Barry Gordon (Donatello, TMNT)

Hey, everybody, welcome to another episode here of Tuned In with Jim Cummings.
I am Brendan Dando, and this week you're going to hear Jim's chat
with the legendary voice actor and former SAY president Barry Gordon, who many of
you at there would know as the voice of Donald Tello and Bebop in the
original nineteen eighty seven Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. So I'm just here
to give you all the heads up that there was a technical issue with the
audio for the first eight minutes of this interview, so don't panic. Your
headphones haven't broken, our SD card did. So this means what you're going
to hear is not the audio from the microphones, but the audio from the
cameras just for the beginning, but after about the first eight minutes, everything
kicks in and you can once again hear those soothing tones of Jim. Thanks
again to you all for your ongoing support here at Tuned In with Jim Cummings.
It doesn't mean the world to us. We have some incredibly exciting guests
lined up in the coming week, so stay tuned for that, as Jim
would say. Plus, we've got a whole bunch of bonus contents set to
launch on Jim's Patreon, which you can find a link for in the description
of this podcast. But for now, that's enough for me, so sit
back and enjoy Jim's chat with the one and only Barry Gordon. Who you
doing out there? It's me Tiggert and Duc Wayne Duck. It's me Bunker's
key Bobcat. All right, y'all, did it ring your favorite fire fla
you desire? Hold the old knock goud. My name is Jim Cummings and
welcome to Tunjin. All right, welcome back and right, this is Tune
In with Jim Hummings. I'm joined the course, Jim Commings. Are you
going today, sir? One of our great bear next place yet by the
way, Yeah, yeah, thanks for a today. Our special guest is
Barry Gordon. You don't want to the original quiz? Hello? Right?
Yeah? And the former president of Sack, which is very very interesting.
Guilty yes, yeah, yeah, that's good stuff. Well you you have.
First of all, welcome, thank you very very very much for being
here. Oh, I love you You're day. I appreciate that so much.
And uh and I just just welcome welcome. Thank you. You know,
I the first time I ever saw you, you were in black and
white, yeah, because it was on my television sets, and you were
being a very famous young person, and I thought, this guy, I
mean, I could see that you were around my age, and I was
thinking, he's forty years old. You were, you had such an intelligent
air about you that has served you well. It has and now I'm thirteen,
so I think we're just reverse aging thing. Yes, yes, yes,
well you know I had to pause before we go much further, and
I want to thank you for doing such a great favor to me. Several
years ago, I had a really bad health issue and I was just out
of it. As simple as a stupid thing is this. I forgot to
pay my dues a couple of times and I came out of my super whatever
and I'm like, wait, what is this dental bill? What is this?
You know? And and I thought, oh my god, what do
I do? And they said, well, you know, you skip two
cycles or whatever it was, and I thought, I may I'll call Mary.
So I called you because he was the president of Sion. I figured
anybody else cloud this guy. So and you were kind enough to make a
phone call and he related, Godfather, it's no problem, kid, go
ahead. It wasn't It wasn't a problem. Was it was very easy to
do it because you know, it was a trustee at that time. I
wasn't president anymore. I thought I hadn't given that that that was ages ago.
It was but eighty eight. I was a WI five or something like
that. But yeah, but you called man, I was a trustee,
and I got on the phone and they made it easy. It wasn't me.
It made it easy. I didn't have to go through a lot of
red tape. They just I totally the issue and they were cool and and
I'm glad all weren't down me too. Thanks again, pleasure, Thanks for
being here. You know, it's funny we've worked in an X amount of
times over the year, but I've seen you more in recent year, year
two, then back when we're working and doing all these series because of the
comic counts. Because of the comic counts. Yeah, you guys should go
to them and have fun. It's been a wonderful experience, you know.
And we talked about that when when the turtles get together, because I only
did them when all four of us can go. Oh because I'm lazy,
so I don't go all the time. So when all four of us can
go, I go, and and we only stay in the panels. And
I really feel this way is that, you know, in this business,
you was touched with people. It's very, very easiest. Particularly, I
decided to retire when I was about, you know, sixty two, because
I started when it was four and I thought you were head. You know,
I'm going to just relax now. And again thanks to the union,
I had great passions as my wife had a great career, so we were
all, you know, doing good things. And I just decided, you
know, the rat race was not for me anymore, and so so I
retired. And it was after and you know, so I completely lost touch
with everybody, and I hadn't seen the guys in my twenty five years the
way, and Rob really put us together for a reunion on his podcast talking
to her, and we decided to do it. Rob Paulson, who plays
Raphael, and we he decided he wanted to do a Turtle reunion, so
we put us all together and it was the first time we'd seen each other
in like quarter of a century. And then he also brought us together to
do the these common conventions and it's really now now, I mean I can
show you my phone and the threads, the endless texts and threads, and
now it's like having a new family. I mean, because I'm an only
child, so it's like having you know, three brothers and Renee as a
sister, and we're constantly talking with each other. And so that discovery was
just amazing to me and a real blessing that came out of this whole thing.
