Astro voice actor here

[jayrath]

I only just heard about your return from a friend who e-mailed me. She talked about school, art, and at the end mentioned, "oh yeah, and Jay Rath is back on the forums..."




I'm gonna tell you now, and people on this forum can back me up, THAT I AM THE BIGGEST SKUNK FAN TO EVER GRACE THIS EARTH. A strange character to be infatuated with, I agree, but I can't help it.

When you first came to this forum, I wasn't a member yet, but I always hoped you'd return so I'd have a chance to talk with you. I have some questions, but right now I'm too excited to remember them... Mainly I wanted you to know how much of a fan I am, and how much I LOOOOOOVE Skunk.

I go to art school, and have always enjoyed doing fanart. If you have the time, I'd like to show you some pictures I've done of Skunk (some of my earlier work is posted here, but I'm not quite satisfied with them.... )

Seriously, I didn't even read any prior posts to this thread, I probably should have! Alright, I'm off, but I'd love a chace to talk more with you! You can even send me a pm if you want.

Thank you!

Well, I love you, too! Please post your art here? I am happy to answer all the questions I can.

[jayrath]

I am quite fond of radio drama; I had a 4 CD set of classic radio Sci-fi, I heard Alien Voices' performance of The Lost World, & regularly enjoy Prarie Home Companion's radio 'drama.'

The best radio dramas are "Dimension X" and "X Minus One." My favorite radio drama sitcom is "The Great Gildersleeve." In fact, I mimicked its actors in "Astro" a few times. I am also sort of an Orson Welles scholar -- long before I was born, he lived just a few blocks from where I live now; the best voice actor ever!

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks Jayrath- hugs- love his "War of the Worlds"

[DrFrag]

Hi Jay! It's good to see you back. I was worried you'd been scared off by us enthusiastic fans.

More about the set-up, if anyone is interested. For most of the series we worked in a large studio. It was "double hung," which will mean nothing to anyone outside of radio. It means that the entire, huge studio was hung on cables inside the building, to avoid exterior vibration that could hurt sound. We came and went through a two-door sound lock.

Wow! I had no idea it was so elaborate. I thought it would have just been a sound booth with padded walls.

There were cuts you are all unaware of still, unless you saw the Japanese original color series. It's not a big secret -- the Japanese audience knows.

The Manga DVD release in the USA restored a lot of the small edits back into the episodes (like the burning body of Tornado falling from the electric trapeze in Robot Circus, and escaping prisoners being gunned down in The Transformation Robot). The Madman DVD release in Australia restored some of the bigger cuts as subtitled DVD extras, including Tezuka's introduction in the last episode.

I've watched some of the Japanese DVDs, and several of the musical pieces have lyrics where the English version only has them as instrumentals. Was translating the songs ever considered, or was that too much work?

And did you get to hear the Japanese dub when you were working, or only the "clean" soundtrack?

Again, I am sure the scenes survive in the Japanese original. It's a long time ago, but as I recall it, it's the father's response and a rather lengthy introduction of Astro to Elefun, and a Skunk subplot, that was cut.

Yep, it's on the Japanese DVDs and the Madman DVDs. So we know the story, unfortunately the Madman release only has a subtitled version.

Who holds the English dub masters? Nippon Television Network Corp? Or maybe the University of Wisconsin?

Which makes me think of another question, who organised the English dub? Was it run as a joint TV network thing, or did Kenji Kitatani just ring up Carl Battaglia and Del Lewis to promote Tezuka's work?

I also helped write and script-doctor the recent "The Onion Movie," but it is wretched -- Fox sent it straight to DVD, very deservedly.

Haha, I watched it recently and thought it was really good. I still laugh when I think of the Bates 4000.

[jayrath]

Wow, you are amazingly well-informed. I'm flattered!

The versions we got had no dialogue tracks at all. Only Jump's barks remained. We had no idea at the time of what the Japanese actors sounded like, and any and all lyrics were completely scrubbed.

Yes, I think one of the strengths of our production style was that we all performed together, rather than alone in booths, stripping-in single tracks. I've done that in radio many times, and something is always lost.

The theme song was given to us as a "maybe" to rewrite and record ourselves. Becky Wilenski and I wrote the new lyrics, and the full cast sang it. The Japanese producers were not sure at all we could bring it off, but they didn't mind our trying.

I have no idea where the English masters are. Incidentally, a lot of video of the dubbing process was shot as we were closing down, in the hope that a documentary might be made. I imagine it's all lost.

I have a 3/4 inch studio tape of some of my own work. That's how long ago it was! Today it is all digital, of course, and even just a few years ago multi-tracking was all on much smaller tape.

As I stated way above, I would love to do a DVD commentary or help new releases in any way.

[jayrath]

P.S. Our American executive producer was named Al Korn (or Corn?) My apologies to him, wherever he is, but we in the cast hated his frigging guts. We never met with him, never saw him. Still, he is the one who set up the English dubbing, sought us out, let out the initial bid for the pilot, etc. We all thought he was half-gangster and pretty shady. That's why I contacted Nippon TV so many times almost immediately afterward -- to work around him and get the show on the air.

We were all very young and non-union. My recollection is that I was paid $125 a show. Over the three seasons of the series that adds up, but it was a complete buy-out -- no residuals. And every show took at least one day -- usually a day and a half, and by the end some of those days were very, very long; from 8 a.m. to midnight.

[jayrath]

Another postscript -- recording the theme was one of the very last things we did as production shut down. The photo of us all in the other thread, wearing the official t-shirts, is from that studio session.

I spoke with our director, Del Lewis, a few years ago. I see our producer, Linda Baldwin, pretty often.

I am not sure, but I have heard that associate producer Carl Battaglia is now deceased. He also directed us, alone, many times, and he later casted and directed Dave Miller and myself in a would-be sequel called "Video Kid.' We were the only two to come back.

I don't see Patty Whitely (Astro) very often, but we remain very good friends; she borrowed the Astro Halloween mask I have to go in costume to a party. Paul Nelson (Atlas) is also a friend, although I see him even less often. Dave Miller just got married and, when I saw him a few months ago, they were expecting their first child. He is a very, very fine actor.

In other words, we are still all family.

[Legeremain99]

Hi Jay...I'm curious about something. I own the DVD set, which includes 51 episodes. In your post you said you did 3 seasons...how many episodes were there per season...and how many were there total? It seems to me, from what you've said that quite a few of them may be missing.

-Legeremain99

PS: I love all of the episodes that are available, but if some are missing, I sure wish they would release them all.

[mr skunk]

Well, I love you, too! Please post your art here? I am happy to answer all the questions I can.

I'll have to find some I'm not completely embarrassed about

Also, yes I do have a question. When you came here a few years ago, I think I remember you saying something about dubbing the first two Japanese episodes, the ones they originally merged into one, cutting out Atlas, Skunk, and Guiss. It's very upsetting to me that they never released the dub, mainly because I think you voice actors did a fantastic job (especially you with Skunk ) Were these dubbed episodes saved?

[jayrath]

Hi Jay...I'm curious about something. I own the DVD set, which includes 51 episodes. In your post you said you did 3 seasons...how many episodes were there per season...and how many were there total? It seems to me, from what you've said that quite a few of them may be missing.

-Legeremain99

PS: I love all of the episodes that are available, but if some are missing, I sure wish they would release them all.

The only way for me to tell is to count my scripts, and they are in storage. But I will, and I will let you all know. At the time we did not think all would be aired; even robot violence can be over the top sometimes.