answer right now, but
I guarantee you, if you pray about it, the Lord
can show you that and it'll it might illuminate slowly
because he's never going to dump it on you at

(55:41):
once if you're not ready for it. It's like me
back when I was just when I got fired from
that job. I wasn't ready for the fairly odd parents job.
I wasn't good enough. If I'd been given that at
that time, I would have exploded.

Speaker 1 (55:53):
I wouldn't have.

Speaker 3 (55:53):
Never You should see him blot it's quite weird when
I a weird.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Thing to watch text your coat the.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
Wall, yeah yeah, plastic on, but you like it's one
of those things where he's only going to give you
what you can handle at that point.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (56:07):
People say, why didn't my prayers come true? It's like, well,
maybe they're coming true. You've got to be ready for
when it shows up.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
Right.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
It's like that scene in Not to diminish your point,
but that just made me think of that scene in
Bruce Almighty when he's trying to handle everybody in the
neighborhood's prayers and it's like sticky notes and file folders.
It's just a couple hundred people. Yeah, and he can't
figure out a way to deal with them all exactly.

Speaker 3 (56:29):
But man, to answer your question, though, you know, when
you're in a place like Hollywood, that's all about self.
And I'm guilty of this too. It's all about how
can I promote myself. We're all doing that absolutely. But
Jesus says in Matthew six twenty four, he says, it's
six twenty four. He says, if anybody wants to follow me,

(56:49):
deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow me. The
first part is deny yourself. I meaning you can't follow
me unless you leave yourself over here.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
It's not an easy thing for everybody to do.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
It's it's really hard because you're like, but I thought
I knew everything, right, You're like, I'm twenty six, I
know everything, right, I'm forty one.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
I know everything? Yeah by now exactly.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
Yeah no, But Jesus is like, look, I know you
think you know everything, but I do know everything. I'm
going to show you, you know the better way to go. Ye.
That's just my all my opinion, by the way, you know.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
Yeah, yeah, well jumping subjects. Thank you for that, by
the way, thank you.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yes, and the sermon and come back. That's that's a
beautiful thing.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
Okay. I have this note that I'm not sure about,
so I want to try and.

Speaker 3 (57:30):
Confirm with me.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
You were You were a member of the video reference
crew for the nineteen ninety five Disney animated feature film Pokahontis.

Speaker 3 (57:39):
Well, that that is a deep dig there, my friend.
That's true.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
That is true. That is true, Ladies and.

Speaker 3 (57:44):
Jail, that's true. They they occasionally for the Disney features.
I don't know they still do it because they don't
do two D anymore. But for two D reference they
would film live action models. If they were doing like
live characters like a Cinderella Peter Kan so for Pocahontas.
In the early nineties. They were doing Pokemon, which has

(58:05):
a lot of live character ish, like absolutely realistic animated characters.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
They want to get how it looks to turn and rates.

Speaker 3 (58:14):
Yeah right, yeah, So they would put live actors on
a stage in the costumes and films. So I got
the part of John Smith. Really, I was cast in
the role of John Smith and Pocahontas's Native American boyfriend.
I did two parts. Oh and so I would I
would play the scene with a live action actress on
a stage, and then there was one scene. There was
one scene where John Smith, who was voiced by Mill

(58:35):
Gibson by the way, yes he was John Smith, actually
fights the Native American boyfriend. So I had actually fight
myself in that scene. I did tackle a sandbag. Yeah,
pretend I was fighting. Then I had to switch roles
in costumes, and then pretend I.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Was getting Then you were the sand bag.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Then I was the sandbag exactly exactly. But that was
that was a wild job that I got, And I
think I got the job because I was an animator
at the time. I want to audition for the part.
I knew what they were looking for. I knew the
kind of movements I would look for interesting. So when
I auditioned for that job, I was like, it was
weird because I saw my animation friends, but I was
there was an actor, and it was that's so funny.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
When you change roles on set. That just made me
think of like, you know, when you see I was
a PA for years on a TV series up in Vancouver,
and you know, everybody wants to not be a PA.
You calling me everybody wants to not be a PA.
You know, a PA is a foot in the door,
and you're pretty much a trash man, you know, on
set exactly sweeping up after everybody, and you know, like