And seeing you again, Billy West, and you know, so many
great people that I hadn't seen in years. Oh it's so true. And
even you know, I'm doing a couple of shows now, but we're never
the hole cast is never there. Just don't do it. And I think
I don't know if they used COVID as an excuse, because they people want
to do it. It was a bay about to have all those people at
the Youth studio at one time, but I really prefer it. I think
I'm better when other people are there because you're you know, you're you're trying
to do You're doing, you know, all all your little tricks because you're
trying to impress the people around you you're trying to get you know, we're
all like, come on, my baby, come on. You know,
we all want to get that applause. We all want to get that going.
And and when you're sitting there alone in a gray room with you know,
mattresses on the wall and foam, oh bother you know, it's just
it's just not the same. Well, you know it's he mentioned that because
dude, I totally agree with you. And I was talking to Rob when
he brought back the turtles. And when they brought back the turtles in twenty
twelve, they did in the same room. Yeah, that's good. When
they brought back Ans, they did him in the same room. So that
was great. But that can be brought to an extreme. And the extreme
was our cruiser on the Turtles, Fred Wolf. Oh who shall we name?
Yeah, I say fresh only done that he who should not be named,
but will be Fred Wolf. So the wolf, Fred Wolf, so
he you know, I was in fact, I was president of the Guilt
at that time while we were doing Turtles, and so I had negotiations in
New York because the commercials contract negotiates in New York. So I had negotiations
in New York, and I just said, you know, I'm not going
to be able to be at the session, so you know, let's find
a studio in New York and I'll do the lines wind And he said,
oh no, no, if you can't be in the room, you can't
be in the episode. So he replaced me for those episodes. And he
did that with Rob. When Rob couldn't make it, I did it with
cam Cam. So if you have the full set, folks, sometimes you're
not going to hear my voice. Yeah, because another guy. Yeah,
but that's taking into him street because I think if you're missing one person,
you should be able to So you know, you know, he had a
show just for the record, just since running up called Zoro back in the
day. Yeah, and it was Towns of Coleman was booked at Zorro and
I was starting Garcia of all people, and uh, we won't go.
I know, I know that, I know we all have done that,
Sergeant to make Garcia anyway, but you know Towny and they always wanted to
do a read through. Okay, Uh well, so it turns out times
Townsend. I was booked at NBC up until he said listen, no problem,
I'll be there right on time, about nine to twenty, you know,
to get started just over there until about night. So it's gonna take
me a little while. So he won't in other words, he won't be
there for the read through, which is superfluous, especially if weird Chyle's of
Coleman. I mean, he I think he can do this. And so
he said nope, all right, you're not You're you're fired, and they
got somebody else and and I went, wait a minute, this is he's
not going to be there for the read through. That nobody everybody's going,
oh look out, hurry run whoa look out here comes the wagon. Oh
boy, that you know, And that was it, miss miss out on
that gem of an experience. And uh and so I just I wrote him
a big, long, flowery note about never call me again and I'm not
coming back. And you bet now you have to get a new sergeant Garcia
and he'd better be of Irish descent, because if he's not, well,
you're a bad boy. That would be me. Yeah, so that was
my experience. Yeah, oh boy, I have a question for you,
burying sure. How did it feel when when they said if you can't be
in the room that we're gonna recast. How did that feel? I just
thought it was insane. I mean it was it was astonishment, you know,
and it kept happening, so it you know, I think there are
like five episodes out of the one hundred and ninety three that we did that
where it's not my voice. You know. Now the guy that did it,
though, is cashing in on it a little bit because he now goes
to CONS. I really I will not mention his name. I really won't
mention it. But he now goes to CONS and signs the original Donatello,
so oh boy. And technically I mean original. I do have a law
degree, I'm a member of the bar, so technically I would support him
in that. I mean, technically, he's right. He was on the
original show for five episodes and and and he signs his Funko pops and you
know, and that's that's it. That's fascinating. But yeah, but but
it was. It was strange and and because I felt it showed a kind
of a lack of trust, you know, because we weren't going to mess
it up. You know, We'd go into the studio, we'd have a
director there or something, and we'd do the line. Yeah, exactly.
