Remembering Joe Alaskey

Hello and welcome to Tooncast Beyond! This is

episode 63 .5 and it has been a sad week for

us here at Tooncast Beyond, folks. We recently

lost... veteran voice actor, Joe Alesky, this

past February 3rd, Wednesday February 3rd, about

a week ago or so, and for those of you who don't

know, Joe, he pretty much took over Mel Blanc's

job for the most part, for a lot of stuff. He

died of, he lost his battle with cancer, it's

kind of sad, it's very sad, but it, You know

since the news came out about Joe's passing I

have gone back and I have watched at least 25

different episodes of tiny tune adventures with

plucky duck I've watched who framed Roger Rabbit

like a million times this week not literally

You know, I mean Joe was one of those guys that

He didn't exactly sound like Mel's versions of

the characters, but he did. There's a difference,

folks, in doing an imitation, doing a good imitation

and a bad imitation. And Joe Oleski was one of

those ones that did a really, really good, close

impersonation of Mel Blank doing the Looney Tunes

characters and just, I mean, plucky duck alone.

It's not even an imitation. It's not even an

imitation. but you know i mean just what he brought

to plucky um in the very first episode of the

loony beginning i use this line everywhere it

actually opened the show i'm no sidekick i you

know he goes through this whole thing in that

episode and he says i'm exploding with talent

and then he explodes oh god i just Oh my God,

I love Joe's work. He's just so awesome. Joining

me, we've got Doug from Talk About My Generation.

Hello, sir. Hello. And we've got TV's Mr. Dale.

My biscuits are burning. You know, the funny

thing about that is he did that so well. I really

thought that was Mel. Yeah, Mel was in that movie

and I guess he couldn't... Do you have 70 Sam

anymore? So they brought Joe in and he was pretty

darn close. No one ever suspected it Until you

saw the credits of course. Well, yeah Did you

guys know that he was Richard Nixon and Forrest

Gump I did not know that I Well, I knew about

it only after his passing that was one. Okay

that and then Of course remembered him as Uncle

Beano on out of this world. Yes I was just watching

an episode of that the other day, you know I

actually once I saw that he had passed I pulled

out out of this world and made my wife sit down

and watch it and she goes Who is that guy? I

go that's the that was the last voice of Bugs

Bunny and she goes really and I go Yeah, he was

also the voice of plucky duck And well, he wasn't

the last voice of bugs. Yeah, there's been a

few others, but yeah more more than anything

I think it was the de facto voice of Daffy Yeah

that and plucky duck and you know, I made her

sit down and watch that and how I spent my summer

vacation and just that was probably one of the

best things I've ever seen him pull off was plucky

and Plucky and Hampton going on a road trip just

yeah You know, I recently, I think it was last

year, I went back and I found that. And I'm not

going to say how I spent my summer vacation was

bad because it wasn't, it just wasn't what I

remembered it to be. I don't know what I remembered

it to be. I knew that everyone was going on summer

vacation, Plucky and Hampton were going to go

on this road trip, but I didn't think it was

going to be a Christmas vacation with Tiny Toons.

um not that it's a bad thing like i said i really

enjoy the thing but i just with joe oh my god

yeah you're right neil um he was the de facto

daffy and uh see again, you know in in in the

loony beginning when when bugs takes them to

school and teaches them how to do all this stuff

and he's like We've got classes first that ducks

find appealing like spotlights do you like? You

know all this and all that and seeing Joe do

Daffy and plucky in the same scene where you

know Daffy said something about if you're so

lucky, I'll teach you how to spray your spittle

and he's like anybody got a shabby? It's just

like I oh man and the best thing the coolest

thing in his career that they ever did with him

was the final episode of Doc Dodgers oh man at

the very end I actually have a picture it's going

to be in the post it's actually going to close

out this little episode at the very end because

they're doing all these because duck dodgers

was oh god 12 years ago at this point 2003 so

you know they're doing all these things where

they're having various people from the show do

can't click camera interview kind of things kind

of like you know What you would do on Big Brother

or Survivor or whatever. It's a one -on -one

Ferris Bueller type of stuff. And at the very,

very end of it, to close it out, they have an

animated Joe Oleski and an animated Bob Bergen

with the WB logo behind them. Daffy is sitting

in between them, and it's like they're at a voiceover

session. And Daffy asks him, so whose voice do

you do? yours you don't do a very good job of

it what about you slim and i can't do bob or

or mel to save my life and he's just like think

about it and then porkey comes up and you know

the line and all the cast say that's all it was

the best thing that they ever did for an homage

for for for joe at the end of that show um but

yeah no neil what are some of your memories of

his work Well, I had posted one the other day,

but I guess it's the wrong guy. It was the Batman

VHS where it opened with Bugs and Daffy talking

about the catalog, but it actually turned out

it wasn't him. So, hmm. Wasn't that Mel at the

time? It was Mel, but Mel had died and they changed

the 800 number to a 900 number and they had to

re -record it. No, you flipped it. It was originally

900. They switched it to 800. I don't think so

because I remember all the references to a free

catalog had to be changed because it wasn't free

anymore. Oh, okay. But yeah, it switches between

Mel and one other actor. God, it wasn't him.