(59:35):
you said, you know, like you have to take out
the earphones and like actually talk to people if you
want to move departments. You know, some people would never
never talk to anybody and then just be stuck in
that department and wonder why. It's like you have to
go be friendly and network and whatever make.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Make people's lives easier. Yeah, if you can do that.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
And then the jealousy. I remember there was one girl
was with us. There was one girl who was a
PA with us, and then she got picked up by
the camera department as a camera trainee. Wow, we're all
really proud with proud for her, but like half of
the people that we work with are like, oh oh,
it's because she's always like flirting with the camera guys
and around like yeah no, like she's not due, Like

(01:00:17):
we all do the same thing. Like she didn't do
anything that we didn't do, you know, like we all
you know, on your little fifteen minute ten two, you know,
like oh I'm going ten to and really you're just
walking around talking to people, right, we all did the
same thing, you know, like milk your break in the
in the you know, the crafty you know, like, oh, hey, stunts,
I'd like to do some stunts. What's it like? Where

(01:00:38):
didn't you know what were you doing anyway?

Speaker 3 (01:00:40):
Yeah no, But it's true, guy, It's like this is
a very small business, very small industry. If word gets
around that you're awesome to work with, people are gonna
they're gonna seek you out. If word gets around that
you're very hard to work with, don't ever hire that person.
And I know we've all known people like that. It's
like Chris was one. Thank god you hired him.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Joking, this has been awesome, by the way.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
That is no, but but it's a very small industry.
People don't realize it. So I encourage you all when
you do come out here. I tell I used to
tell the interns of Nickelodeon, please be nice to everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:17):
We'd have interns.

Speaker 3 (01:01:18):
We'd have interns come in and they'd all want to
have lunch with me. So instead of having twenty individual lunches,
I would have one big lunch, bringing Chinese food or whatever,
and I would just say, fire the questions, let's go.
And the main thing I would say is be nice
to everybody, because you never know, Like you said, that
girl who is a PA is now a camera person
and then she's running the studio next week. You know,

(01:01:38):
you never know. I maybe you're running the studio next
week and you need people.

Speaker 1 (01:01:42):
Believe me r exactly. When you get to that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Position where you're the boss, it's a very lonely position
because you come into a room, the conversation stops because
you know you're not in the you're not in the
you know. So it's a very interesting job and a
very interesting position to be in.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
But you don't hang at the water fountain anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:02:01):
No, well you can, but but but then changes ye, yeah,
then it's then the water's very cold, very very cold.

Speaker 1 (01:02:08):
Yes, indeed, exactly. Well, so far, so good, right, so far.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Yeah, we're hanging Yeah, we are.

Speaker 1 (01:02:15):
Hanging in there. If you're a fan of everything we
do here at tuned In with Jim Cummings, you could
support the show on Patreon for bonus exclusive podcasts, as
well as early in ad free access to the show itself,
prize drawings, and more. You'll feel the difference, So go
ahead and join the tuned In family today at patreon

(01:02:37):
dot com slash Jim Cummings podcast do it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
Now, but yeah, do it but doing the garden now
and so one more.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
I'm sorry to cut you off. I just wanted to
talk about your podcast, A speech Bubble that was a.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Couple of years ago.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
Yeah, yeah, I was inspired that.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Well, the guy who's my co host, the young guy
on there, his name is Jace Jay Steele. Wonderful guy, great,
great young man, and he's always been a fan of mine.
I've known him since he was twelve, and as the
years went by, just kind of knew his parents and
hung out with crazy and one day he came to me,
he goes, Hey, why don't we do a podcast? And
I'll be your co host. And I said, well, what's
it going to be called? He goes speech bubble. He
told me the name. I said, that's a great idea.

(01:03:16):
So we started doing it and bringing guests on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:18):
Yeah, you came out on my podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
I was, yeah, you were on.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
Yeah, and I.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
Remember it's uh, it was a blat. We did it
for two years, made no money. I was paying for
the whole thing. I think it's one of those things.
I was doing it going, man, I know someone's going
to hear this some day and just want to pick
it right up. But it was again, it was one
of those things where I was so busy doing it,
I had no time to go out and sell it,
you know, and I need we all need those people

(01:03:44):
to help us move things forward down the line.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
Certainly.