But maybe he didn't want to pay for an extra session and an extra director.
Maybe it was money I have. I have no idea. It could
be with that guy, Yeah, I would think so, yeah, it
could be what was his name again? I was read something, Yeah,
Coyote, I think, Oh my gosh, amazing. Jim told me an
interesting story on the way over here. He said that when you guys would
be recording together, that you'd be studying law in between tapes. Yeah,
yeah, I was. It was an amazing part of it. I was
in law school and in the beginning I remember that and something you don't see
in a lot of recording studios, Oh look out, careful of you kids.
And then yeah, here recording to the Constitution. I know. I
felt a little guilty because I didn't want people to think that I wasn't paying
attention, but but I kind of was. I was. I was reading
comic books right now, so I would just come right up and do my
line and then back down. Yeah, well I had. That's how I
did the whole Tasmanian series. Really. Yeah, you know, because he
didn't even have lines and you were studying law. No, I wasn't comic
books. Okay, comics be on Friday. I'd go and get all the
new comic books about like that many. Then I'd sit there and read.
Then you know that would and I'd be reading my comic books. It's it's
what we do. And now now we ruined everybody's concept of what Yes,
do you know what they do? They read? Yeah? Thank god?
Actually? Yeah? Oh man, so what what is that? Are we?
Am? I going to see you at any future cons here? Yeah?
Yeah? We have one Thanksgiving weekend in San Francisco. I think it's
fan Expo, and then we're scheduled for like eight next year, starting in
New Orleans the very first week of the year. I want to go to
that one, and then and then Arkansas, somewhere in Arkansas, go to
that one. I don't know, but I actually actually could be fun look
there for people. And then boy, we've got a lot in the South.
Next year. We've got Chantilly, Virginia. It's the big lick con.
I understand they make good lace there, do they Chantilly? Now?
I had to do the bad elvish Man big bopper. So we'll see you
there, folks. There will be a nose count Yes, and and Raleigh
at Atlanta, Pensacola, and then not some non Southern like Ohs and that's
bread, isn't it? Okay? Yeah? Vegas? And what the Columbus?
Oh, Ohio, I think yeah, And I'm probably forgetting a couple.
There's a fine university there, I understand, Ohio State. Oh yeah,
yeah so there. So yeah, I'm from Youngstown, so I had
to got to represent the gang back home. Yeah. Well, my my
son lives in Mansfield, so that's great. There's a hell of a good
reformatory there. Up, yes, work, did I do that too?
Okay? Would you call me so I can? I feel like important to
quickly do that. Okay, thank you? So all right then, yeah,
I have I have another question for you. I'm just interested in your
thoughts on this current SAG strike. Being the former president. No, I
actually am not going to talk about that too much. And the reason I'm
not is because I'm not in the room. And you know, I've been
in the room before. So whether the room is the same as the room
that I was in or whether it's changed a lot, And my understanding is
that it may have because there are new players, which are the streaming companies
Amazon Bowl, so they're very new players and and so you know, obviously
we all hope that it's going to end soon and that it will end.
And I mean, I think AI is the big sticking point right now and
should be. But it's a very difficult one to address. It's a really
a tough one. It's a really tough one, I think because if you
try and wrap your head around it, they're not replacing the talent that any
given actor has. They're not because they're just reproducing it. But they're ripping
off the image that he uses to sell us wares his are her wares right,
Well, there are some areas in which they may be replacing talent in
one area, of course, and we do represent background performers, and so
that's a good point to take a few people duplicate them by the thousands,
and and you know a lot of people aren't going to be working. Well,
can you imagine a bar scene in which all the people in the background
are Humphrey Bogart. That would be very strange. I should have picked another
note, Well, there might Well, maybe there's a reason though in the
plot that they would all be Humphrey Bogart. Well, that's true, you
know that would be cool. Note to self write that stupid. But I
think, you know, it's interesting that the writers of course had the same
the same issue. And I read this article. I don't think I'm miss
misphrasing it, but I read this article in the Hollywood Reporter that they asked
Chat Gpt. Did I say that right? It's yeah, Chat Gpt to
write a thirty rock script, hmm, And it did. Really. They
gave it a premise, and the premise was AI. That was the premise
that oh God, people on the show were going to lose their jobs to
AI. Oh my gosh, which is a funny premise. That is a
funny premise, a cannibalistic So they gave it the premise, and it wrote
a script that was like perfectly structure. It had a beginning, a middle,
an end. It was I mean, they literally wrote a script.
