h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Boris, Elvis, and Tricky Dick: The Curious Case of Voice Actor Paul Frees - A87800420
Author: Dmitri Gheorgheni - U1590784

I noticed I was running out of items in PR. Oh, noes, I thought - what will the subeditors practice on? I need to give them interesting links to look up and make problems with umlauts and stuff.

Elektra wanted me to do one on Paul Frees, the voice actor.

'Yeah, but he didn't have an spectacular car accident like Mel Blanc,' I complained.

'Oh, I'm sure he did something interesting,' she replied.

I looked, and behold - there was Elvis and Nixon and...

Well, read for yourselves.

I could tell by the title alone that this was by Dmitri (see if you can spot the one by me...I too was burning the midnight oil last night)

This is great, thanks for writing it up

The cartoon Beatles, do you mean the film "Yellow Submarine"? Or was there a cartoon series about the Fab Four that I don't know about?


"We do not know for sure whether Frees' ability to use disguises and voices was of value to the Bureau, although it is fun to guess."I can just imagine how he amused his friends. Everyone loves a

"Because several witnesses have attested to the fact that Elvis saw this badge – and wanted one, too." I knew that, but didn't know who gave him the idea, thanks for the info! I will have to update A23852216

"Insert joke here." One of our own? Or were you going to add one but forgot?


Just a couple of nitpicks, if I may (save the sub-ed a couple of tweaks):
multitalented - I'd hyphenate that, just to get the "tit" sound out of my head = multi-talented

there was a a television series = one "a" too many

Richard Nicon = Richard Nixon

Dmitri, thanks for amusing me this wet morning!

GB

Thanks, GB. I made those changes.

I meant 'Insert your own joke here', so I changed it to say that. It's just weird on so many levels.

Yeah, the US had a cartoon series on TV in the 1960s called 'The Beatles'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beatles_(TV_series)

It was as bad as you'd imagine.

Don't tell me, the Liverpudlian accent sounded like bad Australian?

Okay, YOU judge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1XZd6HEHNw

At the time, I thought it sounded rather unlike human speech.

Dmitri, thanks for the fun read.

Not being much of a film and TV cartoon buff, I'm not sure I got all the references. In particular, who do you mean by Natasha?

I think the sentence beginning 'In addition to' is a bit convoluted. Can you cut it somewhere?

Good catch, MVP! Thank you. I broke up that monster sentence into several shorter sentences. See if it reads better to you now.

Aha. Someone who has never heard of 'Rocky and Bullwinkle'. Well, it had to happen. Let that be a lesson to you Brits. You're always going on about stuff I've never heard of. Now you know what it feels like.

I've added a phrase to identify Natasha. I hope it does the trick without spoiling the joke for the Bullwinkle fans.

Natasha and Boris were two Cold War-type spies in the cartoon series. They worked for Fearless Leader. They were constantly foiled by 'Moose' and 'Squirrel'. Say that with a fake Russian accent.

Or watch this commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR3xwTXZhXQ

Thanks.

Brits know Rocky and Bullwinkle. Well, this Brit does anyhow.

I even went to the cinema to watch the Rocky and Bullwinkle film. I was, admittedly, the only person in the auditorium at that particular screening...


Geggs

Not that I booked a private screening, you understand. It's just that no one else came in.


Geggs

Did they ask you what time you wanted it to start?

Ian & I went to see the lunchtime showing of Star Trek Into Darkness in 3D (the only time we could both make while staying awake) and we were the only ones in there

Interesting entry - I had vague memories of a Beatles cartoon and that it was awful, I had been hoping it was a bad dream.

Nothing to add except that in the title - isn't Nixon referred to as Tricky Dicky? rather than Dick I mean.

I don't know what they called him in other quarters, but in my college days, it was 'Tricky Dick'.

A quick google shows that Country Joe McDonald called him 'Tricky Dicky' in a song. But the original was 'Tricky Dick', as he referred to himself as 'Dick Nixon', being an iliast. As in, 'You won't have Dick Nixon to kick around any more'.

For completely off-topic interest, here's what Harry Truman said about him. Read the first couple of quotes. [Warning: Since this is Mr Truman, the language is naughty.]

http://deadpresidents.tumblr.com/post/15585207650/presidents-talk-about-presidents-richard-nixon

ok then

I have heard of Rocky and Bullwinkle, but it was one of those cartoons that I didn't find particularly interesting and rarely watched, so the name 'Boris' didn't mean anything to me.

Reading through the comments, I've tallied up so far how many times each of the various people he voiced and met have been mentioned:

Beatles: IIIIII
Elvis: I
Rocky & Bullwinkle: III
Nixon: II
Number of people who do not know Rocky & Bullwinkle: I½

Considering how despite being a minor mention in the article, the overwhelming focus of the conversation has been the Beatles cartoon series, would you consider adding the Beatles to the title to reflect that, or explain more about the Beatles cartoon series?

In 1964, American cartoon company King Features Syndicate made about 50 half-hour episodes of a Beatles cartoon series, with the episodes made in Britain, Australia and Canada. Paul Frees played John and George, while it is believed that Lance Percival (the voice artist wished to remain anonymous) played Paul and Ringo. None sounded anything at all like the Beatles really did, as King Features believed that American children would not be able to understand Liverpudlian accents. Producer Al Brodax announced, 'I couldn't have them sounding like themselves because the American kids would not understand them.' Strange, then, how so many American kids seemed to be able to decipher the songs that the Beatles were singing, and what about Ringo's Thomas the Tank Engine, eh?…
Some episodes also bordered on being xenophobic and racist.
The Beatles themselves hated the series, and it put them off getting involved in the early stages of the 'Yellow Submarine' film, until they realised that 'Yellow Submarine' would be nothing like it. With its badly-dubbed voices, and 'Penny Lane' being located in London and not Liverpool, the series was not nationally broadcast in the UK, although a few episodes were transmitted on local Granada ITV. The Beatles' company Apple have bought the rights to the series in order to prevent it from being broadcast again. It has not been released on VHS, Betamax, Laserdisc, DVD, UMD, HD-DVD, or Blu-Ray.
It is good to know that despite their dislike of the series, they held Paul Frees in high regard regardless.

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but in the US Thomas the (Tank) Engine (they leave out the tank because it's confusing) is voiced by a Baldwin brother, I believe. Certainly when the Gruesome Twosome were little we occasionally saw the US version and it had an American accent on the voiceover (and Ringo didn't do all of them, when he stopped they got Peter Angilis [sp?] to continue - as he'd been "Ringo" in Yellow Submarine)

oh dear. I'll get my coat

I knew that Michael Angelis voiced Thomas when they re-launched series III of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' in the 1990s, but are you saying they never had Ringo at all?

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who is "they"? as far as I understood it (and am prepared to be corrected) the US has always had their own version of Thomas (minus fat controller, minus "Tank") with their own American accented voiceover.

The rest of us got Ringo, followed by Angelis.

Sorry - two different 'They's.

That should read:
'I knew that Michael Angelis voiced Thomas when Britt Allcroft Productions re-launched series III of 'Thomas the Tank Engine' in the 1990s, but are you saying that American viewers never had Ringo at all?'

I can't help but wonder why these television executives keep making silly decisions about their audiences. American music lovers had no problems understanding the Beatles' accents when they sang or appeared in 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Help!', yet someone decided that it would be impossible for them to understand the accent on a television series.

Oh well - kept Paul Frees busy, at least.

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