Speaker 3 (01:03:47):
That's why. That's why at the new studio I'm doing
Butch Harmond Studios now Butch Harmond Studio.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Oh hey yeah, I may.

Speaker 3 (01:03:55):
Oddly enough I auditioned and got the part.

Speaker 1 (01:03:57):
Yeah, yeah, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
So uh, you know when I went when we're doing
that though, I'm not just developing stuff now, we have
people helping us market it as well. Because you just
got to get out there and sell it, and you've
got to have a really thick skin because they're not
always going to buy what you have. I wish it
was the other way around, but you're always like you know,
when you audition. Sometimes sure it doesn't pan out, and
it can be soul crushing, but that's it's the ones

(01:04:21):
who can get over that rejection that y keep on going. Amen, exactly.
Nothing beats persistence, absolutely, Jim Cummings. Nothing beats persistence except
Adam West. I think he can do. Nothing beats persistence, Timmy.
That's Ryan Robins. Yeah, so Jeff Bennett. That's when Adam
West was no longer able to do cat Man. We

(01:04:42):
still have some Catman episodes and Jeff Bennett came in
and filled in for it. I'm sure that's perfect. But
Jeff was great because Adam wouldn't do certain things like
you wouldn't say certain things like I don't really I
don't feel comfortable saying that, and so Jeff would say whatever.
We would never make him say anything bad, but there's
a silly we'd want him to say, and Jeff would
just do anything. And Jeff was just so much more fun. Yeah,

(01:05:04):
Jeff I should say more fun. Adam West was super fun,
don't get me wrong, not more fun, but I fun
in a different way.

Speaker 1 (01:05:10):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:05:10):
Jeff is one of those guys that just doesn't stop.
He will just get you comedic thing after comedic thing,
and just such a such a great point.

Speaker 1 (01:05:18):
Yeah, you just pulled the string on the side of
his head and you're you're good to go.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
But that takes the producer's life easier. Sure, come on in,
make it easy and it'll help us all get through
the day and then we'll want you back.

Speaker 2 (01:05:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:31):
Well, I always say that whenever you're deluding, doing a line,
developing character, do too much, do way too much, because
you can always pull it back and if it's not there,
it's like, nah, you gotta it's just you know, And
I've seen people struggle, and a lot of it on camera.
People will struggle because they're not used to just getting

(01:05:53):
it out in the voice. You know, it's got to
be no, but I was making this great face. Yeah, okay,
well no one can see it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:00):
Yeah, I agree, We've I've dealt with that. We've had
many on camera people, well known people, oh yeah, will
come in and they just freeze and they start sweating
and shaking because terrified. We had one guy come in,
an SNL guy, kind of famous SNL guy came in
and was just it was auditioning for something, and I
was excited because I thought this is going to be great.

(01:06:20):
If he comes in, I already love his work and
just froze and the poor guy was was terrified. I
felt really bad for me. Yeah, so if he freezes
in the audition, you're like, well, maybe you won't freeze,
but you don't have time to wonder. You don't have to.

Speaker 2 (01:06:32):
Yeah, I wouldn't trust somebody you're freezing.

Speaker 3 (01:06:35):
Yeah, unless you really want that person. But see, then
it's not just you, Like the network has to sign
off on it, and there's a lot more levels that
he has to go through.

Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
Somebody acting on camera and voice acting is like a
world away. Like it's a world away in my opinion.
I mean, on camera, you can you can be talking
like this and like the microphones pick it up. You know,
everything gets picked up. The camera's right here, so like
they pick up like a little twitch and.

Speaker 3 (01:06:58):
Right, Gosling can just look into the camera and make
an expression yeah, you know to DiCaprio, just look and
there's an expression and room.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
But and that's not to diminish that skill. It's just
completely different skills.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Put in front of a microphone and trying to be honey,
you know, it's like it's hard, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:07:14):
Or even like when you first start trying doing it,
like try and convey sadness like in your voice, like
just talking, you know, like what does that sound like?
What does that truly sound like? You know, like, oh,
this person.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
I need Christy, I need Christy do my answering machine message.