One problem. There was not one joke in it, not one can't so
I think I think that it may be useful in some ways. It could
even be useful to a writer. But then when you try to say,
well I don't need the writer anymore, I think that may be where it
brings down, but you know, it's it's very tough. How do you
compensate? Right now? I know the discussion is about scans. In other
words, they want to be able to own these digital scans of of of
star performers, of top performers and use them whenever they want. And then
the question is who owns it the studio, does the performer owner? What
is the level of compensation? So there are so many issues about AI that
have to be worked out. I don't think they're going to be worked out
in one negotiation, because nothing like that ever is. It's always a process,
you know. But you want to get your foot in the door and
you want to be able to start with something, and I think that that's
where we are right now. But I don't know, again, because I'm
not in the room. I don't know what the dynamics of the negotiating committee
are, which is also a thing because the president is not the chief negotiator
normally. Now that may be different this time that I don't know. But
in the past, you know, the president's unpaid. The president's not a
you know, a paid person. The president in many ways, I don't
want to use the word derogatorily, but I'll use it on myself. It's
a figurehead. What the president does have to do is to kind of build
coordinate, build consensus, and do the political things that you have to do.
And that's a that's a tricky dance because some people want you to be
very aggressive. Some people want you to, you know, get the best
possible but soonest deal that you can get. You have to kind of see,
you know, what the what the traffic will bear. And it's and
it's I found it enjoyable and fascinating. I loved it. Well, it's
had to have been a beautiful challenge. Well I did it for seven years.
That was the longest that anyone has done it so far. But but
I did love it. And it used to be very hard to get into
the room. And when I say the room, there was always a point
of what was called sidebar sure where the top negotiators would leave their committees and
get together and into a room, you know, four people, five people,
And I understand that's starting to happen now. I just saw something that
said, you know, now you've got progress, and Iiger and one other
person I think WB in the room. And it used to be that people,
the lowly presidents of the union could not get into that room. Wow,
it was because the lawyers, the people that got paid the big bucks.
At that time it was a quarter of a million. Now it's probably
a million. But at that point, you know, they said, no,
this is our job and you know, and you stay out. And
that was the one place where I was a little aggressive because I said to
them, I said, look, I can't do what I need to do
in the negotiating committee if I'm not in the room, because there's always going
to be a certain level of distrust between the paid people and the actors.
Do the actors do they really know what we are and what we go through?
That's what the actors are thinking. And so I got in by virtue
of the fact that I was in law school and so and so I said,
look, I know when to horn in when not to horn in.
You know's mouth shut. But I want to be there so that I can
honestly go back to the committee and tell them what the heck is going on.
And they let me and that was very good. And at some points
you know that it went a little further than that, you know, and
they actually let me be involved and that was good, but but it is
a it's tricky. I mean, it's a dance because you've got to be
strong for your members, but you've got to be pliable when you're at the
negotiating table, and sometimes those things conflict, sometimes they don't. So so
you know what's happening right now? I don't know. I really don't know.
Yeah, it's it's a weird. These are weird times. Yeah,
they keep coming up with you know, we'd never have seen this one coming,
you know, twenty years ago. Wait, problem with what what is
it going to be? A? Yeah? Yeah, what is that?
You know? It's well, there's also a more, a more, another
issue that we absolutely did see coming and have seen coming for a long time.
And that's the power of the streamers. And so you know, we
have to find a whole new compensation method because I don't think the traditional residual
method is going to work there. Yeah, how does it? Then?
It can't? It almost can't. So then what do you do? And
and you know, is it based on a license fee? Is it based
on it? I mean there are all kinds of formulas that you can try
to come up with, and and that has to be resolved too, so
that people can make a living in this new media environment. Yeah, oh
my god. Yeah, it's it's insane. Well all the avenues too,
to see movies, to see TV shows, music, It's just it's it's
unprecedented. We there was no template for this type of thing. No,
and of course now we have it all because you know we we fought hard
to get a merger with Aftra. So now we're a phono and we're radio
and yeah, all of it, you know, new media. So it's
all one union except for theater. Do you still do theater? I do
little theater. There's this wonderful company in Pasadena. It's called Parsons Nos Theater.
