Sunday, August 16, 2015

You Know The Voice(s): How many voice actors can you find in Gus? (1976)

Walt Disney's 1976 sports comedy, "Gus", offers a trifecta of familiar voices in this sample clip, two of whom would begin work in animation after the release of this film.




Bing, bang, boom! Start with Edward Asner (on a break from The Mary Tyler Moore Show), who would resurrect his career by moving to voice acting in the 90's (i.e. Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series). You can see Louise "Liberty" Williams behind him, and alongside Louise, we have Ronnie Schell (ex-Goober & The Ghost Chasers, Gomer Pyle, USMC, Good Morning World), who would return to toons 2 years later with Battle of the Planets. Not seen in the video are Happy Days' Tom Bosley, who would turn to voice work toward the end of his Days run (The World of David The Gnome), after having worked on Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home right before Days, & Harvey Korman (Great Gazoo from The Flintstones). The all-star cast also includes Don Knotts, Bob Crane, former NFLers Dick Butkus & Johnny Unitas, the latter playing himself as a sportscaster, and Tim Conway. Hasn't been seen on TV in years.

4 comments:

SaturdayMorningFan said...

Don Knotts & Tim Conway also went on to do voice work. I believe Don Knotts started out in that field by voicing himself in The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

hobbyfan said...

Knotts actually had a head start, voicing his own animated alter ego in The Incredible Mr. Limpet, and, yes, he & Conway appeared separately on Scooby-Doo Movies, with Knotts appearing in 2 episodes.

magicdog said...

Long before "Air Bud", there was Gus!

I remember watching this one in theatres back in the day - typical of the kid friendly goofy live action films they made back then.

hobbyfan said...

It was also adapted into a comic strip, Disney had a deal with King Features, I believe, back in those days, and as memory serves, I believe it was Dan Spiegle who drew the strip. The strip ran on Sundays for a finite period. Never saw the movie, though if I can get it on DVD, that'll change.