You know what? I'm going to go with Out of This

World just because of how... Just how weird that

show was I know it's not a cartoon, but yeah,

it was it was on during during that during that

lull in the career of of Burt Reynolds and he's

playing like a disembodied alien and he has a

he has a half alien daughter who's living with

his living with her mother on earth and and it

like elf had ended on like this really weird

cliffhanger that like was never resolved and

and for for the first few seasons uh joe was

there as like the wacky uncle and i was just

watching it the other day and talking about like

how how he was able to replicate mel's voice

he's actually pretty close to mel here his normal

speaking voice and that's probably why he was

able to do such a good job right yeah But yeah,

you just kind of disappeared after a couple seasons

and I think it was because Tiny Tunes came along

and he was just like I'm out of here Yeah, I

mean he had Tiny Tunes and then he ended up going

in with Rugrats, you know Grandpa Lou Pickles.

I still won't forget the episode where he's showing

them all the different movies and he's got reptar

That he's getting ready to have the kids watch

and then he has something about Space Vixens

9 or something like that and he goes. Oh, that's

for when you kids go to bed Something like that

they slip that past the sensors They were probably

too preoccupied with Ren and Stimpy trying to

keep that show under control So the Rugrats people

were probably able to slip little jokes like

that under the radar. Oh I just remember seeing

that you know, it was like it caught me and I

kind of went oh my god and Joe saying it the

way that he did and just kind of laughing I It

still sticks in my mind today, you know 20 years

later Yeah, I mean he was for the longest time

Like I already said like Neil said did a factual

voice for that like looking at his stuff on Wikipedia

And I'm sure IMDB has even more than what's listed

here in Wikipedia Had no clue it was him as Daffy

in Bahamduck from I think it was 2006 it was

basically the Looney Tunes version of a Christmas

Carol kind of thing You know, but like I had

thought it was you know, somebody else doing

that because At that time I thought other people

were doing it. But I mean it's one of those things

where Joe was one of those people that just I

think he really made the Looney Tunes characters

more endearing for the time. Oh yeah. I mean,

as characters, Bugs is always gonna be who Bugs

is. Daffy's always gonna be who Daffy is. And

when Neil and I actually, was it last year or

the year before, we spent like, I don't know,

three or four months. doing animation direction

here on Team Caspian where we talked about various

animated directors and whatever else. And we

talked about the differences in the characterizations

between directors. And Daffy originally was this

really wacky off the wall character, you know,

just bugging the hell out of Elmer Flutter, whoever

it was. And then later - He turned evil. He turned

he really did he turned heel and became selfish

and self -centered and whatever else and and

just oh man, I Remember when tiny tunes came

out everybody thought that Babs and buster and

plucky and Hampton and Coyote and and the road

everybody always thought that they were basically

the descendants of of the Looney Tunes characters

and It specifically states for plucky that he's

all of them actually all have different parents,

but I think one of the reasons why we always

thought that was because. Again, referencing

a loony beginning, one of bugs is one of one

of Buster's lines to bugs is, oh, Peter, oh,

oh, great affordable one, you know, help us.

