Bob Bergen
Bob Bergen is a voice actor, who, as you can probably tell from his headshot, is best known for his work portraying Looney Tunes stalwart Porky Pig, though he's done far, far more than that.
Bob took the time to join me for a Skype interview to discuss his career. Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, the interview cuts off rather abruptly, but everything up to that point is still very much worth listening to.
To listen to the interview with Bob Bergen, click the play button below (or click here to open the audio player in a new tab/window).
And you can watch Bob Bergen as Porky Pig in Looney Tunes Cartoons on HBO Max, beginning on 5/27/2020.
Bob Bergen is a supporter of The Actor's Fund.
If you'd like to donate, you can do so here, via their website.
Please note that interviewees select their own charity. Any charities mentioned or linked are neither vetted, nor endorsed, by the author or this site.
Mike Reflects
I'm just going to say it: I'm cursed.
I don't know what supernatural entity I've angered, but I'm doomed to have trouble with voice actor interviews until the end of eternity.
My very first voice actor interview was on KTRM with Rob Paulsen. He was, I believe, my very first live phone interview, and I was stoked. I prepped as much as I could've prepped, and, when the time came, the Station Manager and another higher-up joined me in the booth, because they wanted to be there for it. And who wouldn't? Rob Paulsen was pretty much a legend, especially to our generation.
We got him on the line, hit the button to put him through to the board, and...he was overmodulated. To the point of distortion.
I didn't have the first idea what to do. I'd been behind the mic & board for maybe a month, if that. I knew what to do to make things work, but I didn't have the first idea what to do when those things didn't work. The Station Manager knew a lot more than I did, but this was a new one for him too. He tried adjusting everything he knew to adjust, but to no avail.
I don't recall if that was a problem that fixed itself or they got the engineer to take a look, but that problem never happened again.
Fast-forward a little bit, and I'm in what's-known-as "the auxiliary booth", pre-recording an interview with Nancy Cartwright. That's right, Bart Simpson herself. I get one, maybe 2, questions in, and she has a family emergency and has to take off. And, of course, she's too busy to reschedule.
Fast forward again, to February of the following year, and I'm back in the live booth about to go on the air with DuckTales' Scrooge McDuck, Alan Young. With the cooperation of a lot of people the previous month, I upgraded the show's procedures to better facilitate multiple live guests in one live show. To make things flow smoother, instead of my calling guests from the live booth, I had a production assistant, Conner, call the guests from the auxiliary booth. He'd then transfer the call to me in the live booth, where I'd immediately hit the button to put the call through to the board.
This new system worked well for the first month or so--it's why we adopted it. Unfortunately, that streak ended with the Alan Young interview.
Conner did everything as he always did. I did too. But, this time, when I hit the button to put Alan through to the board, instead of the usual light to tell me everything was working right, there was nothing. I picked up the phone. Dial tone. I assumed I had inadvertently hit the "disconnect" button on the box, and had Conner call Alan back again.
He did, then transferred the call. I hit the button again, making sure I was hitting the right button. Same thing. I picked up the phone. Dial tone.
I don't recall who, but, eventually, someone suggesting resetting the phone box, by unplugging it and plugging it back in. That did the trick & the interview went out live without another hitch, and that problem never happened again.
(Conner still tells people about the time he got to talk to Burt Ward. I, on the other hand, talk about the time that our system conspired to hang up on Alan Young. More than once. To his credit, Alan didn't seem to put off by the ordeal.)
Fast forward a few years to now, with Bob Bergen. You weren't supposed to know this, but I don't see the harm in telling you now--this was actually my second attempt at a Bob Bergen interview. The first was a few weeks ago, and it went off ok, but the audio is unusable due to noise on my end. So we decided to call that a pre-interview & give it another go.
In the interim, I upgraded my audio equipment. Different mic, shielded cables, the whole 9 yards. I don't think I've done an interview since KTRM that's sounded better.
And then, about 11 minutes into the 45 minute interview, like I mentioned in the audio intro, my soundcard decided it had enough. I tried switching everything I could switch. Rebooting everything I could reboot.
I got it running again, but, then, my CPU decided it had enough. I had nothing else I could've done, so I called it, with that abrupt end.
Everything went back to normal within an hour. This has never happened before, and, even while trying to duplicate it, I can't.
My friends know I'm slightly superstitious, but, even if I weren't, a curse would be the only explanation.