Any holiday centered around candy is bound to be a favorite of mine. Add in the excuse to do mediocre impressions of James Stewart, Cary Grant, Paul Lynde, Grandpa Munster, and Orson Welles….well, it’s irresistible!
Halloween Safety Tips were one of multitudes of “tag messages” our radio stations used to sell. We did a LOT of them. But Halloween safety inspired me. So instead of the usual straight-laced announcement (“Fire Safety Week is a great time to check your smoke detector battery, and create a family plan in the event of a fire…”) I concocted some fun messages.
In 2008, I wrote a series of spots featuring me (calling myself by my college radio airname “Dr. J” for some reason) chatting with various monsters. Chris Obershaw plays the monsters, save for Bride of Frankenstein played by Caitlin Obershaw and the little monsters voiced by me.
In 2009, my favorite of all of these: Three Hitchcock movies. Tammy Griffee plays Grace Kelly in the “Rear Window” spot and Little Billy in “North By Northwest”. Jennifer Schmid plays the nice little old lady giving Norman Bates a piece of candy.
2011: Jason and Kalin do it up two-voice style. Kalin was not part of our staff at this time; he was living in South Dakota and he (miraculously, it’s a long story) made it to Alliance so he and I could journey to Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina to our pal Pat Adriance’s wedding. But before we left I dragged him into the studio to knock these out. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: Kalin makes everything I do better. Just the other night we recorded our dialogue for the Halloween special and it’s now 14% funnier than it would have been without him.
20??: So, it’s been so many years ago that there’s a group of these for which I can’t pinpoint a year. I’m thinking 2010 but I’m not sure. This trio offers “Bewitched” with Tammy Griffee as Samantha and Dangerous Dave Kuskie as Darrin (he made the choice to do Dick Sargent as Darrin #2, also known as the Darrin with no f—s to give). Then there’s “The Munsters” with Mike Glesinger pitched down as Herman, and Jennifer Schmid as Lily. Finally, Orson Welles and his booth assistant (voiced by then-KCOW-manager Mike Fell).
As mentioned earlier, I engaged in a variety of impressions in these spots, with the results ranging from passable to mediocre. I always figure that the other characters, sound effects, music, etc. will offer context to smooth over any failures of the impression.
Speaking of music! I have to include the disclaimer:
Since these messages were produced, our company has taken a firm policy banning the use of copyrighted music in commercials. Although other stations continue to use movie soundtrack tunes, popular songs, etc. in ads (and we did it in our younger, stupider years) such use is illegal and could result in legal action against the radio station and the client.
I think that’s all I have to say about these…they were incredibly fun to put together and, as always, The Mighty K-Cow Art Players were game for our shenanigans.