Parsons Nos Theater, Parsons Nos the It was started by a guy k
n O W s or n O s n O sc okay, I was
afraid of it. Actually was a it's a line from the Queen Mab speech
in Romeo and Juliet Mercutio's speech. Well Mab and well I didn't until I
got this theater. Good. But but it's this little theater that was started
by a phone named Lance Davis who came out of the Guthrie m and so
had a really good theater background, and you know, worked with Guthrie and
worked with Michael uh I can't think of his name, but the guy that
was at the Guthrie who was like world famous. So he worked with these
guys. And his feeling was that you have these plays that are three hours
long and four hours long, and they're endless, with Moliere and Shakespeare and
you know, Sheridan whoever. And he said, I want to introduce people
to them by doing like eighty to ninety minute versions of them. And so
he does all of the adaptations. He does all the adaptations, he cuts
them. He even does the translations of Moliere himself. And so he formed
this little theater company. For a while it played like a coffee bars and
all kinds of strange places. And my wife knew someone who was familiar with
them, and said, you've got to go see this theater. And I
was being can I say this schmuck and elitist? I was being elitist,
red wolf, no and synonymous, but I was being but I was being
elitist, and I said, it's community theater, and I don't really want
to watch a bunch of amateurs. And I don't want to spend my Sunday
doing that. And she said it's supposed to be really good. So I
kept saying no, and I kept saying no. I kept saying no,
and then finally it was like she wrote me into it, and she said,
no, we're going out to dinner with these people, and first we're
going to go see the show. And I thought, okay, we'll go.
And I got to tell you, Jim, I was floored because they're
not amateurs at all. Their equity, they're sag, they're after not.
I mean, you know, you turn on commercials, you see them.
You turn on television, weekly television, see them character actors, just people
that knew what the hell they were doing. Great people like Alan Brooks and
ev Ar Broger and you may not know the names, but you would recognize
their faces at a heart right. And I said, oh no, this
is not what I thought it was going to be. So I went,
I said I'm just going to I met him and I just said, Lance,
I'm going to come to everything because I love it. And so the
next show they had, I went and Lance finds me in an a mission
and he has a nil envelope and he hands it to me and he says,
we're doing symboling next. And he says, I want you to play
Pisania. I didn't know who the hell Pasania was, but I said,
yeah, wow, So i've been Now I've been with this theater for like
a dozen years. Now. Wow. We actually moved into our own space.
It's forty seats, but we've got this great bar, not a liquor
bar, but a wine and beer bar. We've got this great bar in
the back. We actually took over an old mortuary chapel. The choice,
yes, well for us, it was because it was very Renaissance. He
looking, I mean it looks really good inside. So we took this over.
And we've been doing shows, and I have been doing things that I
never thought i'd do. I played Shylock in a short Merchant of Venice.
I played Jaqui's and as you like it, you know, all the world's
a stage that speech, and I am having so much fun. Yeah,
we're doing a Dickens tribute. But now we've kind of since the pandemic,
we've kind of switched because we did the thing with the costumes and the sets
and all of that. Even though it's a tiny stage, but since the
pandemic, we've been doing more like radio theater, and so it's quick rehearsal
right, and we just stand in front of microphones and music stands and we
do it. And you know, we haven't lost any audience. We're still
bringing people in because in a sense, as you well know and I well
know from what we do, it's the sound. It's the sound, and
and and they use their imagination to fill in all of the rest of it.
Absolutely, And we're having a ball. So yeah, we're doing in
the next couple of weeks, we're doing Dickens. We're doing a clip from
a novel that not a lot of people know, Hard Times, And and
is that the one with Charles Brunson. The movie couldn't have been No,
Jim, No, it's not the one. Wasn't he a boxer in that
one? But they did do a movie called hard Times, But it's not
very No, it's not. No. He doesn't win in this one,
No, nobody. It's hard Times, so nobody wins and and and so
that's what I'm that's the theater that I'm doing, and I'm having a great
time. And it is in Pasady Enough on the corner of Holly and Meringo.
We're like a blockdown from the Pasadena City Hall, and and it's a
kick if you get to get to go. If you live anywhere near that,
come see it because it's good work. And every year we do a
Christmas Carol, and I'm one of the narrators because the narrators almost have all
of the best lines, and so we're having fun with that. And then
plus you don't have to fiddle with makeup. No, well, none of
this now ist makeup, no costumes. We're just doing it now. We
may go back to a regular production, but I think everyone's enjoying this so
much that we're trying to find a reason why we have to fix it exactly.
