A recent e-mail correspondence reminded me to post another promotional tape containing the various voice actors who work for an advertising agency, in this case, Tranuim, Robertson and Hughes. I'm not sure I have all of the spellings right for these men, but I'm sure that if I don't, someone out there will offer up a correction.
Tranium, Robertson & Hughes, Part One: Intro, Ralph Bell, Chris Bone, Mel Brandt, Fred Collins (MP3)
Tranium, Robertson & Hughes, Part Two: Kevin Conway, Brad Crandall, Jack Daniels, Bob Earl (MP3)
Tranium, Robertson & Hughes, Part Three: Tom Earhart, Leon Janny, Bob Lewis, Will MacKenzie (MP3)
Tranium, Robertson & Hughes, Part Four: Ron McAdam, Barry Newman, Ken Rabat, Lee Stevens (MP3)
Spliced onto this same reel is a 28 minute long segment which is somehow both fascinating and tedious. You may be aware of these scams where people are invited to watch and rate a new TV show, only to be shown some pilot which was rejected by the networks - the real point of the exercise being to conduct a focus group afterwards in which one or more of the advertisements is discussed.
I wonder at what point the men and women in this group realized that they were probably never going to be asked about the show they had just watched, but instead, that they were there to see their reactions to a commercial for the new Bic Banana pen. There is no way I would have lasted even the half hour captured here - and since the tape runs out mid-sentence, there's no telling how long the discussion continued, or if this was just the first of several commercials to be discussed.
While a couple of these guys would be more-or-less instantly recognizable if you saw their faces (due to their years upon years in television), I've always been able to pick out Will MacKenzie, who I saw play the lead in a touring company of "Promises, Promises." While he still did some television acting afterwards, he evidently found a more promising career in directing.
Posted by: Richard Brandt | January 24, 2011 at 11:27 AM
I remember those Bic Banana ads fairly well.
Charles Nelson Reilly was in a few of them, if I'm not mistaken.
Can you imagine a television commercial for a disposable ball point pen these day?
Posted by: DJ ManRich | January 24, 2011 at 11:31 AM