Speaker 1 (01:07:30):
He's got you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:31):
You're the second person that the phone. You're the second person.
Jess Hardell was the other person. Jess Harnell was like,
you need you to do this for me.

Speaker 3 (01:07:40):
Jess is far more attractive than I am. I'm sure
you'll do his first. I'm sure that'll be the first voice.

Speaker 2 (01:07:47):
Just put the rhinestones on your shirt.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
And in your hair.

Speaker 3 (01:07:53):
Oh I get I already.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Have, and on your cowboy, and then pain your wife
your wife while we're in there, while we're at it,
just get a whole bunch. Jess is awesome. Though I
love Jess.

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
You know, there are some super talented people and there's
some up and comers that are great too. But what
I just want to see, and I really pray continues,
is just great stories being told with awesome people making them,
people that know what they're doing, stories that are great,
a lot of them. It's funny. I saw something on
TikTok the other day. There was a girl in there

(01:08:28):
going guys in December of two thousand and one, look
at all the classic movies that were out just in December,
and it was like Lord of the Rings, it was
Monsters Ink and like ten other classic films out in
the month of December two thousand and one. She was,
when's the last time you can remember this many classic
films being out just at once? And I struggle to think,

(01:08:49):
like in the last year, this is just me now,
you know, thinking then, I'm sure you've seen some movies
that you love, but I can't remember just a Cavalcade,
a parade, great movie it have come on lately, So
I really don't think that very many are being made anymore.
And I'm not trying to disparag you.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
Will I will push back. I thought last year was great.
I thought they have a substance Anora, they had several
like thought. I thought the Academy was actually like, Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:09:15):
They nailed at that time, you thought, I thought.

Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
Because to me, they were putting out like a beacon
call of awarding independent films, like an independent film and
one of the best of the Oscar for best Film.
And then I'm like, I took that as a message, which.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 (01:09:33):
And then then Parasite won a couple of years before.

Speaker 2 (01:09:36):
Ye was a few weeks ago.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
Loved that movie was so interesting.

Speaker 2 (01:09:40):
To me, that's Hollywood saying like we want more of this,
like make your own stuff. We know that the sequels
and the remakes are getting tired. Like it's like we
reward this stuff. Was another creativity and originality.

Speaker 3 (01:09:52):
And there was another guy. I heard another guy online.
He said, and I love superhero movies. Don't get me
wrong too. In fact, I really like the most recent
Fantastic Form move. I really I enjoyed it, really enjoyed
it anyway, But he said, there have been so many
superhero movies made that they've now alienated so much of
the audience that doesn't like those movies that they're going

(01:10:14):
back to older movies or finding movies that they've been
made before. We need to have studios go back to
making movies that other people like you know what I
mean true and would help like like, for example, he
said The Godfather. You know, I n an offer you
can't refuse. He goes, name a movie you can quote. Lately,
I was struggling to think, I'm sure, I'm sure I

(01:10:37):
missing one, like I said, that's why that's not perfect.
But what's the last like line like Forrest gut life
is like a box of chocolates.

Speaker 2 (01:10:46):
Like trying to rack my brain right now.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
Even the movies you mentioned, like a Nora and no.

Speaker 2 (01:10:51):
There's no quote.

Speaker 3 (01:10:52):
Can you think of it?

Speaker 1 (01:10:52):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:10:53):
Yeah, I mean I again, maybe maybe the people in
the audience can think of some.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
The last one I can think of is like, I
don't know, maybe like some Thanos quotes like Superhero.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Yeah, what do you say, I'm inevitable?

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
I am inevitable?

Speaker 3 (01:11:06):
Whom first? By the way, was it really an evil
version of Danny Phantoms said that line.

Speaker 2 (01:11:11):
Said, I am taking credit for it that I'm putting
that upext to this. I'm gonna find it.

Speaker 3 (01:11:18):
I'm gonna Danny says I'm inevitable in the Ultimate Enemy
that came out in two thousand and I think it
was two thousand and five.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
So he was the original Thantos.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
Believe he was original Fantos. Yeah, but no disrespect to Thantos, please,
I love Thanos.

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
But yeah, I played Danos in the cartoon You did
you was there?

Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
You go? Didn't sound a thing way before? What was
your Thano's voice? How did sound?

Speaker 1 (01:11:40):
Hi? I'ms oh, that's good, thank you, that's really good.

Speaker 3 (01:11:45):
And can you say can you say, please keep your
hands and arms inside the train?

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
Yeah, please keep your hands and tentacles inside the train.

Speaker 3 (01:11:56):
Still be coming to a full and comp Yeah, yeah,
that's right.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
I can't say that. I'm Winnie the Pooh.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
We should do like Winny the Pooh reads green eggs
and ham?

Speaker 2 (01:12:06):
Can you do like?

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Oh, yeah, you're like, I don't like green eggs and ham.
I don't like them, Sam, I am is Whinny the Pooh.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
I could, but only if they had some money on them.

Speaker 3 (01:12:17):
If there was some money, maybe a green egg to
that is so great?

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
Maybe I mean Sterling holloween, good old Sterling.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
That part.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Yeah, he wasn't doing a voice, he was just doing him.
He was just talking. Yeah, oh bother oh yes, and
I'll say it again.

Speaker 4 (01:12:36):
I I believe I shall have the chowder.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
That was what I heard him say once in the room.
In the room, I was way before. I was in
the business, way before. I've told this.

Speaker 4 (01:12:47):
Everybody's sick of hearing it, but it it bears repeating.
I was in the room and I was too stupid
to go.

Speaker 1 (01:12:53):
Up, and you know, say hi, you know, because.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
What do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:12:58):
You're you're ready to exactly and then and then you're done.
You have this face.

Speaker 4 (01:13:05):
You gotta get this face the hell out of there,
because it's bad when you're approaching.

Speaker 3 (01:13:09):
Him, already be leaving. I'm already leaving. Yeah, but he
he was so good. He was gosh. In the sixties,
even Guest started a bunch of stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:13:19):
Superman, Twilight Zone.

Speaker 2 (01:13:21):
Yeah I didn't, That's right, he was.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
He was the mystical TV repair man on the Twilight Zone.
You like this channel or whatever, like some guy get
gets his TV repaired and then the tvc is the future.
Oh right, Yeah, the guy can see like a minute
into the future and then he, of course, things go
horribly wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
And Billy Moomey was in one too.

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
Billy Moomee was in the the kid who could create
everything anything in his mind. Yeah, and Chris can do
Chris can do that.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
Yeah, that's that's that's got to be convenient.

Speaker 3 (01:13:50):
Yeah, it must be easy.

Speaker 2 (01:13:52):
It is very easy.

Speaker 1 (01:13:53):
So it's very very convenient.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yeah, I'm doing it right now.

Speaker 1 (01:13:57):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:13:57):
It's actually not even entertaining because it's so easy.

Speaker 3 (01:13:59):
It's just like, but there was there the other Disney
actor I love is Bill Thompson. Was it Bill Thompson
did ka?

Speaker 1 (01:14:05):
Was it ka?

Speaker 3 (01:14:06):
Mister Smee?

Speaker 1 (01:14:07):
Oh? Well, ka was sterling.

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Uh, I'm sorry, Kyle was sholing Holloway, but he did
mister Smee And he did I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
We from Peter Pan with that, with that short of
exactly he did, Oh yeah, that's right. It had a
grainy voice. Bill Thompson I think was his n and
he was just laid in the tramp. He was a
little sattie dog.

Speaker 3 (01:14:31):
Yeah, could be yeah, and you see Lassie.

Speaker 1 (01:14:34):
And he always played he was in shows like Maverick, Yes,
and uh. He was always like the shop keeper something
something like that. Don't don't hurry up, you know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:47):
Where I think he did Droopy could be droopyopy that
Dows does Butler.

Speaker 3 (01:14:53):
I thought text Avery did Droopy at the beginning. I
could be wrong, and maybe Dawes did it. For a while.
DAWs would amaze me when I was a kid watching
cartoons in Michigan because when they have like here's how
cartoon voices are done, and then dons Butler would go hey, hey,
Yogi Bear right, I'd be like, how did he do that?
I would blow my mind. Yeah, yeah, I saw Yogi
Bear first and then saw the man doing it. It

(01:15:14):
makes sense to me. Yeah, boo boo, you know that
type of thing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
And who was that?