Wow, that's one. And I'm a little out of retirement because of
our Turtles resurgence because we did the original voices on the new video game Shredder's
Revenge. Wow. So they actually reached out and got all four of us
to do it. That's so cool. That was a ball. Wait a
minute, whos Shredder? Well else, they didn't do a Shredder but well,
I don't know who did. That's a good question, because you well,
James is gone. God rest, James has gone. James was the
original. But you know you filled big literally big feet. They were really
good feet and you filled them so admirably. Get those turtles there you turtle
power shirtle power. That's perfect. Oh boy, yeah it sounds just like
James. That was the trick. That was the trick. But you see
you're so damn good at that. Oh nuts. Well, I mean you're
you just hear something and you can just emulate it, and I can't do
that. Yeah, it's my thing. My thing is I just use my
own voice in about three different ways. And there you go, and look
look here you are. Yeah, that's that's not bad. Yeah. I
got hired from my own voice, which was really cool. You know,
people say, do Donald Tello and I just you know, really, you
know, I am doing Donald. Yeah, I e free day of my
life. My wife she knows be Bobby is different. I don't do b
Bob all the time. There you go, but it's true, that's a
different guy. Yeah. A couple of people thought that was me. Oh
I believe that, and I said, no, it wasn't me. I
was who is I Leatherhead and a few other Oh, Leatherhead was great.
The cage. Yeah, the Cajun guy. That was so much fun.
I think I've told this before. I don't want to bore you or anybody
else, but that was I had this mini philosophy that if you do a
perfect impression if someone no one knows, it's a new character. Great philosophy.
And if you and if you do a terrible impression of someone that everyone
knows, you can't even tell who you're doing, that's a new character.
And if, like I say, if you do a perfect impression, no
one knows his new character. Well, that was my first tugboat. Riverboat
Captain Leonsleblon let ahead. That was the way that he told That's the way
he told lad, and I thought, okay, he sounds like a Cajun
alligator, and so I used him and they went for it. And I
often wondered if like his kids, because it was like maybe five six years
apart, I was in Hollywood doing this, and I wondered if his grandkids
were ever going, hey, Grandpa, you want to come in here.
You see this alligator? You know this guy? You know? You never
know? It'd be kind of fun, That's fine. Was it hard to
sing like mel Gibson. Oh no, that was Jess. No, I
was I was powered. I was singing like Russell means, Russell means right
from Pocahontas. Okay, he's talking about Pocahontas. Yeah, one of my
major motion pictures that I was a comma in. I think that's that's about
right. But they sold a lot of records, so that's kind of cool.
Yeah, get a plaque on the wall. Very cool. Yeah,
nothing wrong with that, Nothing wrong with that. What song was that for?
Uh, Pocahontas, Pocahontas as the river cuts his path, The river
is proud and strong. Mm hmm. Now I'm dying to sing the rest
of it that he is daddy beating drum. Okay, thanks, it's frankly
one of my favorite Disney scores. Oh yeah, I think so too.
I love that score. Yeah, and I liked when they would go back
and forth between the settlers and the native to the chorus is going back and
they were kind of saying the same things and coming to it from a different
angle. Yeah, it was a real eye opener. Shorts really used the
musical themes beautifully for both sides. Oh my god, you know that little
bit of piratey, you know, Pirates of the Caribbean with the with the
white people. Yeah, and then those wonderful rhythms and then kind of merging
it all in colors of the wind. I just really love that score.
I sometimes just turn it on and well, you'll get a kick out of
this. I showed up one day. It was at Capitol Capitol Records,
very iconic recording place, and uh and Stephen was there, Stephen Schwartz and
Alan Menkin, it was, and and they were writing the song. It
wasn't quite written yet, and they're sitting there going sandwiches, sandwiches, send
out Phyllis Noom and sandwiches, sandwiches. I'll have ham on right, I'll
have a tune of fish, but I still want my ham on right.
And it was and I'm going, okay, I'm surrounded by Academy Award winners,
going said, which is said, which I said, So this is
how oscars are born. They go, you do it, That's how you
do it. So that was that was like one of my all time favorites.
Cool and then the coolest thing about it was that I don't think I've
told this on a podcast, but it's too late. I'm gonna tell it.