He's like, got it. But, uh, you know. Joe was

an amazing amazing talent and we will be doing

Tiny Tunes coverage here on Tunecast Beyond at

some point I don't know when and I don't know

who's gonna be on it with me, but We will be

going season by season for that show Because

I have been read. I I just I remember that show

so fondly. I know a lot of people don't like

it Neil included. I'll see It had some like that

summer vacation when you brought up was actually

a pretty good one But I didn't like some of the

season one episodes. Yeah more animated kind

of Yeah, yeah, I mean they had some good stuff

the Wile E. Coyote character that ended up sounding

like What's what's his name that married soon

Lee or soon year whatever it was You know Woody

Allen, that's it Yeah, you know just hearing

some of those I I thought it was great and the

fact that you know, Joe Alasky was able to come

in and do Basically just be one of the main characters

in that show. I mean, you know, you had Charlie

Adler and and You know Joe Alasky and I've got

trust McNeil being you know, some of the big

characters in there basically playing it You

know playing it to the hilt along with Don Messick

You know all them were they were pretty much

the the stars and just seeing this and Not realizing

that you had some of the greats in there, you

know, I mean, yeah Charlie Adler. We all know

how great he is, but Joel ASCII doing doing all

these things that Just had no clue, you know

Henry Ha I didn't know that he was one of the

Marvin the Martian characters that you know one

of the voices for Marvin the Martian at that

time When yeah, you know to highlight that He

was pretty much the entire cast of tweet except

for granny obviously cuz grannies June for a

tweeties high -flying adventure. He is Tweety

Sylvester bugs Daffy Pepe Marvin Henry Hawk and

Colonel Rimfire. Um, but I mean, yeah, it just,

I mean, the man had so, I would honestly say

he is the second to Mel when it comes to those

characters. And the only other second to Mel

when it comes to Porky is obviously Bob Bergen.

Yeah. You know, I mean anybody goes back and

finds that very first episode of Rob Paulson's

talking tunes where he had Bob Bergen on Bob

tells the story where he actually Looked up Mel

blanks wife in the phone book Yeah to call he

actually called Mel blanks house saying, you

know, I want to learn from you I want to be porky

and he's like, well, you know just go find that

podcast post maybe I'll find it and put it in

the In the show notes for you, but I mean Joe

was just such a stand -up guy Yeah, I can't believe

all all of what he's done and that he's he's

gone now, you know, it's I mean he in the later

At least three of the later Tom and Jerry movies.

He he did droopy for for three of them But I

mean I I don't know I you know he was in bunkers

as flaps the elephant for crap sake He was lobster

the mobster in the Little Mermaid series. I don't

even remember that character, but okay He made

he made Looney Tunes back in action watchable

Yes, yeah And then Brendan Frasier ruined it.

That movie's better than a lot of people give

it credit for. Yeah, I agree. How long ago did

that come out? Oh, wow. One of his last projects

was about a year and a half, two years ago. He

was the green loon turn in Lego Batman 3 Beyond

Gotham. Oh my God. That is so awesome they put

that in there. Yeah. I may have to go look for

that and play that game. Talk about another great

episode of that cartoon too. That was the only,

okay, the only time on Tooncast Beyond I think

we've ever talked about Duck Dodgers was for

the Green Loom turn because we were doing superhero

stuff at the time. It was actually like a bonus

feature on the Green Lantern disc, if I remember.

Yep, that's what it was. It was friggin' awesome.

Oh man, yeah, I so have to go back. Yeah, we

did special episode duck Dodgers the green loon

turn because they had You know, it was a straight

-up DC crossover with duck Dodgers, I mean, yeah

DC characters straight and And duck Dodgers just

happened to pick up the ring by mistake, of course

And again and have you have you ever seen this

episode Neil Yeah, Neil, I know you've said but

yeah, have you ever so yeah, I know you've never

I'll find it for you I have sources, but I'll

find it for you because who actually ends up

being held Jordan is just absolutely hilarious

Don't spoil it. Don't spoil it. Don't I'll keep

silence. Just yeah, it's just so good, but Joe

you will be missed I guess now And on that note,

I think we're gonna go with the real Marvin Yeah,

and I'm also gonna put in here the the ending

to duck Dodgers as well. So Honestly at this

point folks episode 64 and 65 of Tooncast Beyond

I was gonna have a certain Series started coverage

in the animated movie, but I'm not sure if that's

gonna happen right now So episode 64 and 65 will

most likely be changing We may end up doing in

honor of Joe's passing season one of tiny tunes

and season one of duck Dodgers for either one

of those episodes Yeah, Joe you will be missed

and now you and Mel can fight over who's the

best even though we all know Mel's the best but

I mean you know since Mel's passing you know

it just there's not there when Mel passed there

wasn't a lot of people that you it's kind of

like when someone asks you the question who could

really pull off a live -action Green Lantern

and in my opinion anybody but anybody but Ryan

Reynolds but it's one of it's one of those types

of question like who could be cast in that role

and at the time when Mel passed I couldn't think

of anyone that I could say definitively could

fit Mel's shoes and we had Joe and he did such

an excellent job. He did a hell of a job. Yep.

So whose voice do you do? Yours. Well, keep practicing.

How about you, Slim? Think about it. Uh, lime?

Let's roll, folks!