Speaker 2 (01:15:21):
Who was?

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
No? Top Cat was supposed to be Phil Silvers? All right,
you guys, Yes, Hey, I still love this.

Speaker 3 (01:15:31):
Oh my god, those characters Mad Mad, Mad World?

Speaker 1 (01:15:34):
That movie, Yes, all of.

Speaker 3 (01:15:36):
Them are in it. And you've never seen this movie.
Probably that's a movie from and I.

Speaker 4 (01:15:40):
Think, uh not Sister Act. What was the one with
Whoopee and God everybody? The one the recent It was
kind of a ripoff of Mad, Mad, Mad Mad World.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
Oh they're all chasing something.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Yeah, they're chasing something.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
I did I know that we were talking about. But yeah,
I know the title of it.

Speaker 1 (01:15:57):
Callin, folks, callin right now.

Speaker 3 (01:15:59):
Jerlie Holloway and tell us can you tell can you
tell us the title starling? I don't see, so I'm
not with us anymore.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 3 (01:16:09):
Don't know any recent movies. I cannot do the po
I I bow to the master.

Speaker 1 (01:16:14):
That's good.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
I'm glad I bowed to the master.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
And if you do a perfect one, need the pooh
don't please don't? Yes exactly? Thanks?

Speaker 2 (01:16:21):
Yeah, Well, thank you so much for being here, and
you guys hot at all, no man, no, no for please.
That was great.

Speaker 3 (01:16:29):
But I just want to I just want to well,
thank you guys. We thank you very much. Thank you
on I'm grateful and it's great being on a podcast
with great people and I wish you the best.

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
This is amazing. Thank you, And I want.

Speaker 3 (01:16:39):
Everybody else out there, if you guys are doing this
or wanted to do this for a living, it's uh,
it's all up to you, so just keep just just
keep going.

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
Don't give up.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
I mean a lot of people give up because it
gets hard for one minute or maybe even five minutes,
but it does get easier the more you learn and
the more you can push yourself, because only the ones
who push themselves get to where they need to be.
So I really I wish you guys the best. And
as I say on my YouTube channel, art gives you power,
use it wisely. So have a great rest of your
day and we'll see you later.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
There you go.

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
That was great. That was great. Good closer. That was
a great closer. I can get out of here, Get
out of here. That's I have to do an official one.
Now I feel like I'm upstaged.

Speaker 3 (01:17:19):
I didn't mean to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:21):
Well, thank you guys so much for watching. That was
another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings. I am
producer Chris, joined as always by the legend Jim Cummings
and another legend himself, mister Butch Hartman. Today. Thank you
so much for being here, sir, I really appreciate it.
Thank you, buddy. And if you guys like that out
there watching, then be sure to like and subscribe, you
know on YouTube. If you don't like and subscribe, I'm

(01:17:42):
not even making this up, but the algorithm operates where
you can watch a video that's recommended to you or
you come across it, and then that channel is never
recommended to you again because there's just so much content.
So be sure to like and subscribe. Subscribe if you
like this content, and if you like it so much
that you want to see more, you can check out
Jim's Patreon channel. That's right tuned in with Jim Cummings Patreon.

(01:18:03):
We love all you subscribers. We really appreciate it, honestly,
the support is great. There's bonus content. There's a little
pre role, you know, additional footage, longer episodes than you
see here on YouTube, with some before and after stuff.
There is episodes that are exclusively for Patreon members. There's giveaways,
there's contests, there's all that good stuff, so be sure
to check that out. Merchandise. Merchandise is available on Shopify

(01:18:26):
at Jim Commings closet you can find t shirts, keychains,
all that good stuff. And with all that said, convention
dates for any time you want to see Jim Cummings
in person will be posted in the link in this description.
With all that said, once again, Chris judge producer, Chris No, no,
you didn't hear that. I'm producer Chris Jim Cummings, butch Hartman.

(01:18:47):
We will see you in the next one. Ooray.

Speaker 1 (01:18:52):
Thanks bro, oh hey, thank you. Min

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