When I sang that song as the Steady as the beating drum, they
didn't know who was going to sing it, Russell means, wasn't. He
just said, no, I hope I sound good, you know, blah
blah blah, and so what they did, and it was so smart.
I just remember thinking this was genius what they did. There's like a thirty
piece orchestra, so they got a camera. They set it up right in
the middle of the of the of the orchestra, violent section whatever, and
then the director would look at look at the camera to cue the singer to
come in, and you know, and he would look right and it was
like he was looking right at me because because they had the camera, you
know, was saying me the picture was And it was one of the coolest
sessions I ever did. That's great. Yeah, it's kind of nice.
I'm I'm glad you remembered that for me. Do you have a musical background
er, Yeah, yeah, I mostly a failed one, but in this
in the sense I mean, I've had opportunities. I had a hit when
I was six years old, really yeah, because I started when I was
three. Oh, so you were a seasoned veteran. I was on the
Ted Mac Amateur Hour, Okay, as a singer, not as an actor.
So I was on the Ted mac Amateur Hour and I got seen by
a guy who was the manager of someone who ultimately became a pretty big pop
star, Connie Francis, and he had this show in New York called Star
Time, which was all kids, and kids would do sketches and they'd sing
or dance or whatever they did. And I turned out, at four at
that point to be the youngest of the kids, and Connie was the oldest
of the kids. I think, well maybe not. I think the choreographer
was a little older, but she was like in her late teens and did
that show and then got seen by other people and ended up doing a lot
of variety shows as kind of you know, oh, this guy's unusually strange,
and so so I did. So I would go on and I would
sing, and I was on the Milton Burl Show, I was on the
Wo Como Show, the Jackie Gleason Show. And when I was on the
Milton Burl Show, the first time there was this orchestra leader. In those
days, they had orchestras, Yes, and they were doing records and he
had just had this kind of hit record, old fashioned kind of thing.
I'm looking over a four leaf clothes and he was looking for someone to sing
a Christmas record, so exactly that. So I got fifty bucks, oh
fifty bucks to be the vocalist on the record. Wow. And I did
the record, and I got a contract with MGM from that record. But
that was the only hit. It was called Nutting for Christmas, and so
it was like kind of that's it and kind of big, and you know,
it's sold a million or so, and so I got the contract.
They changed the label, which was very nice because the original label was vocal
by Barry Gordon, but they changed it to Barry Gordon, which was very
nice. So they gave me the credit for the record with the art Monion
or rather than the other way around. And then but then it didn't go
anywhere. But I kept having record contracts, I mean I kept doing things.
And as a matter of fact, you mentioned Capital. I had a
contract with Capital when I was about twenty and I two, and I wrote
and sang a whole album at Capital in that student in the big Capital studio
that you were talking about. Because everything was live at that point and and
just uh it was fun. But it never never went anywhere. But yeah,
I kept my kind of musical background and and that's wonderful. Now I'm
a musical theater junkie. I just love musical theater. Yeah. Yeah,
but you're glad you found the good old Pasadena. Well, yeah, it's
great and and and it's also a great place to live. So you know,
it's wonderful. It is it's home and but it's it's been fun.
So every once in a while I get to, you know, bring the
music out. Sometimes even at a karaoke bar, I get to I've heard
of it, actually bring the music out. I've heard of them. Yeah,
yeah, well those are good. Those are good to get the con
out of you. Oh well, at our conventions when we go to those
and come see us, by the way, the next one wherever it is
not not the karaoke the con by the way, Yeah what he said,
Yeah, oh my gosh, that's phenomenal. You may not recover from the
carryoka the con yeah, hm hm. So so I'm assuming we're going to
have some together next year, I would think so. Yeah. Yeah,
the fan boys, Yeah, I'm a fanboy of them. Well, very
I thank you so very much for being here. Well, it's great,
it's really great to be with you the great and thanks for letting me spend
some time with Wait, before we wrap up, do you mind if I
ask one more question. I'm curious about the things. So actually it's kind
of a two part question. Okay, So being in show business so young,
was your family in show business? Is that how you got introduced?
No? Not really. Well, my dad was a radio announcer. Okay,
I lived in Albany, New York when I was a little kid,
and so he was a radio announcer there at w pt R. And that's
probably how I became musical, as he used to bring records home and you
know, put me asleep to them and pat me and you know, and
I'd feel the rhythm and I just started singing. Now this may be apocryphal
because you can't go by my memory, but I'm told that I started to
singing around nine months wow. Wow. But I do kind of know that
once I could walk, I would walk around to the neighbors. We lived
like in a development, you know, like a courtyard kind of development,
and I'd walk around to the neighbors and I'd sing and wow, and one
of them, I think, and I still don't know exactly who, but
one of them submitted me to the Ted mcammateur Hour when they see they went
around the country. So they were there in what was called the Tri City
area Albany Schenectady in York it was, and so Troy all been he Schenectedy
in Troy and so so we just got this invitation. And in fact,
when they when my dad brought me there, because he asked me, he
said do you want to do it? Because he always asked and he said
you want to do it? And I said yes, because gosh, if
I could sing for the neighbors, I definitely like to sing on TV.
So yeah, that's how that, that's how that started interesting them. That's
incredible And unfortunately, I mean, you know, I did have a career,
but then my dad had gave up the radio announcing for that and you
slept around with me and then ended up actually working in the Beverly Hills Post
Office for most of his life. Interesting because we were you know, it
wasn't since I wasn't on a series or something. It wasn't like, you
know, oh, you're making all this money. But it wasn't a big
money. It was you know, it's just a working actor and almost like
a character actor, but a kid. Yeah, you know, because the
kind of things I did, So I was a working actor. My mom
worked at you know, the department store, my dad something to office,
and and we put it all together and and they allowed me to build a
kind of a fun career. Yeah, yeah, boy, they sure did.
And speaking of which, then, how did that lead into what our
other producer, Brendan he's not with us right now, but he would kill
me if I didn't bring up some more nin Ninja Turtles type of question.
And so I'm wondering what the casting process was like for that, like anything
else, anything else, Like anything else, you get a call from your
agent, you know, go into a booth and and do the read.
But the only thing that some people may not know is that everyone who read
for the show read for all four turtles, so you know, and I
have no idea what I did for Rafael. I'm sure Michaelangelo. I had
played kind of a surfer dude guy on something, so I did some kind
of a surfer dude thing. But actually when I finished looking at the dialogue.
You know, I thought, I really want Donatello. I don't.
I just really I liked him. I identified for them and I really wanted
him. And then I got the call and they said, you know,
you're don Tello. And they hadn't made that decision with Leonardo and Michelangelo.
So there that happened actually the first recording session, and it was between Cam
and Townsend, and so they said to Townsend, well you do michael Angelo
and Cam you do Leonardo, and then we'll switch. We'll do another pass
with it reversed. But they never reversed it. HM and Cam will not
let Townsend live that down. He so wanted Michaelangelo and he will not let
him live. Oh no, I didn't know that. Yes, oh oh
he raises it at every panel we do, Oh my gosh, every what.
But yeah, that's that's how it kind of happened. What was one
of your best memories working on that show? That's hard. That's hard because
it was so it was so I mean, every day it was a treat.
Every time we were doing the show, it was just it was a
treat. So it's just so hard for me to pick out one. You
know Pat Fraley's improvisations. I mean, how can you pick out one?
It's like I forgot about it. Oh my god. I mean, he
just kept us laughing all the time. And James, you know, with
his bare big feet because he'd kick off his sandals, right, he'd always
recording bare feet. And Peter, who was splinter in a way. I
mean he was always so gentle and so loving and so wonderful. And we
just saw him by the way. We just saw Peter and had dinner with
him. You know, another benefit of us all being together. You know.
Now we reached out to Peter on his birthday and said, Okay,
we're gonna have a birthday dinner. That's great, you know. So so
it's been a great ride and and the fact that it's continuing it is really
hard to believe, and it's really like a dream, but it's but it's
a wonderful one and I hope I can do it till I can't do it.
It's a wonderful time. Yes, well that's not coming anytime soon,
hope. Not gonna be seventy five a month. So yeah, I'm right
behind you, I know, Yeah, I know. Very good night,
everybody, were ready. What were we talking about. I guess we're not
there yet. Yeah, we're not there yet, but yeah, it's we're
on our way. Oh. I just thank you so very much. Thank
you, Jim, God blessed, love you and it's always a pleasure to
be with you. Oh, thank you man. All right, thank you
everybody for watching. That was another episode of Tuned In with Jim Cummings.
Don't forget to leave a like and a subscribe, and of course you can
find bonus content on Patreon and you can find us on anywhere you've listened to
your podcasts. Thank you so much. Today we were joined by Barry Gordon.
Pleasure to have you today. Thank you so much. Once again,
this is Tuned In with Jim Cummings. We'll see you on the next one, folks,